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Geo-Spatial Virtual Environments
Visualization of Geographical Information in 3D
Eduardo S. Dias
FEWEB / [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
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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
Visual Landscape Viewer
• 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
Visual Landscape Viewer
• 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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Visual Landscape Viewer
• 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)