Mixed Reality Flooding Visualization: Turning Data into Immersive Experiences

Data visualization to data experience

Data visualization is an important medium to translate complex and abstract data into visual representations that people can understand. Not only does it help to reveal patterns and trends giving insight to researchers, but it also enables them to communicate their findings and results in an approachable way or integrate it into education.

At the Immersive Xperience Lab, we take data visualization a step further into data experiences, by translating graphs, charts, numbers and 3D representations into immersive experiences using XR (eXtended Reality). In these experiences, people are put ‘inside of’ the data, by, for example, simulating real-life situations that could be the outcome of the data to make it feel more real and easier to relate to.

Our mixed reality flooding visualization is a data experience that translates flooding data into a visual flooding scenario. Mixed reality allows you to see your real-world environment combined with virtual elements. In this flooding visualization, the space around you gets virtually filled up with water, corresponding to what the water level would be if the flood barriers were breached. Different locations can be selected to visualize the post-breach water level throughout the Netherlands.

This experience takes a simple numeric data point, the height of the water at a certain location, and makes it almost tangible with the realistic representation of the water height in the room. People can select their region of residence, making it even more relatable. Leveraging the personal impact of an immersive experience, like we do with this flooding visualization, makes it easier for people to understand and grasp problems, their impact and possible solutions. This makes data experiences a valuable tool for research and education to visually communicate research findings, represent course data in an engaging way, and raise awareness about certain topics.