A 2D/3D hybrid geographical information system

Abstract

We present a unique Geographical Information System (GIS) that seamlessly integrates 2D and 3D views of the same spatial and aspatial data. Multiple layers of information are continuously transformed between the 2D and 3D modes under the control of the user, directly over a base-terrain.Although 2D/3D hybrid (or combination) displays are now widely used in medical applications such as tomography, they have not been explored to any great extent in GIS applications. And although many existing commercial 3D GIS systems have 2D views they are typically isolated from the 3D view in that they are presented in a separate window. In this paper we introduce a 2D/3D hybrid GIS that allows the user to view the 2D data in direct relation to the 3D view within the same view.