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REFLECTIVE 2D VISUALIZATION OF 3D OBJECTS USING CARTOGRAPHIC PROJECTION

Mgr. Tomas Kralik, Mgr. Vit Paszto, Ph.D., Ing. Detlef Olschewski

Abstract

In this contribution, the authors describe a novel method of visualizing any 3D object into a 2D seamless picture with the use of cartographical principles. The method uses properties of a sphere with reflective inner surface, in which a 3D object and capturing camera are placed. A sphere surface is consequently unfolded using cartographic projection allowing to see the whole object in 2D. The method can be applied to any objects, preferably those of non-human origin, e.g. trees with leaves, cave systems, EarthпїЅs landscape. Human-made objects are already described in sketches, elevations or technical drawing, which makes the cartographical visualization of such objects interesting, but not very useful. Most importantly, human-made objects are already simplified and often rectangular (e.g. buildings). On the other hand, objects of natural origin tend to have complex structures with inner spaces which cannot be accurately visualized with ordinary methods in one seamless image. Therefore, they are ideal for nonstandard ways of visualization such as the one described here. Proposed framework of obtaining one seamless picture depicting the complex structure of natural objects could be used by scientists with a need to visualize objects from a 3D environment in 2D format (e.g. printed papers with limited space). It is quite an unconventional idea to go пїЅbackwardпїЅ from 3D to 2D in the era of 3D cartography and graphics, but the authors believe that this approach could have several other applications. The authors will show how the principle of reflective visualization 2D visualization of 3D objects using cartographic projection can be employed in the field of geography and geoinformatics, on the example of the volcano terrain model. Such landscape feature is commonly depicted as an aerial image, where exact distance measurements on slopes are not possible. Using cartographic (equidistant) projection during the transformation from 3D to 2D seamless picture, where slopes are not distorted, exact measurements can be performed.

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DOI resolver: doi.org/10.5593/sgem2017/21/s08.132

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