Quantum Cats: Generative AI 3D-enabled Interactive Experience in Mixed Reality

Abstract: Humans love cats, at least half of humans. Quantum cats are even nicer to our minds. Thus, Generative AI (Gen AI) created and animated 3D cats of Schrödinger in mixed reality, which are close to infinite fun. In this project, we bring Schrödinger’s famous thought experiment to life by combining the power of Gen AI, Quantum Computing concepts, and Mixed Reality (MR). The result is an Interactive 3D experience that enables users to observe, influence, and explore the behaviors of AI-generated quantum cats within an immersive environment, promoting education, entertainment, and engagement.The goal is both playful and provocative: to offer a hands-on metaphor for quantum uncertainty and superposition through intuitive interactions. The project also highlights how generative AI accelerates 3D content creation, enabling rapid iteration and rich visual storytelling. By integrating these technologies, we aim to demonstrate a new kind of experiential interface – one that is scientific, artistic, and, unsurprisingly, fun.The demo includes a Gen AI-powered parts with 3D and Animation, Interactivity, Quantum and Spatial computing components. More details are presented below; the system architecture and implementation details will also be included in the final paper. Recent developments in Generative AI promise to accelerate the production speed of nearly everything, including interactive 3D experiences. Practically, Text-to-3D, Image-to-3D, and Multiview Image-to-3D provide production-ready results at least in terms of an edge Mixed Reality device. Furthermore, one can achieve not only the models but also the characters, rig them, and animate them. With the acceptable results in generation and animation, characters can be created faster than achievable by human artists, initially, and then even quicker, with better quality.We conducted a state-of-the-art literature review for 3D character generation. We performed experiments with the most promising tools and models, including Meshy 4 and 5 preview, Luma Genie, Tripo 2.5, Trellis, and Hunyuan 2.0. The generation results were visually acceptable with all the selected 3D models and tools. We identified two models that returned visually acceptable results compatible with the rig and animation pipelines. The models from Meshy and Tripo appeared to be compatible with Mixamo and Animate Anything, respectively. Our Interactive MR-enhanced demo offers a fresh perspective on the foundations of quantum computing, making them easy to grasp and even “touch”. The core idea derives from the iconic Schrödinger’s cat thought experiment with a twist. While the original setup focuses on the principle of superposition and involves a single cat to illustrate the behavior of a quantum system, which can exist in a superposition of multiple states simultaneously, we introduce additional cats to illustrate the concept of quantum entanglement. This phenomenon manifests itself in peculiar long-range correlations that cannot be accounted for classically and results in states of composite quantum systems, which cannot be factored into individual states of the constituting subsystems. The key premise of the experiment remains - the cats are placed into the box with poison vials triggered via a spontaneous mechanism of radioactive decay, introducing a true uncertainty element. As long as the box is closed to the observer, the cats can be viewed as both alive and dead at the same time. Within our virtual environment, additional separating walls can be shifted inside the box, allowing us to “entangle” the cats. Namely, if the cats are located in the same box compartment impacted by the same poison vial, upon inspection, they will both be found either alive or dead. The inspection itself is performed by opening the box and illustrates the measurement in quantum mechanics, which results in the collapse of the superposition to a single definitive state. In the light of quantum computing, cats in the proposed demo represent a system of qubits, while user interaction with cats’ results in unitary transformations applied to the state of this system. This is visualized using a dedicated widget containing a quantum circuit for state preparation. Therein, superposition is generated utilizing Hadamard gates, and the entanglement is introduced through the action of two-qubit CNOT gates. The state evaluation procedure is performed in a simulated manner. To implement the human-computer interaction system, we utilized the Magic Leap Unreal Engine SDK. During the development phase, we experimented with various input methods — both controller-based and hand-tracking — and ultimately chose hand-tracking for its ability to deliver a more intuitive, natural, and immersive user experience.We briefly presented our research and experimental work in Gen AI 3D and the HCI domain, incorporating the flavor of quantum physics.

Keywords: Interactive, Quantum Computing, Gen AI, 3D, Mixed Reality

DOI: 10.54941/ahfe1006806

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