Imaging methods for understanding and improving visual training in the geosciences

Experience in the field is a critical educational component of every student studying geology. However, it is typically difficult to ensure that every student gets the necessary experience because of monetary and scheduling limitations. Thus, we proposed to create a virtual field trip based off of an existing 10-day field trip to California taken as part of an undergraduate geology course at the University of Rochester. To assess the effectiveness of this approach, we also proposed to analyze the learning and observation processes of both students and experts during the real and virtual field trips. At sites intended for inclusion in the virtual field trip, we captured gigapixel resolution panoramas by taking hundreds of images using custom built robotic imaging systems. We gathered data to analyze the learning process by fitting each geology student and expert with a portable eye- tracking system that records a video of their eye movements and a video of the scene they are observing. An important component of analyzing the eye-tracking data requires mapping the gaze of each observer into a common reference frame. We have made progress towards developing a software tool that helps automate this procedure by using image feature tracking and registration methods to map the scene video frames from each eye-tracker onto a reference panorama for each site. For the purpose of creating a virtual field trip, we have a large scale semi-immersive display system that consists of four tiled projectors, which have been colorimetrically and photometrically calibrated, and a curved widescreen display surface. We use this system to present the previously captured panoramas, which simulates the experience of visiting the sites in person. In terms of broader geology education and outreach, we have created an interactive website that uses Google Earth as the interface for visually exploring the panoramas captured for each site

Generating Mobile Virtual Tour Using UAV and 360 Degree Panorama for Geography-Environmental Learning in Higher Educationw

Nowadays, the limitations of media in geo-environmental learning present a significant challenge, as media plays an indispensable role in fostering students’ comprehensive understanding. Employing technology capable of delivering comprehensive landscape information is crucial for effective environmental education. Utilizing Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) and 360-degree panoramic cameras represents a judicious technological choice, which can be seamlessly integrated into virtual tours. This research aims to develop a Mobile Virtual Tour (Movie-Tour) as a medium to support learning, especially for materials regarding environmental geography. The research and development (RnD) method is used in research with the ADDIE model (Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation and Evaluation). Data collection for the development of the product involved conducting a need assessment, performing validation tests and conducting trials with students. To gather field data for creating environmental geography materials for the Movie-Tour product, we utilized an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) and a 360-degree stereoscopic camera. The results demonstrate that Movie- Tour is an educational medium capable of delivering an immersive learning experience and comprehensive materials, allowing for the virtual visualization of real-world conditions in the field. This capability enhances students’ engagement in exploring physical geography conditions, fosters independent knowledge acquisition, and nurtures their innate curiosity. Movie-Tour stands as a potent and practical educational tool, offering an effective and secure learning experience for students, eliminating the need for direct field visits

Virtual tourism – Digital scanning, Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality as a Holistic Approach to Chinese Historic Building Preservation

There are many historical buildings spread around the rural areas of China and very few of them have been documented through digital media. In the face of massive Chinese urbanization, many of these cultural relics are facing the risk of damage, collapse, and even disappearance. The undocumented disappearance of these monuments would be a great loss for Chinese traditional culture and therefore this thesis proposes to solve this preservation problem using a combination of digital media platforms including 3D digital reconstruction, virtual reality, and augmented reality to digitally document and present these monuments. This thesis introduces these three technologies individually by presenting case studies for each to illustrate in greater depth the value each technology brings into the realm of heritage conservation. In the final section of this thesis, a mixed reality educational mobile application is presented as a test of this integrated technology solution to explore the potential of implementing this solution on a massive scale

True to nature? Fidelity and transformation in Eugene von Guérard’s antipodean landscape paintings

