Touch#

This profile provides five demonstration experiences for a Windows touch table: Explore the galaxies, explore the solar system, explore Jupiter and its moons, explore weather events on Earth, and explore interesting sites on Mars. These experiences were created by students as examples. OpenSpace users can create their own experiences with the content they would like to show.

Story Selection#

When the kiosk version of OpenSpace starts, the user is presented with a story selection menu interface. Select the left/right arrows to browse between the “Solar System”, “Jupiter & its Moons”, “Earth Weather & Events”, “Mars Sights”, and “Galaxy Exploration”. Press “Tap Here to Explore” to select a story.

Using the Menu Bar#

Menu Interface Elements Common to All Stories#

The user interface is customized to each story. There are common elements to the interface, which include the buttons Home, Help, Info, and Overview.

Home#

Press this to return to the main story selection menu.

Help#

This will show an overlay of how to use the touch gestures to navigate. Note that there are limits to zooming in/out, restricting the camera movement to what is relevant to the story.

Info#

Shows a pop-up window describing the current story.

Time#

Time controls are available in every story except those where time has less meaning (e.g. Galaxies story). The date & time can be moved forward or backward at various speeds using the arrow controls and pause/play button. Pressing the Time “loop arrow” button will reset the clock to the current date/time.

Overview#

The Overview button will zoom the camera out to a point where all relevant element(s) in the story are visible.

Menu Interface Elements Unique to Stories#

There are also interface elements that are unique to a particular story.

Solar System#

Each planet in the solar system has its own button. Press it to move the camera there.

Jupiter#

Each moon in the story has a button that will move the camera to its location. There is also a button that will scale the moons from their true scale to 10X size for better visibility.

Earth Weather & Events#

There is a “Select Event” button that will pop up a list of interesting dates and their description. Selecting an event will cause the date/time to jump to that point in time.

Interesting Sights on Mars#

This story has a “Select Sight” button that will pop up a list of interesting locations on Mars. The camera will zoom in close to the surface when a sight is selected. Pressing the “Overview” button will reset the camera to a planetary view.

Galaxies#

There are a number of individual buttons available that will toggle the visibility of specific galaxy layers.

Info Buttons#

In addition to the main Info button for the story in the menu bar at the bottom, labels with an (i)nfo icon sometimes appear. Pressing the (i) will toggle the visibility of an info description for the corresponding object.