Graphics enhanced version of this site

EventScope
Head: Peter Coppin
Contact: Peter Coppin

Mailing address:
Carnegie Mellon University
Robotics Institute
5000 Forbes Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15213

Associated center: FRC

For more information, see this project's homepage.

In 1998, the EventScope team created the first and only educational tool to give students hands-on experience of a NASA mission site. In 2000, that tool--Big Signal--was expanded and improved.

Now, we will create an entirely new tool students can use to visit other planets.

The visual interface will simulate a telerobotics control room, with each student or student team operating a simulated robot modeled on the one NASA used in that module's mission. Each student or team will interact with an onscreen team of characters representing professional scientists and engineers. These characters will convey contextual information related to the mission, as well as linking to information about their specialties. Students will be able to ask these characters questions via email, receiving answers that are actually from participating professional scientists. At specific milestones, students and teachers will be able to share information with other classes involved in the same modules. A decentralized community of students, educators and scientists will be created.

The project's technical goals fall into three main categories:

• Generating interactive, viewer-navigable 3D models based on real-world 3D data gathered by remotely operated robots (Mars Sojourner / Pathfinder and others)
• Masking NASA's powerful but extremely complex visualization tools so that students and educators can use them without extensive training
• Developing a cross-platform stand-alone program that works in conjunction with existing Web browsers

Name - Title <Email Address>
• Jeffrey Byrnes - PhD Student
• David Crown - Co-Investigator
• Karl Fischer - Lead Software Engineer, CS <k@andrew.cmu.edu>
• John Hayes - Curriculum Development Advisor, Psychology <jh50+@andrew.cmu.edu>
• Mary Hunninen - Curricula Development <mhunninen@earthlink.net>
• Junlei Li - PhD Student, CS <junlei+@andrew.cmu.edu>
• Scott Mest - PhD Student
• Richard Pell - Research Programmer, Art <rp3h+@andrew.cmu.edu>
• Timothy Pierce - Undergraduate
• [Home] Michael D Wagner - NREC Commercialization Specialist <mwagner@cmu.edu>
• [Home] William Red L. Whittaker - University Professor <red@ri.cmu.edu>

• Big Signal - We are developing multidisciplinary projects that allow the public to remotely experience places they could not otherwise visit.

Note: This list may not be comprehensive. It contains only those publications in the RI publications database. Entries are listed in reverse chronological order.

• Using Near Real-time Mission Data for Education and Public Outreach: Strategies from the Life in the Atacama E/PO Report
  E. Myers, P. Coppin, M.D. Wagner, K. Fischer, D.L. Lu, R. McCloskey, D. Seneker, N. Cabrol, D. Wettergreen, and A. Waggoner
  Lunar and Planetary Science Conference XXXVI, March, 2005. [Abstract]
  Download: pdf [167 KB] copyrighted

• EventScope: Bringing Remote Experience of Mars to the Public through Telepresence
  E. Myers, P. Coppin, M.D. Wagner, K. Fischer, D.L. Lu, W.R. McCloskey, and D. Seneker
  2004 IEEE Symposium on Information Visualization, October, 2004, pp. 16 - 17. [Abstract]
  Download: pdf [197 KB] copyrighted

• EventScope: A Telescience Interface for Internet-Based Education
  P. Coppin, M.D. Wagner, and T.E. Team
  Presented at the Workshop on Telepresence for Education, International Conference on Robotics and Automation, May, 2002. [Abstract]
  Download: pdf [715 KB] copyrighted

• Reality Browsing: Using Information Interaction and Robotic Autonomy for Planetary Exploration
  P. Coppin, M.D. Wagner, and S. Thayer
  Space Technology and Applications International Forum 2001 (STAIF 2001), Mohamed S. El-Genk, American Institute of Physics, Melville, NY, Vol. 552, February, 2001, pp. 64-69. [Abstract]
  Download: pdf [72 KB] copyrighted