Author: Yutong Xie

Final AR Privacy Screen

My initial idea for this AR privacy screen was mist and fog, which had beautifully curved geometry and excellent performance on lightness. Observing mist in the microscope will become suspended tiny droplets of water; their curved geometries depend on the conditions under which they have formed and the size of the water droplets as well. Another potential benefit is that mist or fog can create a soft, diffused effect that allows people inside a building to see out while still maintaining privacy. This could be particularly useful when people want to allow natural light to enter space but maintain privacy.

My basic form of the screen is transformed from the geometry of rising mist. It is curved and floating, surrounding people with it. It has a unique and distinctive appearance while also providing privacy and visibility as needed.

My screen design is divided into three parts: two major curved metal surfaces with hexagonal apertures, the top and bottom suspended colored balls, and the middle variable curved pipe. These parts are formed by three curved lines, as I had in the initial sketch model.

Firstly, the two major curved surfaces play a role in showing the curved geometry of mist. Their edges are tween lines formed by default curves, so the geometry of surfaces could be varied by changing the factor of tween lines. The materiality of the surface is metal with changeable reflection and roughness factors to perform different types of metal feelings. Here is a detailed variable pipe to profile the edge of surfaces, following the same varying logic with top and bottom suspended balls. The density and dimension of hexagonal apertures on surfaces could also be varied. Here are suspended diamonds in different colors located at the center of apertures to imitate the suspended tiny droplets of water, and the size of them following the same varying logic with the size of apertures.

Additionally, the top and bottom suspended balls show lightness and suspended droplets. Their density, size, and color are variable in a particular range.

Finally, the middle variable pipe reflects the process of gas rising from concentration to dispersion. Hence, the pipe thickens from low to high. And the ratio of varying and radii are changeable in a specific range.

AR Privacy Screen Process

Some progress from the last discussion. I got rid of using pipes to connect suspended balls (like “double-head lollipops”) and started to create curved surfaces following tween lines formed by the default curves. For the curved surfaces, I plan to give them variable apertures to perform the gaps among the rising mist. The second pic is a quick try but still need more further polish.

AR screen process

This time I tried the Pufferfish-Tween curve based on two basic curves to create more variability for the screen. The basic curves were hidden and profiled by spheres of different sizes and various colors. For the pipe part, I replaced the normal pipe with a pipe variable to make them change more smoothly.

When I tried to play with AR in Shapediver, this kind of weird purple color was shown, maybe it was due to the mess in my home which made it the model hard to find the dimension of space. (which was because of the final, and we don’t have time to clean it up… :(

I also scaled it to give a “smaller screen” to my cat! (looks like she enjoyed it :D