Sustaining Our Planet for Future Generations
NE-AR: Naturists Explorer - Augmented Reality
Summary
There’s a case to be made and it’s about the future of how we interact with our tech, it’s hard not to feel, at the moment that Augmented Reality (AR) isn’t much more than a neat parlor trick. Many of its demonstrations are cool and impressive but are now practical as well!!! How often are you going to need to use AR to visualize the future of sustainability? Thus, we bring an app :NE-AR: Naturists Explorer - Augmented Reality that can change your world with just one click.
How We Addressed This Challenge
Augmented Reality (AR) is an interactive experience of a real-world environment where the objects that reside in the real world are enhanced by computer-generated perceptual information, sometimes across multiple sensory modalities, including visual, auditory, haptic, somatosensory and olfactory. AR can be defined as a system that fulfills three basic features: a combination of real and virtual worlds, real-time interaction, and accurate 3D registration of virtual and real objects.
We all know that Climate Change is real and goes hand-in-hand with sustainability and our team’s unique vantage point of our application, “NE-AR: Naturists Explorer-Augmented Reality”, allows us to better understand Earth’s interconnected systems and to use that knowledge to live sustainably on our home planet, protect life around the world, and adapt to natural and human-caused changes.
With the help of NASA datasets, we found out that the Earth's climate has changed throughout history. Just in the last 650,000 years there have been seven cycles of glacial advance and retreat, with the abrupt end of the last ice age about 11,700 years ago marking the beginning of the modern climate era — and of human civilization which is greatly affected by Climate Change and Global Warming which are the two major topics of discussions in our present day’s “Earth’s Summits”.
So, we created an application called, "NE-AR: Naturists Explorer-Augmented Reality" an app which helps us to take a blast from the past and to capture the future through AR visualization. This app will help us to see the past and future of a live location after a survey. The survey will ask questions about how well the location is taken care of and is it upgrading or degrading in its quality. On that basis, the app will use Augmented Reality and show the visuals of the upgraded one as picturesque and the degraded one as a destroyed virtual scene.
NE-AR: NATURALIST EXPLORER - AUGMENTED REALITY is the first AR Climate App. This App allows users to visualize the climate forecasts and data by means of a unique and innovative AR interface. The application uses Augmented Reality to overlay real-time past and future 3D climate effects associated with real climate forecasts onto the view of the mobile device. By means of the geo-location feature of NASA users will access the climate data in the place where they are or search for any location worldwide.
Several meteorological effects have been rendered in the application, including clouds, thunders, rain, snow and fog, drought, flood, earthquake, tsunami etc.
For eg: You see greenery for which you want to know that what will happen in suppose 100 years from now. You wear the AR headset or see the greenery through our mobile application, NE-AR. You select the option of greenery through the survey and search for 100 years from now as well as choose the survey option of Global Warming. Finally, you will see the greenery has turned completely dry, due to drought, through a time lapse visual and finally see the dust storms and dead flora through the AR application. They will also see additional information from NASA data sets about taking observations, the science background and a resources library of videos, books, activities and much more relating to Climate Change with respect to the flora and greenery.
This app will also make environmental observations that will complement NASA satellite observations to help scientists studying Earth and the Globe.
It will make use of the live as well as recorded reality and thus a mixed reality and give you the real time location features as well as list the facts through which you can reduce the rate of Climate Change as well as take a step towards sustainability.
Youth loves Augmented Reality. Their engagement for the subject you teach takes a giant leap or an elephant step. At last, who doesn't love an elephant in the room?
How We Developed This Project
The real inspiration behind this app for our team was by seeing how many people were unaware of these pressing concerns of Climate Change and Sustainability and not being receptive of the same. So we created our app to convey the message :
"We Do Not Inherit the Earth from Our Ancestors; We Borrow It from Our Children"
Climate change is real. No other challenge poses a greater threat to the sustainability of the future generations than climate change. It is the most urgent threat facing our entire species and we need to work collectively together and stop procrastinating. We created our app to communicate the importance of sustaining our home planet to people of all generations. AR is one of the most effective ways of communicating that message and connecting with people across generations. We are utilizing digital technology, incorporating artwork, and emphasizing a communications strategy by utilizing NASA’s data in creative ways -- to inform ourselves and others as a visual inspiration. This app engages younger generations that are not as involved with these environmental issues as well as the older generations.
