Michael Knight

Finding Your Way Around Heritage Sites: the Delivery of Digital Information to Mobile Devices

An information enriched 3D digital city model connected wirelessly with the real-time user interaction has the potential to deliver an effective piece in the pervasive computing jigsaw. Real-time location awareness can contribute to the effective delivery of 3D digital city models and associated information to small mobile devices. Location awareness is also one of the vital elements of ubiquitous computing systems; together the mobile hardware and its interactive contents can be thought of as ‘everyware’ [1]. This paper describes the work -undertaken with different technological systems that have potential for pedestrian location sensing connecting the pedestrian user with real and virtual environments simultaneously. In particular we look at how users can be correctly located and efficiently informed about buildings and artefacts that are part of the spectrum of built forms that together are referred to as Architectural Heritage sites.

Contemporary Digital Techniques in the Early Stages of Design

This paper reviews the role that computers can play in the early design stages and considers how far recent developments in commercial software have enabled designers to improve design performance through interaction with a CAAD system. An experimental approach is reported on.

An assessment of the effectiveness of sketch representations in early stage digital design

This paper presents an experimental approach that examines the response of non-architects to three virtual representations of architecture within a non- immersive Virtual Reality (VR) environment. It investigates the use of current digital technologies in their ability to facilitate early design stage sketch representation and explores the communication of early stage digital design proposals in order to determine the effect of representation type upon perception.

Photogrammetry as an aid to lighting design for complex obstructed interiors

Photogrammetry methods have been shown to be useful as a tool for investigation of illuminance distribution and light losses in interiors containing obstruction configurations that approximate to simple rectilinear objects. This work examines the use of photogrammetry to model obstructions having a greater degree of complexity and a case study demonstrates the applicability of the technique to lighting design for a factory. The results confirm that this technology would accelerate the process of incorporating the effect of obstructions in routine lighting analysis and design.

Towards a natural and appropriate Architectural Virtual Reality: the nAVRgate project

The lure of virtual environments is strong and the apparent potential is enticing. But questions of how Human Computer Interaction (HCI) issues should be handled and married with best practice in Human-Human Interaction (HHI) remains largely unresolved. How should architectural images and ideas be most appropriately represented, and how should designers interact and react through this computer mediated medium? Whilst there is never likely to be unanimity in answer to such questions, we can develop new ideas and new systems, test them, report on them and invite comment.

Visualisation of an AI Solution

This paper describes the representation of output from an AI analysis of a Built Environment problem. A particular aspect arising out of the analysis is that we need to represent variables throughout a (tesserally defined) three dimensional space. This paper describes the two approaches that we have examined.

An AI Approach to Noise Prediction

The goal of the work described here is to produce a computationally efficient technique, with output of data that can be easily visualised, for problems involving noise prediction. An AI (Artificial Intelligence) approach is adopted. The particular techniques being applied as a part of the approach here involves, firstly, defining the geometry of the volume that we are interested in (the Geographical Space) and then later elements within that space such as objects and constraints. This is the aspect of the work which is particularly interesting since we use a technique which effectively linearises three dimensional space. The result is a significant reduction in computational requirements and a consequent increase in speed and efficiency of analysis. The technique used here for spatial representation is termed Tesseral Addressing. This technique can be combined with that for performing analysis (more correctly reasoning) within the Geographical Space. The application of the combined techniques is illustrated in the form of an analysis of a potential noise pollution problem at a residential building.