Development and Application of Distributed Interactive Visualization Environment: Using Tamshui River and Baltic Sea Ruegen Terrain Models

Abstract

This paper presents the preliminary results of an ongoing joint Taiwanese - German (TaiGer) research project, which deals with the development and application of a WWW-based collaboration environment for distributed coastal engineering projects [1]. We focus on the Distributed Interactive Visualization Environment (DIVE) developments as well as the application of Geographic Information System (GIS) and 3D Virtual Worlds. The DIVE system consists two components: the display module and net module Display module employs both OpenGL and VRML for visualizing the 3D terrain models and the physical behavior of a system. Net module uses the CORBA (Common Object Request Broker Architecture), Java and EAI (External Authoring Interface) for the distributed communications. The developed system integrates the interactive visualization of 3D terrain models and flow simulation scenarios with tools for net-based communications. The system has been applied for the visualization/navigation of Tamshui River basin and Baltic Sea nearby Ruegen for distributed multiusers via Internet. More details of our research can be found in Reference [1,2]. In this way, the approach has a great potential for collaborative visualization and other applications in modern distributed engineering projects.