Interactive 3D Maps Research Articles

Venice's Nissology. Mapping and Modelling Venice's Aquascape in a Historical Perspective

In the historical tradition, Venice is a city without walls and gates, and hence lacking suburbs. The project Venice's Nissology (VeNiss) reverses this trope by examining the urban, political, and cultural patterns connecting the capital with its lagoon archipelago through a web interactive 3D map, intended for researchers and the wider public alike. This is a geo-­spatial semantic infrastructure that, as a sort of historical Google maps, enables a journey through time and space to discover and visualise the layered histories of Venice's over sixty ‘domestic' islands. VeNiss tells a story of half a millennium, starting from the sixteenth century, the very moment in which the city began consciously to structure its lagoon territory. Allowing users to navigate across the digital historical lagoon, the research platform brings the once densely-­populated islands to life in their physical appearance as well as in their social arrangement. Through bi-­ and three-­ dimensional digital models interwoven with pertinent historical information, the online infrastructure helps investigate, interpret, and represent the long-­lasting dynamics of Venice's centre-­periphery relations, blending the physical and functional dimensions together and displaying them as an on-­going flow. By reframing the lagoon as a large-­scale ‘urban fringe', this project re-­evaluates the Venetian archipelago as the fundamental connective tissue of the city's political, socio-­economic, and cultural practices.

Toward cognitive digital twins using a BIM-GIS asset management system for a diffused university

The integrated use of building information modeling (BIM) and geographic information system (GIS) is promising for the development of asset management systems (AMSs) for operation and maintenance (O&M) in smart university campuses. The combination of BIM-GIS with cognitive digital twins (CDTs) can further facilitate the management of complex systems such as university building stock. CDTs enable buildings to behave as autonomous entities, dynamically reacting to environmental changes. Timely decisions based on the actual conditions of buildings and surroundings can be provided, both in emergency scenarios or when optimized and adaptive performances are required. The research aims to develop a BIM-GIS-based AMS for improving user experience and enabling the optimal use of resources in the O&M phase of an Italian university. Campuses are complex assets, mainly diffused with buildings spread across the territory, managed with still document-based and fragmented databases handled by several subjects. This results in incomplete and asymmetrical information, often leading to ineffective and untimely decisions. The paper presents a methodology for the development of a BIM-GIS web-based platform (i.e., AMS-app) providing the real-time visualization of the asset in an interactive 3D map connected to analytical dashboards for management support. Two buildings of the University of Turin are adopted as demonstrators, illustrating the development of an easily accessible, centralized database by integrating spatial and functional data, useful also to develop future CDTs. As a first attempt to show the AMS app potential, crowd simulations have been conducted to understand the buildings’ actual level of safety in case of fire emergency and demonstrate how CDTs could improve it. The identification of data needed, also gathered through the future implementation of suitable sensors and Internet of Things networks, is the core issue together with the definition of effective asset visualization and monitoring methods. Future developments will explore the integration of artificial intelligence and immersive technologies to enable space use optimization and real-time wayfinding during evacuation, exploiting digital tools to alert and drive users or authorities for safety improvement. The ability to easily optimize the paths with respect to the actual occupancy and conditions of both the asset and surroundings will be enabled.

Non-Visual Access to an Interactive 3D Map.

Maps are indispensable for helping people learn about unfamiliar environments and plan trips. While tactile (2D) and 3D maps offer non-visual map access to people who are blind or visually impaired (BVI), this access is greatly enhanced by adding interactivity to the maps: when the user points at a feature of interest on the map, the name and other information about the feature is read aloud in audio. We explore how the use of an interactive 3D map of a playground, containing over seventy play structures and other features, affects spatial learning and cognition. Specifically, we perform experiments in which four blind participants answer questions about the map to evaluate their grasp of three types of spatial knowledge: landmark, route and survey. The results of these experiments demonstrate that participants are able to acquire this knowledge, most of which would be inaccessible without the interactivity of the map.

Explorations in 3D web cartography

Abstract. Interactive 3D cartography has evolved substantially in the last years. New tools allow cartographers and mapping enthusiasts to create 3D web maps with a minimum effort. Technological advancements allow users to interact with 3D maps on a variety of devices, including their mobile phones or virtual reality glasses. As a result, many interactive 3D maps have been created, from which many insights on their design principles and creation process can be obtained. In this talk I will provide an overview of what is currently possible in 3D cartography and what are the current challenges and possible solutions when creating such maps. More precisely, the specifics of 3D symbology and rendering styles ranging from realistic to abstract will be discussed. In addition, 3D cartography is evolving with a heavy influence from different fields like games industry, art, data visualization or architecture, just to name a few. Hence, examples from some non-conventional 3D maps will be given that allow detecting features that come from such different fields and enhance the maps.

