Grab the kids (no matter how old) and visit the Queensland Museum to create your own mountains and valleys and use your hands to make it rain with Griffith University’s augmented reality sandbox.
The Griffith Red Zone augmented reality sandboxes from have gone on a road trip this week to the World Science Festival in Brisbane and are proving to be even more popular than expected.
They had to relocate within the first day because the school excursion groups visiting the World Science Fair were having so much fun that the volume levels were off the Richter scale.
And as nobody was keen to hit the ‘stop’ button on the fun and learning that was being had, expert problem solvers were brought and wisely announced that a relocation could resolve the decibel levels and keep everyone happy.
So it seems our Griffith Red Zone augmented reality sandboxes were a victim our their own success!
If you want to check them out today or this weekend, just follow the noise or visit the Queensland Museum, ENERGEX Playasaurus Place, level 0.
They are on display there from 9.30am to 5pm until Sunday as part of the World Science Festival.
What’s an augmented reality sandbox?
Here is how the experts describe them…
The sandbox uses a Kinect sensor in conjunction with a digital projector to overlay topographical data and simulated water over a traditional, dry sandbox. You can mould the sand into your own catchment and watch how the water moves through the system when you make it rain. It shows how adding landscape and built environment features changes water flow in a catchment. The end result is an augmented environment that can be used to teach geographic, geologic and hydrological concepts.
The augmented reality sandbox at Griffith University is an initiative from the Australian Rivers Institute and is available at the Red Zones, located at both Gold Coast and Nathan campuses and open Monday to Friday from 10am to 4pm. For more information about the Red Zone please see here – Griffith Red Zone
Griffith University’s Augmented Reality Sandbox was based on the code and design developed by the UC Davis W.M. Keck Center for Active Visualization in the Earth Sciences (KeckCAVES, http://www.keckcaves.org), supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. DRL 1114663.