Development and evaluation of a tangible terrain representation system for highway route planning

In recent years, mixed or/and augmented reality, which aims to integrate virtual space with real space, has received a significant amount of attention in research and development. In particular, the concept of a tangible interface is an interesting research area in this growing field of study. This article develops and evaluates a tangible terrain representation system (TTRS), a tangible interface that recognizes the terrain in three dimensions and provides a more efficient approach to highway route planning and design. The developed system represents a terrain surface by controlling the shape of a stretchable screen using 64 actuators (8 × 8) and by projecting an aerial photograph on a screen. In applying TTRS to highway route planning, the user establishes control points using a magnetic positioning device and projects the image of a highway alignment on the TTRS. The developed system was evaluated by comparing its usability to an alternative system (virtual reality-based visual three-dimensional representation) using a group of evaluators at Miyagi University, Japan. The article concludes that TTRS is an effective tool for terrain representation and highway route planning and design.