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Interactive 3-D spatial analysis in a virtual reality environment
Includes bibliographical references.
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| Main Author: | |
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| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Department of Computer Science
2014
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| _version_ | 1867613149552705536 |
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| access_status_str | Open Access |
| author | Bhunu, Solomon Tichaona |
| author2 | Rüther, Heinz |
| author_browse | Bhunu, Solomon Tichaona Rüther, Heinz |
| author_facet | Rüther, Heinz Bhunu, Solomon Tichaona |
| author_sort | Bhunu, Solomon Tichaona |
| collection | Thesis |
| description | Includes bibliographical references. |
| format | Thesis |
| id | oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/6766 |
| institution | University of Cape Town (South Africa) |
| language | eng |
| last_indexed | 2026-06-10T12:31:31.816Z |
| license_str | Not specified — see source repository |
| provenance_str_mv | Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository |
| publishDate | 2014 |
| publishDateRange | 2014 |
| publishDateSort | 2014 |
| publisher | Department of Computer Science |
| publisherStr | Department of Computer Science |
| record_format | dspace |
| source_str | UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository |
| spelling | oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/6766 Interactive 3-D spatial analysis in a virtual reality environment Bhunu, Solomon Tichaona Rüther, Heinz Gain, James Computer Science Includes bibliographical references. The emergence of virtual reality and related tools enables the fundamental infrastructure to begin building virtual cities, which can provide an interactive simulation and analysis environment for planning and management of urban places. The virtual city will provide urban managers with a computer environment to interface with the multitude of complex physical and social data needed to plan and manage cities. A range of innovative technologies are being developed that offer different ways of modelling and representing built-form and associated urban information with real-time interaction over the Internet. For all these efforts in technological development, one of the main topical issues remains, the development of a representation (data structure) that is capable of both static and dynamic spatial analysis operations. This research focuses on developing a 3-D data representation for urban management, which would fully support both static and dynamic spatial analysis operations. It further explores the possibilities inherent in a hybrid of the Boundary representation (B-rep) and distance field modelling (a technique which is finding application in 3-D medical imaging). The research makes an analysis of the existing B-reps before developing the best form which could easily be integrated with the Distance Field (DF). Since this is the first known research in application of DFs in urban GIS, the research further offers the design and adoption of Distance field maps. Further designs are undertaken for the necessary algorithms that would allow dynamic analysis operations to be implemented within the DF environment. The conceptual design is mapped through Entity-Relationship modelling into a Database Management System (DBMS). The B-rep component is maintained within the DBMS whilst the DF component is generated on the ""fly"". For the distributed application development, a 3-tier approach that merges the client-side (web browser), application server and database server is proposed. Based on this approach, a Web based prototype toolkit is designed and implemented using affordable ""off-the-shelf' software applications and resources that are relatively easy to set-up and use, and would require standard PC-processor power available to a home user with a modem link (i.e. not a high-end graphics workstation). The novel aspects of this thesis can be summarised as: 1. The use of a hybrid representation is new in 3-D GISs. 2. The use of Distance Fields and the development of related spatial analysis operations is new in Geo-Information Systems. Furthermore, the research proposes a new distance field modelling approach; the single Distance Fields (see Chapter 5). 3. The implementation environment makes use of the existing tools and integrates them in a novel way. 2014-08-29T12:47:57Z 2014-08-29T12:47:57Z 2004 Doctoral Thesis Doctoral PhD http://hdl.handle.net/11427/6766 eng application/pdf Department of Computer Science Faculty of Science University of Cape Town |
| spellingShingle | Computer Science Bhunu, Solomon Tichaona Interactive 3-D spatial analysis in a virtual reality environment |
| thesis_degree_str | Doctoral |
| title | Interactive 3-D spatial analysis in a virtual reality environment |
| title_full | Interactive 3-D spatial analysis in a virtual reality environment |
| title_fullStr | Interactive 3-D spatial analysis in a virtual reality environment |
| title_full_unstemmed | Interactive 3-D spatial analysis in a virtual reality environment |
| title_short | Interactive 3-D spatial analysis in a virtual reality environment |
| title_sort | interactive 3 d spatial analysis in a virtual reality environment |
| topic | Computer Science |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/11427/6766 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT bhunusolomontichaona interactive3dspatialanalysisinavirtualrealityenvironment |