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Development and Evaluation of a Tangible Terrain Representation System for Highway Route Planning
Author(s) -
Makanae Koji,
Dawood Nashwan
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
computer‐aided civil and infrastructure engineering
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.773
H-Index - 82
eISSN - 1467-8667
pISSN - 1093-9687
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-8667.2008.00582.x
Subject(s) - terrain , computer science , human–computer interaction , usability , virtual reality , representation (politics) , interface (matter) , augmented reality , systems engineering , simulation , engineering , geography , cartography , bubble , maximum bubble pressure method , politics , parallel computing , political science , law
In recent years, mixed or/and augmented reality, which aims to integrate virtual space with real space, has received a significant amount of attention in research and development. In particular, the concept of a tangible interface is an interesting research area in this growing field of study. This article develops and evaluates a tangible terrain representation system (TTRS), a tangible interface that recognizes the terrain in three dimensions and provides a more efficient approach to highway route planning and design. The developed system represents a terrain surface by controlling the shape of a stretchable screen using 64 actuators (8 × 8) and by projecting an aerial photograph on a screen. In applying TTRS to highway route planning, the user establishes control points using a magnetic positioning device and projects the image of a highway alignment on the TTRS. The developed system was evaluated by comparing its usability to an alternative system (virtual reality‐based visual three‐dimensional representation) using a group of evaluators at Miyagi University, Japan. The article concludes that TTRS is an effective tool for terrain representation and highway route planning and design .