As part of the three‐year ‘Life in the Atacama’ (LITA) project, plant and microbial abundance were mapped within three sites in the Atacama Desert, Chile, using an automated robotic rover. On‐board fluorescence imaging of six biological signatures (e.g., chlorophyll, DNA, proteins) was used to assess abundance, based on a percent positive sample rating system and standardized robotic ecological transects. The percent positive rating system scored each sample based on the measured signal strength (0 for no signal to 2 for strong signal) for each biological signature relative to the total rating possible. The 2005 field experiment results show that percent positive ratings varied significantly across Site D (coastal site with fog), with patchy zones of high abundance correlated with orbital and microscale habitat types (heaved surface crust and gravel bars); alluvial fan habitats generally had lower abundance. Non‐random multi‐scale biological patchiness also characterized interior desert Sites E and F, with relatively high abundance associated with (paleo)aqueous habitats such as playas. Localized variables, including topography, played an important, albeit complex, role in microbial spatial distribution. Site D biosignature trends correlated with culturable soil bacteria, with MPN ranging from 10‐1000 CFU/g‐soil, and chlorophyll ratings accurately mapped lichen/moss abundance (Site D) and higher plant (Site F) distributions. Climate also affected biological patchiness, with significant correlation shown between abundance and (rover) air relative humidity, while lichen patterns were linked to the presence of fog. Rover biological mapping results across sites parallel longitudinal W‐E wet/dry/wet Atacama climate trends. Overall, the study highlights the success of targeting of aqueous‐associated habitats identifiable from orbital geology and mineralogy. The LITA experience also suggests the terrestrial study of life and its distribution, particularly the fields of landscape ecology and ecohydrology, hold critical lessons for the search for life on other planets. Their applications to robotic sampling strategies on Mars should be further exploited.

This study evaluated a web-based auditory map prototype built utilizing conventions found in audio games and presents findings from a set of tasks participants performed with the prototype. The prototype allowed participants to use their own computer and screen reader, contrary to most studies, which restrict use to a single platform and a self-voicing feature (providing a voice that talks by default). There were three major findings from the tasks: the interface was extremely easy to learn and navigate, participants all had unique navigational styles and preferred using their own screen reader, and participants needed user interface features that made it easier to understand and answer questions about spatial properties and relationships. Participants gave an average task load score of 39 from the NASA Task Load Index and gave a confidence level of 46/100 for actually using the prototype to physically navigate.

A novel method is presented for inspecting and characterizing turbulent-like hemodynamic structures in intracranial cerebral aneurysms by sonification of data generated using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD). The intention of the current research is to intuitively communicate flow complexity by augmenting conventional flow visualizations with data-driven sound, thereby increasing the ease of interpretation of dense spatiotemporal data through multimodal presentation. The described implementation allows the user to listen to flow fluctuations thought to indicate turbulent-like blood flow patterns that are often visually difficult to discriminate in conventional flow visualizations.

Everyday experience is multi-sensory, and user experience (UX) design aims to extend this to interactions with products, services, and designed worlds. However, tools and pedagogies for UX are overwhelmingly visual, whereas human-rights-based accessibility legislation mandates the inclusion of diverse peoples, including blind and partially sighted individuals. Coupling auditory and haptic UX techniques from human-computer interaction with industrial design’s (ID) cross-modal tradition of prototyping physical products fostered our novel cross-modal UX course for second-year ID undergraduates. Affordance-based theories of perception-action and Gestalt principles of perceptual organization were used to inform design in auditory, tactile, and visual sensory modalities situated in a novel pedagogical framework. Each week theoretical models were presented alongside hands-on workshops using the BBC micro:bit, developing computational literacy through cross-modal physical prototyping. Student projects demonstrate an understanding of theory and practice and include auditory and tactile interfaces.

Topological features of time-dependent, three-dimensional (3D) vector flow fields, such as wall shear stress (WSS) fixed points, are considered surrogates of pathological blood flow dynamics in cardiovascular diseases. Fixed-point visualizations are typically constrained to two-dimensional (2D) spaces, yet they aim to display complex spatiotemporal (four-dimensional (4D)) dynamics. There is a need for visualization strategies to reduce occlusion and reliance on animations to allow the detection of holistic flow patterns. Using intracranial aneurysms as a use case, we present the fixed-point carousel, a novel approach to visually depicting the “4D” nature of WSS fixed points via (1) topographic mapping of the 3D aneurysm sac to overcome occlusion while preserving fixed-point distances and sac morphological features; and (2) arranging these into a carousel model to present with temporal dimension holistically. Examples are presented for image-based computational fluid dynamic (CFD) models of intracranial aneurysms, illuminating the intricate and distinct fixed-point trajectories and interactions, a necessary step toward understanding the volumetric flow manifolds that drive them for this and other cardiovascular—and potentially nonbiomedical—fluid dynamics applications.