An Interactive Drawing Plane for 3-Dimensional Annotation of Geographic Data in Virtual Reality

While three-dimensional environments like in virtual reality are very well suited for the visualization of three-dimensional geographic data, drawing onto such data is much more complex than in 2D. Drawing on geographic data is not trivial due to the terrain and existing solutions for drawing in VR have a mostly artistic focus. This paper presents a novel drawing plane concept that addresses these challenges by enabling the creation of 3D dimensional drawings and annotations of geographic data in VR (Virtual Reality). The drawing plane combines VR interaction and information from Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to allow users to interact with and manipulate annotations on geographic data in a 3D virtual environment. The technique was evaluated in a workshop and received positive feedback for its effectiveness in providing users with a more intuitive and immersive way of interacting with geographic data. Overall, the drawing plane represents a significant advancement, providing users with a powerful new tool for visualizing and annotating geographic data in a 3D virtual environment. This new approach offers a more intuitive and immersive way of interacting with geographic data and has the potential to be used in various real-world applications such as urban planning, natural resource management and others.