As the size and dimensionality of big heterogeneous data increases, finding patterns and anomalies with existing visualization methods and tools poses a significant challenge. The majority of open data platforms that offer smart city data visualizations use browser-based two-dimensional (2D) visualizations as 2D displays are widely adopted. These displays are however ineffective in depicting multi-dimensional heterogeneous data. The recent growth in the virtual reality (VR) consumer market resulted in an affordable alternative for 3D visualizations. In this paper, we propose a VR system capable of visualizing real-time smart city data concerning the city of Brussels. A subset of external data sources that is already visualized in existing web platforms is incorporated in the VR application. A user study is conducted to assess perceived workloads and data immersion parameters for a set of data exploration tasks in three existing web platforms and in the proposed VR system. Results indicate significantly lower levels of perceived frustration and significantly higher levels of data intuitivity, immersion, overview in data, and intuitive interaction. However, no significant difference in total perceived workload is observed.
Vanden Broucke, S & Deligiannis, N 2019, Visualization of real-time heterogeneous smart city data using virtual reality. in 5th IEEE International Smart Cities Conference, ISC2 2019., 9071699, IEEE, pp. 685-690, the IEEE International Smart Cities Conference, Casablanca, Morocco, 14/10/19. https://doi.org/10.1109/ISC246665.2019.9071699
Vanden Broucke, S., & Deligiannis, N. (2019). Visualization of real-time heterogeneous smart city data using virtual reality. In 5th IEEE International Smart Cities Conference, ISC2 2019 (pp. 685-690). Article 9071699 IEEE. https://doi.org/10.1109/ISC246665.2019.9071699
@inproceedings{1779bfee1f6148da9fe8db050d6bc8ee,
title = "Visualization of real-time heterogeneous smart city data using virtual reality",
abstract = "As the size and dimensionality of big heterogeneous data increases, finding patterns and anomalies with existing visualization methods and tools poses a significant challenge. The majority of open data platforms that offer smart city data visualizations use browser-based two-dimensional (2D) visualizations as 2D displays are widely adopted. These displays are however ineffective in depicting multi-dimensional heterogeneous data. The recent growth in the virtual reality (VR) consumer market resulted in an affordable alternative for 3D visualizations. In this paper, we propose a VR system capable of visualizing real-time smart city data concerning the city of Brussels. A subset of external data sources that is already visualized in existing web platforms is incorporated in the VR application. A user study is conducted to assess perceived workloads and data immersion parameters for a set of data exploration tasks in three existing web platforms and in the proposed VR system. Results indicate significantly lower levels of perceived frustration and significantly higher levels of data intuitivity, immersion, overview in data, and intuitive interaction. However, no significant difference in total perceived workload is observed.",
keywords = "Data and knowledge visualization, Visualization Applications, Big Data",
author = "{Vanden Broucke}, Steven and Nikolaos Deligiannis",
year = "2019",
month = oct,
doi = "10.1109/ISC246665.2019.9071699",
language = "English",
pages = "685--690",
booktitle = "5th IEEE International Smart Cities Conference, ISC2 2019",
publisher = "IEEE",
note = "the IEEE International Smart Cities Conference : (ISC2 2019) ; Conference date: 14-10-2019 Through 17-10-2019",
}