Download - Geo-Spatial Virtual Environments Visualization of Geographical Information in 3D

Visualization of Geographical Information in 3D, 27 June 2003

Geo-Spatial Virtual Environments

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Visualization of Geographical Information in 3D

Eduardo S. Dias

FEWEB / [email protected]

mailto:[email protected]



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Index…

• Introduction to cartography • Why 3D• Basic Maths• Virtual Environments• Visualization of terrains• Applications



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CARTOGRAPHY AND VISUALIZATION

Graphical presentation of information has a long history, and some of the earliest extant graphical presentations are maps.

Cartography has had, and continues to have, an important role to play in the graphical presentation of geospatial information



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CARTOGRAPHY AND VISUALIZATION

Definition of Cartography

The transformation that takes place when information is depicted in a way that can be perceived encouraging the senses to exploit the spatial structure of the portrayal as it is interpreted.

The representations are usually graphical, but may also be haptic or audible, or involve elements that mix other senses with sight.



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Cognitive science (Role of media)

The media used to help on the perception of spatial information may have four types of functions according to cognition science:

· the function of demonstration, · the function of putting into context,· the function of construction,· the function of motivation.



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when developing a system to visualize and perceive spatial information

Attention to cognitive processes of:

· Short term memories limited cognitive capacity;

· To increase important information;

· To avoid the overload of a single sense;

· To support double encoding if information.



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Why 3D visualization:

• Provides an effective way of presenting large amounts of complex information to a wide audience, including those with no GIS or mapping experience.

• It allows the user to relate the information to reality more easily and can give a realistic picture of future changes in the landscape.



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"I" factors in creating GeoVirtual environments:

· Immersion,· Interactivity,· Information intensity,· Intelligence of objects



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Types of 3D

3D

AnalogueDigital

Realrepresentation

Schematicdata

Maps2,5 D

Examples

Come back tothis one later



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Examples of 3D types• Real representation

– Aerial photographs



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Examples of 3D types• Schematic data

– Maps



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Textures

• Bring realism to the objects• May add extra information



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Textures



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VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENTS

• Non-immersive virtual reality:– Increasingly based on the Internet (www.web3d.org);

• M screen– for broad audiences;

• XL screen– Mobile

• S screen

http://www.web3d.org/



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OTHER SYNTHETIC EXPERIENCES

• Role of sound:– To represent multidimensional data– To represent parameters that change in time– Outliers and extreme values can be highlighted– Locate sources of information that are outside of the field of view

in VE’s



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OTHER SYNTHETIC EXPERIENCES

• Haptic feedback– Force feedback– Feeling shapes and textures– www.sensable.com



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VISUALISATION OF TERRAINS

• Digital Terrain Models draped with photo-textures• Rendering in real time applies Level-of-Detail

Management (LOD) and wavelets



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INTERACTION WITH TERRAINS

• Virtual reality based interfaces• Interoperability between geographical information

systems (GIS) and virtual environments• Interfaces for virtual environments based on filters • Interfaces for virtual environments based on sketching



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• Plan preparation communication tool



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• High-speed train network• Green ecological networks• Urban sprawl• New policies on agriculture• Environmental management• New airports

Spatial planning more complicated



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Major risks

• Spatial planning is only important for a very small part of the population

• Plans which have democratic / political fiat can’t be implemented or with big delays

• Gap between governmental bodies and people involved is widening



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Bridging the gap ?



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The bottom-lines of a “new” approach

• Transparency to inhabitants and entreprises involved

• High quality mapping of current and future situation

• Realistic “real world” images

• geo-information Infrastructure which support open plan process and participation



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• Build a fly-over tool with altitude constraints: the user cannot approach the ground

• Include a dedicated interface with features such as pre-defined paths and pre-set points of interest (virtual sightseeing)

• Include links to multimedia information• Include multiple layers for comparison purposes• Possibility of including CAD models

Major goals



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Process

• The demo has integrated textures from top views of the terrain with an elevation map and a customized user interface on top of the software VIRTOOLS

VIRTOOLStexture

elevation map

interface design

flyover



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Objectives

Develop a VR Toolbox for rapid Spatial Planning application development and distribution.

DATA MANAGEMENT

INTERFACE CONFIGURATION

USER INTERACTION

OUTPUT SOLUTIONS

Stream Line

Process

VR Toolbox

Set ofComponents

PerformingSpecific

ProceduresAnd tasks

Virtual LandscapeViewer



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Development Environment

• Limited Resources (time and budget)• Maximum flexibility

VR Toolkit: VirtoolsTM • Computer Graphic Primitives • Behavioral Server (Internet Server)• Web Player plug in• Easy to use (graphical programming)• Modular programming• Low cost solution



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Data Management Data Normalization

3D Models

videos, images and sounds

OrthophotosSatellite images

Digital Elevation Models (DEM)

Virtools NMOGeoTIFF

MP3, wavDEM Raw format

Arc View3DStudio, LightWavePhotoshopGeoTIFF converter

Formats Commercial ToolsSimplification

Selection

Conversion

Formatting

NORMALISATION



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Data Management Constructor

MAPPERGeographical Image composition and

splitting

TERRAIN GENERATORCreate terrain pages

(mesh + textures)

SCENARIO GENERATORSpecial Effects (fog, dynamic textures)

Object compositionMultimedia linking

CONSTRUCTOR

Internal Graphical Data Base

Proprietary formats(DEM, terrain

textures, layers)Normalized

Data



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Data Management Linker/Parser

External Data Base

External Data Base

…

External Data Base

Internal Graphical Data Base

LINKER

Key identifier: • Id (link to objects)

• Geographical Coordinates (Link to spatial information)

PARSER

• Standard Data Forms• Visualization• Simulations

Visual Landscape Viewer



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Interfaces

Easy to useIntuitive

Fun


• Graphical User Interfaces (2D & 3D elements)

• Dynamic interface (content sensitive)• Sound and image recognition• Hardware interfaces • Security/Access restriction• Help (intelligent agents)



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User Interaction


• Navigation (How to go…)– Paths, viewpoints, free-fly, fixed layer-fly;– Maps, buttons, shortcuts.

• Visualization (Show me…)– Objects, Layers

• Querying (Where is it…)– ID,

• Simulation (What if…)– Raster (Cellular Automata), Vectorial (Object Oriented)



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• Structural Aspects– Information Layers

1.DEM2.Textures (orthophotos)3.3D Models (buildings, layers)4.Multimedia

• Technology– LOD ------------ Wavelets– Paging ------------ Wavelets (Progressive loading)– Remote Server Distribution Management

Output Solutions



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Output Module

– Print (file and printer) – Reports (user action, Query results,

Statistics)– Export interactive sections

- VR Module (HMD, Cave, Augmented Reality)

- Mobile access

- High quality video output - Photo realistic Image rendering

Professional• Planning

Public Participation • Interactive Planning• Interactive Discussion forums

Media• Dissemination/Communication• Interactive TV

Intranet, Internet, CD-ROM



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Edmundo NobreFCT-UNL | YDreams | May 2003

Conclusions

• Communication Tool• Technology for the people• Open development process



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• Hardware requirements?

• Software requirements?

• Geographic Data?

• Implementation?

Questions?



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“... the world portrayed on our information displays is caught up in the two-dimensionality of the endless flatlands of paper and

videoscreen ... Escaping this flatland is the essential task of envisioning information - for all the interesting worlds (physical,

biological, imaginary, human) that we seek to understand are inevitably and happily multivariate in nature. Not flatlands".

E. R. Tufte (1990)

Download - Geo-Spatial Virtual Environments Visualization of Geographical Information in 3D

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