3D venous anatomy of the venous network of the lower limb

Introduction: The aim of this work is to build a new educational tool to better understand venous anatomy of the lower limbs by the help of embryology, Duplex color assessment and 3d modeling by CT venography (CTV) Materials and methods: Pictures of anatomical drawings from the Atlas book of Gillot [1] are illustrated and enhanced by the new imaging techniques of the venous system: 3D venography [2–5] and Color Duplex [6]. A multislice with 64 detectors spiral CT acquisition of the lower limb with contrast injection of the foot produces about 800 slices of the whole limb in 40 seconds. Image processing is done by VRT technique with 2 free softwares running on Macs: Osirix® [www.osirix.com] and Horos® [www.oros.com] Results: Interactive 3d modes are built in real time and movie files of a 360 degres rotation of this 3D model are easily exported to quicktime format. • Easy learning of the superficial venous network, perforators and their connection to the deep system, with the help of embryology • Explanation of the 3 venous compartments of the sural nerve pedicle and hemodynamics of the GSV and SSV termination • Pre-operative surgical assessment of complex /redo varices and congenital vascular malformations in addition to US Duplex and MRI. Discussion and conclusions: The VCT is a powerful tool to investigate the venous system of our patients with chronic venous disease, but it is providing no hemodynamical data, so an additional DUS (color duplex) is mandatory. It makes possible a virtual dissection of the limb, which gives an accurate and interactive 3d map of the whole limb in addition to the landmarks provided by the DUS skin marking before treatment. A lesson of anatomy is proposed, illustrated by a full Interactive use of 3D models. and illustrated by case reports with « virtual dissection » of the patients.

Evaluation of User Performance in Interactive and Static 3D Maps

Interactive 3D visualizations of geospatial data are currently available and popular through various applications such as Google EarthTM and others. Several studies have focused on user performance with 3D maps, but static 3D maps were mostly used as stimuli. The main objective of this paper was to identify differences between interactive and static 3D maps. We also explored the role of different tasks and inter-individual differences of map users. In the experimental study, we analyzed effectiveness, efficiency, and subjective preferences, when working with static and interactive 3D maps. The study included 76 participants and used a within-subjects design. Experimental testing was performed using our own testing tool 3DmoveR 2.0, which was based on a user logging method and open web technologies. We demonstrated statistically significant differences between interactive and static 3D maps in effectiveness, efficiency, and subjective preferences. Interactivity influenced the results mainly in ‘spatial understanding’ and ‘combined’ tasks. From the identified differences, we concluded that the results of the user studies with static 3D maps as stimuli could not be transferred to interactive 3D visualizations or virtual reality.

The Design and Testing of 3DmoveR: an Experimental Tool for Usability Studies of Interactive 3D Maps

Various widely available applications such as Google Earth have made interactive 3D visualizations of spatial data popular. While several studies have focused on how users perform when interacting with these with 3D visualizations, it has not been common to record their virtual movements in 3D environments or interactions with 3D maps. We therefore created and tested a new web-based research tool: a 3D Movement and Interaction Recorder (3DmoveR). Its design incorporates findings from the latest 3D visualization research, and is built upon an iterative requirements analysis. It is implemented using open web technologies such as PHP, JavaScript, and the X3DOM library. The main goal of the tool is to record camera position and orientation during a user’s movement within a virtual 3D scene, together with other aspects of their interaction. After building the tool, we performed an experiment to demonstrate its capabilities. This experiment revealed differences between laypersons and experts (cartographers) when working with interactive 3D maps. For example, experts achieved higher numbers of correct answers in some tasks, had shorter response times, followed shorter virtual trajectories, and moved through the environment more smoothly. Interaction-based clustering as well as other ways of visualizing and qualitatively analyzing user interaction were explored.

A line-feature label placement algorithm for interactive 3D map

In an interactive three-dimensional (3D) map, the relief of the terrain can obstruct annotations. As the perspective moves and rotates freely in 3D space, the occlusion relationship among annotations changes accordingly. The direction of a line in general definitively influences the orientations of the characters in its annotation label, which affects its readability. Furthermore, a line that extends deep into 3D space requires annotation-reference line segments at different scales because the distant parts of a line appear less detailed than closer ones, and the positioning of the text of its annotation should be adjusted accordingly. In this paper, a rule set for 3D interactive map line-feature annotations is proposed and a screen-based line-feature annotation-placement algorithm is implemented. The purpose of our algorithm is to ensure that the annotations are readable from multiple angles, not obstructed by other annotations, terrains, or artificial structures, convey the directions of the lines, and conform to the traditional positioning preferences in cartography.

All aboard the Titanic

RSS TITANIC will never be raised from her resting place two and a half miles down. She can however be raised virtually for all to explore thanks to a new 3D map. April will see the first release of a 'virtual' Titanic, an enormously detailed interactive 3D map that will allow those of us who cannot afford $60,000 for a submersible dive an experience similar to diving down two and a half miles to the wreck itself.