HR: 1340h
AN: ED13E-0757    [Abstracts]
TI: Dive and Explore: An Interactive Web Visualization that Simulates Making an ROV Dive to an Active Submarine Volcano
AU: * Weiland, C
EM: cweiland@stanford.edu
AF: Stanford University, Dept of Geophysics 397 Panama Mall Room 360, Stanford, CA 94305 United States
AU: Chadwick, W W
EM: bill.chadwick@noaa.gov
AF: Oregon State University/NOAA, 2115 SE OSU Drive, Newport, OR 97365 United States
AB: Several years ago we created an exciting and engaging multimedia exhibit for the Hatfield Marine Science Center that lets visitors simulate making a dive to the seafloor with the remotely operated vehicle (ROV) named ROPOS. The exhibit immerses the user in an interactive experience that is naturally fun but also educational. The public display is located at the Hatfield Marine Science Visitor Center in Newport, Oregon. We are now completing a revision to the project that will make this engaging virtual exploration accessible to a much larger audience. With minor modifications we will be able to put the exhibit onto the world wide web so that any person with internet access can view and learn about exciting volcanic and hydrothermal activity at Axial Seamount on the Juan de Fuca Ridge. The modifications address some cosmetic and logistic ISSUES confronted in the museum environment, but will mainly involve compressing video clips so they can be delivered more efficiently over the internet. The web version, like the museum version, will allow users to choose from 1 of 3 different dives sites in the caldera of Axial Volcano. The dives are based on real seafloor settings at Axial seamount, an active submarine volcano on the Juan de Fuca Ridge (NE Pacific) that is also the location of a seafloor observatory called NeMO. Once a dive is chosen, then the user watches ROPOS being deployed and then arrives into a 3-D computer-generated seafloor environment that is based on the real world but is easier to visualize and navigate. Once on the bottom, the user is placed within a 360 degree panorama and can look in all directions by manipulating the computer mouse. By clicking on markers embedded in the scene, the user can then either move to other panorama locations via movies that travel through the 3-D virtual environment, or they can play video clips from actual ROPOS dives specifically related to that scene. Audio accompanying the video clips informs the user where they are going or what they are looking at. After the user is finished exploring the dive site they end the dive by leaving the bottom and watching the ROV being recovered onto the ship at the surface. Within the three simulated dives there are a total of 6 arrival and departure movies, 7 seafloor panoramas, 12 travel movies, and 23 ROPOS video clips. This virtual exploration is part of the NeMO web site and will be at this URL http://www.pmel.noaa.gov/vents/dive.html
UR: http://www.pmel.noaa.gov/vents/dive.html
DE: 9355 Pacific Ocean
DE: 8135 Hydrothermal systems (8424)
DE: 3035 Midocean ridge processes
DE: 0815 Informal education
DE: 0845 Instructional tools
SC: Education and Human Resourcese [ED]
MN: 2004 AGU Fall Meeting