Wojciech Cellary

Building Virtual and Augmented Reality museum exhibitions

A system that allows museums to build and manage Virtual and Augmented Reality exhibitions based on 3D models of artifacts is presented. Dynamic content creation based on pre-designed visualization templates allows content designers to create virtual exhibitions very efficiently. Virtual Reality exhibitions can be presented both inside museums, e.g. on touch-screen displays installed inside galleries and, at the same time, on the Internet. Additionally, the presentation based on Augmented Reality technologies allows museum visitors to interact with the content in an intuitive and exciting manner.

Evaluation of learners' attitude toward learning in ARIES augmented reality environments

The ARIES system for creating and presenting 3D image-based augmented reality learning environments is presented. To evaluate the attitude of learners toward learning in ARIES augmented reality environments, a questionnaire was designed based on Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) enhanced with perceived enjoyment and interface style constructs. For empirical study, a scenario of a chemistry experimental lesson was developed. The study involved students of the second grade of lower secondary school. As follows from this study, perceived usefulness and enjoyment had a comparable effect on the attitude toward using augmented reality environments. However, perceived enjoyment played a dominant role in determining the actual intention to use them. The interface style based on physical markers had significant impact on perceived ease of use. Interface style and perceived ease of use had a weak influence on perceived enjoyment. In contrast, these two constructs had a significantly stronger influence on perceived usefulness.

X-VRML for advanced virtual reality applications

Market acceptance of new personal computing products and services strongly depends on the quality of their user interfaces. Virtual reality is an emerging technology that promises significant advances in this area. The term itself is broad, ranging from simple 3D animation programs with no user interaction to systems with head-mounted displays, 3D manipulators, and other specialized hardware to immerse users in interactive virtual worlds. Originally developed for classic computer systems, VR technology is currently spreading to other platforms, including consumer electronics and interactive television systems. To enable the creation of active VR applications, we developed X-VRML. X-VRML is a high-level XML-based procedural language that adds dynamic modeling capabilities to virtual scene description standards such as VRML/X3D and MPEG-4.

Virtual museum exbibitions

Virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) technologies offer an ideal presentation medium for museums and other cultural heritage institutions. Virtual exhibitions enable different audiences, including the disabled and students of all ages, as well as the general public to access and interact with vast numbers of objects scattered among various localities in an engaging and informative way.

ARCO - an architecture for digitization, management and presentation of virtual exhibitions

A complete tool chain starting with stereo photogrammetry based digitization of artefacts, their refinement, collection and management with other multimedia data, and visualization using virtual and augmented reality is presented. Our system provides a one-stop-solution for museums to create, manage and present both content and context for virtual exhibitions. Interoperability and standards are also key features of our system allowing both small and large museums to build a bespoke system suited to their needs

Periscope: a system for adaptive 3D visualization of search results

A system for efficient 3D visualization of Web search results is presented. The system, called Periscope1, uses a novel approach for adaptive and customizable visualization of complex data. The whole process is divided into a number of interactive steps. At each step, the system can automatically choose the best method of presenting search results. The user can also select a specific presentation method to focus on certain properties of the result obtained. After analyzing the current search result, the user can narrow or broaden the search query and repeat the procedure.

Visualizing Web search results in 3D

The exponential growth in Web sites is making it increasingly difficult to extract useful information on the Internet using existing search engines. Despite a wide range of sophisticated indexing and data retrieval features, search engines often deliver satisfactory results only when users know precisely what they are looking for. Traditional textual interfaces present results as a list of links to Web pages. Because most users are unwilling to explore an extensive list, search engines arbitrarily reduce the number of links returned, aiming also to provide quick response times. Moreover, their proprietary ranking algorithms often do not reflect individual user preferences. Those who need comprehensive general information about a topic or have vague initial requirements instead want a holistic presentation of data related to their queries. To address this need, we have developed Periscope, a 3D search result visualization system that displays all the Web pages found in a synthetic, yet comprehensible format.

X-VRML-XML based modeling of virtual reality

A new method of dynamic generation of virtual scenes for use in Internet virtual reality applications is presented. The virtual scenes are dynamically generated from virtual scene models coded in a high-level XML-based language called X-VRML. The language consists of a set of XML tags introducing new elements to programming of virtual reality. These new elements include object-orientation, access to databases, and programming techniques known from procedural languages like variables, conditions, and loops. The X-VRML language overcomes the main limitations of current virtual reality systems. Use of X-VRML simplifies the code of virtual scene models, allows retrieval of data from databases, selection of virtual scene contents, customization of virtual scenes, and efficient coding of elements that have repetitive structure. Applications of X-VRML include on-line data visualization, geographical information systems, scientific visualization, virtual games, and e-commerce applications such as virtual shops.

AVE: method for 3D visualization of search results

A novel approach to three-dimensional visualization of search results is presented. In the proposed method a search result is progressively visualized by a sequence of customizable 3D interfaces. The interface applied at each visualization stage is selected with regards to properties of the search result and user interactions. A user may also change mapping of search result properties to visual attributes of the interfaces.

Multiversion Object Constellations: A New Approach to Support a Designer's Database Work

The logical organization of database support for CAD applications is considered, which has to account for specific requirements including versioning, consistency and design transactions. A new approach to the organization, manipulation and management of design objects in a design database is described, which is based on the notion of an objectconstellation. A constellation is a set of multiversion objects together with all their subobjects. Constellations can be versioned intoconfigurations, which comprise one version of each object of the underlying constellation. We argue that constellations are adequate units of allocation to individual designers, while configurations form appropriate units of consistency. We show how the constellation approach renders a flexible support of hierarchically organized, cooperative design processes possible, by employing specific transactions whose scope is limited to well-defined portions of a database. Most importantly, the approach provides new insight into the consistency problem for design databases, by providing an adequate approach to multilevel consistency, and by making consistency of a design context-dependent.