Supporting collaboration, in colocated 3D visualization, through the use of remote personal interfaces

Interactive three-dimensional visualization of urban models presents a powerful platform for communication and collaboration between project stakeholders in evaluating and exploring urban planning issues. One of the most common applications of this is to support a colocated group of project stakeholders through shared exploration of proposed developments as part of design/review meetings. However, current configuration of such environments place more emphasis on supporting communication, through shared visual exploration, than providing a collaborative working environment in which each of the participants can contribute from their own specialized perspective. This research presents a novel interaction mechanism that enables a group of colocated users sharing a common visualization to collaboratively interact with the visual environment through the use of light-weight personal computing devices operating as bidirectional remote interfaces. This aims to demonstrate a platform that promotes collaboration as well as communication, during multistake-holder design/review meetings.