3d Urban Geovisualization: In Situ Augmented and Mixed Reality Experiments

Abstract

<p><strong>Abstract.</strong> In this paper, we assume that augmented reality (AR) and mixed reality (MR) are relevant contexts for 3D urban geovisualization, especially in order to support the design of the urban spaces. We propose to design an in situ MR application, that could be helpful for urban designers, providing tools to interactively remove or replace buildings in situ. This use case requires advances regarding existing geovisualization methods. We highlight the need to adapt and extend existing 3D geovisualization pipelines, in order to adjust the specific requirements for AR/MR applications, in particular for data rendering and interaction. In order to reach this goal, we focus on and implement four elementary in situ and ex situ AR/MR experiments: each type of these AR/MR experiments helps to consider and specify a specific subproblem, i.e. scale modification, pose estimation, matching between scene and urban project realism, and the mix of real and virtual elements through portals, while proposing occlusion handling, rendering and interaction techniques to solve them.</p>

The Immersive Mental Rotations Test: Evaluating Spatial Ability in Virtual Reality

“…Concurrently, access to and the production of 3D spatial data has undergone a significant transformation, empowering those with common consumer electronics (e.g., smartphones and computers) with an ability to generate what once required significant capital expenditures and highly specialized equipment. In the realm of geographic visualization (or geovisualization) these advancements have led to new forms of data exploration and interaction, allowing users to immerse themselves within spatial data for the purposes of visualization, analysis, collaboration, and communication (e.g., Devaux et al, 2018;Lochhead and Hedley, 2018;Hruby et al, 2019;Zhao et al, 2019;Filho et al, 2020;Pulver et al, 2020;Çöltekin et al, 2020;Rydvanskiy and Hedley, 2021).…”

An Efficient, Platform-Independent Map Rendering Framework for Mobile Augmented Reality

“…It is not designed for AR-GIS map symbolization and mapping, as it does not address packaging of map layers, object avoidance, map management, or other issues. It also does not include AR map wrappers for real scene mapping, spatial modeling masking, or other scenarios [31,32]. Therefore, it is not possible to display large-scale map data directly.…”

Extended Reality in Spatial Sciences: A Review of Research Challenges and Future Directions

“…Here, we present two in situ MR examples. The first application allows the users to manipulate the urban design by 'removing' existing buildings and adding virtual ones [133] (Figure 7). To mask the existing building, one must project new, altered perspectives.…”