Christopher John Davies

Mobile Cross Reality for cultural heritage

Widespread adoption of smartphones and tablets has enabled people to multiplex their physical reality, where they engage in face-to-face social interaction, with Web-based social networks and apps, whilst emerging 3D Web technologies hold promise for networks of parallel 3D virtual environments to emerge. Although current technologies allow this multiplexing of physical reality and 2D Web, in a situation called PolySocial Reality, the same cannot yet be achieved with 3D content. Cross Reality was proposed to address this issue; however so far it has focused on the use of fixed links between physical and virtual environments in closed lab settings, limiting investigation of the explorative and social aspects. This paper presents an architecture and implementation that addresses these shortcomings using a tablet computer and the Pangolin virtual world viewer to provide a mobile interface to a corresponding 3D virtual environment. Motivation for this project stemmed from a desire to enable students to interact with existing virtual reconstructions of cultural heritage sites in tandem with exploration of the corresponding real locations, avoiding the adverse temporal separation caused otherwise by interacting with the virtual content only within the classroom. The accuracy of GPS tracking emerged as a constraint on this style of interaction.

Mobile Cross Reality for On-Site Exploration of Cultural Heritage Reconstructions

Widespread adoption of smartphones and tablets has enabled people to multiplex their physical reality, where they engage in face-to-face social interaction, with Web-based social networks and apps, whilst emerging 3D Web technologies hold promise for networks of parallel 3D virtual environments to emerge. Although current technologies allow this multiplexing of physical reality and 2D Web, in a situation called PolySocial Reality, the same cannot yet be achieved with 3D content. Cross Reality was proposed to address this issue; however so far it has focused on the use of fixed links between physical and virtual environments in closed lab settings, limiting investigation of the explorative and social aspects. This paper presents an architecture and implementation that addresses these shortcomings using a tablet computer and the Pangolin virtual world viewer to provide a mobile interface to a corresponding 3D virtual environment. Motivation for this project stemmed from a desire to enable students to interact with existing virtual reconstructions of cultural heritage sites in tandem with exploration of the corresponding real locations, avoiding the adverse temporal separation caused otherwise by interacting with the virtual content only within the classroom. The accuracy of GPS tracking emerged as a constraint on this style of interaction.

Towards the 3D Web with Open Simulator

Continuing advances and reduced costs in computational power, graphics processors and network bandwidth have led to 3D immersive multi-user virtual worlds becoming increasingly accessible while offering an improved and engaging Quality of Experience. At the same time the functionality of the World Wide Web continues to expand alongside the computing infrastructure it runs on and pages can now routinely accommodate many forms of interactive multimedia components as standard features - streaming video for example. Inevitably there is an emerging expectation that the Web will expand further to incorporate immersive 3D environments. This is exciting because humans are well adapted to operating in 3D environments and it is challenging because existing software and skill sets are focused around competencies in 2D Web applications. Open Simulator (OpenSim) is a freely available open source tool-kit that empowers users to create and deploy their own 3D environments in the same way that anyone can create and deploy a Web site. Its characteristics can be seen as a set of references as to how the 3D Web could be instantiated. This paper describes experiments carried out with OpenSim to better understand network and system issues, and presents experience in using OpenSim to develop and deliver applications for education and cultural heritage. Evaluation is based upon observations of these applications in use and measurements of systems both in the lab and in the wild.

An immersive platform for collaborative projects

In the recent past 3D and immersive technologies were not supported by standard business and educational computers. Yet new generations of Intel and AMD processors and improved networking provide a basis for the spread of immersive technologies, into all aspects of education, business and leisure. Consequently, it is critical that computer science and IT degree programs facilitate the graduation of professionals with an understanding of and experience in working with immersive technologies. The work reported in this paper addresses the need to support learning about how to develop, engineer, use and evaluate 3D and immersive systems. The Apollo Virtual World GRID [1] provides a platform designed to support collaborative learning and exploratory project work with 3D technologies. Apollo provides an environment for the creation of 3D content, a framework for the development of 3D systems and a platform for the delivery of distributed immersive systems. It is built around the open source and freely available OpenSimulator project and extends it by providing educational content, a rapid application development environment and a measurement infrastructure. Using the Apollo GRID student projects have expanded the scope of experiential learning by creating interactive 3D environments that simulate specific learning contexts. For example a Virtual WiFi laboratory supports exploratory learning and experimentation with WiFi network protocols and the LAVA virtual fieldwork resource supports archaeologists in learning how to manage archaeological excavations. This paper reflects upon experience in using Apollo for 30 collaborative projects involving more than 100 students over a period of four years.

Mobile exploration of medieval St Andrews

Saint Andrews is a town with a rich history. It was the religious centre of Scotland for close to a millennium. The Cathedral was strongly associated with the wars of Independence and Robert the Bruce. The castle was the scene of pivotal revolt leading to the reformation and hosted the first Scottish protestant congregation. St Salvators Chapel was the religious centre of Scotland’s first University. This paper presents work which explores using mobile technologies to support investigation, learning and appreciation of the past. It builds on tradition and world class scholarship into the history of this important town and makes them available to school students, researchers and tourists using mobile technologies. From text based quests, through mobile apps to location aware stereoscopic 3D experiences the gamut of available commodity and emerging hardware is used to enable the past to be explored in new ways.