Penticton Museum has unveiled an extraordinary new educational tool for public programming called an Augmented Reality Sandbox. Similar to one at UCLA (watch UCLA’s YouTube video here), the Augmented Reality Sandbox allows users to shift and sculpt the sand into mountains, canyons and rivers. As the sand is shifted and changed, it is recorded by a 3D camera suspended above the sandbox. Software in the camera then interprets the changing landscapes and projects images based on the topography onto the sand’s surface, demonstrating concepts surrounding geology, erosion, water behaviour, and changing landscapes. The software can also do things like change water levels, increase/decrease the amount of virtual water in the sandbox system, and run simulations involving rain, dam failure and even volcanic eruptions.