The AR app Sorvegliati Spaziali is free and available for iOS and AR-compatible Android mobile devices (mobile phones and tablets), both in Italian and English, and can be used with or without the project brochure.
"Sorvegliati Spaziali (translatable in English as "Under Space Surveillance")– looking up to Space to protect our Planet” is a public dissemination project of the Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF) on Planetary Defense: from near Earth asteroids and comets to space weather, from meteors and meteorites to space debris, as well as prevention/mitigation strategies of their possible effects on the Earth environment. Sorvegliati Spaziali represents one of the first coordinated public outreach initiatives on such topics coordinated by a research body and it is at the forefront for the use of transversal, multidisciplinary, narrative science language.
The core of the project is the Italian entirely graphic and multimedia website sorvegliatispaziali.inaf.it available online since October 2021, which intends to become a national, but also an international, landmark for information and in-depth content on Planetary Defense.
The project intends to timely disseminate scientific and cultural knowledge through a variety of original state-of-the-art multimedia information products that explore different communication languages, such as: educational video clips, interviews, theatrical video clips, a geo-localized map with live satellites and space debris tracking, 3D computer graphic content, infographics, solar and Near Earth objects bulletins, a glossary, reviews of blogs, books, movies and so on.
The team is composed by INAF researchers and communicators and collaborates with external research institutions and entities such as: Politecnico di Milano, web design and professional theatrical companies, RAI - Radiotelevisione italiana (the national public broadcasting company of Italy, owned by the Ministry of Economy and Finance), comic book artists and natural science museums. The project is endorsed by the Outreach Office of the NASA Planetary Defense Coordination Office.
The Sorvegliati Spaziali AR App offers four main AR experiences plus an extra AR experience when used in combination with the brochure. The four main experiences are designed in 3D computer graphics and allow the user to simulate (as shown in the first four phots above from the left):
1. a dynamic and colorful aurora whose sound can also be heard thanks to the sonification of emitted radio waves into sound waves (space weather experience)
2. entry of an asteroid into the Earth’s atmosphere, resulting in an explosion complete with roar and meteorites search on the ground. A phenomenon inspired by the 2013 Chelyabisnk event (asteroid experience)
3. active satellites and/or space debris around the Earth, rotating and visible from different angles using the touch screen (space debris experience)
4. three meteor showers (Perseids, Leonids and Eta Aquarids) superimposed on the starry sky and in particular on their own constellations, with trails with colors and brightnesses consistent with what is reported in statistical scientific studies and branching off from a point known as a radiant (meteors experience)
Photos of the AR experiences can be taken with the rear camera of the mobile device.
Besides being an entertainment product, the app Sorvegliati Spaziali offers in-depth content (the fifth picture above shows a representative example) and can be used for educational purposes with the aim of making learning more engaging and helping to keep students' attention high.
The Augmented Reality (AR) is a technology that allows digital elements, such as images, sounds or text, to be superimposed on the surrounding physical world in real time and through devices such as
smartphones and tablets.
AR applications (have a great potential for communicating science in an engaging, accessible and more tangible way. This is especially true for the younger generations, who nowadays have high expectations from digital communication and are attracted by technological
innovation and interactivity.
We therefore developed an augmented reality brochure of the project, in collaboration with the italian Vitruvio Virtual Reality company.
The brochure consists of a concise presentation of the project and of the four major topics covered and the dedicated app enables to simulate Planetary Defense phenomena in the user's environment, as well as providing in-depth content.
The app, called Sorvegliati Spaziali, is free and available for iOS and AR-compatible Android mobile devices (mobile phones and tablets), both in Italian and English, and can be used with or without the project brochure.