VRMath is an exploration into different ways to present, learn, and do math. We are currently using an Oculus Rift DK2 and a headmounted Leapmotion controller. The current demo allows the user to press buttons with their hands to click through a slideshow for convex optimization and interact with a rendering of a 3d paraboloid. The user can use two hands to grab the paraboloid and change it to match their hand positions. The equation for the paraboloid is also rendered, and changes as the user manipulates the paraboloid. Gradient descent, an interative optimization algorithm that attempts to find the minimum point on a surface, is shown for several iterations on the surface plot, with a random start point, so the user can see how changes in the equation reflect in changes in optimization. Our hypothesis is that by directly manipulating a plot, the user can get a deeper intuition for what different parameters in an equation mean. We would like to expand the interaction so that the user can directly manipulate the algebra of equations and immediately see the result of that manipulation on the plot.
A video for this project is shown at this link.
It is still a work in progress, and the video should be considered equivalent to a trailer.