Domebook

Dmebook is a visualisation of Facebook friendship networks developed especially for the Potsdam Powerdome. It is an impressive way of exploring the connections between different groups of friends.

The interactive visualisation is based on data on Facebook friends from selected profiles. Using the Facebook app "GiveMeMyData", this data can be extracted and processed in machine-readable format. Domebook, programmed with processing, reads this data and analyses the friendships in particular. So: Which of my friends are also friends with each other? If two such "mutuals" are found, they are drawn closer together in the room. The algorithm behind this is based on the force-directional-graph system, a physical system in which various attractive and repulsive forces can be set. This creates a dynamic network and groups of relationships become recognisable.

Domebook was created in the course "Immersive Datenvisualisierung" under the direction of Prof. Boris Müller. The works to be developed were explicitly intended to go beyond pure static data visualisation and be experienced in the Powerdome, Potsdam's 360° dome projection system. From the outset, domebook was developed specifically for this purpose as a three-dimensional universe and now only needed to be expanded to include the possibility of control.

Various input media were investigated for this purpose. However, none of the common options such as Kinect, Wii or the Space Navigator, a kind of joystick for three-dimensional space, delivered promising results. Marc Tiedemann therefore developed his own control system based on the iPhone's compass function. All the user has to do is point the device in the desired direction, press a button on the display and "fly" off through the data galaxy.