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Welcome
to the world of computing for geosciences! |
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If you're interested in earth
sciences, whether for serious study or part-time interest, computers
are an increasingly important tool to use. They can be used, for
instance, to gather data, process it, and provide sophisticated
visualisations as images or even animations. Learning to make the
most of computers can therefore be very important, and so the
Geo-Computing website is here to provide resources to do just that in
a fun and practical way.
Computers come in a variety of
forms. Obviously we all have laptop and desktop computers that are
capable of highly sophisticated graphics, even almost real-time photo
realistic rendering of three-dimensional scenes. These, of course,
are the central tools for storing, processing and visualising data,
but what of the very small, less sophisticated, microcontrollers?
Microcontrollers, such as the Arduino,
may be tiny compared to other computers, but nonetheless they allow
simple interfacing of sensors that allow data to be gathered for
later use on a larger computer. Also, there are now many quite
sophisticated handheld computers, such as the Pocket PC, iPhone and
Android devices. These may be a power compromise compared to a
laptop, but can provide very portable systems for communicating with
sensors, providing initial visualisation, and storing data in the field.
With all of these computing
options available to you, together with the power of the World Wide
Web, studying earth sciences can be a thrilling experience if you
have the necessary skills. For that reason, Geo-Computing intends to
provide interesting, useful and fun projects and information to allow
anyone interested in this exciting subject to make use of
microcontrollers, handheld devices and sophisticated computers for
earth science studies. Therefore, on this website you will find many
pages of relevance to geo-computing, from articles on academic topics
to fun projects intended to allow you to enjoy learning subjects such
as 3D data visualisation that you can apply to a wide range of
projects important to you.
Below
are some of the newer pages at Geo-Computing:
| WiiMote Sailing | If you have a WiiMote and want to use it to control graphics in your own Processing code, this page is for you. It takes the 3D sailing code and changes the controls so everything works using the WiiMote accelerometer and buttons. | | Soil EM glossary | Whether you're studying soil electromagnetics, or want to understand what geophysical people are telling you, understanding basic technical terms is important. So, on this page you will find a brief glossary of some of the most important soil electromagnetic property terms. | | Soil EM history | If you're interested in, or even starting to study, soil electromagnetic properties, you may find the history of the topic equally interesting. If so, this brief guide will give you an introduction to the history prior to 1980. | | |
We
hope you enjoy geo-computing!
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