Last week, I have presented part of my research in the 29th annual conference of the European Association for Computer Graphics (EUROGRAPHICS 2008). The conference was held in Crete, Greece, 14th to 18th of April. The title of my paper is ‘Evaluation of a Mobile MR Geovisualisation Interface’. This paper presents experimental results of a mobile mixed reality interface designed for geovisualization of 3D realistic urban environments which allows dynamic switching between three visualization domains: a virtual reality; an augmented reality and a mixed reality interface to get the best possible representation for visual exploration. On each domain, four different types of geovisualisation and navigation aids can be superimposed including geo-referenced 3D maps, 2D digital maps, spatial 3D sound and 3D/2D textual annotations. Interaction is performed using keyboard, mouse, menus and tangible ways.
To gather user requirements about urban and virtual navigation and to assess the effectiveness of mobile interface, a two-stage evaluation was performed. The expert-user evaluation, showed that speed, FOV, eye-level view, orientation, road signs, landmarks, volume of urban structures and weather conditions are important issues in urban navigation. Paper maps are still preferred but the use of digital maps has become very common. The main results of the quantitative evaluation showed that for visual exploration the VR domain was the most successful. In terms of navigational assistance the 3D map was found to be the most effective medium. Moreover, the combination of the 3D map with spatial 3D sound and a 2D digital map with textual annotations was found beneficial. In terms of interaction, participants preferred natural techniques.
A copy of the article can be downoaded from here.