MapStack: Exploring Multilayered Geospatial Data In Virtual Reality

Maxim Spur (1, 2, 3) , Vincent Tourre (1, 2, 3) , Erwan David (4, 5) , Guillaume Moreau (1, 2, 3) , Patrick Le Callet (5, 4)

1 AAU - Ambiances, Architectures, Urbanités
2 CRENAU - Centre de recherche nantais Architectures Urbanités
3 ECN - École Centrale de Nantes
4 LS2N - équipe IPI - Image Perception Interaction
5 LS2N - Laboratoire des Sciences du Numérique de Nantes

Virtual reality (VR) headsets offer a large and immersive workspace for displaying visualizations with stereo-scopic vision, compared to traditional environments with monitors or printouts. The controllers for these devices further allow direct three-dimensional interaction with the virtual environment. In this paper, we make use of these advantages to implement a novel multiple and coordinated view (MCV) in the form of a vertical stack, showing tilted layers of geospatial data to facilitate an understanding of multi-layered maps. A formal study based on a use-case from urbanism that requires cross-referencing four layers of geospatial urban data augments our arguments for it by comparing it to more conventional systems similarly implemented in VR: a simpler grid of layers, and switching (blitting) layers on one map. Performance and oculometric analyses showed an advantage of the two spatial-multiplexing methods (the grid or the stack) over the temporal mul-tiplexing in blitting. Overall, users tended to prefer the stack, be ambivalent to the grid, and show dislike for the blitting map. Perhaps more interestingly, we were also able to associate preferences in systems with user characteristics and behavior.

Mots clés: Coordinated And Multiple Views; Virtual Reality; Geospatial Data Visualization; Immersive Analytics

Domaines: Interface homme-machine [cs.HC]; Architecture, aménagement de l'espace; Synthèse d'image et réalité virtuelle [cs.GR]

Maxim Spur, Vincent Tourre, Erwan David, Guillaume Moreau, Patrick Le Callet. MapStack: Exploring Multilayered Geospatial Data In Virtual Reality. 11th International Conference on Information Visualization Theory and Applications, Feb 2020, Valletta, Malta. pp.88-99, ⟨10.5220/0008978600880099⟩. ⟨hal-02932169⟩