Video with explanation: https://youtu.be/NiCuEt9wCvQ Run-through video: https://youtu.be/CBccJj_wt2c
Inspiration & What it does
Building on our collective passion for music, Meli represents a transformative leap in the way we interact with music, by introducing a spatial music app that transcends traditional music streaming and takes it up a notch with spatial computing. Meli is a spatial music application that reimagines the way people interact with their favorite tunes. Meli takes the traditional experience of passive music listening and turns it spatial, interactive, and visual.
This is achieved by allowing users to choose, customize, and place virtual speakers in the comfort of their own home. Each virtual speaker contains unique properties, from enveloping a room in ambient sounds that foster a serene, gentle atmosphere, to turning a living room into a vibrant, pulsating dance floor. Users can choose from an extensive library of sound tracks, engaging with their favorite artists, or explore new genres of music.
How we built it
We built our project through Unity on the Oculus Quest 3 with the aims of launching on the Apple Vision Pro in the future. Our project is comprised of three talented developers. Ingram Mao is our dedicated designer and tech artist with an extensive multidisciplinary background in 3D modeling, simulation, and engineering. He crafted the visual and captivating experiences that really bring out the life of what we believe makes a great visually interactive music player. Ethan Soo worked as the backbone of the team, taking charge of core software development features on the project. He led the development on the core technologies surrounding our spatial music player, including our spatial audio system, custom interaction system, and data processing. Jenny Choi brought her multidisciplinary skillset to the forefront, rapidly iterating on designs and prototyping various user interactions in Unity. She played a pivotal role in developing our custom user interface by reimagining spatial interactions on music streaming. One of her noteworthy contributions is the ability to drag and drop individual song tracks, allowing users to engage with music in a fun and interactive way.
Our tech stack was comprised of Unity C# for development, Figma for design, Blender, Houdini, and audio editing tools for the Quest 3.
Challenges we ran into
Some of the challenges we ran into was coming up with a spatial interface that felt intuitive yet unique for a spatial music player. Making the application feel friendly, yet intuitive is one of the major considerations for our XR app, so we spent a great deal of time testing and validating that our interactions work seamlessly for users.
Accomplishments that we're proud of & What we learned
We are proud of being able to start this project from scratch, incorporating our own custom music tracks, 3D speaker models, and our own interface in addition to integrating with advanced spatial audio plugins and passthrough technology that improve the quality of experiencing spatial music in your living room. We learned to work and scope quickly in a timely fashion.
What's next for Meli Music Player
We plan to extend our application to other XR platforms in the future, such as the Apple Vision Pro, as we believe in the capabilities of immersive technology as a medium that enhances our physical reality.
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