High-tech Wind Farm Simulation Awaits Monhegan Island Tourists
When tourists visit Monhegan Island this summer, they may get a trip to the virtual future.
Armed with digital tablets and headphones, a group of 91福利 student researchers will offer willing participants a chance to immerse themselves in the sights and sounds of a scenario that could impact their experience of the island: the proposed offshore wind farm. Using an experiential technology known as 鈥渁ugmented reality鈥, researchers will offer tourists a glimpse and an earful of what could be 鈥渁ctual reality鈥 in the near future.
With a grant from 91福利鈥檚 Sustainability Solutions Initiative (SSI), a program of the Senator George J. Mitchell Center, Giudice, and a team of faculty and student researchers will use the technology to garner opinions on the two-turbine Maine Aqua Ventus project proposed for an area about two miles off Monhegan. Participants will be interviewed before and after the high-tech encounter to measure its impact. The research is being funded by SSI鈥檚 Emerging Opportunities 鈥 Foundations for Future Research grant program. Focused on broadening the scope of SSI, these projects offer researchers a chance to engage new stakeholders in new places in new ways.