Location-based augmented reality visualization of 3D models using a mobile application – izanagiXR

Introduction: The increasing use of AR in practical applications such as education, design, manufacturing, and construction shows enormous promise for upgrading existing technology and improving quality of life. Meanwhile, the construction industry is well known for falling behind in the implementation of IT even though the digitalization is already transforming the industry across the entire lifecycle. A peculiarity in Switzerland is that in most cantons, projects still must be marked with physical metal poles called construction spans. Methodology: The aim of this research is to investigate an effective method for visualizing 3D models using location-based Augmented Reality. This paper seeks to identify the necessary steps for developing an application to accurately visualize 3D buildings using location-based AR for replacing construction spans and to find out what the benefits and challenges are. For this purpose, an AR artifact is being developed and five interviews with industry experts are being conducted to gain a better understanding of the current practice. Findings: The costs of erecting and maintaining such construction spans can amount to 0.1% or more of each construction project depending on its height and the complexity of the terrain. AR represents an enabling technology for customer engagement. It can be reasoned that by externalizing the visualization of construction projects, AR can reduce the mental effort customers need to participate in a productive discourse. AR technology has been improving dramatically and together with hybrid localization methods it is able to display information accurately and reliably in the physical world. Recommendations: In light of the findings of this research, developers, and public bodies such as municipalities alike should evaluate the use of AR applications for replacing construction spans and digitize the construction span industry to save significant investment amounts and opportunity losses. This paper recommends the above-mentioned stakeholders to explore the potential of AR applications additionally to using construction spans to gain important experience and to get an idea how their industry could look like once construction spans are not legally required anymore and AR hardware has overcome current limitations

A Multiple Level-of-Detail 3D Data Transmission Approach for Low-Latency Remote Visualisation in Teleoperation Tasks

From MDPI via Jisc Publications RouterHistory: accepted 2021-07-13, pub-electronic 2021-07-14Publication status: PublishedFunder: Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council; Grant(s): EP/S03286X/1In robotic teleoperation, the knowledge of the state of the remote environment in real time is paramount. Advances in the development of highly accurate 3D cameras able to provide high-quality point clouds appear to be a feasible solution for generating live, up-to-date virtual environments. Unfortunately, the exceptional accuracy and high density of these data represent a burden for communications requiring a large bandwidth affecting setups where the local and remote systems are particularly geographically distant. This paper presents a multiple level-of-detail (LoD) compression strategy for 3D data based on tree-like codification structures capable of compressing a single data frame at multiple resolutions using dynamically configured parameters. The level of compression (resolution) of objects is prioritised based on: (i) placement on the scene; and (ii) the type of object. For the former, classical point cloud fitting and segmentation techniques are implemented; for the latter, user-defined prioritisation is considered. The results obtained are compared using a single LoD (whole-scene) compression technique previously proposed by the authors. Results showed a considerable improvement to the transmitted data size and updated frame rate while maintaining low distortion after decompression

Exploring 3D Shapes through Real Functions

This thesis lays in the context of research on representation, modelling and coding knowledge related to digital shapes, where by shape it is meant any individual object having a visual appareance which exists in some two-, three- or higher dimensional space. Digital shapes are digital representations of either physically existing or virtual objects that can be processed by computer applications. While the technological advances in terms of hardware and software have made available plenty of tools for using and interacting with the geometry of shapes, to manipulate and retrieve huge amount of data it is necessary to define methods able to effectively code them. In this thesis a conceptual model is proposed which represents a given 3D object through the coding of its salient features and defines an abstraction of the object, discarding irrelevant details. The approach is based on the shape descriptors defined with respect to real functions, which provide a very useful shape abstraction method for the analysis and structuring of the information contained in the discrete shape model. A distinctive feature of these shape descriptors is their capability of combining topological and geometrical information properties of the shape, giving an abstraction of the main shape features. To fully develop this conceptual model, both theoretical and computational aspects have been considered, related to the definition and the extension of the different shape descriptors to the computational domain. Main emphasis is devoted to the application of these shape descriptors in computational settings; to this aim we display a number of application domains that span from shape retrieval, to shape classification and to best view selection.Questa tesi si colloca nell\u27ambito di ricerca riguardante la rappresentazione, la modellazione e la codifica della conoscenza connessa a forme digitali, dove per forma si intende l\u27aspetto visuale di ogni oggetto che esiste in due, tre o pi? dimensioni. Le forme digitali sono rappresentazioni di oggetti sia reali che virtuali, che possono essere manipolate da un calcolatore. Lo sviluppo tecnologico degli ultimi anni in materia di hardware e software ha messo a disposizione una grande quantit? di strumenti per acquisire, rappresentare e processare la geometria degli oggetti; tuttavia per gestire questa grande mole di dati ? necessario sviluppare metodi in grado di fornirne una codifica efficiente. In questa tesi si propone un modello concettuale che descrive un oggetto 3D attraverso la codifica delle caratteristiche salienti e ne definisce una bozza ad alto livello, tralasciando dettagli irrilevanti. Alla base di questo approccio ? l\u27utilizzo di descrittori basati su funzioni reali in quanto forniscono un\u27astrazione della forma molto utile per analizzare e strutturare l\u27informazione contenuta nel modello discreto della forma. Una peculiarit? di tali descrittori di forma ? la capacit? di combinare propriet? topologiche e geometriche consentendo di astrarne le principali caratteristiche. Per sviluppare questo modello concettuale, ? stato necessario considerare gli aspetti sia teorici che computazionali relativi alla definizione e all\u27estensione in ambito discreto di vari descrittori di forma. Particolare attenzione ? stata rivolta all\u27applicazione dei descrittori studiati in ambito computazionale; a questo scopo sono stati considerati numerosi contesti applicativi, che variano dal riconoscimento alla classificazione di forme, all\u27individuazione della posizione pi? significativa di un oggetto

