Virtual Reality Smart City Based on WebVRGIS

Abstract

A network virtual reality (VR) engine for interactive analysis and smart city immersive visualization which integrates several latest information technologies, i.e., Web virtual reality (WebVR), Internet of Things (IoT), and three-dimensional (3-D) geographical information system (3-DGIS) with peer-to-peer (P2P) network, has been proposed in this study. It can be used in big spatial data (e.g., remote sensing data) organization and presentation while achieving the online sharing by hash-based P2P networks. In the P2P network, a map, which contains the real geographic space users and the virtual scene user avatar with prep the virtual network nodes, has been made. Moreover, it can also support the following integrated functions of VRGIS: 3-D spatial analysis function, 3-D visualization for spatial information process, and Web engine for 3-D globe and smart big city. To evaluate WebVRGIS system, a user study had been conducted by comparing it with virtual community system. The performance evaluation results had confirmed the higher usability and user satisfaction of the proposed WebVRGIS system.