Event Title

Data Visualization Using Augmented Reality

Location

Hager-Lubbers Exhibition Hall

Description

PURPOSE: Data visualization in computer science has been limited to computer screens and paper printouts. Often information can be displayed to the user, but it lacks context. Using augmented reality technologies enables us to add context to the information. Our goal is to experiment with embedding data representations into the physical world using augmented reality. PROCEDURES: The Unity® game development platform was chosen to do core software development. The tool excels at object model user interactions in 3-dimensional space. C# software was used to develop software to retrieve and direct data to user facing objects. It is also used to manipulate graph objects to display new graph data. Unity® also offers plugins that allow for developers to use the recently released Apple ARKit® APIs for augmented reality development. Several user interactions were developed to allow the user to select and place graphs. ANALYSES: To date most of the experiences with augmented reality have been associated with the gaming industry. However, the technology has the possibility to impact a much broader audience. Augmented reality provides a unique way to synthesize data and the physical world in a way rarely seen in computer science. It can provide context to data representing physical objects by visualizing the data in the physical world. CONCLUSION: Augmented reality and virtual reality have the power to revolutionize data representation. Tools are being released by major software companies who are allowing this area of software development to expand. Data analysis fields will benefit from being able to view live data in conjunction with objects they are analyzing. The technology is in its infancy stage, but advancements are rapidly being made that will allow the ease of complex user interactions in the future.

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Apr 10th, 3:30 PM

Data Visualization Using Augmented Reality

Hager-Lubbers Exhibition Hall

PURPOSE: Data visualization in computer science has been limited to computer screens and paper printouts. Often information can be displayed to the user, but it lacks context. Using augmented reality technologies enables us to add context to the information. Our goal is to experiment with embedding data representations into the physical world using augmented reality. PROCEDURES: The Unity® game development platform was chosen to do core software development. The tool excels at object model user interactions in 3-dimensional space. C# software was used to develop software to retrieve and direct data to user facing objects. It is also used to manipulate graph objects to display new graph data. Unity® also offers plugins that allow for developers to use the recently released Apple ARKit® APIs for augmented reality development. Several user interactions were developed to allow the user to select and place graphs. ANALYSES: To date most of the experiences with augmented reality have been associated with the gaming industry. However, the technology has the possibility to impact a much broader audience. Augmented reality provides a unique way to synthesize data and the physical world in a way rarely seen in computer science. It can provide context to data representing physical objects by visualizing the data in the physical world. CONCLUSION: Augmented reality and virtual reality have the power to revolutionize data representation. Tools are being released by major software companies who are allowing this area of software development to expand. Data analysis fields will benefit from being able to view live data in conjunction with objects they are analyzing. The technology is in its infancy stage, but advancements are rapidly being made that will allow the ease of complex user interactions in the future.