Project Description
The theme design of the project is inspired by the movie "Interstellar" and refers to the concept of interconnection between humans and space planets in the movie. Our design goal is that students and astronomy enthusiasts can use the system in planetarium venues to increase the target group's knowledge and interest in astronomy through a series of interactions. This project was developed by integrating different development environments and boards, mainly action recognition systems, pressure sensors and some physical interaction designs. As users explore different planets, the content of the program will convey astronomy knowledge to users through planetary geology. In this process, the user will synchronize actions with the virtual astronaut in the game, and the camera will recognize and track the player's actions, which correspond to the actions of the little astronaut on the virtual planet. Users collect planet rocks and place them in the laboratory in the scene for research while simulating the gravity and friction of the planet. The simulated planet environment allows users to experience the feeling of outer space and adds fun and authenticity to their planet exploration. The behavior of users collecting rocks and placing them in the laboratory will also make them pay attention and be curious about the laboratory analysis results, thereby achieving the purpose of increasing astronomical knowledge.
![Planet scene where users can pick up rocks](images/Planet_Scene.png)
![Rocks examination in a laboratory](images/Lab_Unity.jpg)
![Physical lab and pressure sensor](images/physical lab.jpg)
![Rock releaser](images/rock releaser.jpg)
Technical Description
Hardware
The hardware aspect of the project involved a variety of tools and circuits. Arduino was used to programme circuit boards (such as the Circuit Playground Express), coding and debugging light-emitting diodes, accelerators, and pressure sensors to implement a variety of physical interactions. Additionally, the Fusion 360 is used to delicately model various types of stone, while Bambu Studio converts the 3D model into a file compatible with 3D printer, allowing the stone model to be 3D printed after modelling.
Software
The software aspect of the project utilised a variety of applications to build the various components of the system. GitHub is used to store and back up the codebase, manage development tasks, and track bug reports throughout the development lifecycle. Unity is the main software used to build the virtual scenery and interactive system, which includes an art component that imports from the Unity Asset Store to model the entities and render the environments, and scripts such as controllers, animations, and sockets. Visual Studio is a Python development environment that imports libraries such as MediaPipe, OpenCV, and SVM to develop the tracking and recognition of specific gestures and body movements that enable projected interactions between the user and the system.