Overview

Description

CALENDAR DESCRIPTION:

The concepts, theories, and technology behind interactive and immersive interface technologies used for geospatial visualization. Applications and implications for GIScience and spatial knowledge acquisition. Combines GIScience, spatial cognition, and virtual environments/interface research perspectives. Students with credit for GEOG 457 (STT) Geospatial Virtual Environments in fall 2005 or fall 2006 may not take this course for further credit.

COURSE DETAILS:

Course Description   
   
3D geovisual interface technologies and geospatial interface research are critical emerging sectors of geographic research, and even bigger emerging fields in the global geospatial information technology economy.

GEOG 457 explores the capabilities of cutting-edge 3D geospatial interfaces, their capabilities, and their significance for geovisual analysis in 21st Century GIScience.

Students will embark on an experiential exploration of emerging technologies applied to 3DGIScience and other spatial analytical challenges. These will include: virtual reality, augmented reality and mixed reality for 3D/4D geovisualization, geovisual analysis, simulation and 3D GIScience.

You will use 3D data/simulations from Dr. Hedley’s various research projects, including: coastal dynamics: rapid-onset hazards: fluvial geomorphology: rigid-body slope mechanics; AI crowd simulations; 3D ecological monitoring on the seafloor; and off-planet field sites such as Mars.

Students will all gain practical experience in 3D geovisualization development, using: serious game engines; 3D physics-based geo-simulations; mobile virtual reality (VR) (such as Oculus Go, Samsung Gear VR); single-user VR ((Oculus Rift; HTC Vive); room-scale immersive VR (HTC Vive); tangible augmented reality (TAR); mobile augmented reality (MAR); augmented GIS and geovisual analytics; photospheres and videospheres for geographic narratives.

Activities in this course will incorporate 3D capture technologies, including LiDAR, Structure from Motion (SfM), structured light sensing, and emerging ways to simulate complex spatial processes, using 3D physics, computational fluid dynamics (CFD), and artificial intelligence (AI).

Students will be introduced to the technology, methods, concepts and implications of interface research and HCI – applied to 3D geovisual analysis and spatial interface design and implementation. We will explore interface research concepts and interaction design in order to explore new ways to enable users to interact with geographic data representations of phenomena in 3D geospatial interfaces.

We will consider how emerging technologies may fundamentally change the way we explore and experience geographic data representations, and the spaces in which people interact with, and consume spatial information. We will consider their implications for GIScience, geovisual analytics, human-computer interaction, interface design and spatial cognition. We will then explore more radical ideas emerging from these enabling technologies, including: mixed reality GIScience, mixed reality visual analytics, metaverses, mediated realities, virtuality, and cyborg theory.

This course is an experiential geovisual interface research apprenticeship. Students will gain hands-on experience of many interface technologies, study their application to geospatial problems, and engage in critical reflection of the perceptual/cognitive experiences they enable. Students who complete this course will emerge with a sophisticated understanding of the technologies, methods, and implications of 3D GIScience in and across mixed realities - that are going to redefine the future of

Course organization
One 2-hour lecture per week to introduce concepts, methods, demonstrations.
One 2-hour lab session per week for hands-on training in methods, labs and course assignments, and demonstrations.

COURSE-LEVEL EDUCATIONAL GOALS:

Course-level educational goals Students completing this course, students will be:

a) knowledgeable about how emerging geovisualization technologies raise new opportunities for representing and visualizing geographic spaces;

b) experienced in the use of several VR, AR, MR, display devices, control systems and interface technologies;

c) experienced in the use of 3D spatial data, using 3D laser scanning (LiDAR); Structure-from-Motion (SfM); and other 3D capture and data processing technologies;

d) trained in how to design and implement 3D geovisualization interfaces of their own, using VR/AR;

e) able to combine 2D and 3D spatial analysis with interactive 3D visualization interfaces;

f) trained in multi-platform workflow to develop 3D geovisualizations and 3D interfaces;

g) trained in spatial project design and management skills;

h) able to integrate 3D spatial data and geovisualization methods and thinking into their future work.

i) able to build and integrate 3D interfaces into their future work.

Grading

Materials

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