Screwers| Breakthrough
Breakthrough
Augmented Reality Real-time Solar System.
Summary
Our project is a mobile app that will get position of users using GPS and show them the planet in solar system that can be seen if telescope is used in that position same time and date. As NASA's real-time data of solar system show there are always one or more planets that can be seen depend on the position observer on the Earth but all people do not have telescope and today most of people have smartphones with Gyroscope sensor; in that way we come with the interactive application that can handle that in real-time with real data, for example distance to that planet, time to reach there with current technology and time using futuristic technologies, temperature on that planet and more.
How We Addressed This Challenge
What did you develop?
Mobile Application with NASA's Solar System data, AR technology and GPS data.
Why is it important?
This app is going to solve the problem of Lack of instruments in education sector as many schools do not have telescopes and other tools to be used to look what they study about solar system.
This project is important because the access of telescope is not possible for all people who want it for example in Rwanda you can finish Bachelor degree without seeing any telescope but using this application everyone with smartphone and internet will be able to see what telescope user see as depends on real data. And in additional it can also provide other information about about what they are seeing.
What does it do?
This application simulate and provide real-time and real data of solar system and observer's smartphone will be simulating system as giant telescope. User will open the application and point his phone to the sky and app show them the planet in that position alongside the known information of the planet; distance between earth and that planet, its composition, temperature on the planet, its rotation speed, its revolution speed, its revolution time and more available information as provided by NASA on solar system. As user moving his/her smartphone will be like he/she is moving real life telescope and as he/she is zooming it's like increasing or decreasing focal length of telescope that have can identify planet by seeing it.
How does it work?
Firstly app get a position of user on earth using GPS and time and date so that we can identify a planet that can be seen using telescope if it is placed on that position. After that a marker will be visible in the sky in camera view of smartphone showing the planet in its position with real data. The app now fetch data from NASA about that planet and display them in screen. Moving phone planet can be out of sight as on telescope can be.
What do you hope to achieve?
A mobile application that can work as telescope do but whatever it show are 3D models of planets and asteroids in their position but must represent real data in real-time so that can be used in education of solar system by interact with them.
How We Developed This Project
What inspired your team to choose this challenge?
As people living in Rwanda, access to telescope and satellite data is not easy for all, so we come with ideas of developing the tool to help Rwandan students, scientists and other people around the world to get telescope in their hands as long as they have smartphone.
What was your approach to developing this project?
We plan to use mobile application and mobile game development technologies to develop the app; especially the technology of Augmented Reality on mobile phone to allow user using the phone camera to navigate solar system.
What tools, coding languages, hardware, software did you use to develop your project?
To create this application 3D technology will be used so we will use 3D models to represent planets and more. And to give device intelligence, programming come into action.
Tools and hardware:
- Computer to make 3D models, writing codes (programs).
- Smartphone to test the app.
- Internet to access NASA's Websites.
Programming language:
- c#
Software:
- Blender and Autodesk Maya for modeling and animation.
- Adobe Photoshop for graphics.
- Unity3D
What problems and achievements did your team have?
Our team is made by two members who are students in computer science and software engineering and self taught 3D artists and 3D game developers. We have good understanding and skills that required to develop the app like this as we all can do programming and 3D. We modeled planets in 3D but production is very slow as softwares to be used in this project require high-end computer to run smoothly and some software are paid and they are planning to remove license for students like Autodesk Maya; the problem that we are facing is lack of budget to afford them.
How We Used Space Agency Data in This Project
To make this app all data to used are from space agencies either directly or indirect.
Direct data access from NASA:
- Solar system.
- NASA's APIs for Images and Data.
Other data:
- GPS data for user positioning, we use google APIs.
As NASA provides real-time data about solar system and provide APIs to access data. We used data to know more about planet with real data provided by agency and real-time position of user provided by Google APIs helped to make a real-time app with real data as explained. Without data provided by NASA, we cannot know where planet is located refer to the earth in real-time.
Project Demo
The following link goes to PowerPoint; It contains the Wireframes of the application and their explanation one by one.
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1M7zuJ-U4Y2AFEmFKl92o1tBgik7Zxe8cg8HvS85TfSE/edit?usp=sharing
Data & Resources
- Solar system by NASA; https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/overview/
- NASA's APIs; https://api.nasa.gov/
- NASA's eye; https://eyes.nasa.gov/
- Planetary Data System; https://pds.nasa.gov/
- Visible earth by NASA; https://visibleearth.nasa.gov/collection/1484/blue-marble
- Earth by NASA; https://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/index.html
- Google Moon; https://www.google.com/moon/
- Google maps; http://developers.google.com/maps