Abstract

Keywords: Immersive Data Visualization, Virtual Reality, Korean Constellations, Star Maps, Astronomy

In this work, we visualized Korea’s traditional constellations within an interactive 3D star map we created of the Milky Way. Unlike virtual planetariums based on celestial star coordinates from Earth’s viewpoint, our visualization enables people to experience and interact with Korean constellation forms and its constituent stars in 3D space, and appreciate their historical, cultural significance from a contemporary perspective. Our interactive constellation map is based on the most detailed and accurate information on the stars in our Galaxy to date, and combines our expanding scientific understanding of the stars with contextual information reflecting Korea’s unique astronomical culture and heritage.

• Sung-A Jang, Human Computer Interaction Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, 5000 Forbes Ave, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA, is an artist and HCI researcher working in the intersection of art, science and technology.
• Benjamin L’Huillier, Korea Astronomy & Space Science Institute, Daejeon, Korea, is a cosmologist and astrophysicist who seeks to understand the content of the universe and the laws that govern its evolution.

Full text (PDF) p. 616-617

We thank Goeun Choi, Changbom Park, Cris Sabiu, and Hong-Jin Yang for their help in gaining access to CSmap data and much constructive feedback. This project was funded by the Korea Culture Technology Institute in Gwangju, Korea.