SGER: Weddell Seal Visualization Project

在过去的六年中，记录了超过600个小时的录像带记录了威德尔海豹的冰下生态系统和觅食事件，并记录了相应的三维潜水和新陈代谢测量。这一数据集使一组研究人员能够确定不同潜水类型的自由活动海豹的生态作用，并检查这些动物在潜水时屏息狩猎时所使用的策略。为了充分了解驱动威德尔海豹以及其他海洋捕食者潜水策略和觅食决定的基本机制，需要开发新的方法来呈现由放置在动物身上的多个传感器收集的各种类型的数据(即数字、观测和数字)。这项提议通过探索可视化复杂数据集的新格式来解决这个问题。通过将视频游戏动画和虚拟环境可视化技术相结合，科学家们将创建一个软件平台，用于整合标准电子表格数据集，同时显示威德尔海豹潜入南极冰层下的生理、行为、环境和运动模式。具体目标包括开发一种软件工具，将电子表格数据显示为3D动画，将行为数据与自由活动的威德尔海豹的三维运动相结合，为McMurdo Sound创建冰下生态系统的可视化表示，并在学生和海洋哺乳动物研究人员身上测试显示的有效性。这项研究将是首批将视频游戏技术与野生动物科学数据库相结合的研究之一，因此既新颖又有风险。由此产生的程序将允许调查人员超越典型的2-3参数相关演示，并为各种海洋捕食者开发虚拟环境。它还将为南极生态学和潜水生理学的学生提供独特的教学工具。因此，该项目有益于科学、工程和教育领域，提供了一种展示科学数据的新方法，并将新的专业知识/观点(视频游戏技术)应用于常见的科学研究问题，这些问题的特点是数据太多，而关键分析、综合和整合的选择太少。

During the past six years, over 600 hours of videotape documenting the under ice ecosystem andforaging events of Weddell seals have been recorded with corresponding 3-dimensional divepaths and metabolic measurements. This data set has enabled a team of researchers to identify the ecological role of different dive types of free-ranging seals and to examine the strategies used by the animals for cost efficient hunting while breathholding on a dive. In order to fully understand the underlying mechanisms that drive diving strategies and foraging decisions of Weddell seals, as well as other marine predators, there is a need to develop new approaches for presenting the diverse types of data (i.e. numerical, observational, digital) collected by multiple sensors placed on the animals. This proposal addresses the problem by exploring novel formats for visualizing complex data sets. By combining video game animation and virtual environment visualization technology, the scientists will create a software platform for incorporating standard spreadsheet data sets to simultaneously display physiological, behavioral, environmental, and movement patterns of Weddell seals diving beneath the Antarctic ice. Specific goals include developing a software tool that displays spreadsheet data as a 3-D animation, integrating behavioral data with the 3-dimensional movements of free ranging Weddell seals, creating a visual representation of the under ice ecosystem for McMurdo Sound, and testing the effectiveness of the display on students and marine mammal researchers.This study will be one of the first to integrate video game technology with scientific databases from wild animals, and as such is both novel and risky. The resulting program will allow investigators to move beyond the typical 2 - 3 parameter correlative presentations and to develop virtual environments for a wide variety of marine predators. It will also provide a unique teaching tool for students of Antarctic ecology and diving physiology. As such, the project benefits science, engineering, and education fields, provides a novel approach to the presentation of scientific data, and applies new expertise/perspectives (video game technology) to common scientific research problems characterized by too much data and too few options for critical analysis, synthesis and integration.