Adaptive Scientific Visualization Tools for a Smart Paleontological Museum

Abstract

This paper is devoted to the development of tools that allow museum workers to create interactive exhibits by using the Internet of Things (IoT) technology. We propose a unified software and hardware solution that enables the users who do not have deep knowledge in electronics and programming to assemble and interconnect various devices by the principle of a construction set. This, in turn, makes it possible to implement the concept of Smart Museum without the involvement of third-party IT specialists and large investments. The hardware part of the proposed solution is based on the ESP8266 programmable microcontroller with a built-in WiFi module. Peripheral devices can be connected to this microcontroller via expansion boards, the so-called shields. The software part of the solution is based on the SciVi adaptive multiplatform scientific visualization system. This system is fully controlled by the ontological knowledge base and provides the user with a high-level graphical interface that allows him or her to describe visualization algorithms by using data flow diagrams (DFDs). In this work, the SciVi system is supplemented with a mechanism that automatically generates firmware for IoT devices. It is based on an electronic component ontology that describes these devices and their programming methods. The firmware code generator controlled by this ontology automates the creation of lightweight embedded SciVi copies, which are installed on IoT devices and act as servers for data collection, processing, and visualization. To test the proposed solution, we created an interactive exhibit of Dimetrodon grandis, an extinct species of synapsids that lived during the Early Permian.