About Content

Subject matter for a digital globe is open ended. All manner of global subjects benefit from the spherical representation (Oceanography, atmoshperic sciences, climate change, geophysical, meteorological, environmental, demographics, geo-politics, historical, etc.). But a large spherical display is so engaging that almost any 2D content looks great "in the round"! Check out examples in the OmniGlobeŽ Gallery.

Any graphic or information that represents a global map or image, or sequence of maps or images, can be re-projected on the spherical OmniGlobeŽ screen with the correct geometry using ARC software. For the most common geometric map projection (the world as a latitude-longitude grid), the exhibitor/presenter can easily do this with ARC's OmniExplorer™ software. Beyond single images and "slide show" sequences, ARC supports content in the form of "canned" movies or Animated sequences. Distinctions between the two are:

Movies can be of long duration and high quality, and take full advantage of features of conventional animation creation tools. But interaction is limited to functions such as starting and stopping and switching between two or more movies. The orientation of the displayed globe also cannot be changed but movies are great for playing canned presentations the same way over and over again. Movies may also include audio.
Animated Sequences have the advantage of a high level of interactivity including 1) moving forward or back through the sequence, 2) jumping to any point of interest, and 3) easily changing the orientation and rotation of the globe. Because animated sequences are much less compressed than movies, the playback speed is less and may not appear as smooth as a movie.

Examples of other content available for the OmniGlobeŽ include The Diurnal Earth (rotating earth with night lights), The sun, planets, and major moons of the solar system, oceanography, atmospheric sciences, climate change, plate-tectonics, glaciations, volcanoes & earthquakes, historical simulations and much more. Check out the Availabe Content page of our website to see images of all the content we currently have available for the OmniGlobeŽ or click Below for a printable PDF list.