3D-Navigation in Virtual Information Spaces: From Text-Based Retrieval to Cognitive User Interaction

Abstract

The information management of increasing masses of information has become a key problem of today’s communication and information technologies. Due to the complexity of data and an information overload in databases, the access to information, namely the design of user interfaces, becomes an important factor. A new quality in the Human Machine Interaction is achieved by the modeling of abstract information spaces. In contrast to the traditional information retrieval by exact-matching and Boolean retrieval operations, Virtual Reality Interfaces allow for an interactive exploration of the information space by navigation and browsing (information access). This quasi-heuristic search for information simplifies the retrieval process as a result of the reformulation of the text-oriented retrieval dialogue with a cognitive user interaction. The Daten- und Rechenzentrum at the GeoForschungsZentrum Potsdam has developed GEOLISFGFZ, a metainformation system, which handles information on all geoscientific object types. In order to achieve a wide acceptance the information retrieval is implemented on the basis of WWW-browsers. On the application side there are the Information Broker and the Navigator available for the information retrieval. The scientist is supported by the Information Broker when exploring and making use of information resources, whereas in case of indistinct search criteria the Navigator supports the traditional retrieval process. The Knowledge Browser in GEOLISGFZ has been designed as a visual 3D-User Interface for the support of the text-oriented information retrieval; high demands were made on the Knowledge Browser referring to the user’s needs. The Knowledge Browser consists of two main functions, the Information Processor that classifies the retrieval results and the VRML-Converter that dynamically creates a virtual information space based on the classification structure. This 3D-Retrieval Interface is platform- independent and is available within the standard WWW-browser technology.