Augmented Reality (AR) application development with 3D sound effects

• Main Author: Heng, Joey Si Ying
• Other Authors: Gan Woon Seng
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: Nanyang Technological University 2020
• Subjects: Engineering::Electrical and electronic engineering
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/138656
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Augmented Reality (AR) is an advanced technology that provides a complex view of the surrounding environment by introduction of computer-generated images or objects to the real world. It allows users to visualise and interact with virtual objects, as though they are physically present in the real world. The addition of 3D sound effects to the computer-generated images or objects further enhances the realistic effect that this form of technology has to offer. With such a technology, AR applications can be designed and developed for a myriad of uses in a wide range of industries. In this project, an AR application was designed using Microsoft HoloLens 1, Unity, and Microsoft Visual Studio to act as a real-time soundscape design tool to assist urban planners and soundscape practitioners in designing the soundscape of a park in a busy city with high volumes of traffic. The end goal is to use natural park sounds, generated by sound speakers, to cancel out unwanted noises from the busy traffic. During the design stage, urban planners and soundscape practitioners can use this AR application to add holograms, with their respective 3D sound effects, into a real park environment. Furthermore, they can virtually adjust the sound levels of these 3D sound effects to a desired volume level. This helps them determine the most suitable Decibel of Sound Pressure Level (dBSPL) value for all the holograms’ 3D sound effects that would best mitigate the negative impacts of traffic noises in the park. With these dBSPL values, urban planners and soundscape practitioners can use sound speakers to recreate these 3D sound effects. These sound speakers can then be embedded into physical 3D models and placed around the park. Therefore, this saves resources in the design stage as urban planners and soundscape practitioners can experiment with the dBSPL values virtually, before building physical 3D models with sound speakers. Not only that, the 4 built-in microphones of the HoloLens are programmed to constantly detect the ambient sound pressure level of the park. Hence, this allows urban planners and soundscape practitioners to be able to determine the relative dBSPL of the 3D sound effects and surroundings.