Our desire to create 3D visualizations of data — for virtual role , artistic expression or both — stretch back many millenary . Two expert in the field have created a stunning online archive of such forcible artifacts from 5,500 BC to the present day , and beyond .
The List of Physical Visualizations , curated by Pierre Dragicevic and Yvonne Jansen , currently has 164 entry . Among some of the highlights :
5500 BC : Mesopotamian Clay Tokens
The earliest data visualizations were in all likelihood forcible : built by arranging stones or pebbles , and by and by , clay tokens . concord to the towering archeologist Denise Schmandt - Besserat :
Whereas words consist of immaterial sounds , the token were concrete , solid , tangible artifacts , which could be address , arranged and rearrange at will . For instance , the tokens could be ordered in special column allot to types of product , submission and expenditure ; donors or receiver . The token organisation thus encouraged manipulating datum by swipe all possible variables [ … ] No doubt pattern , the display of data in a fussy configuration , was developed to spotlight special point .
Clay tokens advise that physical target were used to externalize information , digest visual thinking and enhance knowledge room before paper and writing were invented .
132 AD : Chinese Seismoscope
A seismoscope is a qualitative indicator of seismal natural process — as opposed to seismographs which show quantitative information , typically through line graphs . The oldest know seismoscope is Chinese and date spine from 132 . It was a great bronze gadget that dropped a ball into a bronze container ( one of the eight frogs on the mental image above ) every time an quake was detected , thus produce a tacky sound . The direction of the quake could then be try by looking at the container in which the ball was devolve .
1885 advertizing : Ammassalik Wooden Maps
These three - dimensional maps were carved by Inuits from the Ammassalik Fjord in Greenland , and used as eyes - loose guides for glide . The left-hand one shows coastline , the right-hand one register a successiveness of seaward islands . These Inuit communities had had no direct striking with Europeans before a Danish adventurer met them in 1885 and was shown the wooden map .
1935 AD : Power Consumption
A enceinte 3D physical visual image made by the Detroit Edison Company showing electrical energy consumption for the twelvemonth 1935 , with a slice per daytime and each day split up into 30 minute intervals . It was likely used to better predict power requirement .
2003 : Mount Fear
A 3D map of East London where raising represent the charge per unit of violent offense between 2002 and 2003 .
2011 : Tohoku Japanese Earthquake Sculpture
A data sculpture by Luke Jerram that depicts nine minute of seismographic readings during the 9.0 temblor .
2033 AD : Drone Swarm Visualizations
Researcher Wesley Willett recentlypublisheda presentation image how , by the year 2033 , nano drone swarm could be used both to capture and visualize data directly in the real cosmos :
At barely 1.5 centimeter across , each Cetonia scarabaeus is a marvel of preciseness engineering . Designed from the ground up for nimble flight of steps , their integrated hydrogen chambers and a high - efficiency hover mode permit 15 + minute of melodic line metre between charges . The hueSHIFT shell is adequate to of displaying over 22 million potential colors and provides clean ocular feedback in solar day or night with visibility up to 1.5 kilometers . merged camera and sensing element arrays permit full 6D reconstructions with typography profiling . From your wrist or a personal field of force station you may rapidly deploy flights in automated formations to review , measure , record , and cook almost anything .
Visit theList of Physical Visualizationsto see more data point sculptures across the hundred .
[ H / TFlowing Data ]
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