The NInA Framework - Using Gesture to Improve Interaction and Collaboration in Geographical Information Systems

Abstract

Nowadays, Geographical Information Systems (GIS) have expanded their functionalities including larger interactive displays exploration of spatiotemporal data with several views. These systems maintain a traditional navigation method based on keyboard and mouse, interaction devices not well suited for large screens nor for collaborative work. This paper aims at showing the applicability of new devices to fill the usability gap for the scenario of large screens presentation, interaction and collaboration. New gesture-based devices have been proposed and adopted in games and medical applications, for example. This paper presents the NInA Framework, which allows an integration of natural user interface (NUI) on GIS, with the advantage of being expandable, as new demands are posed to that systems. The validation process of our NInA Kinect-based framework was made through user experiments involving specialists and non-specialists in TerrainViewer, a geographical information system, as well as experts and non-experts in the Kinect technology. The results showed that a NUI approach demands a short learning time, with just a couple of interactions and instructions, and the user is ready to go. Moreover, the users demonstrated greater satisfaction, leading to their productivity improvement.