A Device-aware Spatial 3D Visualization Platform for Mobile Urban Exploration

Mobile devices displaying 2D map representations are already commonly used for the exploration of urban surroundings on the move. Even though mobile detailed 3D visualizations promise to be an attractive way to cope with the increasing amount of georeferenced information, their widespread use is hampered by the fragmentation of today’s mobile device landscape. In this paper, we tackle this real-world problem by introducing a device-aware 3D visualization service platform. Its core is composed of a rule engine selecting and tailoring a suitable visualization process for a requesting device. While we apply remote-renderings for resource-restrained mobile devices, real-time on-device renderings are applied for high-end devices. Following this device-aware approach, a variety of mobile devices with different technical capabilities can be provided with tailored environmental 3D representations for mobile urban exploration. Keywords—3D visualization; mobile rendering; location-based service; device-awareness