The points that made us to choose "Sustaining Our Planet for Future Generations" challenge are:
Impact:
MUCH IMPACT (QUALITY AND QUANTITY WISE)
SOLVES A BIG PROBLEM
INSPIRES MANY
One of the greatest problems our generation faces is dealing with the repercussions of the climate change. These changes are results of preponderance of people disregarding the severity or even it's existence. Therefore the primary focus of our project was to spread awareness among people who could make a difference in this fight against climate change. To this end, our app "NE-AR: Naturists Explorer-Augmented Reality" aims to compel the youth to take actions otherwise these changes will become irreparable. Our app provides varied features which enables the user to view a location and then enter a survey answering questions such as how much the area has been taken care of and global warming presence etc. After which the user will see a blast from the past or the capture of the future through the usage of Augmented reality and also see the effects, causes and solutions through NASA data sets, also, allowing sharing of these across any platform. The novelty of the app is the time scroller which allows a movement of past and future years. These accordingly allow us to view using AR how that respective location will look in the next upcoming years or how it looked years ago. These two timelines allow us to target varied age groups be it kids, adolescents or elders and a very distinct demographic one would be the youth and the influencers who can help popularize the app through sharing and thus will spread awareness about climate change issue. The other aims at the older generation which will use the feature as a way to indulge in nostalgia, while at the same time realizing how climate change has affected our lives. Therefore, our app aims to solve a major issue which is to inspire and spread awareness amongst people who blatantly refuse to believe in it or realize the urgency of the issue.
Creativity:
CREATIVE APPROACH
NOVEL AND IMPROVED APP
Though the use of AR is increasingly becoming more mainstream, the creativity of the project lies in how seamlessly it amalgamates the different technological advances while adding new features to it. These new add-ons to the design allow us to solve a major issue of spreading awareness about the climate change and sustainability of the future which go hand in hand and urge people to make a difference.
The Weather Channel has used similar animations to showcase various weather phenomena though these have all been performed in a closed and controlled environment with mixed reality using live as well as recorded. Another novelty is that our project aims to apply AR animations on existing structures instead of with them. Thus, this will allow the app to completely change the landscape that is visible through the app. The add-on photo feature for sharing on any platform and get resources through NASA data sets are also an instrumental part which will allow the app to gain popularity faster.
Validity:
SCIENTIFICALLY VALID
MAKE PEOPLE AWARE AND SAVE OUR FUTURE GENERATIONS
IT CAN WORK IN THE REAL WORLD
The solution is scientifically valid as it will take data directly from NASA datasets and climate departments. NASA will also show how climate change is affecting a specific location. Also, surveys will be taken locally through the app or independently about how the area is being taken care of depending on which it will provide an alternate between a dystopian view or a more sustained environment. The app will work on concrete data provided by the government of the area and the NASA satellites which records and analyses the whole globe. Ultimately, the aim is to help people become aware of how their surrounding areas are handling the issue of the Climate change and sustainability of the future while spreading more awareness about this issue. If some technological advances can take place the app can successfully work in real world.
Relevance:
APP RESPONSIVE TO SUSTAINABILITY OF THE CHALLENGE
TECHNICALLY FEASIBLE
VERY USABLE AND USER FRIENDLY
INTERACTIVE PLATFORM
The aim of our project is to raise awareness about the environmental issues that we face today. The app will allow this through the AR images of the location which allows the user to understand how the world is getting affected by these changes in the climate. The app allows an easy feature to capture photos and videos and share these on social media platforms which will help popularize the app which in turn will allow us to spread awareness to more people. The solution is not yet complete and quite a long shot as it will require better network connections and camera resolutions which can easily capture the view or they’ll be required to point at the view for few brief seconds before it can create a duplicate copy of the scene which can then be manipulated according to the data provided by NASA satellites and local surveys.
The real inspiration behind this app for our team was by seeing how many people were unaware of these major issues of climate change and sustainability and not being receptive of the same.
NE-AR is the solution to the challenge imposed, in a simple mobile application and a complete information platform where we approach these issues, we collect information from different sources, like NASA, International demographic, climate databases and the official data of each local climate and weather department. In NE-AR, users can easily see a real time blast from the past and a capture from the future in the place where they live or where they travel to. This application also encourages people to submit more data for NASA researchers on Earth and the space and also provides educational information to people who want to learn more, showing them what the locations used to look like using older satellite data by NASA by using earth explorer or worldview earth data websites of NASA as well as by predicting what the future will look like by local and NASA survey broad predictions data, like generally what sea level rise will look like in 100 years by using the sea level NASA website, even thought it's hard to predict exactly what specific ice sheets or locations will look like.
