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LOCUS: Development of LOcation Context tools for UMTS mobile information Services

Acronimo: LOCUS

Sito: http://www.locus.org.uk/

Ente promotore: EPSRC - Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council
Nazione: Regno Unito
Periodo di svolgimento: 2004 - 2006

Responsabili

  • Jonathan Raper, Department of Information Science City University - London (UK)

Descrizione del progetto

The project LOCUS: Development of LOcation Context tools for UMTS mobile information Services, started in 2004 in the department of Information Science at City University. The main focus of the research is to enhance Location Based Services (LBS) by extending the current map-based approach. To satisfy these goals, LOCUS currently implements two innovative interfaces for mobile devices like PDAs and 3G phones.
The realistic modeling of the environment ensures that users will be immersed into the virtual or augmented reality environment.

The first interface uses virtual reality technologies to aid users to visualise realistic 3D representations of small areas of London (i.e. City University's campus). Novel human-computer interaction techniques are designed so that participants can interact in a natural way.

The second interface is based on mixed reality technologies aiming in superimposing only the most appropriate navigational information to mobile users. To enhance further the user experience routing tools are currently developed based on the data mining of previous journey experiences. Both interfaces provide effective navigation tools which can be used in different types of mobile devices (iPAQ 5450 Pocket PC, Sony Ericsson P900, XDA II and HTC Universal).

Tecnici del progetto

Professor Jonathan Raper Department of Information Science City University, Northampton Square London, EC1V 0HB, UK. Tel:+44 (0) 20 7040 8415        Email: raper@soi.city.ac.uk

Risultati del progetto

  Journal Publications Mountain, D., Liarokapis, F., Mixed reality (MR) interfaces for mobile information systems, Aslib Proceedings, Special issue: UK library & information schools, Emerald Press, 59(4/5): 422-436, (2007). ISSN: 0001-253X (http://www.locus.org.uk/publications/Aslib2007.pdf) Liarokapis, F., Conradi, E., User Interfaces for Mobile Navigation, Library Hi Tech, Special Issue on 3D Visualization, Emerald Press, 25(3): 352-365, (2007). ISSN:  +44 0737-8831(http://www.locus.org.uk/publications/LHT2007.pdf) Liarokapis, F., Brujic-Okretic, V., Papakonstantinou, S., Exploring Urban Environments using virtual and Augmented Reality, Journal of Virtual Reality and Broadcasting, 3(5): 1-13, (2006). ISSN: 1860-2037(http://www.locus.org.uk/publications/JVRB2006.pdf) Conference Publications Gatzidis, C., Liarokapis, F., Brujic-Okretic, V., Automatic Modelling, Generation And Visualisation Of Realistic 3D Virtual Cities For Mobile Navigation, Proc. of the 9th International Conference on Virtual Reality, 18-22 April, Laval, France, 225-234, (2007). ISBN: 2-9515730-6-5 (http://www.locus.org.uk/publications/Laval2007.pdf)   Liarokapis, F., Greatbatch, I., Mountain, D., Gunesh, A., Brujic-Okretic, V., Raper, J.F., Mobile Augmented Reality Techniques for GeoVisualisation, Proc. of the 9th International Conference, Information Visualisation, IEEE Computer Society, 6-8 July, London, 745-751, (2005). ISBN: 0-7695-2397-8(http://www.locus.org.uk/publications/IV2005.pdf; http://www.locus.org.uk/publications/IV2005_Pres.pdf) Workshops and Seminars Brujic-Okretic, V. Augmented Reality for User-Centred Urban Navigation Using Mobile Technology, Surrey University, 14 November, (2007) (http://www.locus.org.uk/publications/Surrey2007.pdf) Mountain, D., Liarokapis, F., Raper, J.F., Brujic-Okretic, V., Interacting with Virtual Reality models on mobile devices, University of Salzburg, Austria, 19-22 September, (2005) (http://www.locus.org.uk/publications/HCI2005b.pdf)

Sistema informatico

We are modeling the geographical information using a full-featured GIS software for visualizing, analyzing, creating, and managing data with a geographic component called ArcView. Using this tool, we import both digital maps or GIS raw data (building height information) and generate an accurate 3D mesh of the environment. This mesh is originally exported into VRML file format for further precessing. Then to enhance the geometry and appearance of the 3D mesh we import it into a 3D modeling software package called 3D Studio Max. We perform operations such as texturing, lighting and mesh optimization as well as manually model parts of the environment which is not included in the inputted geometry (i.e. trees, bins, etc). An example of the above can be found in the Virtual city project (is part of the LOCUS project). For the Virtual Reality (VR) Interface LOCUS is developing two different mobile prototypes based either on VRML or Direct3D APIs. For the graphics component the first interface uses Pocket Cortona as a plug-in to Pocket Internet Explorer which can visualize and interact with VRML models (VRML 2.0 and GeoVRML) through the provided functionality of the interface. On the other hand, the second interface is based on Windows Mobile Direct3D and works as a stand-alone mobile application. Both interfaces are currently operational in PDAs.