Visualizing Urban Anaylsis in Mixed Reality

Abstract

This paper focuses on the computational creation of animated data visualization used to communicate urban analysis and design in a video. The goal is to combine abstract analysis information with concrete qualitative impressions of a location in the case study area of Zurich. Different urban analysis methods are used to procedurally create an animation with the open source software Blender that facilitates also the compositing process of animation with video. The resulting videos are created during an elective course at ETH Zurich. Anticipating the advent of augmented and mixed reality applications for daily life, we elaborate on their usability for urban design, education and collaborative planning with relatively easy to learn video effect methods. Not only different levels of abstraction are visualized but also -- inherent to the medium of video -- the relation to time.