Alongside, NASA can recruit people to work on the survey parts, thus, increasing employment opportunities among the youth. NASA can also collect local surveys from the users through the app at regular intervals to be updated from time to time. It will also allow NASA to gather large information that is more specific, accurate and localized info.
In case the app is not feasible in case of technical issues then we can choose specific locations which are popular where we can present AR as well as VR visuals for the already created models which we can manipulate as well.
The working of NE-AR (Naturist Explorer - Augmented Reality):
- First the user would install the application in their device. Subsequently when they open it, the app would directly open the devices camera (similar to Snapchat). the user presses the NE-AR mode button present right next to the camera capture. This step opens up a timeline at bottom of the device screen with a slider on it. Once the user slides the slider to a time period on the timeline (ranging from 50 years in the past to 100 years in the future), the real fun begins!
- The application will overcast the camera display with its own rendering of how the image would look like in the time period that the user chose to view it in ( for instance 100 years in the future, or 50 years in the past, etc.). And yes, that’s that!
- You now posses the power to let your eyes time travel at the touch of a button. However, the surreal potential offered to the user by the application involves some intensive exploitation of large data bases and a very intricate clockwork to handle and analyze that data.
- Now that we know what the application does we can breakdown how it works into 5 parts – capture, throw, process, receive, display.
1 ) CAPTURE: The first step, of course, would be to capture what the camera is recording on the device while the application is open.
2) THROW: The captured audio and video input is sent to NNS (NE-AR NASA Servers) along with additional details extracted from the device. These include
1) The device’s geo-coordinates
2) 5 seconds of devices audio/video footage
3) And the slider value that the user chose on the timeline
3) PROCESS: The details extracted and THROWN from the device are collected by NNS for further process. The secret behind NE-AR’s unimaginable performance and efficiency would be NNS. NNS would be AI enabled, with access to cloud data other than the data it would already possess and collect overtime. So, the key components of NNS to cope up to the demand are:
1) GNLDL – Global NE-AR Live Data Library
The GNLDL would be a state-of-the-art library with a data organization AI. This library would contain an undefined number of parameters for any geo-coordinate/ location on earth. These parameters would vary from basic information -like temperature, humidity, and altitude- to complex data like -Precipitation amount, Cloud Density and classification, Radiation Flux, Soil moisture, and at least 60 such arguments. All this data and topographical information would be collected from ESA, CNES, JAXA, CSA, and NASA data sets.
(Details about data sets are provided separately)
2) NCAI (NE-AR Computational Artificial Intelligence)
To give the user the most realistic outlook of the future they want to see through their NE-AR application, just large array of data isn’t enough. That data needs to be used and processed in a write manner to generate precise predictions and possible outcomes. This is where NCAI comes in. It keeps learning the behavior of nature and humans.
For example, the user clicks a photograph of an iceberg. The AI has learnt from its previous data that the iceberg is going to start melting in around few years due to unattended issue of global warming. Thus, it will give a near accurate prediction that the ice berg will continue melting and shrinking; and will accordingly send this information to be displayed as an AR overlay on the image of the captured by the user.
Another example would be if we think about the forest lands in developing industrial areas, farmlands suffering from unhealthy farming and agriculture practices, ground water levels in desert areas – then the AI would be able to exponentially increase its ability to predict the future of environmental entities and whether they will be sustained or will they be exploited and removed from the face of earth.
3) NEDURAS (NE-AR Environment Deterioration and Rectification Alert System)
Once NCAI has done its work, it is sent to NEDURAS for analysis. NEDURAS will be pre-programmed to spot out any anomalies or dangers in the environment. Let’s continue with the ‘Iceberg Example’. Now since the NCAI has predicted that its going to melt, the NEDURAS would spot this as an unidealistic condition in the nature as ice bergs aren’t supposed to melt in their cold habitat at such a rapid rate. It will, consequently, conclude the NCAI finding as a rise in the temperature of that area and develop an alert for the user and NASA scientists. But it doesn’t just stop there, it would classify the alert (red, orange, yellow) according to the magnitude of the danger/anomaly and log it for the NE-AR customers (like environmentalists). According to the level of the alert the user would be sent a method of rectification or prevention too.
