TAVERNS: Visualization and Manipulation of GIS data in 3D Large Screen Immersive Environments Simon Su 1 , William Sherman 1 , Frederick Harris 2 , Mike Dye 2 1 Desert Research Institute, Reno, NV, 89512, USA 2 Dept. of Computer Science & Engineering, University of Nevada, Reno NV 89557, USA ssu@dri.edu Abstract Currently there are many software packages that allow analysis of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) data. However, these software packages limit user interaction and exploration of the GIS data to 2- dimensional (2D) interface. Virtual Reality (VR) technology provides a great way for manipulating and visualizing 3-dimensional (3D) data in three dimensions. This paper presents the use of 3D large screen immersive environments for manipulation and interaction of GIS data in creating and editing GIS shapefiles. 1. Introduction The creation of realistic training environments is crucial to enable the military to train its personnel in computer-simulated environments. The fields of computer graphics and visualization are the crucial components in the creation of realistic training environments. The military can alleviate much of the need for travel and equipment transportation associated with field training through the use of a computer generated realistic training environment. In addition, personnel can work their way through a simulation several times, honing their skills while using minimal resources. Although advanced visualization techniques help to establish realism, a realistic recreation of real world geographic data is also necessary to achieve a fully immersive and realistic simulation environment. The geographic data in a simulation should be sufficiently realistic to represent the actual landscape of the simulated real environment. The ultimate goal of realistic visualization of geographic data is to give personnel the feeling they are present at the real-world location, even though they are actually in a simulated environment. During geographic data acquisition, the specialist in geographical and geological disciplines must first perform an on-site survey and thoroughly analyze the location to obtain accurate information used in the simulation. However, the use of remote sensing methods allows geographic experts to gather and analyze data without ever visiting the location [1,2]. One such piece of data is a Digital Elevation Model (DEM) [3]. The DEM consists of spatially explicit digital values of height data. Another important type of data is Geographic Information Systems (GIS) vector layers [4]. GIS vector layers are maps that relate two- dimensional shapes on the physical terrain with attributes. These attributes can be assigned from a variety of sources including satellite imagery, site visits, and current databases. Although DEMs are also referred to as GIS raster layers, in this paper we refer to DEMs separately. Software packages are currently available to provide geographic experts with the tools to analyze data layers. ESRI TM [5] has available a wide array of GIS software packages such as ArcGIS TM [6] and ArcScene TM [7] for geographic experts to perform data layers analysis. Although those software packages have been proven to be useful and accurate, geographic experts are forced to learn how to manipulate 3D data with 2D interfaces. This paper introduces a 3D immersive environment, TAVERNS, for geographic experts to interact with GIS data and DEMs. TAVERNS is actually a crucial part of a project called Desert Terrain [8,9] and built on previous work done by Stuart et. al [10]. One of the main goals of the project is to realistically model dust behavior in desert regions and use the predicted dust behaviors to create a realistic environment for training simulations. The more accurate a training environment can be predicted and simulated, the better prepared are the personnel for the real-world scenario. The remainder of this paper is structured as follows. Section 2 presents some of the related work on