ARAIG And Minecraft: A COVID-19 Workaround

The COVID-19 pandemic has necessitated the use of simulations in projects that may not have relied on them in the past. This project, which is a continuation of the research presented previously in [1], creates an optimized pathway back to the beginning of a user's recorded route using a modified (modded) Minecraft environment. We construct an octree in order to create a graph of connected nodes, then integrate our mod with a simulated “As Real As It Gets” (ARAIG) wearable haptic suit. This provides a visual representation of the physical feedback the user would receive if they were to wear it. Finally, we ask a small group of users to test this program and to give us feedback based upon their experiences, before discussing our next steps in the project. These next steps include broadening the scope of our Minecraft mod and integrating these algorithms into physical mediums.