Novel point of view
About Us
The Fossett Laboratory for Virtual Planetary Exploration is an innovative facility for teaching and research managed by the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences and housed in Rudolph Hall. In the Fossett Lab we collect, visualize, and explore three dimensional data from the atomic to the planetary scale. To do so, we use traditional and aerial photography, remotely-sensed planetary data, photogrammetry, and Microsoft’s HoloLens Augmented Reality (AR) platform. Increasingly we are collaborating with faculty in departments across the WUSTL Arts and Sciences to incorporate AR into their teaching and scholarship.
The Fossett Laboratory for Virtual Planetary Exploration also supports some research and outreach activities within the Earth and Planetary Remote Sensing Laboratory, including use of virtual reality to help plan the Mars Curiosity rover paths.
Current projects include
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- Visualization and comparison of crystal structures for teaching mineralogy
- Construction of outcrop scale (meters to kilometers) holographic models for visualizing 3D geologic structures
- Construction of holographic models of minerals from the Rudolph Collection
- Development of an augmented reality ice sheet to explain mass balance to a general audience
- Use of HoloLens for path planning for the Curiosity Mars Rover
- Make available all Earth and Planetary related 3D models through GeoBase
Screenshot of the development application, with outcrop locations.
In the press
(most recent first)
GeoXplorer in the EPS departmental news and the uses of GeoXplorer for hybrid learning
Listen to Martin Pratt and Alex Boghosian be interviewed on The Versatilist podcast.
Boghosian, A.L., Pratt, M.J., Becker, M.K., Cordero, S.I., Dhakal, T., Kingslake, J., Locke, C.D., Tinto, K.J. and Bell, R.E. (2019), Inside the ice shelf: using augmented reality to visualise 3D lidar and radar data of Antarctica. Photogram Rec, 34: 346-364. doi:10.1111/phor.12298
With graduate student Amanda Price, Grand Prize winner of NASA’s 2019 Data Visualization and Storytelling Competition. Video.
Virtual Reality Comes to the Classroom in The Chronicle of Higher Education
The latest from the Fossett Lab in Washington University’s The Ampersand
The Fossett Lab being used in the classroom from Inside Higher Ed
Read about the Fossett Lab in Washington University’s The Source