publication in Urban Rail Transit journal

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Paper published in the Urban Rail Transit journal

Tang, Ming, and Christopher Auffrey. “Advanced Digital Tools for Updating Overcrowded Rail Stations: Using Eye Tracking, Virtual Reality, and Crowd Simulation to Support Design Decision-Making.” Urban Rail Transit, December 19, 2018. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40864-018-0096-2.

This paper describes an innovative integration of eye-tracking (ET) with virtual reality (VR), and details the application of these combined technologies for the adaptive reuse redesign of the Wudaokou rail station in Beijing. The objective of the research is to develop a hybrid approach, combining ET and VR technologies, as part of an experimental study of how to improve wayfinding and pedestrian movement in crowded environments such as those found in urban subway stations during peak hours. Using ET analysis, design features such as edges, and color contrast are used to evaluate several proposed rail station redesigns. Through VR and screen-based ET, visual attention and related spatial responses are tracked and analyzed for the selected redesign elements. This paper assesses the potential benefits of using ET and VR to assist identification of station design elements that will improve wayfinding and pedestrian movement, and describes how the combination of VR and ET can influence the design process. The research concludes that the combination of VR and ET offers unique advantages for modeling how the design of rail transit hub interiors can influence the visual attention and movement behavior of those using the redesigned station.  This is especially true for crowded conditions in complex interior spaces. The use of integrated ET and VR technology is shown to inform innovative design approaches for facilitating improved wayfinding and pedestrian movement within redesigned rail stations.

Full paper: download PDF, read HTML

Check out Tang’s eye-tracking research with transit hub design studio ARCH4002, Spring 2018.

Navigating the New Longevity Symposium

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Prof. Ming Tang was invited as a panelist and presented his Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality research projects at the Navigating the New Longevity Symposium organized by the Village Chicago on November 7. The symposium topic is “How Will Virtual Reality Change Your Future?”

The Village Chicago organized a lively discussion of how immersion technology is changing the way we live, learn and care, a conversation exploring how immersion technology is transforming our well-being at all ages and stages of life – and be inspired to suggest new ways it can be put to use. Panelists include Neelum T. Aggarwal, M.D.; Carrie Shaw, CEO, Embodied Labs; Ming Tang, RA University of Cincinnati; and Emily Phelps, medical student of Rush University Medical Center.

Carrie Shaw, CEO, Embodied Labs presented at the symposium.

paper published in inForma

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Ming Tang’s paper “Architectural visualization in the age of mixed reality” is published by the architectural journal inForma.

Tang, Ming. 2018. “Architectural Visualization in the Age of Mixed Reality.” informa 11: 82–87.

Having been a promising visualization tool since the 1950s, ironically, virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) were not widely used in the architectural design and evaluation process due to the high cost of equipment and complicated programming process required. However, with the recent development of head-mounted displays (HMD) such as Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, Microsoft HoloLens, and easy-to-use game engines, both VR and AR are being reintroduced as Mixed Reality (MR) instruments into the design industry. This paper explores research related to VR concepts “essential copy” and “physical transcendence” (Bicocca, Levy. 1995), and their use in architectural design studios at the University of Cincinnati. We explored various methods to integrate MR in the architectural design process. This paper discusses two main aspects: (1) how to integrate MR into the design process as a design instrument, and (2) how to valuate MR methods for communicating architectural data, based on the workflow efficiency, rendering quality and users’ feedback.

This issue “Hybrid Realities“of inForma explores architectural discourse by looking at how twenty-first century economic, academic, technological and political shifts have set up conditions for architectural hybridity. We define ‘hybrid’ as points of convergence between different ‘breeds’, resulting in the creation of dynamic architectures and frameworks. Parting from the premise that disciplinary and theoretical crossovers can produce alternate readings and conceptualisations of space, ‘Hybrid Realities’ seeks to discuss the effectual offsprings between two different components, wether typological, disciplinary, idealistic, or others. Similarly, it aims at discussing works and research which places these crossovers in a wider, contextual discussion representative of our current moment in time. Borrowing ‘hybrid’ from biology, the issue situates it within the discussion of the built environment to challenge notions of architectural singularity and highlight the diverse ways in which the field is expanding.  

AR & VR for “future transportation” show at the UC 1819 innovation hub

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Our Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality exhibition in the 1819 Innovation Hub Grand Opening Celebration at the Unversity of Cincinnati. October 5th. 2018. SAID, SOD from DAAP participated the exhibition. Thanks for the support from DAAP CGC, and student volunteers!

VR projects from Ming Tang’s ARCH studio “future transportation hub” in SAID, and AR prototype for holographic interactive visualization controlled by a remote user interface.

Check out the video captured onsite. Augmented Reality in Hololens controlled by a remote computer.

 

DATA & MATTER Exhibition, Venice Architecture Biennale

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Mara Marcu, Ming Tang, Adam Schueler’s project “Optical Illusions of Volume” is exhibited at the ‘DATA & MATTER’ Exhibition in Venice. 
Palazzo Bembo, Riva del Carbon, Venice, Italy.  May 24th to November 25th 2018.

Images and video creadit to DATA & MATTER Exhibion. GAA Foundation – EUROPEAN CULTURAL CENTRE
“Time – Space – Existence” during the 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale
May 26 – November 25,2018  Palazzo Bembo,Venice, Italy

Exhibition curated by: Marcella Del Signore, Nancy Diniz , Frank Melendez.

More information on our exhibtion is avialble on the UC News “UC’s Mara Marcu talks ‘Optical Illusions of Volume’ exhibit at Venice Biennale” by Michele Ralston. August, 2018.

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 DATA & Matter Exhibition at the GAA Foundation and European Cultural Centre during the #2018VeniceArchitectureBiennale May 26 – November 25, 2018 – Palazzo Bembo, Venice, Italy
Exhibition Curated by: Marcella Del Signore, Nancy Diniz and Frank Melendez.
https://dataandmatter.wordpress.com

12 projects at the “Time – Space – Existence” during the 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale

The exhibition presents a group of projects by leading international designers using emerging and novel forms of reading and producing spatial conditions that connect/visualize data, responsive systems, and sensing/actuation technologies, through micro and macro scales. The exhibition takes the opportunity to exhibit a range of projects, side by side, that transform DATA as an abstraction into spatial and experiential configurations. It aims at triggering discussion and debate on how the use of data in design methodologies and theoretical discourses have evolved in the last two decades and why processes of data measurement, quantification, simulation, ubiquitous technologies and algorithmic control, and their integration into methods of making architectural form and spatial experiences, are becoming vital in academic and industry practices.