Authors:
Frank Steinicke
;
Timo Ropinski
;
Klaus Hinrichs
and
Jörg Mensmann
Affiliation:
Institut für Informatik, WWU Münster, Germany
Keyword(s):
Urban planning, virtual reality, user interfaces, interaction metaphors.
Related
Ontology
Subjects/Areas/Topics:
Advanced User Interfaces
;
Augmented, Mixed and Virtual Environments
;
Computer Vision, Visualization and Computer Graphics
;
Interactive Environments
Abstract:
Virtual reality based geographic information systems (VRGIS) have been successfully employed for urban planning and architectural design in recent years. Tracking technologies and stereoscopic visualization of three-dimensional structures allow a better insight into complex datasets. Unfortunately, these systems often lack intuitive interaction concepts and therefore reduce VRGIS to advanced visualization environments, since manipulation of the content is not or only rudimentarily possible. In this paper, we present a geographic information system for urban planning tasks in semi-immersive virtual reality (VR) systems. The objective of this approach is to provide professional city planners with an enhanced VR interface, which enables comfortable interaction concepts similar to the interactions of the real-world planning task. To assure the usability and relevance of the developed system, urban planners have cooperated closely in the development process. In this paper both the hard- a
nd software architecture of the entire system as well as VR related interaction metaphors and their evaluation are discussed.
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