2014 GSA Annual Meeting in Vancouver, British Columbia (19–22 October 2014)

Paper No. 308-1
Presentation Time: 9:00 AM

FIELD PLAY AND THE 2014 NEW MEXICO GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY FALL FIELD CONFERENCE: INCORPORATING AUGMENTED REALITY AND LOCATION SENSITIVE CONTENT TO CREATE AN INTERACTIVE, DATA-RICH LANDSCAPE


DONAHUE, Magdalena, Earth and Planetary Sciences, University of New Mexico, MSCO3-2040, 1 University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM 87131 and DONAHUE, John, Computer Science & Engineering, New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, Department of Computer Science & Engineering, 801 Leroy Place, Socorro, NM 87801

Field Play is an augmented reality (AR) educational and experiential tool that integrates geoscience educational content with the physical world. Built to run on Android mobile devices, the Field Play system is based around the creation of a data-rich landscape through which users engage in location-aware content to explore their environment through geologic field trips. Field Play has two goals: 1) Improving access to abundant scientific information while in the field, and 2) Promoting scientific education on a large scale, in a way that is personal, relevant, and interest-driven.

Field Play was incorporated in the New Mexico Geological Society annual Fall Field Conference (September 2014). This three-day trip in southern New Mexico included AR stops, annotated photographs, audio content of critical features, and links to guidebook and other pertinent scientific publications. For this trip, Field Play created predetermined routes based off of conference road logs, as well as free-standing supplementary content.

In practice, the embedded GPS within mobile devices triggers location-aware interactive content to become available when the user was within a set proximity of the feature (e.g., audio alert when approaching a fault zone). Additionally, users are given the option to interactively explore topical and location-based sub-modules that include AR binoculars, informational text, audio, topographic and geologic maps, and short YouTube lessons while in the field.

Field Play content is both trip-specific and stand-alone. Content exists within the Field Play ecosystem at two levels: curated, scientific content created by Field Play, and crowd sourced data originated by users. Both of these data types are fully “mashable,” and can be combined by users to create personal topical or location-based trips using our trip creation tool.

Field Play content can be accessed online as well as via mobile device. We are working to expand our curated and crowd-sourced content to provide the geologic and public communities with an up-to-date, easily accessible resource of reliable geologic and scientific information for recreational, educational or professional use.

Session No. 308

T146. Where's the Data? Finding and Using Geoscience Data (Posters)
Wednesday, 22 October 2014: 9:00 AM-6:30 PM
Exhibition Hall C (Vancouver Convention Centre-West)
Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs. Vol. 46, No. 6, p.739
© Copyright 2014 The Geological Society of America (GSA), all rights reserved. Permission is hereby granted to the author(s) of this abstract to reproduce and distribute it freely, for noncommercial purposes. Permission is hereby granted to any individual scientist to download a single copy of this electronic file and reproduce up to 20 paper copies for noncommercial purposes advancing science and education, including classroom use, providing all reproductions include the complete content shown here, including the author information. All other forms of reproduction and/or transmittal are prohibited without written permission from GSA Copyright Permissions.
Back to: T146. Where's the Data? Finding and Using Geoscience Data (Posters)
Previous Abstract | Next Abstract >>