About the Project
eARth is an interactive AR application that integrates animations to inform the user about how their daily use of resources contributes to climate change across the globe. This project was created by Lauren Arzbaecher and Travis Kelley as part of their studies for the Public Digital Arts Certificate at the University of Iowa. eARth is accessible through TestFlight as a free downloadable application,
and more information on how to access the app can be
found here.
Creation & Intention
Climate change is one of the most pressing issues facing the world today, but can often seem like a difficult issue to take on from an individual basis. Global warming data can be daunting to absorb with the sheer amount of research that has been done in recent years. Since technology is something approachable for almost anyone in the modern era, we wanted to create this work to allow anyone to learn how they can contribute to the effort in an easy way. On the whole, we wanted to make this app to showcase an important issue in a method that is both approachable and inventive.
By using an interactive app interface, eARth provides a hands-on experience that will put the issues into perspective for the user in a unique and memorable way. The design of the graphics within the app are intended to have a simple illustrative style so that they appeal to a wide variety of users. In selecting the climate change research that is displayed to users, we chose facts that can be quantified in the daily activities of the general public. We made a point to display these facts without a bias, instead focusing on informing the user. We anticipate users of the app to interact and learn about how their daily activities can affect the climate and environment around them. In terms of reaction, we hope that this project will result in users taking individual action in their daily life to help create lasting change for the world.
Technology
The animations were created using Adobe Creative Suite, specifically Illustrator and After Effects. These alpha channel videos were then integrated into a Unity AR interface. Unity uses the Vuforia AR engine to track the targets and display the images in the AR environment. The Unity engine provides all the underlying technology to present the variety of videos to the user in a seamless way inside of the 3D environment.