The virtual camera: participatory design of a cooperative exploration mediation tool

This research focuses on the human-centered, participatory design of the Virtual Camera (VC) for human-human or human-machine space exploration on remote planetary surfaces. The main question is how human-centered design tools and philosophies can be used to create an interactive database (virtual camera) that provides assistance to astronauts trying to explore a remote body.The claim of this work is that a tablet-based system provides a platform for improving exploration and navigation efficiency through advanced interaction and collaboration capabilities.The goals of a VC are to improve exploration and scientific return for the mission in terms of safety, efficiency and comfort. This research is the initial participatory design and characterization of the VC system to allow preliminary terrestrial testing. This testing gave insight into the usability of a tablet-based VC and demonstrated emergent behaviors as users interacted with the system.This VC interactive database of a planetary surface contains a terrain model, a Google Maps interface, and augmented reality capabilities. The operators can be astronauts in a rover or walking on the planetary surface. They could also be training here on Earth. Other operators are ground operations and science members of the team. Each will have their own uses and goals for the VC interaction. The augmented reality capabilities will consist of patterns, colors, shapes and information screens that correspond to the types of data in the database that are of interest to the particular user. The astronauts are interested in areas that potentially could be unsafe as well as areas of interest that need exploration. Ground operators want to know about areas of potential safety concern but also areas that contain resources or that allow the most efficient traverse to accomplish the mission. Scientists look for pattern matching that allows them to use abductive reasoning to find new science discoveries and areas that scientifically should be explored in more detail by the astronauts.The VC is intended to be an assistance tool and not a control tool. It makes suggestions and captures information. It is up to the user to make final control decisions using the VC as an aid. Because of this, HCD techniques are very important to determine how to get the right information to the right user in the right format at the right time. This is a large part of the design challenge of the VC.