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M. Jobst:
"SEMIOTIC CONSIDERATIONS FOR 3D CARTOGRAPHY";
Talk: Workshop on Geographical Visualisation, ISPRS CommissionII, WG II/5, Wien; 2006-07-08.

Traditional topographic maps and their abstracted symbolization were developed throughout centuries and generally adapted for military
and outdoor use. The coding is designed to provide as much topographic information as possible on paper media. The big "disadvantage"
of this traditional design mostly is the need for the user to decode the information, the learnable reading of the map. In
this aspect multimedia 3D visualization offer their main virtue of supporting the intuitive reading of topography. But in case of spatial
related content within this topography, symbolization and appropriate coding methods for elements seem to be useful in order to
highlight "important" issues of the 3D map and make these perceivable. A comprehensive perception of map content is requested for
correct knowledge acquisition and straight decision support. Supporting examples may be found in Augmented Reality (AR) applications,
where reality is enhanced with computer generated models that may represent symbols/objects of hard noticeable content within
the scenery.
For the authors understanding a cartographic 3D application should try to use all the technical possibilities (resolution, depth cues,
interaction, etc.) of the interface for the effective transmission of spatial related content. Depending on the given resolution and perceptive
value of the interface the symbolization has to be adapted without destroying supportable depth cues. Whereas semiotics of
traditional cartography generally were focused on one special case of geometric projection (top-down view), within 3D cartography
various situations of the projection have to be considered. These different situations (camera views, projections) may call for a special
treatment in symbolization in order to keep information benefits and consistent influence on psychological processing, cognition
and knowledge extraction. Thus the need for a classification of 3D applications´ graphics (the rendered status of a 3D application)
for cartographic use becomes conceivable. In this contribution general considerations on principles of cartographic presentation,
methods of 3D visualization and the structuring of cartographic 3D semiotic should be given and form the base for further investigations.