Context Aware Terrain Visualization for Wayfinding and Navigation

Abstract

To assist wayfinding and navigation, the display of maps and driving directions on mobile devices is nowadays commonplace. While existing system can naturally exploit GPS information to facilitate orientation, the inherently limited screen space is often perceived as a drawback compared to traditional street maps as it constrains the perception of contextual information. Moreover, occlusion issues add to this problem if the environment is shown from the popular egocentric perspective.In this paper we describe an interactive visualization system that addresses these problems by reallocating the available screen space. At the heart of our system are three novel visualization techniques: First, we propose a non-standard perspective that allows to blend between the familiar pedestrian perspective and a standard map depiction with reduced occlusion. Second, we derive an efficient deformation technique that allows an interactive allocation of screen space to areas of interest like e.g. nearby touristic attractions. Finally, a path adaptive isometric perspective is proposed that reveals otherwise hidden facades in top-down views. We describe efficient implementations of all techniques and exemplify our interactive system on real world urban models.