Distributed sensor-driven web applications through multi-device usage patterns

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Demonstrating Immersive Media Delivery on 5G Broadcast and Multicast Testing Networks

This work presents eight demonstrators and one showcase developed within the 5G-Xcast project. They experimentally demonstrate and validate key technical enablers for the future of media delivery, associated with multicast and broadcast communication capabilities in 5th Generation (5G). In 5G-Xcast, three existing testbeds: IRT in Munich (Germany), 5GIC in Surrey (UK), and TUAS in Turku (Finland), have been developed into 5G broadcast and multicast testing networks, which enables us to demonstrate our vision of a converged 5G infrastructure with fixed and mobile accesses and terrestrial broadcast, delivering immersive audio-visual media content. Built upon the improved testing networks, the demonstrators and showcase developed in 5G-Xcast show the impact of the technology developed in the project. Our demonstrations predominantly cover use cases belonging to two verticals: Media & Entertainment and Public Warning, which are future 5G scenarios relevant to multicast and broadcast delivery. In this paper, we present the development of these demonstrators, the showcase, and the testbeds. We also provide key findings from the experiments and demonstrations, which not only validate the technical solutions developed in the project, but also illustrate the potential technical impact of these solutions for broadcasters, content providers, operators, and other industries interested in the future immersive media delivery.Comment: 16 pages, 22 figures, IEEE Trans. Broadcastin

Multi-device application middleware: leveraging the ubiquity of the Web with webinos

The broad range of connected devices has turned the Internet into a ubiquitous concept. In addition to desktop and laptop PCs, the Internet currently connects mobile devices, home entertainment systems, and even in-car units. From this ubiquitous evolution towards sensor-rich devices, the opportunity arises for various new types of innovative software application. However, alongside rises the issue of managing the increasing diversity of device characteristics and capabilities. As device fragmentation grows, application developers are facing the need to cover a wider variety of target devices and usage scenarios. In result, maintaining a viable balance between development costs and market coverage has turned out to be an important challenge when developing applications for a ubiquitous ecosystem. In this article, we present the webinos platform, a distributed Web runtime platform that leverages the Web for supporting self-adaptive cross-device applications. In order to enable the development of such immersive ubiquitous applications, we introduce and evaluate the concept of a context-aware federated overlay architecture

Converged digital TV services: the role of middleware and future directions of interactive television

The subject of the future of the interactive Television medium has become a topic of great interest to the academic and industrial communities particularly since in the recent years there has been a dramatic increase in the pace of innovation of convergence of digital TV systems and services. The purpose of this paper is to provide a brief overview of what we know as digital TV converged services, to present and categorise the digital Television middleware technologies that contributed to it, and to present possible future trends and directions. A new Television era of converged wireless and mobile content delivery, user-authored content, multimodal interaction, intelligent personalisation, smart space awareness, and 3D content sensations is foreseen, creating ambient and immersive experiences

Ubiquitous Computing in a Home Environment, Controlling Consumer Electronics

Building interaction prototypes for ubiquitous computing is inherently difficult, since it involves a number of different devices and systems. Prototyping is an important step in developing and evaluating interaction concepts. The ideal prototyping methodology should offer high fidelity at a relatively low cost. This thesis describes the development of interaction concepts for controlling consumer electronics in a ubiquitous computing home environment, as well as the setup, based on immersive virtual reality, used to develop and evaluate the interaction concepts. Off-the-shelf input/output devices and a game engine are used for developing two concepts for device discovery and two concepts for device interaction. The interaction concepts are compared in a controlled experiment in order to evaluate the concepts as well as the virtual reality setup. Statistically significant differences and subjective preferences could be observed in the quantitative and qualitative data respectively. Overall, the results suggest that the interaction concepts could be acceptable to some users for some use cases and that the virtual reality setup offers the possibility to quickly build interaction concepts which can be evaluated and compared in a controlled experiment

U-DiVE: Design and evaluation of a distributed photorealistic virtual reality environment

This dissertation presents a framework that allows low-cost devices to visualize and interact with photorealistic scenes. To accomplish this task, the framework makes use of Unity’s high-definition rendering pipeline, which has a proprietary Ray Tracing algorithm, and Unity’s streaming package, which allows an application to be streamed within its editor. The framework allows the composition of a realistic scene using a Ray Tracing algorithm, and a virtual reality camera with barrel shaders, to correct the lens distortion needed for the use on an inexpensive cardboard. It also includes a method to collect the mobile device’s spatial orientation through a web browser to control the user’s view, delivered via WebRTC. The proposed framework can produce low-latency, realistic and immersive environments to be accessed through low-cost HMDs and mobile devices. To evaluate the structure, this work includes the verification of the frame rate achieved by the server and mobile device, which should be higher than 30 FPS for a smooth experience. In addition, it discusses whether the overall quality of experience is acceptable by evaluating the delay of image delivery from the server up to the mobile device, in face of user’s movement. Our tests showed that the framework reaches a mean latency around 177 (ms) with household Wi-Fi equipment and a maximum latency variation of 77.9 (ms), among the 8 scenes tested.Esta dissertação apresenta um framework que permite que dispositivos de baixo custo visualizem e interajam com cenas fotorrealísticas. Para realizar essa tarefa, o framework faz uso do pipeline de renderização de alta definição do Unity, que tem um algoritmo de rastreamento de raio proprietário, e o pacote de streaming do Unity, que permite o streaming de um aplicativo em seu editor. O framework permite a composição de uma cena realista usando um algoritmo de Ray Tracing, e uma câmera de realidade virtual com shaders de barril, para corrigir a distorção da lente necessária para usar um cardboard de baixo custo. Inclui também um método para coletar a orientação espacial do dispositivo móvel por meio de um navegador Web para controlar a visão do usuário, entregue via WebRTC. O framework proposto pode produzir ambientes de baixa latência, realistas e imersivos para serem acessados por meio de HMDs e dispositivos móveis de baixo custo. Para avaliar a estrutura, este trabalho considera a verificação da taxa de quadros alcançada pelo servidor e pelo dispositivo móvel, que deve ser superior a 30 FPS para uma experiência fluida. Além disso, discute se a qualidade geral da experiência é aceitável, ao avaliar o atraso da entrega das imagens desde o servidor até o dispositivo móvel, em face da movimentação do usuário. Nossos testes mostraram que o framework atinge uma latência média em torno dos 177 (ms) com equipamentos wi-fi de uso doméstico e uma variação máxima das latências igual a 77.9 (ms), entre as 8 cenas testadas

