PolyCycle

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  Scan to identify object properties

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  Understand the problem

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  Visualize the problem

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  Visualize the problem

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  Penguin!

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By 2050, it is estimated that we will generate 70% more waste globally each year. The majority of these materials end up in our natural environment where they can remain for up to 1000 years. This waste leaches toxic chemicals in freshwater supplies, soil, and marine ecosystems.

Seeing is believing. We are a diverse team of creatives passionate about utilizing XR to better visualize this crisis and empower users to make better social decisions as they relate to our environment. We chose to develop an AR application to better scale the experience across a wide audience, utilizing technology that is currently ingrained within our daily lives. The mobile application developed, aims to shift the perception of plastic’s devastating impact; to policy-holders, corporations, organizations, and civilians alike.

We were inspired by the work of dedicated environmental researchers, like Dr. Jenna Jambeck, and hope to present some of their findings in a new way. Throughout the course of our research, we also discovered a wide range of companies executing innovative solutions to address the issue within the landscape, inspiring us to highlight some of their efforts within our own application.

Our creative process integrated lean methodologies to assist in identifying our business (social) problem and from there, potential solutions. In the initial stages of the design process, we attempted to develop the capacity for our app to scan and identify common plastic items using the object detection feature of the Computer Vision API. We were quickly redirected to use a more stable technology and focused on creating an MVP with reliable marker-based image detection and functional XR interactive experiences.

For all of us, 2020’s MIT Reality Hack was our first hacking event and a memorable one at that. Positioning ourselves amongst such a dedicated group of creators has inspired us as both a team as well as on the level of individual contribution. This event has proven that the breadth of opportunity for XR is near limitless, and we’re thrilled to have been a part of it.

Going forward, we seek to continue evangelizing the technology for use cases across multiple platforms, shedding light to global epidemics and to elicit social change.

Built With

• arcore
• c#
• unity