Living Maps in Alaska

Maps can be a teaching tool, as well as a way to inform communities about the landscape they live on. But flat, 2-D maps also aren't a highly engaging tool in and of themselves for the general public. What if you could control and change the map with just the swipe of your hand? A project at the University of Alaska is using geological data visualization technology developed at UC-Davis to create an augmented reality map that can educate and bring a community together.

By projecting an interactive map over a sandbox, this new tool allows people to engage with the map by getting their hands dirty, literally. If a user pushes sand into a mound, the projected map registers the mound of sand as a mountain, and accordingly changes its graphics to reflect the change in landscape. One project using the augmented reality map is using it to look at and document how the changing environment and landscape can impact the community living within it. 

Learn more about the augmented reality sandbox at the University of Alaska.

Photo by davecito from Flickr under Creative Commons.