Landscape Strategies in Architecture

The central question and purpose of the thesis is to understand how landscape as a design concept is changing our understanding of architecture. It explores the ways in which landscape is relevant for design strategies in architecture. Buildings that have been designed like landscapes have become a topic in contemporary architecture and in the recent literature about it. The apparent distinction between architecture and landscape is questioned in exemplary theoretical works and building designs with increasing interest in landscape as a phenomenon of contemporary architecture. To understand this phenomenon this thesis first explores the term of landscape and its design. The introduction focuses on the exploration of the idea of landscape and how it is applicable in architectural design. Strategies of landscape design as they are discussed in contemporary landscape architecture are defined and illustrated with specific examples. This view is contrasted with the idea of nature in architecture. Architecture's concepts of nature reveal some crucial problems that lead to the polarity of 'wild' nature and 'human' architecture. With a critique of these common architectural theories and within the methodological differentiation the thesis reveals the necessity of research through analysis of landscape spatial composition in architecture. The core of this thesis is three case studies of architectural designs that approach a building like a landscape. A selection of analytical techniques is applied to key cases in three central chapters. The main analytical model for landscape architectural composition that Steenbergen and Reh (2003) developed for the European Gardens of the Renaissance, Baroque and Enlightenment is applied as a drawing analysis of the formal composition of three selected contemporary architectural projects in a period from 1992 to 2015. Each of the three building designs is studied with the same four-layer method of design analysis. In conjunction with this comparative analysis, a project specific method that reveals unique aspects of each design has been developed. The first case is OMA's unbuilt Jussieu design for two university libraries in Paris. In 1992 Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas and his collaborators at OMA proposed the Jussieu project at a turning point of the discipline, where new forms of architecture with landscape design strategies were being explored. Though this project has not been realised, this thesis makes it possible to describe the building in a guided walk-through. This visualisation of the design as it could have looked if built is also the specific analytical method chosen for this example. The second case, the Rolex Learning Centre at EPF Lausanne, has been clearly declared 'landscape' as architecture by its designers. This competition winning design from 2004 and opened in 2010 is the largest scale international building of Japanese Architects Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa (SANAA). The specific analytical method used for this case is a visual space analysis of the project using 3D-isovists. The third case is the City of Culture of Galicia in Santiago de Compostela by American architect Peter Eisenman. This project was initially designed in 1999 in a process of layering - in principle, similar to the layer model analysis of this thesis. However, the four tenets of the thesis layer model - ground form, spatial form, metaphorical form and programmatic form - will alter the reading of this project. This execution of the giant public project of "City of Culture" was interrupted half-way in 2015, with great political difficulties fo Galicia. The specific analytical method used for this case is an experiment that uses the ruins of unbuilt architecture as the base for a landscape architectural design. This design of a temporary garden mimics the design principles of architect Peter Eisenman. This experiment shows that landscape strategies developed for the design of a building can be applied in reverse for designed landscapes. In conclusion, this thesis will compare the three case studies of architectural designs with each other. While some design instruments, strategies and methods are specific, others are commonly applied in several or all of the projects. In a broader scope, the analysis is transposed into the greater societal and theoretical realm to explore whether landscape design strategies change architecture. For the discipline of architecture in general, the thesis explores how far landscape could lead the profession further as a new concept to build a sustainable human environment. Evoking potential applications and the reach of landscape in architecture in the perspective of future development, the thesis ultimately discusses unexplored potentials for landscape design strategies in the architectural discipline

