Title
Information measures for terrain visualization.
Abstract
Many quantitative and qualitative studies in geoscience research are based on digital elevation models (DEMs) and 3D surfaces to aid understanding of natural and anthropogenically-influenced topography. As well as their quantitative uses, the visual representation of DEMs can add valuable information for identifying and interpreting topographic features. However, choice of viewpoints and rendering styles may not always be intuitive, especially when terrain data are augmented with digital image texture. In this paper, an information-theoretic framework for object understanding is applied to terrain visualization and terrain view selection. From a visibility channel between a set of viewpoints and the component polygons of a 3D terrain model, we obtain three polygonal information measures. These measures are used to visualize the information associated with each polygon of the terrain model. In order to enhance the perception of the terrain's shape, we explore the effect of combining the calculated information measures with the supplementary digital image texture. From polygonal information, we also introduce a method to select a set of representative views of the terrain model. Finally, we evaluate the behaviour of the proposed techniques using example datasets. A publicly available framework for both the visualization and the view selection of a terrain has been created in order to provide the possibility to analyse any terrain model. HighlightsInformation theory framework for terrain visualization.Polygonal information is used to enhance the terrain visualization.N-best view algorithm based on viewpoint quality measures.Publicly available framework.
Year
DOI
Venue
2017
10.1016/j.cageo.2016.10.007
Computers & Geosciences
Keywords
Field
DocType
Information measures,Best view selection,Elevation model,Photorealistic,Lidar
Data mining,Computer vision,Polygon,Visualization,Topographic map,Computer science,Terrain,Digital elevation model,Artificial intelligence,Terrain rendering,Rendering (computer graphics),Raised-relief map
Journal
Volume
Issue
ISSN
99
C
0098-3004
Citations 
PageRank 
References 
0
0.34
6
Authors
6
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Xavier Bonaventura192.59
Sima, A.291.62
Miquel Feixas363745.61
Simon John Buckley4242.69
Mateu Sbert51108123.95
John Anthony Howell610.72