Cartographic continuum rendering based on color and texture interpolation to enhance photo-realism perception

Graphic interfaces of geoportals allow visualizing and overlaying various (visually) heterogeneous geographical data, often by image blending: vector data, maps, aerial imagery, Digital Terrain Model, etc. Map design and geo-visualization may benefit from methods and tools to hybrid, i.e. visually integrate, heterogeneous geographical data and cartographic representations. In this paper, we aim at designing continuous hybrid visualizations between ortho-imagery and symbolized vector data, in order to control a particular visual property, i.e. the photo-realism perception. The natural appearance (colors, textures) and various texture effects are used to drive the control the photo-realism level of the visualization: color and texture interpolation blocks have been developed. We present a global design method that allows to manipulate the behavior of those interpolation blocks on each type of geographical layer, in various ways, in order to provide various cartographic continua.