In the final lesson of this course, we ask you to reflect on the potential of 3D modeling and VR (or AR/ MR) for the geospatial sciences. We have seen in this course that there is a lot of development and advancement in technology taking place that has made 3D modeling more accessible and is pushing virtual reality into the mainstream.
This is not to say that there are no issues left or that there is not a lot of work to be done on all accounts. But, with a consumer market industry behind current developments we are looking into a future of communication, sharing, and understanding environmental information that will be vastly different from our current approaches.
By the end of this lesson, you should be able to:
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If you have any questions, please post them to our "General and Technical Questions" discussion (not e-mail). I will check that discussion forum daily to respond. While you are there, feel free to post your own responses if you, too, are able to help out a classmate.
The course has provided an overview of a number of topics surrounding 3D modeling and analysis and VR. The goal was to give students an overview of the technologies and software products that are available or emerging and how geospatial sciences will change in the near future. Many topics had to be left out, but we would like to show at least two short videos of projects done by our research team.
The reason to include these projects here is that they provide very natural extensions to the topics we have addressed in the course. The first project is the historic campus modeling effort that you have engaged within lesson 3, using the armory, and in the Unity lessons (7 and 8). This is an ongoing project that is self-funded and lives of contribution largely from students like yourself. The one aspect we would like to focus on here is that the model that we created and that you have explored can be used and refined in numerous ways. Using a different software tool, LumenRT, we created a more realistic rendering of the historic campus. LumenRT can transform 3D models into real-time 3D immersive scenes called LiveCubes. The LiveCubes can be shared with other people and let them navigate in the scene without installing the software. It also automatically adds accurate lighting, shadows, and reflections to the objects in the scene with real-time global illumination. For demonstration purposed please watch the following video. Keep this video in mind when you think of your audience. While many people of the younger generation are perfectly happy with game-like environments, in our experiences people of advanced age prefer a more realistic representation. While this representation is still challenging for interactive immersive VR experiences, they can be used in current technology, for example, in the form of 360-degree videos or images, which can also be shared via YouTube.
The second example we’d like you to explore is from a project in collaboration with geosciences professor Peter La Femina. Pete is a volcanologist and has a repertoire of fascination journeys. Sometimes he is in the position to take students along, but this is not always the case. Virtual field trips have always been a dream of geography but so far they have never fully taken off. We are working on changing the acceptance of virtual field trips by implementing a VR experience that will allow students to explore the insight of a volcano. This is also an example of a workflow as discussed in lesson 2. Pete took a drone equipped with both LiDAR and photo cameras with him to Iceland and visited the volcano Thrinukagigur on Iceland. If you are interested, there is a lot more information on this Inside the Volcano [3], a famous volcano website. The volcano is reasonable dormant such that it is safe to fly, for example, a drone into it (you can actually visit the volcano).
Finally, we would like you to read another article that discusses, from a more theoretical perspective, the role that using the landscape itself (especially the local landscape someone may be used to) as a means of communication. As an example, we have two projects that deal with VR and climate change. Both projects provide an opportunity to think through the options we have to communicate with people about how climate change may change their local environments, as well as what sustainable living can look like. The article is written by Stephen Sheppard and has just been published in Landscape and Urban Planning. You can download the article Making climate change visible: A critical role for landscape professionals [5] using Science Direct, through the Penn State Libraries. You may need to log in using your Penn State Access Account user id and password when you follow the link.
If you need to search for the article, the complete information is:
Journal title and issue: Landscape and Urban Planning 142 (2015) 95–105
Article title: Making climate change visible: A critical role for landscape professionals
Author: Stephen R.J. Sheppard
There are two deliverables for this lesson.
Deliverable 1: Article Reflection After reading the article by Sheppard provide a 500-word max write up reflecting on a potential paradigm shift that 3D modeling and VR induce for communicating and understanding environmental change. Guiding questions:
Criteria | Full Marks | Half Marks | No Marks | Possible Points |
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Write up clearly communicates how the local landscape can improve communicating environmental change. | 2 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
Write up clearly communicates how 3D modeling and VR can improve communicating environmental change. | 3 | 1.5 | 0 | 3 |
Write up is well thought out, organized, contains some theoretical considerations and clearly communicates why or why not this article is an example of a paradigm shift in the geospatial sciences. | 4 | 2 | 0 | 4 |
The document is grammatically correct, typo-free, and cited where necessary. | 1 | 0.5 | 0 | 1 |
Total Points: 10 |
Deliverable 2: Reflection Paper: Write a 750-word max reflection on the course discussing your perspective on 3D modeling and VR for the future of the geospatial sciences. Guiding questions:
Criteria | Full Marks | Half Marks | No Marks | Possible Points |
---|---|---|---|---|
Write up clearly communicates student’s perspective on the potential and/or pitfalls of 3D modeling and VR for geospatial sciences. | 4 | 2 | 0 | 4 |
Write up clearly identifies key technologies in the area of 3D modeling and VR most important for geospatial sciences. | 4 | 2 | 0 | 4 |
Write up is well thought out, organized, contains some theoretical considerations and clearly communicates why or why not this article is an example of a paradigm shift in the geospatial sciences. | 6 | 3 | 0 | 6 |
The document is grammatically correct, typo-free, and cited where necessary. | 1 | 0.5 | 0 | 1 |
Total Points:15 |
Lesson 10 provided a short outlook on how 3D modeling and VR have the potential to change how we communicate environmental change. Discussing Sheppard's article is one example of how researchers start to add theory to the technological developments that are happening. The video of the historic campus project provided a glimpse of how realistic 3D models can become with off-the-shelf software opening new possibilities for communicating with a wide audience. The Thrinukagigur example shows that immersive technologies will have an impact on a wide spectrum of geo-spatial sciences and that we are finally in the position to realize virtual field trips.
You have reached the end of Lesson 10! Double-check the to-do list on the Lesson 10 Overview page to make sure you have completed all of the activities listed there. Congratulation! You have finished this course!
Links
[1] http://news.psu.edu/story/427720/2016/09/29/academics/reconnecting-penn-state%E2%80%99s-past-through-virtual-reality
[2] https://news.psu.edu/story/436448/2016/11/08/research/project-explores-how-virtual-reality-can-help-students-learn
[3] https://insidethevolcano.com/the-volcano/
[4] https://chorophronesis.psu.edu/
[5] http://www.sciencedirect.com.ezaccess.libraries.psu.edu/science/article/pii/S0169204615001449