GIS Visions 2045

I gave a presentation where GIS might evolve in 20 years from now as part of the GIS Ostrava 2025 conference on 5.3. 2025. it was great to see again colleagues ! get eye-contact with audience and not just virtual applause. Also nobody was showing physically thumbs-up or red heart (in that case I would call emergency), rather real spoken (I mean real sound wave based ) comments, real talk and smiles. That was the main topic of the talk – Spatial Interactive – with people, tech, discoveries. Step out of the ‘glass-illusion’ trap.

Spatial Interactive

Stanislav Sumbera, GIS Vision 2024, 5.3. 2025,GIS Ostrava 2025

  • What happens here is more important than what happens now.
  • Space is naturally interactive, enabling collaboration and sharing.
  • The computer is not behind a 2D glass screen but understands 3D space and interactions within it.
  • People learn through observation, collaboration, and play.
  • Community Computer
  • Projective Augmented Reality (Projective AR)
  • Bret Victor – Dynamicland

image sources:https://gislab.utk.edu/tag/ar-sandbox/ , Dyamicland.org, Lightform

  • HMD / Head-Mounted Displays – Apple Vision Pro
  • Spatial Computing
  • Control through advanced gestures
  • “Super persistence” of objects – digital objects remain anchored as if truly part of the physical world
  • Pseudo-haptic feedback – realism in rendering creates the illusion of tactile response
  • Currently at the “UNIX Workstation” stage of the 1980s – showcasing possibilities that will later become accessible to everyone.
  • Also bloged here

2. Web, Open Source, and Technology Accessibility

  • From Google Maps → OpenLayers → Leaflet → MapBoxGL → MapLibreGL → ?
  • Each step represents greater availability, democratization, and accessibility of mapping technology, pushing development forward.
  • How difficult was it to render an image in 1993? How difficult was it to share that image with others? And today?
  • What is difficult, expensive, yet possible today that will become commonplace in 20+ years?

3. Lifespan of Data vs. Lifespan of Technology

  • WMS – Simple for visualization
  • Vector tiles – More complex to render (OGC API Tiles, MapBox Tiles, MapLibre Tiles – MLT)
  • 3D tiles – OGC 3D Tiles, evolving standards for spatial data
  • More aesthetics, smoothness, and artistic expression in maps
  • Real-time rendering techniques, such as Gaussian Splat, for next-generation visualization

from Book: Eneterpise SOA by Krafzig, Banke, Slama

4. Scanning Spaces and Objects

  • 3D scanning is accessible to everyone
  • Spatial Video, Spatial Photo
  • 3D scanning is as simple as taking a photo
  • Photorealistic scanning

5.Precise Geolocation ~2-10 cm

  • VPS (Visual Positioning System) – accuracy < 10 cm
  • 5G geolocation
  • Affordable high-precision GNSS + RTK/PPP (< 10 cm)
  • Accessible VPS from panoramic images, Mapy.cz?

6. AI – Welcome to the Jungle

  • NPCs have become “thinking machines” (are we, on other side, turning into NPCs ourselves? aka Jumanji 2 )

Image from Jumanji 2,driver – Mason Pike ?

  • The Chinese Room paradox – an English speaker perfectly assembles answers in Chinese following instructions without understanding the Chinese language and symbols meaning.
  • AI cannot create true originality but excels at combining and compiling existing inputs – a “super plagiarist” or “super puzzle resolver” ?
  • Might replace a significant amount of human (intellectual + routine) labor – in GIS (georeferencing, recognition/classification), programming/syntax, and more
  • “Hard work for machines, thinking for people” (Tomáš Baťa) is evolving into “(Pre)thinking* for machines, creativity/ideas for people” (in Czech Language : pre-mýšlení)
  • AI model marketplace – grow (cultivate) your unique “thought twin” that integrates into an open AI network.
  • Developer Twin: Blog post