When the leading mid-nineteenth-century landscape artist in Victoria, Eugene von Guérard, was criticised for failing to illustrate nature sublimely, he replied that his “greatest desire” was to “imitate nature” as far as it was “compatible with the effect of the picture.” Later, he asserted that his aim was “to be true to nature as far as possible” in his art. This empirical, science-informed thesis explores what being “true to nature” meant in Guérard’s practice by examining natural features typically illustrated with fidelity, scrutinising features freely transformed for artistic effect, and assessing whether such transformations compromise his aesthetic ideal. The fieldwork-based study addresses a knowledge gap in Australian art history and environmental history by adopting a multi-disciplinary approach. The findings make a significant contribution to understanding what being “true to nature” meant for Guérard, and to determining whether his landscapes are reliable environmental history records. The investigation uses a mixed-method approach, combining qualitative and quantitative techniques. Early in-depth case studies identified faithfully rendered and freely modified features, which informed the development of an innovative survey instrument used to evaluate the fidelity of over a hundred of Guérard’s Antipodean landscapes. The extent to which natural features are faithful or transformed is subjectively assessed by comparing them with his accurate field drawings and modern site photographs taken from his vantage points. The novel reverse use of digital elevation models enabled many of his vantage points at sites to be precisely determined. Statistical analysis of survey data and further case studies leads to the conclusion that Guérard practised selective fidelity to nature. Although no natural feature was totally immune to being modified for artistic effect, many features are typically reproduced with great fidelity to the natural scenery visible at the site. Features significantly altered to create visually engaging or dramatic landscapes are usually found to be true to the natural history of the location, if not necessarily to the view. Exceptions are largely restricted to the composite landscapes that field research uncovered. Finally, the thesis examines whether Guérard’s fidelity practice resonates with particular purported influences, or parallels the practices of international contemporaries who were also renowned for their wilderness paintings.Doctor of Philosoph

Assessment of plastics in the National Trust: a case study at Mr Straw's House

The National Trust is a charity that cares for over 300 publically accessible historic buildings and their contents across England, Wales and Northern Ireland. There have been few previous studies on preservation of plastics within National Trust collections, which form a significant part of the more modern collections of objects. This paper describes the design of an assessment system which was successfully trialled at Mr Straws House, a National Trust property in Worksop, UK. This system can now be used for future plastic surveys at other National Trust properties. In addition, the survey gave valuable information about the state of the collection, demonstrating that the plastics that are deteriorating are those that are known to be vulnerable, namely cellulose nitrate/acetate, PVC and rubber. Verifying this knowledge of the most vulnerable plastics enables us to recommend to properties across National Trust that these types should be seen as a priority for correct storage and in-depth recording

Augmenting the landscape scene: students as participatory evaluators of mobile geospatial technologies

This paper provides a two-phase study to compare alternative techniques for augmenting landscape scenes on geography fieldtrips. The techniques were: a pre-prepared acetate overlay; a custom-designed mobile field guide; locative media on a smartphone; virtual globe on a tablet PC; a head-mounted virtual reality display, and a geo-wand style mobile app. In one field exercise the first five techniques were compared through analysis of interviews and student video diaries, combined with direct observation. This identified a particular challenge of how to direct user attention correctly to relevant information in the field of view. To explore this issue in more detail, a second field exercise deployed ‘Zapp’, a bespoke geo-wand-style app capable of retrieving information about distant landscape features. This was evaluated using first-person video and spatial logging of in-field interactions. This paper reflects upon the relative merits of these approaches and highlights particular challenges of using technology to mimic a human field guide in pointing out specific aspects of the landscape scene. We also explore the role of students acting as design informants and research co-participants, which can be mutually beneficial in promoting a critical appreciation of the role of technology to support learning about the landscape

West Spitsbergen fold and thrust belt: A digital educational data package for teaching structural geology

The discipline of structural geology is taking an advantage of compiling observations from multiple field sites to comprehend the bigger picture and constrain the region's geological evolution. In this study we demonstrate how integration of a range of geospatial digital data sets that relate to the Paleogene fault and thrust belt exposed in the high Arctic Archipelago of Svalbard, is used in teaching in bachelor-level courses at the University Centre in Svalbard. This event led to the formation of the West Spitsbergen Fold and Thrust Belt and its associated foreland basin, the Central Spitsbergen Basin. Our digital educational data package builds on published literature from the past four decades augmented with recently acquired high-resolution digital outcrop models, and 360° imagery. All data are available as georeferenced data containers and included in a single geodatabase, freely available for educators and geoscientists around the world to complement their research and fieldwork with course components from Svalbard.publishedVersio