Organized Reality Geology can be a classroom killer app

The biggest challenge in teaching geology is to bring the outside world into the classroom. During an epidemic, it is clear that the inability to bring students safely into the classroom does not make it any easier. Fortunately, digital tools can provide new ways to reach the world in which you find yourself.

Geology is a very local science and may require many 3-D visualizations. Simple physical models (not to mention rocks) have long been used to help teach things like imperfections or crystalline mineral structures. But these things can be surprisingly expensive And Keep an amazing amount of storage space. It’s an obvious place where technology can come in, serve endless objects, simulations and real-world statistics – if there’s an easy way for students to access it.

Organized Reality (AR) visualizations are increasingly capable of fulfilling this promise. Talked to Aras Martin Pratt About his work as part of a Washington University in St. Louis Group He is developing apps for classes, special devices like Microsoft’s HoloLens and phones for many students already.

“You want to present that data, not in a predictable way, like you would on a textbook screen, but in a three-dimensional way,” Pratt said. “Then you can really look around [and] Take things in stride and try not focus too much on the problem. The connected reality thing we found most appealing [compared to virtual reality] That is, it provides a much more experienced teacher-student setting. You are not hiding behind avatars. You can use body language cues [like] Eye contact to direct people to where you want to go. ”

While doing Ph.D. In seismology a few years ago, Pratt became interested in data visualization along the way. He accepted the challenge of working on creating AR apps, starting with one.IOS only) Which allows users to explore the modern facts of the USGS earthquake in three dimensions instead of just a 2-D map. You can easily understand the role of the boundary line of a tectonic plate in this way, or explore patterns of foreshocks and aftershocks around an earthquake.

Working with Unity’s game engine, Pratt has since put together a flexible app. GeoExplorer (For IOS And Android) To display other models. There is already a large collection of crystal line models for different minerals, allowing you to see how all the atoms are arranged. There are also different types of rocks, so you can see what those minerals look like in the macro world. Returning to the scale, the rocks come in full, allowing for a real geological field-trip experience in your living room. Even bigger, there are landscapes of the Earth as well as areas of the Moon and Mars.

And it’s not just geology. Due to public interest in other areas, Pratt has found existing datasets for the plan, such as protein, art and archeology models.

At the moment, this is the only experiment, but Pratt is working on creating common areas in the app. An instructor could scan around the room and create a reference frame for the place. Other users can join the session from their devices, download the reference frame downloading and match it to their perspective. Once this is done, students will be looking at all the single virtual objects that have been controlled and controlled by the instructor, as if they were holding a model in front of the room – to move on to a collaborative experience.

The group is at the same time Creating a Less Community Nitish Database To keep a growing catalog of items accessible with the app. For already digital data, this is a simple process. Converting pieces of the physical world into digital models is a different matter. Thankfully, this has become much easier lately. No need for laser-scanned objects with expensive equipment. Using “motion motion” photogrammetry software, you can process many images from different angles to create models.

“We have a little light-box setup in the lab with a diffused light to show the hand samples you want to measure,” said Pratt. “It’s a little tentable, so you just take one photo every 10 degrees and do 36 different photos all around on one level, then shake the model a little bit and do another 36 … and Try and collect completely. That hand pattern. ”

The size and resolution of these items is currently limited by our devices’ ability to handle rendering at the required refresh rate. One thing that is coming to these systems is the optimal resolution capabilities that load more detail when you zoom in on a part of an object. It has many types of applications; For example, NASA’s Mars rover teams can use it to orbit the Red Planet in a metaphor while retaining the ability to see things up close. But it will open up more options for the classroom.

Going beyond static models, some interactive simulations are also in the works. Pratt is working with glaciologists at Columbia University A glacier simulator Which will allow you to grow and shrink a virtual terrain – or even a glacier on your desk Or stairs.

These are all practical and unique tools for teaching and learning, especially since they do not require expensive new equipment that needs to be shared. (Although having a holocaust definitely has its advantages in UI and control.) And as more people value this technology and contribute new models of objects and locations, its usefulness can increase.

“[AR] Hopefully graders and undergraduates will be deceived within a few years by saying, ‘Oh, I don’t have to use a laptop right now. I can actually show this three-dimensional data that I’m trying to study and understand differently with a device that I’m sitting right in here, “said Pratt.

Plus, you’ll be getting rid of clutter you don’t need. Anyone can walk to the moon at their table or call a foreign crystal. You know, like a wizard.