The project will use data
from scientific studies of
forest structure and
function. "Avatars"
(human users) in the
virtual forest will be able
to do the typical things
humans do in the forest,
such as measure,
explore, and plant trees.
But in addition to these
normal abilities, they will
also have super-human
powers, such as the
power to control time,
fly, shrink, grow, see
carbon-flux, take an
ant's perspective, or call
rain, wind and ice
storms.
In addition to overcoming some physical constraints such as gravity or physical access to trees, a "virtual forest" might help solve some communication challenges. Each researcher looks at the forest in a different way, using a variety of specialized instruments. Conveying such "world-view" concepts in words is problematic, often resulting in the proliferation of highly specific (esoteric) language, which few understand. Many important assumptions (such as spatial scale) are implicitly understood only by the learned few, and effectively exclude those not "in-the-know." Our solution to this problem is the creation of the avatar's super-powers based on experimental meta-data, which would provide such information on an intuitive level (spatial scale, for example, reflected by the size of the avatar). The project will focus on: 1) presenting scientific information in an interesting manner, that will not be visible from the Canopy Walkway to a lay audience. 2) combining that information in an artistic manner that captures the imagination and awe that we feel in a natural place of majesty and beauty. 3) eventually will expand the focus to presenting information in innovative ways to researchers for visualization and modeling. | ![]() |