EyeJack worked closely with Karlka Nyiyaparli Aboriginal Corporation and Roy Hill to digitally enhance the incredible 'Nyiyaparli Flora' ethnobotanical cultural heritage book which documents important cultural knowledge and showcases much of the diverse flora that exists on Nyiyaparli Country in the Eastern Pilbara region of Western Australia. The result was a digital twin of the book that provided new ways to explore the content, combined with augmented reality, it unlocked another dimensionality to the stories, culture and knowledge within the pages.

The first phase of work centred around using the EyeJack app to expand hero pages within the book using Augmented Reality content. This consisted of documentary footage including interviews with the community for their expert knowledge as well as bespoke real-time 3D animations bringing the stories behind the flora to life.

Digital Twin

Creating a digital twin of the book opened up exciting opportunities for new ways of interacting with the content. It made it possible to instantly explore the information by category, scientific groups, text search, traditional uses of the flora and even colour! We designed a data visualisation consisting of dots which dynamically re-arranged on screen based on search criteria, each dot representing a particular flora from the book. The datavis provides a birds eye view, revealing the interconnected relationships between the flora.

Nyiyaparli Flora Book - digital twin flora entry for Partirri, Acacia inaequilatera, a yellow wattle blossom against blue sky with audio playback below

Nyiyaparli Flora Book - digital twin list view sorted by tags, an alphabetical index running from arid and bark through bees and bloom

Nyiyaparli Flora Book - digital twin list view sorted by colour, a swatch strip beside entries for Yarrkurtu, Jalkupurta, Parlpinypa and Kurara

Nyiyaparli Flora Book - digital twin datavis grouped by plant family, dots gathering under Proteaceae and Malvaceae with Munturru, Acacia pyrifolia, named

Nyiyaparli Flora Book - digital twin free text search narrowing the dots to a single cluster around Kurnmi, Podaxis pistillaris, the black powder puff

Nyiyaparli Flora Book - digital twin datavis sorted by traditional use, dots ringing bush medicine, bush tucker and ceremonial icons on terracotta

The website version of the book is live and available here: nyiyaparliflora.com.au

Nyiyaparli Flora Book - contents spread opened beside a Pilbara landscape photograph, a phone scanning the Jirntalpa Karnti cover to trigger AR

Nyiyaparli Flora Book - spread of wildflower, spinifex and salt flat photographs, a phone playing AR documentary footage of a man speaking in grassland

Nyiyaparli Flora Book - Kapumarta bush tomato spread, a phone beside it showing the 3D AR plant in purple flower on red soil

Nyiyaparli Flora Book - Jakarlu onion weed spread showing bulbs held in a palm, a phone at right playing the AR video overlay

Nyiyaparli Flora Book - Nyumaru northern sandalwood spread, a phone at left showing the 3D AR shrub standing on red sand