Collaborative: Full-Scale Development: Living Liquid: Creating Interactive Visualization Tools to Explore Ocean Datasets

协作：全面开发：Living Liquid：创建交互式可视化工具来探索海洋数据集

• 批准号: 1322828
• 负责人: Jennifer Frazier
• 金额: $ 126.95万
• 依托单位: Exploratorium
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2013
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2013-10-01 至 2018-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1322828&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Full; Scale; Development; Living

This project will pioneer a critical new genre of science exhibit: interactive visualizations that engage visitors in the process of scientific inquiry. The capability to create advanced visualizations of large scale data sets in an interactive platform was developed in a prior pathways project. The interactive platform will be installed in a museum/science center setting in this full scale development project and will be assessed to determine how visitors utilize the interactive advanced visualizations of large data sets to explore for themselves, scientific issues involving the world's oceans. The display, called Living Liquid, will develop visualizations from three large data sets provided by science partners in the project involving ocean ecology, with programming of the data developed in the pathways demonstration project. The visualizations of this data will be viewed by visitors to the Exploratorium in San Francisco on an interactive display table. The data display allows users to see data elements displayed in the geographic location from which they were found. Unlike other efforts to create visual displays for the public focused on a one-way display or that require guided mediation, users of the Living Liquid platform can direct the investigation of the data themselves. Unlike a screen at home or a tablet, the display format is intended to promote interaction and dialogue among the groups that form around the display as a self-supporting form of investigation. The strength of table design is in the physical and digital interfaces built into the display that make the exploration of data appealing, intuitive and meaningful, to evoke questions and comparisons and make patterns in the data discoverable by the users. The three areas chosen for the display table from science partners in the project include: "Plankton Patterns," an adaptation of the MIT Darwin Project simulation, which is used by scientists around the world to study what types of plankton live in the oceans and why they are there. On the Viz Table, this simulation will be adapted so visitors can explore the diversity and number of plankton through real glass lenses, a unique feature of this visualization effort. "Genetic Rhythms" is based on data from the Center for Microbial Oceanography Research and Education (C-MORE) which studies what genes microscopic ocean creatures turn off and on under different environmental conditions. On the Viz Table, visitors will be able to explore the activity of different genes as the ocean conditions change throughout a day. "Ocean Tracks" uses data from the TOPP project at Stanford University, which is studying the migratory paths of large marine creatures in relation to environmental conditions. This visualization will allow visitors to follow the paths of marine creatures such as sharks, turtles, or salmon and how they correlate to conditions such as temperature gradients or ocean currents. The data displays are separate from each other because, how data is collected and studied is different for each science partner. The project will assess how the public interacts with the large data sets through the specially designed visualizations and the extent to which the visualization enhances the understanding of the data. It will also assess how viewers use the data through the interactive functions on the visualization, controlling their own explorations of real scientific data to understand and explore what the data tells them about issues of ocean ecology. The project includes scientist-led public programs using the visualizations to explore science topics and issues identified by the data through the visualization. It also includes a research study on how informal learners can use data visualizations to support self-directed or group inquiry and learning. The project provides opportunities for professional development for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) professionals in how to use advanced visualization capabilities to communicate research methods and findings to the public and in their own work. One of the challenges in the emerging use of large data sets is bringing together computer scientists, cognitive scientists, and graphic designers with disciplinary experts to understand how to create and interpret visualizations of large data repositories. Major insights on the use of color, perception or effective interaction do not seem to extend beyond a given field. Consequently there is a need to provide opportunities for STEM professionals to learn about effective visualization techniques and user-testing and evaluation. This project provides the opportunity for cross-disciplinary professionals to share knowledge and get training while focused on a goal of creating visualization for the public.

该项目将开创一种重要的新型科学展览：互动可视化，吸引参观者参与科学探究的过程。在交互式平台中创建大规模数据集高级可视化的能力是在先前的pathways项目中开发的。互动平台将安装在博物馆/科学中心设置在这个全面的发展项目中，并将进行评估，以确定游客如何利用大型数据集的交互式高级可视化来探索自己，涉及世界海洋的科学问题。这个名为Living Liquid的显示器将从涉及海洋生态学项目的科学合作伙伴提供的三个大型数据集中开发可视化，并在pathways示范项目中开发数据编程。这些数据的可视化将由旧金山探索博物馆的参观者在交互式展示台上观看。数据显示允许用户查看显示在找到它们的地理位置的数据元素。与其他专注于单向展示或需要引导调解的公众视觉展示不同，Living Liquid平台的用户可以自己指导数据的调查。与家里的屏幕或平板电脑不同，这种显示形式旨在促进围绕显示器形成的群体之间的互动和对话，作为一种自给自足的调查形式。表格设计的优势在于内置在显示中的物理和数字界面，使数据探索具有吸引力，直观和有意义，引起问题和比较，并使用户发现数据中的模式。项目的科学合作伙伴选择了三个区域作为展示桌，其中包括：“浮游生物模式”，这是对麻省理工学院达尔文项目模拟的改编，世界各地的科学家使用它来研究海洋中生活的浮游生物类型以及它们为什么在那里。在Viz Table上，这种模拟将被调整，这样游客就可以通过真正的玻璃透镜探索浮游生物的多样性和数量，这是这种可视化努力的一个独特之处。“遗传节律”是基于微生物海洋学研究与教育中心（C-MORE）的数据，该中心研究微观海洋生物在不同环境条件下关闭和打开的基因。在Viz Table上，游客将能够探索不同基因在一天中随着海洋条件的变化而发生的活动。“海洋轨迹”使用了斯坦福大学TOPP项目的数据，该项目正在研究大型海洋生物的迁徙路径与环境条件的关系。这种可视化将允许游客跟随海洋生物的路径，如鲨鱼、海龟或鲑鱼，以及它们如何与温度梯度或洋流等条件相关联。数据展示是彼此分开的，因为每个科学合作伙伴收集和研究数据的方式不同。该项目将评估公众如何通过特别设计的可视化与大型数据集互动，以及可视化在多大程度上增强了对数据的理解。它还将评估观众如何通过可视化上的交互功能使用数据，控制他们自己对真实科学数据的探索，以理解和探索数据告诉他们关于海洋生态问题的内容。该项目包括科学家主导的公共项目，使用可视化来探索通过可视化数据确定的科学主题和问题。它还包括一项关于非正式学习者如何使用数据可视化来支持自我指导或小组查询和学习的研究。该项目为科学、技术、工程和数学（STEM）专业人员提供了如何使用先进的可视化功能向公众和他们自己的工作传达研究方法和发现的专业发展机会。新兴的大型数据集使用面临的挑战之一是将计算机科学家、认知科学家和图形设计师与学科专家聚集在一起，了解如何创建和解释大型数据存储库的可视化。关于色彩使用、感知或有效互动的主要见解似乎并没有超出给定的领域。因此，有必要为STEM专业人员提供学习有效的可视化技术和用户测试和评估的机会。这个项目为跨学科的专业人士提供了分享知识和接受培训的机会，同时专注于为公众创造可视化的目标。