Abstract
The process of scientific visualization often involves making design
choices- colors being one one them, to effectively communicate and
highlight features in the data (e.g. high/low temperatures). Using the
techniques of registration and image tracking, which are widely used in
Augmented Reality (AR) applications to anchor digital content to the
real world, an iPad/iPhone application has been developed that
visualizes hand colored earth science datasets. The application would
scan a student’s hand-colored page of a rectangular image of some global
dataset, obtain the colors used, and convert that to an AR interactive,
3D globe with the dataset in study, animated with the students’ colors.
This exercise could also be used to educate students about different map
projections and is a flexible, customizable, inexpensive tool for
teachers to teach a variety of geoscience topics. This engaging
interactive environment could help instill a sense of ownership of the
data and encourage the student to be more engaged with the science being
presented.