Computing visibility maps on a digital terrain model

Abstract

In this paper, we present a model based on a collection of nested horizons to describe the visibility of a terrain with respect to a viewpoint. We introduce first a formalization of mathematical and digital terrain models, and some background notions for visibility problems on terrains. Then, we define horizons and shadows on a polyhedral terrain, and introduce a few horizon-based visibility maps of a terrain. Finally, we present two algorithms for building the nested horizons on a polyhedral terrain. An application to the solution of point-to-point visibility queries are briefly discussed.KeywordsDigital Terrain ModelActive EdgeSweep ProcessVisible PortionVisibility QueryThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.