Collaborative Research: Elements: Enriching Scholarly Communication with Augmented Reality

is project will leverage corporate investment in AR of recent years, and the accessibility of QR codes, to enable astronomers to effortlessly explore the 3D universe. Following the 2021 success of publishing the first AR-enhanced figure in a AAS Journal, this project will support the development of a system allowing authors to publish high-dimensional data figures in AR environments. Utilizing everyday smartphones and tablets, astronomers can interact with data projections in 3D by viewing them above flat surfaces or through AR target devices.

Throughout the project, the team will design an end-to-end system for embedding AR figures in scholarly journals. This system will extend across multiple cyberinfrastructure components including data format standards, analysis software, 3D conversion tools, AR integration pipelines, visual ID encoding infrastructure, and the publication process. By enhancing cyberinfrastructure in this way, the project will enable new channels for scholarly communication, particularly for sharing high-dimensional data effectively.