This project started with me seeing a YouTube
video where somebody was demonstrating the
use of one of these augmented reality sandboxes.
My very first thought was that this was super
cool,
my second thought was it must cost a fortune.
This is not something that we went out and
paid thousands and thousands of dollars for.
This is something that is obtainable for about
anybody.
It all runs on the basis of this open-source
software.
It has kinda suspended above the sand surface
an Xbox Kinect camera.
Also suspended above the sand surface is a
short throw overhead projector.
It presents this augmented reality vision
 on top this tactile actual sand surface.
People are awestruck when they start using
it.
They can just move the sand with their hands
and the technology creates the topography
and the water almost instantly.
We can also do things like, you can simulate
rainfall, you can simulate lava flows.
Students can see the relationship between
the way we map elevation in two dimensions
on flat paper maps and the way that elevation
actual looks in real life.
They just sit there and play in the sand.
They don't realize that their learning something
as they are doing it.
One of our geology professors said that this
is the first time he's ever seen students
voluntarily stay after a geology lab.
This is a good applied example of augmented
reality that is meant to teach fundamental
principles of map interpretation and geography.
This really seems to be aiding their ability
to learn the material.
