The Visualization Center at Scripps Institution of Oceanography: Education and Outreach

Since opening in March 2002, the Visualization Center at Scripps has had more than 2,500 visitors, of which ∼500 were education- and outreach-related. Based upon follow-up requests and referrals, we expect these numbers to grow. The center's state-of-the-art visualization technology projects high-resolution, multidimensional images onto a 120° curved Panoram® floor-to-ceiling screen (8′6″ by 28′4″) that immerses viewers in a virtual environment (Figure 1). The center is ideal for presenting and manipulating very large data sets to groups of up to 50 people, and the system is equipped with transmitters and LCD shutter glasses that allow stereographic 3D viewing of high-resolution data sets through a set of specialized eyeglasses (Figure 2). The lenses in the glasses flicker synchronously with the computer images at 48 flames per second, per eye, thus producing a stereo or 3D effect. Figure 1. ▴ A group of visitors in the Visualization Center at Scripps view the topography of Mars. Multiple video streams can be simultaneously displayed, including the SGI® megadesktop, S-VHS video, DVD video, and video from a laptop computer; the user can quickly toggle between these various platforms (Kent et al., 2002). Similarly, the five-channel surround-sound audio system can be integrated through several inputs, allowing for numerous video and audio combinations. For instance, one third of the screen can display S-VHS video of damaging earthquakes, while the remaining portion of the screen can show an interactive underground 3D flight through seismicity in the regions presented in the video. Alternatively, the audio surround-sound system can be set to produce sounds of various synthetically generated earthquakes (http://quake.wr.usgs.gov/info/listen/allsounds.htmt), while the corresponding seismicity, topography, and seismic station locations and telemetry paths are juxtaposed on the screen with the associated seismic waves. Figure 2. ▴ Visitors to the Visualization Center at Scripps use specially designed 3D glasses to view high-resolution stereo images of the …