data-universe makes your data accessible and understandable by enabling dynamic exploration and visualization in a Virtual Reality space.
The goal of data-universe is to simplify the way in how data can be explored and analyzed, in order to make it accessible and understandable for a wide and diverse audience.
To reach this goal, we believe in taking advantage of the natural curiosity which we all possess, and putting the user inside the data, rather than in front of it. By representing the data in a Virtual Reality, the user is enabled to move around and explore based on instinct and experiment with direct visual feedback. The data jungle is moved from away from static websites and database interfaces, into an open and accessible world where the user is in the center and enabled with the controls.
Currently we are working with the use case of visualizing available employment opportunities in collaboration with the Swedish Employment Agency (Arbetsförmedlingen). This is also what triggered the creation of data-universe at an OpenHack event, which is a hackathon focused on addressing humanitarian and social challenges.
In the future we aim to broaden the scope to include further use cases, in order to make the world of data more accessible and understandable.
The project is currently in an early state why it may not be ready to most end-users. However, if you have the technical background needed, and interested in setting it up, we encourage you to download the project and try it out! It is based on the three.js framework and currently only tested on an iPhone mobile handset device with Virtual Reality capabilities.
To set it up, please follow the steps below:
npm install will install dependencies.
npm start will run the project using webpack-development-server.
node controls-server.js runs the Xbox control server, the webpack instance must be running before this starts.
Connect your phone with Safari or Chrome to port 8080 (if your firewall does not allow this setup a Wifi hotspot with another phone).
Do you wish to join us in our quest? We are an open community and welcome anyone who wishes to join! You can reach us on [email protected].