GIS Fundamentals - The Power of Mapping

When it comes to GIS, which is the abbreviated form of Geographic Information Systems, and data and usage in AR programming, it comes in many flavors and usages. However, before we get into how to use GIS data in AR games and applications, we must first understand what GIS actually is. So, we will go over things like: when GIS was developed, who the father of GIS is, where GIS can be used, and how GIS works with game and application development. The reason this is important is that the history of GIS plays directly into how data is used today in AR applications and games; it also allows us to appreciate the hard work of those in the past who made it possible for us to take advantage of readily available data online. We will go over some examples of how we can use what we have learned from the history of GIS to create applications and games later on in this chapter. The following topics will be covered in this chapter:

• Understanding what GIS is
• History of GIS and data analysis
• GIS statistics
• Implications of GIS
• GIS and AR

To understand what GIS actually is, we must dive a little deeper to discover the underlying principles of GIS and how it started. The history of GIS and data analysis is fascinating and will expose many things that allow us to understand the underlying structure of how it is set up and used. GIS statistics will allow us to be able to know which mathematical methods are commonly used so that we can take advantage of them. The implications of GIS will show us many uses of GIS, not only in academia, but also in education and real-world usage.

GIS and AR will show us some much-needed examples of how AR applications and games have incorporated GIS into them. This will give us a clear idea on what we could develop in the future.

In this chapter, we will cover the following topics:

• GIS fundamentals – the power of mapping
• GIS and augmented reality