EventScope provides and supports two software
applications, the EventScope Viewer
and the EventScope Authoring Tool.
These robust and easy to use applications are written in Java
3D and are available for Mac and PC platforms. Remote experiences
are created using the EventScope Authoring Tool and viewed using
the EventScope Viewer. Both applications can be downloaded for
free from the EventScope website. EventScope also creates and
distributes free remote experience files
for use with the software. Outside individuals or organizations
can create or modify existing remote experiences using the Authoring
Tool. The EventScope staff are also available to assist in the
creation of customized remote experiences.
What is a remote experience?
Remote experience or “Telepresence” is experiencing
a place without physically being there through the use of communication
technology. EventScope’s remote experiences are constructed
from data returned from rovers or orbiters.
EventScope turns the data into 3D Virtual Environments that resemble
the remote site in photorealistic detail.
By downloading a remote experience archived as
a 3D Virtual Environment, you can explore the virtual environment
freely as if you are actually controlling a rover or orbiter.
Exploring the 3D representation of the remote site makes you feel
as if you are “there” because you can navigate around
specific terrain and geologic features and if you were actually
controlling a robot at a remote site.
Although you are experiencing a 3D representation
of a remote site, you feel as if you are navigating a computer
game or a piece of educational software instead of interacting
with a dataset returned from a remote spacecraft.
Focus: Education and Science Visualization
An important focus of EventScope’s remote experience development
is middle school science education.
The classroom oriented remote experiences are
crafted to address national education standards and run on most
standard classroom computer platforms. Teacher guides and student
worksheets are available for a number of the remote experiences.
EventScope remote experiences have also been used by Universities.
These same experiences may be downloaded for home use by interested
members of the public.
The creation of remote experiences for science
center and natural history museum displays is another focus of
EventScope’s work. Custom experiences and modified interfaces
for exhibits can be created quickly in collaboration with museum
staff.
EventScope also supports remote science operations
for Carnegie Mellon University’s robotic rover expeditions
which are searching for life
in the Chilean Atacama Dessert. The first expedition took
place in April 2003 and the next one will take place in the Fall
of 2004.
How to access remote experiences and get involved
There are several ways for the public to access EventScope’s
remote experiences.
History
EventScope builds on Big Signal 2000, a web-based educational
tool that gave students hands-on experience of the NASA/CMU Robotic
Search for Antarctic Meteorites. When the Nomad Rover became the
first robot ever to discover a meteorite without human intervention,
students at five Pennsylvania middle schools were right there
with it. The Big Signal 2000 project took students on a virtual
visit to Antarctica to study planetary geology along with Nomad
at www.bigsignal.net. Articles in the New York Times, New Scientist,
CNN.com, MS-NBC.com, and other sources profiled the project.
EventScope
Studio for Creative Inquiry
Carnegie Mellon
5000 Forbes Ave.
Pittsburgh, PA 15213
(412)268-1565
Contact:
coppin@cmu.edu
