Magic Sand: augmented reality sandbox/playground
github.com
github.com
From a playing perspective, or educational perspective, the sand is great. What happens with wildfires if we make the mountain this big? What happens to the water table if erosion cuts a valley through here? The immediate feedback that you can get by just shaping the landscape differently with your hands is really cool.
From a wildfire training perspective, or other disaster management, it's different because you're dealing with an existing landscape. I've seen them start by projecting a map, then forming the sand with their hands to match the map, and then starting the simulation. But at that point is the 3D landscape needed? You could also project onto a flat table.
I guess the reason is that it helps the fire chiefs or whoever really envision the landscape. "Ah, yes, this is Devil's Pass, I see how the wind is going to blow right through there and blow the fire that way. What if we cut a fire lane here? Ok, that slows it down."
But it could also be a cool technology being used as a solution to a non-problem.
Yeah, if you're familiar with topographical maps (the way any decent hiker or fire chief would be), you really don't need the physical 3d layout to envision the landscape.
The tactile aspect of the sand is neat. I can see it as a good learning tool as you described for thinking about wind patterns and road cuts.
So... an overflow bug caused the mountain to overflow.
Still one of my favourite real-life bugs of all time.
Ah, but mine does an hydrological simulation on top of it (water flows in valleys). Besides that, these are super cool to show kids A.R.
This one specifically seems so much more polished than the UC Davis research project with a dashboard for configuration such as color maps, contour lines, sea level, etc. which had to be changed in config files previously. The calibration also seems automated? I distinctly remember the calibration steps to be a major pain.
Also I'm really thankful for the Sandbox project since it was what first got me into using Linux as my main operation system, since I was the only one in the whole place which any idea what a "Linux" or a "package manager" was.
The only part of this project that still gets me a bit mad is the need for the Kinect, it's been getting harder to find X360 versions of these recently and specially the cable to connect it to a computer (in case of using the XONE version). I really wish there was some kind of hardware alternative to it.
Here is what it looks like with video: https://share.icloud.com/photos/046QwitWWGHRx-qSNHgJWsnNg
From memory, things worked best with magic sand, which was regular sand + mineral oil + corn starch, as it helped the sand hold shape.
Holding your hand over spots, this making it rain, and having the water "pool" and run as it would is absolutely beyond fun. Move the mountains, and downward it continues to flow.
With a budget projector ($82!), A Kinect (I forget version), and an old graphics card it worked pretty flawless after setup -- probably the hardest part was aligning the sensor with the projector and getting it all actually calibrated -- the next one we build I'll def try this version and note the differences. Calibration with the other method used a cdrom as it's target that you placed around, a bit fiddly.
Super super cool.
I’d bet almost Every parent would buy one. And a lot of adults.
Beyond hardware, the other issue is that it is quite an expensive investment for something that lacks direct curriculum/syllabus alignment.
I'm still constantly amazed by the absolute certainty expressed in HN comments, even with completely absurd positions. Left brain mania.
Our local children's museum has one. It's very cool. I have no desire to own one.
EDIT: Found it: https://tangible.media.mit.edu/project/sandscape
They also had another interesting project using a kinect-enabled display, where you could stand in front of a screen showing a Jurassic scene and throw dodgeballs at velociraptors. The original plan was actually to sync the experience to another display in a museum in Boston, so you'd be playing raptor dodgeball with the other exhibit's patrons over state lines - unfortunately, the other museum never set their half up.
I think that speaks to the question commenters are raising here about why these aren't more common or commercially available. A lot of cool stuff like this is tied to the Kinect and comes with non-trivial setup and maintenance cost.
This one made my chuckle, nicely played dad.
The physical "magic sand" stuff (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrophobic_sand) doesn't make a big mess. Great toy for kids.
Once we took apart a confetti+glitter "gun/bomb" on the kitchen counter with strict measures of washing your hand after touching the confetti, don't let it leave the counter and so on, and we still find traces of it in other parts of the house sometimes. Never again.
Point is, the bad ideas can always be worse ＼ ( ^ o ^ ) ／
Of course, you do your own "annoyance assessment", but a non-perishable, hydrophobic, heavy and visually unremarkable powder has a pretty good value in terms of unit of fun per unit of annoying in my book. Tidier than giving a kid a cookie.
I'd really love to see some company develop a single unit that had maybe 5000-10000 lumens in a box with an HD camera.
You can see theirs in this 2018 tour of Plunderground Museum video around the 3:15 mark...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-23-hruLqNI
Very much a Tripper Trap :)
checked it on Chrome and nothing obvious as a cause.