Abstract
Abstract. The use of both 3D visualization and devices with touch displays is increasing. In this paper, we focused on the Web technologies for 3D visualization of spatial data and its interaction via touch screen gestures. At the first stage, we compared the support of touch interaction in selected JavaScript libraries on different hardware (desktop PCs with touch screens, tablets, and smartphones) and software platforms. Afterward, we realized simple empiric test (within-subject design, 6 participants, 2 simple tasks, LCD touch monitor Acer and digital terrain models as stimuli) focusing on the ability of users to solve simple spatial tasks via touch screens. An in-house testing web tool was developed and used based on JavaScript, PHP, and X3DOM languages and Hammer.js libraries. The correctness of answers, speed of users’ performances, used gestures, and a simple gesture metric was recorded and analysed. Preliminary results revealed that the pan gesture is most frequently used by test participants and it is also supported by the majority of 3D libraries. Possible gesture metrics and future developments including the interpersonal differences are discussed in the conclusion.
Highlights
The use of 3D visualization of spatial data is becoming very important in many fields and with regard to different particular tasks
We focused on the interactive 3D visualization and on its interaction with spatial data via touch screens
Based on the increasing support of touch interaction in available web libraries for 3D visualization, we studied the availability and user performance on different hardware and software platforms
Summary
The use of 3D visualization of spatial data is becoming very important in many fields and with regard to different particular tasks. The existing empirical studies on 3D visualizations and the different conceptual aspects were analysed by Lokka and Coltekin (2016) and Coltekin et al (2016) explicitly naming tasks, stimuli, and users as the key factors. Both papers stressed the necessity to conduct further empirical studies in order to understand the specific usefulness and usability of 3D visualizations. We decided to in analysing both the technological (interaction is a part of stimuli) and the user aspects of interaction with 3D models using the touch screen in this paper
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