Globe4D

About

Globe4D is an interactive installation for immersive globe viewing. Museum, libraries, companies, schools and universities worldwide use Globe4D as an exhibit and/or discussion tool. Learn and communicate about the earth and realize in a playful manner how it has changed and still changes over time.

Globe4D shows interactive animations and games about our planet on a physical sphere. The sphere can be viewed from all angles by rotating it. A wide range of topics are adressed, such as continental drift in the past and future, changing seasons, airplane routes, tsunamis, earthquakes, migration, real-time clouds, weather forecasts and phenomena on other planets.

“Globe4D is the ideal exhibit for museums and other educational institutions who want their visitors to have a playful learning experience. Globe4D allows people of all ages to get acquainted with the global processes on earth and other celestial bodies in a physical and interactive manner.”

Concept

Globe4D is an interactive system with which the user can learn in an insightful manner about the earth and other planets. The Earth is projected on a sphere. By rotating the sphere the Earth can be observed from any angle. A ring, fitted around the sphere, allows the user to manipulate the fourth dimension by turning it. This can be time or any other variable(e.g. waterlevel, zoom). With this input method processes like continental drift, the effects of rising and lowering of sealevels and seasonal changes can be made visible. A topography game was recently developed for Globe4D that allows its users to explore the Earth.

Audience

Globe4D is unique in its own right. There are several globe display systems on the market but none of these systems can contribute as tactile and intuitively to the users learning experience and knowledge sharing. Multiple users can comfortably stand around the system and use it simultaneously while they discuss global processes. Globe4D has been incoorporated as an educational exhibit in science centres, libraries and universities, both foreign and domestic. Globe4D is being utilized by research institutions as a way to present their own scientific data sets. In the mid-long term Globe4D aims to make systems available to high schools and elementary schools as part of the coursematerial. Furthermore, there is oppertunity for Globe4D in non-educational use. The system has a natural appeal and attraction to people and is therefore very well suited as eye-catcher on conferences and trade shows.

Vision

Globe4D originated out of the desire to make learning more appealing and more effective. Why should global processes be displayed on a flat surface? Generations have grown up with a distorted sense of what the world looks like: Russia and North America appear to be very far away from eachother; the size of Greenland is magnified while Africa is usually shown being much smaller than it actually is. Airplane routes always seem to curve while they’re actually flying in a straight line. Should it be so instinctive that the north-side is up? How and how fast does the Earth change and what effect do humans have on these processes? Globe4D contributes meaningfully to correct both small and large misunderstandings and helps the general audience and the scientific community to display complex processes and data in an easily interpretable manner.

Development

Globe4D was originally developed in a researchgroup at the University of Leiden. Four graduates envisioned and developed the first Globe4D prototype over the span of several months. From the moment the project was first made public it was well received by both the scientific community as well as the general public. The developers started a company based around Globe4D prior to the completion of their Master of Science and – by cooperating with professional production partners -rapidly completed development for a robust and user-friendly model of the system. Globe4D currently aims at a broad target group of museums, science centres, universities, libraries and schools.

Achievements

Since its inception many distinct achievements have been realised for Globe4D. The local and national media in the Netherlands, abroad and on the Internet regularly devote attention to Globe4D in the form of interviews or news items. Globe4D is also regularly demonstrated to the general public or specialized groups as part of internationally recognized scientific conferences, festivals and exhibitions. During these endeavors Globe4D has received several awards including awards for education and emergent technologies. Globe4D has been exhibited in, among others, the United States, France, Italy, Portugal, Norway, Suriname, Korea and India.