SkiVis: Visual Exploration and Route Planning in Ski Resorts.

Area of Science:

• Human-Computer Interaction
• Information Visualization
• Geographic Information Systems

Background:

• Ski route selection is complex, influenced by factors like steepness, direction, and crowds.
• Personal skier preferences add complexity, and current systems lack user-specific routing.
• Integrating domain knowledge and user preferences is crucial for improved ski route planning.

Purpose of the Study:

• Introduce SkiVis, a visual analytics application for interactive ski slope exploration.
• Provide automated ski route recommendations tailored to individual user preferences.
• Address the gap in systems that combine automated routing with user-specific needs.

Main Methods:

• Developed SkiVis, a visual analytics application for ski slope exploration.
• Collaborated with ski guides and enthusiasts to define requirements.
• Leveraged volunteered geographic information for numerical slope comparison in a case study.
• Evaluated the system using a pair-analytics study.

Main Results:

• SkiVis enables interactive exploration of ski slopes.
• The application provides personalized ski route recommendations based on user preferences.
• A case study demonstrated leveraging volunteered geographic information for slope analysis.
• Evaluation confirmed SkiVis supports users in discovering relevant, preference-based ski routes.

Conclusions:

• SkiVis effectively integrates automated routing with user preferences for ski slope selection.
• The application enhances the ski route discovery process by incorporating individual needs.
• Further research can explore additional use cases and refine the system's capabilities.