Visualizing Toronto City Data with HoloLens: Using Augmented Reality for a City Model

The smart city has become a new trend of interest with recent developments in information and communications technology (ICT) and the Internet of Things (IoT). These technologies provide users with new ways to interact with smart cities, especially city data. Visualizing data is crucial for improving a city's planning and management. Currently, most cases of city data visualization are mainly implemented on computers and handheld and other devices. To take advantage of augmented-reality (AR) technology, we present a method of visualizing a three-dimensional (3-D) city model of Toronto and various types of city data with the cuttingedge AR device Microsoft HoloLens. Details of our 3-D city model creation, city data extraction, geographic data processing, and user interaction design are illustrated in this article.