Engaging Outdoor User Experience Based on High Fidelity 3D Terrain Representation on Mobile Apps

Abstract

In recent years, several mobile devices with excellent performances have become accessible to people at affordable prices. The availability of this equipment, especially in the mobile sector, has encouraged research and development of increasingly complex applications ("Apps") for the visualization of large-scale scenes. However, 3D maps typically available through mobile version of so-called "spinning globes" do not allow the use of high definition data, due to their hardware limitations compared to desktop devices. As a result it often happens that a final user is navigating a real life familiar area, without being able to recognize its orography or specific features that are typical of the real world due to the poor resolution of the underlying 3D geometry. This is particularly amplified within mountain areas where crests, ridges and valleys are not adequately represented, due to the low resolution of the underlying digital terrain model, severely limiting the user's experience. The main contribution of the work presented by this paper is the enhanced user experience through high fidelity terrain representation, which is provided by an App that addresses the two aforementioned items.