Well this is the augmented reality sandbox.
The idea behind it is that you can mold the
sand into any shape, and as you do it, land
contours — colored contours appear and you
see how they change with what you're doing.
The really cool part, though, is when you
hold your hand above it, blue water forms
under your hand as if you're a rain cloud
and then that water flows down the topography
that you've created.
So this is being used in museums, in probably
four institutions around the country.
There are about 120 built now around the world
and we're in the process now of turning it
into a formal education tool where people
can learn about big data, they can replicate
watersheds wherever they live in the world,
and they can start simulating storms that
may occur in the future under various climate
change scenarios.