4) NDC (NE-AR Data compiler)
After so much work has been performed by the various components of NNS, it needs to be compiled and formatted to be understood and processed by an Augmented-Reality Development Kit like Vuforia. This is done by the NDC. NDC is the end component of the NNS where all the information is systematically gathered and rebounded to the user’s NEAR application.
4) RECEIVE: At this step, the NE-AR application receives AR-ready data from the NNS. The data is then used to develop AR entities and effects.
5) DISPLAY: These developed entities and effects are casted and displayed on the image. Finally, The user can see how the environment that he captured in his photograph looked like/ would look like in the time they chose. Alerts and prevention methods, if any, are also displayed to the user to inform them and help them sustain their beautiful surroundings, and consequently, their beautiful planet, Earth.
WE ALSO CREATED AN ALGORITHM AND A WEBSITE FOR BETTER UNDERSTANDING OF OUR TEAM'S NE-AR APP MADE FOR SUSTAINANING OUR PLANET FOR FUTURE GENERATIONS
NE-AR APP ALGORITHM :
NE-AR APP WEBSITE:
https://augmentedrealityph.weebly.com
Problems and Achievements:
- To find out whether Virtual Reality (VR) or Augmented Reality(AR) was a better tool to use but with some more research AR was found out to be better than VR as unlike VR, AR keeps us connected with the real world as well.
- To virtually communicate with other members and Subject Matter Experts as network connections were not always up to the mark but with time management and team’s co-operation we were able to overcome this problem.
- Diverse time zones from America to Kuwait to India with around 12 hour time lag created difficulties for us but we overcame by distributing the roles and contributions of each member by evaluating their qualities and expertise as well as by burning midnight oil for mutual hours of productivity.
- AR working and mechanism since AR field knowledge members and coders were lacking in our team but we tried to learn the AR working and mechanisms through NASA’s websites (3D NASA SPACECRAFT) and YouTube Channels.
- Due to the pandemic stress and anxiety, members were not able to work efficiently but we took breaks as well as had a standing work zone to keep our mind peaceful and focused.
"FIVE PROBLEMS ,ONE SOLUTION : WHOLE TEAM COOPERATION"
At last, we were able to overcome all the problems we faced and reached the final end product.
ROLES AND CONTRIBUTIONS:-
Sanskriti Verma,19 : (DELHI, INDIA)
Idea, Project summary, demo presentation, comic strip storytelling, video, project addresses the challenge, inspiration, Approach, development, space agency data analysis, bibliography, website, references, problems and achievements, tags, photoshop, app details.
Elie Yazigi,22 : (HAWALLI, KUWAIT)
Website, space agency data analysis, bibliography, demo presentation, video.
Siddhant Kale,18 :(MAHARASHTHRA, INDIA)
Working and Mechanism, algorithm, demo presentation, photoshop, video, space agency data analysis, bibliography.
Advait Vats,22: (DELHI, INDIA)
Demo presentation, bibliography, comic strip storytelling, project addresses the challenge, photoshop, comic strip storytelling.
Kenan Andrew Hosken,22: (MISSOURI,USA)
Data analysis, bibliography, inspiration, approach, problems and achievements.
How We Used Space Agency Data in This Project
Engaging with the resources, we collected data from all of these agencies like NASA, ESA, CSA, CNES and JAXA and found creative ways to incorporate them into our projects. All sites were very useful for us and influenced our project greatly, especially, to make our application's algorithm, working and mechanism. To give a few examples,
#NASA :
Ozone layer data for GNLDL
Global temp, Sea level and CO2 level over time for GNLDL and NEDURAS
#JAXA
Global Palsar Forest/Non-Forest Map to get data on foliage cover for GNLDL
G-Portal: All the data from GCOM-C, GCOM-W, and GPM; GCOM-C to get land and atmosphere parameters; GCOM-W to get sea and ocean parameters; GPM to get global precipitation parameters
#CSA (& MDA)
Earth Observation of RADARSAT-2 (for mapping and geology) to develop topo graph and cartographs for GNLDL
These are a few examples of the websites from which we gathered information, processed and produced the end results. Thus, we used all the resources provided to us efficiently.