Eras of Time by Hack2A

Explore the evolution of cultures overtime through an interactive experience never seen before!

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Inspiration

Life, history, culture. These aspects of humanity are integral to our understanding of the world, inspiring our project.

What it does

By picking out key events over 4 different regions, each representing our respective home countries, we have created an immersive historical experience.

How we built it

We used Unity and their asset store to build convincing scenes, manifesting in a cohesive experience, driven by the powerful narratives present in our historical settings.

Challenges we ran into

Version control is always a difficulty with Unity, a hurdle we overcame through clever use of Gmail, Google Drive and git.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

The Indonesia scene is meticulously crafted, exploiting multiple colour schemes to bring 14th century Indonesia, and the Mongol invasion to life. Our transition sequences were also a highlight, using Unity to its fullest extent to add colour to our project.

What we learned

We learnt about the ins and outs of Unity, as well as gaining crucial experience working in a team.

What's next for Eras of Time

We would like to give players the option to interact with and impact our own history, exploring alternate realities that may have occurred if minor decisions were made differently.

README

Eras of Time: An Educational Historical Immersion

Project Overview

Eras of Time is an immersive educational experience built during a hackathon, exploring history through the theme of time. This interactive project allows users to "travel" back in time to experience significant eras across different cultures. Users are guided by influential historical figures from each period, with personalities generated using OpenAI to reflect their unique characteristics and historical impact.

Featured Time Periods

Era of Time includes the following historical settings:

  1. Japan (1603 - 1868 AD) - The Edo Period, marked by isolationist policies and flourishing culture. Led by Emperor Meiji.
  2. Egypt (7000 BC - 50 BC) - The age of ancient Egyptian civilization, with the pharaohs and monumental architecture. Led by Cleopatra.
  3. China (755 - 763 AD) - The Tang Dynasty, a golden age of poetry, arts, and innovation. Led by An Lushan.
  4. Indonesia (1300 AD - 1500 AD) - The Majapahit Empire, known for its influence on Southeast Asian culture and trade. Led by Gajah Mada.

Each time period is designed to offer a unique, interactive look at the culture, history, and notable figures of the era.

The Problem & The Solution

There was a lack of accessibility features. To ensure that people who are unable to use their hands to control and move around, we included a Speech-to-Text Control System, allowing users to navigate the experience hands-free. This feature is particularly beneficial for users who may not be able to use traditional input devices.

Voice Navigation

A wake word, "waterbottle," activates the navigation system, allowing users to issue movement commands. Recognized commands include:

  • "Move forward" – Progress to the next area.
  • "Move backward" – Return to a previous location.
  • "Turn left" / "Turn right" – Change direction for exploring surroundings.

These commands are processed by a custom model trained using Picovoice technology, specialising in wake word recognition and real-time inference to ensure reliable response to natural language instructions.

Technology Stack

  • OpenAI - Personality generation for historical figures.
  • Picovoice - Custom wake word and speech recognition model for hands-free control.
  • Voice Commands - Integrated natural language processing to interpret and execute user movement instructions.

Project Goals

  • Educational Impact - Provide an interactive and engaging learning experience for history enthusiasts.
  • Accessibility - Implement innovative voice control for users with limited mobility.
  • Historical Accuracy - Represent each time period authentically with personality-driven historical figures.

Future Enhancements

  1. Expand Time Periods - Add additional historical eras and figures.
  2. Enhance Natural Language Processing - Improve command recognition accuracy and extend command support.
  3. User Feedback & Analytics - Collect user data to improve experience and educational outcomes.

Conclusion

Eras of Time is an accessible, AI-driven journey through history. With innovative voice navigation and personality-based interactions, it provides an educational experience that’s immersive, engaging, and inclusive.

Usage

We couldn't upload to Github due to large size of unity assets and even if we uploaded the source files, it would not run. We have built the project into an executable so you could try to run it by downloading all the files. Although this may not work properly since Unity builds are hardware specific. You can find the link to files in thee google drive link attached.

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