One of our active members, Prof. Alex Klippel of PennState, is leading (and we are helping) a few special sessions at the American Association of Geographers (AAG) annual meeting on topics that are core interest to our working group. Please see the call for contributions below, and feel free to distribute this to your networks.

If you are interested, please send your PIN to klippel (at) psu.edu by November 17th, 2016. If this language confuses you as it once did to me (i.e., “what PIN”?), you probably have never been to AAG ;). It’s something AAG participants get and is used for coordinating, explore the conference information here: http://www.aag.org/annualmeeting

Cheers,
-Arzu & the WG team

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Call for contributions

AAG Meeting 2017, Boston, MA, USA

April 5-9, 2017

Session sponsored by:
Cartography Specialty Group
GIScience Specialty Group

Session title: 3D Virtual and Augmented Realities for Geoinformation Science

Recent developments in 3D virtual and augmented reality technologies have spurred industry, research, and education developments that will effect (geo) spatial information science intimately. The ease of accessing 3D information through environmental sensors (Photogrammetry, LiDAR, or 360 degree cameras) and modeling efforts using, for example, ESRI CityEngine or Google SketchUp, allow for creating efficient workflows from environments to digital, interactive 3D models. In parallel, the virtual and augmented technology industry has made substantial progress to provide products that allow VR and AR to enter both mainstream and research in unprecedented ways. The quality and affordability of products such as Oculus Rift, Samsung GearVR, Zeiss VR One, to name just a few, allow for immersive and augmented experiences that have been unparalleled so far.

The proposed sessions continues the inaugural meeting in San Francisco. The opportunities for (geo) spatial information science research and applications are vast, and it is time to provide a forum for discussing industry, research, and education developments that address, but are not limited to, the following topics:

– Efficient workflows for 3D environmental modeling for built and natural environments,
– 3D modeling software for 3D geoinformation modeling,
– Game engines in geospatial research and education,
– Virtual and mixed realities,
– Augmented reality games (e.g., Pokemon Go),
– Spatial temporal data visualization in VR,
– Immersive Visual Analytics,
– Big data visualization and VR,
– User experiences in Geovirtual Environments,
– Accessories for 3D modeling and VR (e.g., 360 degree cameras),
– Digital Cultural Heritage

Organisers: Alexander Klippel (Geography, The Pennsylvania State University), Danielle Oprean (Architecture/Landscape Architecture, The Pennsylvania State University), Craig McCabe (ESRI), Sven Fuhrmann (Geography and Geoinformation Science, George Mason University), Arzu Çöltekin (Geography, University of Zurich, Switzerland), Robert Stewart (Geographic Information Science and Technology, Oak Ridge National Laboratory), Christopher Petit (Urban Science / City Futures, University of New South Wales, Australia).

For more information, please contact Dr. Alexander Klippel
(klippel@psu.edu). Please send your PIN to klippel@psu.edu by November
17th, 2016 if you are interested in presenting in this session.