Visualising air pollution datasets with real-time game engines

Abstract

Visualising Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI), including air pollution data, can be used as an explorative tool in the context of workshops and maker labs. This requires a technology that has a low entry-level, but provides a powerful interactive prototyping framework. We describe the potential of real-time computer game engines as visualisation tools for interdisciplinary cooperation between non-experts and experts. We discuss how properties of air pollution, including invisibility, pervasiveness and its ability to permeate organisms, can be visualised with particle systems, and outline two use cases for different output devices, including AR and VR.