Trees
The proposal “A fundamental shift in thinking about trees” was funded by BETHA in Spring 2021. The faculty team consists of PI Steve Lyons (School of Environment and Natural Resources), Kerry Ard (School of Environment and Natural Resources), and Matthew Lewis (Design/ACCAD).
We summarized the project as, “Visualizing the impacts of environmental restoration is challenging. For example, when we plant trees it can take a generation before they reach full size and influence environmental health. How can we excite communities about something that takes a lifetime to achieve? We will develop augmented reality visualizations to let stakeholders not only see but also experience what different configurations of trees and environmental impact data would be like at specific locations. Working in Cleveland, our plan is to interlace BIPOC community information needs with our technological abilities to create a series of prototypes that empower future generations of environmental stewards.”
I worked with design graduate student Juan Diego Torres Brenes LaRoche to develop prototypes for augmented reality visualizations of different types of trees, as well as air quality sensor data:
We worked with multiple types of web-based AR technologies to evaluate the pros and cons of different technology approaches:
Graduate Students:
- Juan Diego Torres Brenes LaRoche (Design): 3D, AR, and web production
- John Brett (School of Environment and Natural Resources): tree data
BETHA Grant Co-investigators:
- PI: Steve Lyon (School of Environment and Natural Resources)
- Kerry Ard (School of Environment and Natural Resources)
- Matthew Lewis (Design/ACCAD)
Project support:
- Battelle BETHA grant (2021)