Visualizing Toronto City Data with HoloLens: Using Augmented Reality for a City Model

• Published in: IEEE consumer electronics magazine Vol. 7; no. 3; pp. 73 - 80
• Main Authors: Zhang, Longyu, Chen, Sifeng, Dong, Haiwei, El Saddik, Abdulmotaleb
• Format: Magazine Article
• Language: English
• Published: Piscataway IEEE 01.05.2018; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Augmented reality; Bureaucracy; Computer simulation; Data models; Data processing; Data visualization; Information and communication technology; Information technology; Internet of Things; Scientific visualization; Site selection; Smart cities; Solid modeling; Three dimensional models
• ISSN: 2162-2248; 2162-2256
• DOI: 10.1109/MCE.2018.2797658

The smart city has become a new trend of interest with recent developments in information and communications technology (ICT) and the Internet of Things (IoT). These technologies provide users with new ways to interact with smart cities, especially city data. Visualizing data is crucial for improving a city's planning and management. Currently, most cases of city data visualization are mainly implemented on computers and handheld and other devices. To take advantage of augmented-reality (AR) technology, we present a method of visualizing a three-dimensional (3-D) city model of Toronto and various types of city data with the cuttingedge AR device Microsoft HoloLens. Details of our 3-D city model creation, city data extraction, geographic data processing, and user interaction design are illustrated in this article.