THE POTENTIAL OF THREE-DIMENSIONAL DISPLAY- TECHNOLOGIES FOR THE VISUALIZATION OF GEO- VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENTS

Three-dimensional display-technologies offer a great potential to being used in digital cartography and GIS, since the information can be shown from the user´s three-dimensional perspective and is no longer, as yet, left to someone´s spatial sense. This article focuses on the advantages and disadvantages of certain 3D-technologies and their potential to visualize geo-spatial data. Including the latest developments in the field of 3D-displays, two main categories will be established: virtual-three-dimensional systems and real-three-dimensional systems. The latter group is still in the fledgling stages and its field of application has yet to be determined. However, it is implied by the developing companies, that geo-visualization may play an important part in future applications. Thus, a lot of research is required in order to tap the full potential of a 3D-presentation and to ensure a better interpretability when compared to conventional cartographic means of expression