Opportunities of Touch-Enabled Spherical Displays to support Climate Conversations

2026-01-28

AI Summary

This study addresses the limited interactive capabilities of existing spherical touch displays in facilitating public understanding and collaborative exploration of complex climate data. Through two rounds of user-centered workshops, the research systematically identifies key interaction opportunities for spherical touch displays in climate communication and proposes a novel interaction paradigm that is intuitive, embodied, and supportive of collective engagement. The findings yield a set of interaction design guidelines tailored to museum and science center contexts, offering practical strategies to enhance public comprehension of and collaboration around climate data. Furthermore, the work outlines clear technical directions for the future development of spherical display systems, advancing their potential as effective tools for science communication and participatory data exploration.

Technology Category

• Humans and AI: Interaction Techniques and Devices
• Cognitive Modeling & Cognitive Systems: Social Cognition And Interaction
• Application Domains: Humanities & Computational Social Science

Application Category

• Security and Privacy: Data transparency and provenance
• Semantics and Knowledge: Data modeling to support human-machine intelligence, including LLMs agents, intelligent system behavior, explanations, and user-friendly interactions
• User Modeling, Personalization and Recommendation: Explainable and interpretable methods for personalization

Abstract

We explore how touch-sensitive spherical displays can support climate conversations in museums and science centers. These displays enable intuitive and embodied interaction with complex climate data, and support collective exploration. However, current interaction capabilities of spherical displays are limited. Therefore, this exploratory study aims to identify potential opportunities to develop meaningful interactions and technical solutions. Through two workshops, key opportunities were identified to improve visitors'understanding and navigation of climate data, along with recommendations for technical implementation. Our results provide guidelines and aspects to consider for future research and development in this area.

Problem

• spherical displays
• climate conversations
• touch interaction
• data exploration
• museum interaction

Innovation

• spherical displays
• touch interaction
• climate data visualization
• embodied interaction
• public engagement