Rebecca Poulson

Engineer, 2016-2020

Rebecca leads AR/VR projects at Knight Lab. In addition to being a software developer and playwright, Rebecca is an Oculus Launchpad Fellow and Mozilla Tech Speaker. She has taught WebVR workshops on three continents.

Projects

Studio Projects Rebecca Poulson has worked on.

Augmented Reality Features with 3D Food Photography

As of 2020, consumers have already purchased more than 2 billion Augmented Reality (AR) capable smartphones. By 2022, that number will be 3.4 billion. This huge installed base presents news organizations with the best opportunity to explore spatial 3D media with their audiences.In this project, Knight Lab students will make exploring mobile AR easier for small teams and individuals, by developing and publishing a series of guides on how to make AR features using open...

Exploring Data Visualization in VR

An experimental design project, in which we students are analyzing methods for communicating data visually and exploring how those principles might be transferred and transformed in a 360 environment.

Information Spaces in AR/VR

An experimental design project that explores an emerging concept of information spaces. This concept is behind Microsoft’s pivot to create future Windows operating systems that exist in mixed reality headsets. Students will explore the concept of a news/information app that exists in AR and/or VR. For example, a political news feed might exist on a wall in your living room, and breaking news would appear on a coffee table, twitter reactions surround the coffee table...

Contrasting Forms Of Interactive 3D Storytelling

3d technology gives us the opportunity to tell the story of an object from all angles. With 3d scans we can examine tiny butterfly wings, visit distant archaeological sites and get up close to objects too fragile to be examined in real life. While 3d gives the viewer the ability to see the whole story, it’s often difficult to know just what to look at and how to construct meaning from this wealth of information....

Storytelling with Augmented Reality

Augmented Reality allows creators to tell stories in the places where they actually happened. For the purpose of this project, we’ll be working with the concept of physical accessibility on campus. We will use the Unity game engine and a framework developed at Knight Lab so that we can quickly experiment and refine our ideas. We’ll spend some time early in the quarter looking at AR experiences from museums and tourist attractions as well as...

Podcast Discoverability

The podcasting landscape is overcrowded, with larger voices from legacy broadcast media sometimes drowning out new entrants. Browsing for new-to-you, quality podcasts is hard, with shows scattered across distribution platforms. This team will explore how we might provide users a better path to discovering new podcasts.

Articles

Articles by Rebecca Poulson

  • Ideas |

    Evaluating VR and AR Tools for the ClassroomHow we choose tools for Knight Lab Studio

    by Rebecca Poulson | RebeccaPoulson

    In the Knight Lab: Studio class, every Virtual and Augmented Reality project is a blank slate. All of our developers are learning how to make VR and AR for the first time; many of them don’t even consider themselves developers yet. With the exception of a few projects which have run in successive quarters, we’re never building on something that already exists. We go from “New Project” to our final destination in ten weeks. The fact that...

    Continue Reading

  • Lab projects |

    Building a Community for VR and AR Storytelling

    by Rebecca Poulson | RebeccaPoulson

    In 2016 we founded the Device Lab to provide a hub for the exploration of AR/VR storytelling on campus. In addition to providing access to these technologies for Medill and the wider Northwestern community, we’ve also pursued a wide variety of research and experimental content development projects. We’ve built WebVR timelines of feminist history and looked into the inner workings of ambisonic audio. We’ve built virtual coral reefs and prototyped an AR experience setting interviews...

    Continue Reading

  • Ideas |

    Prototyping Augmented Reality

    by Rebecca Poulson | RebeccaPoulson

    Something that really frustrates me is that, while I’m excited about the potential AR has for storytelling, I don’t feel like I have really great AR experiences that I can point people to. We know that AR is great for taking a selfie with a Pikachu and it’s pretty good at measuring spaces (as long as your room is really well lit and your phone is fully charged) but beyond that, we’re really still figuring...

    Continue Reading

Posts tagged with Rebecca Poulson

  • Team news |

    New team member: Rebecca Poulson, storyteller and developer

    A few months ago we put out a call for two new developers. Today, we’re happy to announce that the first of those positions has been filled. Rebecca Poulson will join Knight Lab later this month as a developer and will bring a unique skill set that includes storytelling, technology, and virtual reality. Rebecca Poulson “Everyone involved in the hiring process at Knight Lab was impressed by Rebecca’s technical skill and, just as importantly, her...

    Continue Reading