INTERACTIVE SAND-COVERED TERRAIN SURFACE MODEL WITH HAPTIC FEEDBACK
Václav, Purchart, Ivana Ivana, Kolingerová, Bedrich, Benes · 2011
We describe a method for an intuitive haptic rendering and modeling of GIS terrain models represented as triangular irregular networks (TIN). The TIN terrain model does not allow representation of concavities and overhangs but it is sufficient for most GIS applications. Model editing is achieved by a set of virtual tools with various shapes which are controlled by a haptic device with force feedback. The haptic feedback makes manipulation with the terrain model much more intuitive than by the mouse, because it operates in 3D and it also provides better control with the force. The haptic device is point-based, so the forces provided by different tools must be mapped to a point. This, in effect, helps eliminating certain vibrations that could be caused by numerical errors and insufficient scene sampling. Our approach allows an adaptive adjustment of the level of detail of the model according to the terrain properties and user requirements. Haptic visualization in GIS models has been already used but such solutions are not common. Unlike existing approaches, our solution uses a general shape of the tool, it allows interactive editing of the TIN model, and it utilizes parallelism and coherence between consecutive states of the model that make haptic visualization faster and smoother.