SWP: Future Security Lab
Leonie Terfurth
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Weather and climate shape our daily lives, yet the information surrounding them is often complex and difficult to interpret. This is especially true for extreme weather events, where the communication of warnings highlights how crucial it is to present meteorological information in a way that people can intuitively use in their decision-making. The effectiveness of weather communication depends not only on the availability and quality of data, but also on the clarity and design of how that information is conveyed (DWD RainBoW; Leschzyk et al., 2025).
The quality and accessibility of extended reality (XR) technologies—particularly augmented reality (AR)—have improved significantly in recent years. As part of the Future Security Lab software project in the winter semester of 2025, students will work in small groups to develop proof-of-concept prototypes that explore the potential of AR for communicating weather and climate data. The project focuses not only on technical implementation but also on issues of comprehensibility, user orientation, and feasibility.
Two relevant concepts are central to this approach:
• Immersive analytics – the use of XR technologies to transform complex data for decision-making into spatial, interactive environments. By enabling users to actively explore and manipulate data, it becomes more tangible (Chandler et al., 2015).
• Data visceralization – the translation of data into intuitive forms that foster an understanding of physical quantities and magnitudes, making the data directly experiential (Lee et al., 2020).
This software project runs throughout the entire lecture time. Approximately every two weeks, there will be a face-to-face meeting in which all group members report on the current status. In addition to brief updates at the face-to-face meetings, there will be three presentations: an idea pitch, an interim presentation, and a final presentation.
At the beginning of the course (October 13), the organizational details and background information on the project idea will be presented in detail, along with the various concepts. In addition, there will be a lecture on “User-Oriented Weather Warnings” as inspiration for potential applications.
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18 Class schedule
Regular appointments