Tangible visualization table for intuitive data display

Abstract

We propose a new tangible visualization table for intuitive and effective visualization of terrain data transferred from a remote server in real time. The shape display approximating the height field of remote terrain data is generated by linear actuators, and the corresponding texture image is projected onto the shape display. To minimize projection distortions, we present a sophisticated technique for projection mapping. Gesture-based user interfaces facilitate intuitive manipulations of visualization results. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our system by displaying and manipulating various terrain data using gesture-based interfaces.