Siena:

Toxic Earth is a three-dimensional data visualization that displays the spread of air pollution worldwide. According to National Geographic nearly 2.5 million people die worldwide each year from the effects of air pollution and Toxic Earth aims to spread awareness of the severity of air pollution. Most maps of air pollution are two-dimensional making them difficult to read and this project proves that data visualizations in three dimensions are more advantageous than those in two.

Toxic Earth was made for people unaware of how widespread air pollution is. The data is collected from a worldwide air quality index and then used in P5js to generate a greyscale map representing the intensity of the pollution. Then in Unreal Engine, the map is used to displace the geometry of a sphere. This effect uses the displacement of points on the textured surface to create a depth and relief effect on the geometry. Essentially the map generated dictates what certain points should be pulled on the Earth. The final visualization is similar to a bar graph but the pillars derive from the surface of the Earth. The pillars vary in height based on the intensity of air pollution in their areas. Toxic Earth is meant to inspire people to take extra steps to reduce air pollution while exercising a new way to visualize data.

Lily:

Toxic Earth is a data visualization that helps communicate the level of air pollution in different parts of the world. The data visualization also includes the air quality index from years prior. This data is very important because there are some conditions where the air is so hazardous that people should not even be outside. Hazardous air can cause heart problems, respiratory issues and aggravate asthma. 

Air quality has an impact all over the world. It is important for anyone with health conditions to be aware of, or people who are just interested in the quality of the air where they might be located. Toxic Earth works by the code created behind it that has a different colored dot corresponding to the quality of air pollution, and that dot is located on the country that lines up with the quality of the air. The dot's colors are any shade from black to white. The lighter the dot is, the higher the air pollution is. Once this code was made, it was transferred to Unreal Engine onto a globe. There are parts of the globe sticking up, and that is representing poor air quality in that location. Someone can interact with this data visualization by spinning the globe around and seeing where the pointiest part of it is, to determine the air quality index.