Urban City Planning in Semi-Immersive Virtual Reality Systems.

Frank Steinicke Hamburg University Timo Ropinski Ulm University Klaus Hinrichs Jörg Mensmann

2006

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- and software architecture of the entire system as well as VR related interaction metaphors and their evaluation are discussed.

Bibtex

content_copy

@inproceedings{steinicke2006urban,
	title={Urban City Planning in Semi-Immersive Virtual Reality Systems.},
	author={Steinicke, Frank and Ropinski, Timo and Hinrichs, Klaus and Mensmann, J{\"o}rg},
	year={2006},
	pages={192--199},
	editor={Braz, Jos{\'e} and Jorge, Joaquim A. and Sales Dias, Miguel and Marcos, Ad{\'e}rito}
}