Visualization of scientific data in multi-user augmented reality

Abstract

Humanity has always strived to learn more about the origins of our neighboring celestial bodies. With the help of modern rover systems, unknown areas are explored through scientific measurements. With increasingly better sensors, this data becomes more extensive and complex, creating an evident need for new and improved tools. These tools should support the scientists in the collaborative analysis of the recorded measurements. Scientists from different disciplinary backgrounds work together on this analysis. Exploring the data can be made more efficient with the help of intuitive visualization, interaction, and collaborative tools. At the same time, misunderstandings among the experts can be minimized. This thesis investigates how modern augmented reality approaches can support the process of collaborative rover data analysis. Three main aspects are considered: the threedimensional visualization of high-resolution terrain data, the visualization and interaction with rover data, and the integration of multi-user collaboration tools for the collaborative discussion. A mobile augmented reality device, the Microsft HoloLens 2, is used to input, output, and process the data. In order to evaluate the implemented visualization and interaction concepts, an expert interview and several experiments for a user study are prepared in this work. Due to the current COVID-19 pandemic restrictions, both interview and user study could not be conducted. Based on promising informal preliminary user tests, potential improvements of the presented concepts are discussed.