Sandbox with augmented reality from the University of California

I remember that as a child I liked to play in the sandbox, the KAMAZ driver lived in the next house, he regularly filled our sandbox with clean river sand. Probably, many people remember the pleasure of messing with sand (it’s not for nothing that the beach view of creativity, with the erection of sand castles and sculptures) is so popular - and the developers from the University of California are clearly not an exception. It was they who created the high-tech sandbox, adding a bit of augmented reality to the usual process of playing with sand.

The developers have created a complex system using Kinect, a projector and specialized software written specifically for this system. If you remember, on Sega and other gaming consoles there was a game like Populos, where you raised or lowered land, developed your civilization. This sandbox is very similar to what was in Populose.
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You can remove or add sand with a plastic scoop, and the system immediately fills all grooves with “water”, or tints the heights like we see on the geographical map, with a dark brown color.

But the sandbox is not just a toy. This is a complex system that can be used in scientific experiments, and be useful to geologists, geographers, builders and other professionals. Well, of course, such a toy can be used in various museums dedicated to natural sciences. This is how the system works.



Via engadget