Floods become virtual reality

Ken Barthelman can’t remember the last time he played in a sandbox, let alone one so technologically advanced it can display changing altitudes and conjure rain with just the wave of a hand.

This newest display at the Jasper County Historical Museum functions as both entertainment and an educational tool for visitors. On Wednesday, Barthelman, the executive director of the museum, will unveil the completed Floods of 1993 Augmented Reality Sandbox to the public during the museum’s Lunch and Learn.

Funded by the Prairie Meadows Community Betterment Grant, the sandbox demonstrates the effects of floodwaters on a customizable geographic plain. Using his hands, Barthelman can form hills and valleys while a projector, computer and an Xbox One Kinect instantly color code the altered altitudes onto the sandy surface.

“Anybody can come in here and mess around with it,” Barthelman said. “It’s really kind of fascinating to see the rain. I’m much more pleased with it than I thought I would be, to be honest. I think it has some opportunities. There’s so much you can do with it!”

About 250 pounds of sand was used to fill the box that was custom made by a board member of the Jasper County Historical Museum. Like its name suggests, the sandbox draws comparisons to the Great Flood of 1993, which greatly impacted nine Midwestern states.

According to the National Weather Service, record flooding occurred in the Des Moines, Iowa and Skunk Rivers. Iowa’s capital, in particular, was hit hard. Hundreds of levees failed along the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers, too. Between the nine affected states, 50 flood deaths were reported and damages approached $15 billion.

Jasper County Historical Museum’s sandbox can showcase how land affects the flow of floodwaters and vice versa. Barthelman said the display has the capabilities to dramatically increase and decrease rainfall through the computer program, which in turn affects the geography created in the sand.

“It shows what the rainfall does and how you fill it and drain it and how you can move things around to make a river and fill the river … When you have widespread, really heavy rain, this is what happens,” Barthelman said, hovering his hand over the landscape to simulate rainfall.

Within seconds, the lower elevations began to fill with holographic water.

“That’s when you start to get flooding,” he said before fiddling with the display again. “Conversely, all of a sudden it stops raining and you get a drought. All of sudden you got dry land. I think a science teacher would have so much to show their students.”

The sandbox project was originally spearheaded by former executive director Joe Otto and a high school intern in 2018, Barthelman said. After Otto left the museum later that same year, the next line of museum administrators had difficulties tracking down computer experts to assist in the construction of the augmented reality sandbox — leaving the project in limbo for some time.

Barthelman told Newton Daily News his son had such computer experience and helped him complete the display over the holidays. The augmented reality sandbox was developed by the UC Davis W.M. Keck Center for Active Visualization in the Earth Sciences, supported by the National Science Foundation.

Ideally, the executive director would like area schools to make use of the sandbox.

“And I think it could actually get people to start thinking about the museum as more than just old (artifacts),” Barthelman said. “I’m hoping it sparks some new interest in the museum.”

Contact Christopher Braunschweig at 641-792-3121 ext. 6560 or cbraunschweig@newtondailynews.com