Interactive Augmented Reality-Enabled Outdoor Scene Visualization for Enhanced Real-Time Disaster Response

A user-centered AR interface for disaster response is presented in this work that uses 3D Gaussian Splatting (3DGS) to visualize detailed scene reconstructions, while maintaining situational awareness and keeping cognitive load low. The interface relies on a lightweight interaction approach, combining World-in-Miniature (WIM) navigation with semantic Points of Interest (POIs) that can be filtered as needed, and it is supported by an architecture designed to stream updates as reconstructions evolve. User feedback from a preliminary evaluation indicates that this design is easy to use and supports real-time coordination, with participants highlighting the value of interaction and POIs for fast decision-making in context. Thorough user-centric performance evaluation demonstrates strong usability of the developed interface and high acceptance ratios.