Cluttering Reduction for Interactive Navigation and Visualization of Historical Images

Abstract. Iconographic representations, such as historical photos of geographic spaces, are precious cultural heritage resources capable of describing a particular geographical area’s evolution over time. These photographic collections may vary in size, between hundreds and thousands of items. With the advent of the digital era, many of these documents have been digitized, spatialized, and are available online. Browsing through these digital image collections represents new challenges. This paper examines the topic of historical image exploration in a virtual environment enabling the co-visualization of historical photos into a contemporary 3D scene. We address the topic of user interaction considering the potential volume of the input data. Our methodology is based on design guidelines that rely on visual perception techniques to ease visual complexity and improve saliency on specific cues. The designs are additionally implemented following an image-based rendering approach and evaluated in a group of users. Overall, these propositions may be a notable addition to creating innovative ways to visualize and discover historical images in a virtual geographic environment.