Landscape Strategies in Architecture

The central question and purpose of the thesis is to understand how landscape as a design concept is changing our understanding of architecture. It explores the ways in which landscape is relevant for design strategies in architecture. Buildings that have been designed like landscapes have become a topic in contemporary architecture and in the recent literature about it. The apparent distinction between architecture and landscape is questioned in exemplary theoretical works and building designs with increasing interest in landscape as a phenomenon of contemporary architecture. To understand this phenomenon this thesis first explores the term of landscape and its design. The introduction focuses on the exploration of the idea of landscape and how it is applicable in architectural design. Strategies of landscape design as they are discussed in contemporary landscape architecture are defined and illustrated with specific examples. This view is contrasted with the idea of nature in architecture. Architecture's concepts of nature reveal some crucial problems that lead to the polarity of 'wild' nature and 'human' architecture. With a critique of these common architectural theories and within the methodological differentiation the thesis reveals the necessity of research through analysis of landscape spatial composition in architecture. The core of this thesis is three case studies of architectural designs that approach a building like a landscape. A selection of analytical techniques is applied to key cases in three central chapters. The main analytical model for landscape architectural composition that Steenbergen and Reh (2003) developed for the European Gardens of the Renaissance, Baroque and Enlightenment is applied as a drawing analysis of the formal composition of three selected contemporary architectural projects in a period from 1992 to 2015. Each of the three building designs is studied with the same four-layer method of design analysis. In conjunction with this comparative analysis, a project specific method that reveals unique aspects of each design has been developed. The first case is OMA's unbuilt Jussieu design for two university libraries in Paris. In 1992 Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas and his collaborators at OMA proposed the Jussieu project at a turning point of the discipline, where new forms of architecture with landscape design strategies were being explored. Though this project has not been realised, this thesis makes it possible to describe the building in a guided walk-through. This visualisation of the design as it could have looked if built is also the specific analytical method chosen for this example. The second case, the Rolex Learning Centre at EPF Lausanne, has been clearly declared 'landscape' as architecture by its designers. This competition winning design from 2004 and opened in 2010 is the largest scale international building of Japanese Architects Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa (SANAA). The specific analytical method used for this case is a visual space analysis of the project using 3D-isovists. The third case is the City of Culture of Galicia in Santiago de Compostela by American architect Peter Eisenman. This project was initially designed in 1999 in a process of layering - in principle, similar to the layer model analysis of this thesis. However, the four tenets of the thesis layer model - ground form, spatial form, metaphorical form and programmatic form - will alter the reading of this project. This execution of the giant public project of "City of Culture" was interrupted half-way in 2015, with great political difficulties fo Galicia. The specific analytical method used for this case is an experiment that uses the ruins of unbuilt architecture as the base for a landscape architectural design. This design of a temporary garden mimics the design principles of architect Peter Eisenman. This experiment shows that landscape strategies developed for the design of a building can be applied in reverse for designed landscapes. In conclusion, this thesis will compare the three case studies of architectural designs with each other. While some design instruments, strategies and methods are specific, others are commonly applied in several or all of the projects. In a broader scope, the analysis is transposed into the greater societal and theoretical realm to explore whether landscape design strategies change architecture. For the discipline of architecture in general, the thesis explores how far landscape could lead the profession further as a new concept to build a sustainable human environment. Evoking potential applications and the reach of landscape in architecture in the perspective of future development, the thesis ultimately discusses unexplored potentials for landscape design strategies in the architectural discipline

Contribution à l’ordonnancement dynamique, tolérant aux fautes, de tâches pour les systèmes embarqués temps-réel multiprocesseurs

The thesis is concerned with online mapping and scheduling of tasks on multiprocessor embedded systems in order to improve the reliability subject to various constraints regarding e.g. time, or energy. To evaluate system performances, the number of rejected tasks, algorithm complexity and resilience assessed by injecting faults are analysed. The research was applied to: (i) the primary/backup approach technique, which is a fault tolerant one based on two task copies, and (ii) the scheduling algorithms for small satellites called CubeSats. The chief objective for the primary/backup approach is to analyse processor allocation strategies, devise novel enhancing scheduling methods and to choose one, which significantly reduces the algorithm run-time without worsening the system performances. Regarding CubeSats, the proposed idea is to gather all processors built into satellites on one board and design scheduling algorithms to make CubeSats more robust as to the faults. Two real CubeSat scenarios are analysed and it is found that it is useless to consider systems with more than six processors and that the presented algorithms perform well in a harsh environment and with energy constraints.La thèse se focalise sur le placement et l’ordonnancement dynamique des tâches sur les systèmes embarqués multiprocesseurs pour améliorer leur fiabilité tout en tenant compte des contraintes telles que le temps réel ou l’énergie. Afin d’évaluer les performances du système, le nombre de tâches rejetées, la complexité de l’algorithme et la résilience estimée en injectant des fautes sont principalement analysés. La recherche est appliquée (i) à l’approche de « primary/backup » qui est une technique de tolérance aux fautes basée sur deux copies d’une tâche et (ii) aux algorithmes de placement pour les petits satellites appelés CubeSats. Quant à l’approche de « primary/backup », l’objectif principal est d’étudier les stratégies d’allocation des processeurs, de proposer de nouvelles méthodes d’amélioration pour l’ordonnancement et d’en choisir une qui diminue considérablement la durée de l’exécution de l’algorithme sans dégrader les performances du système. En ce qui concerne les CubeSats, l’idée est de regrouper tous les processeurs à bord et de concevoir des algorithmes d’ordonnancement afin de rendre les CubeSats plus robustes. Les scénarios provenant de deux CubeSats réels sont étudiés et les résultats montrent qu’il est inutile de considérer les systèmes ayant plus de six processeurs et que les algorithmes proposés fonctionnent bien même avec des capacités énergétiques limitées et dans un environnement hostile