Integration of Multisensorial Stimuli and Multimodal Interaction in a Hybrid 3DTV System

This article proposes the integration of multisensorial stimuli and multimodal interaction components into a sports multimedia asset under two dimensions: immersion and interaction. The first dimension comprises a binaural audio system and a set of sensory effects synchronized with the audiovisual content, whereas the second explores interaction through the insertion of interactive 3D objects into the main screen and on-demand presentation of additional information in a second touchscreen. We present an end-to-end solution integrating these components into a hybrid (internet-broadcast) television system using current 3DTV standards. Results from an experimental study analyzing the perceived quality of these stimuli and their influence on the Quality of Experience are presented

Understanding the challenges of immersive technology use in the architecture and construction industry: A systematic review

Despite the increasing scholarly attention being given to immersive technology applications in the architecture and construction industry, very few studies have explored the key challenges associated with their usage, with no aggregation of findings or knowledge. To bridge this gap and gain a better understanding of the state-of-the-art immersive technology application in the architecture and construction sector, this study reviews and synthesises the existing research evidence through a systematic review. Based on rigorous inclusion and exclusion criteria, 51 eligible articles published between 2010 and 2019 (inclusive) were selected for the final review. Predicted upon a wide range of scholarly journals, this study develops a generic taxonomy consisting of various dimensions. The results revealed nine (9) critical challenges which were further ranked in the following order: Infrastructure; Algorithm Development; Interoperability; General Health and Safety; Virtual Content Modelling; Cost; Skills Availability; Multi-Sensory Limitations; and Ethical Issues

Libro de aplicaciones y usabilidad de la televisión digital interactiva : VIII Conferencia Iberoamericana de Aplicaciones t Usabilidad de la TV Interactiva (jAUTI 2019)

Las jAUTI2019 VIII Jornadas Iberoamericanas sobre Aplicaciones y Usabilidad de la Televisión Digital Interactiva, se realizaron durante WebMedia 2019 XXV Simpósio Brasilero de Sistemas Multimedia y Web , del 29 de Octubre al 1 de Noviembre en Río de Janeiro (Brasil). jAUTI2019 es la octava edición de un evento científico organizado anualmente por la RedAUTI Red Temática de Aplicaciones y Usabilidad de la Televisión Digital Interactiva, formada por más de 250 investigadores pertenecientes a 32 universidades de España, Portugal y once países latinoamericanos (Argentina, Brasil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Chile, Ecuador, Guatemala, Perú, Uruguay, Venezuela). Este libro reúne los trabajos aceptados en el evento el cual tiene como objetivo presentar los esfuerzos de investigación de la academia, la industria o las agencias gubernamentales en el diseño, desarrollo y usabilidad de aplicaciones para la Televisión Digital Interactiva (TVDi) y tecnologías relacionadas.A jAUTI 2019 - VIII Conferência Ibero-Americana de Aplicações e Usabilidade da Televisão Digital Interativa, foi realizada durante o WebMedia 2019 - XXV Simpósio Brasileiro de Multimídia e Sistemas Web, de 29 de outubro à 1 de novembro no Rio de Janeiro (Brasil). O jAUTI 2019 é a oitava edição de um evento científico organizado anualmente pela Rede Temática de Aplicações e Usabilidade da Televisão Digital Interativa (RedAUTI), formada por mais de 250 pesquisadores de 32 universidades de Espanha, Portugal e onze países da América Latina (Argentina, Brasil, Colômbia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Chile, Equador, Guatemala, Peru, Uruguai, Venezuela). Este livro reúne os trabalhos aceitos no evento, que visa apresentar os esforços de pesquisa da academia, da indústria ou de agências governamentais no projeto, desenvolvimento e usabilidade de aplicativos para Televisão Digital Interativa (TVDi) e tecnologias relacionadas.The jAUTI 2019 VIII Ibero-American Conference on Applications and Usability of Interactive Digital Television, were held during WebMedia 2019 XXV Brazilian Symposium on Multimedia and Web Systems, from October 29 to November 1 in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil). jAUTI 2019 is the eighth edition of a scientific event organized annually by the RedAUTI Thematic Network of Applications and Usability of Interactive Digital Television, formed by more than 250 researchers from 32 universities in Spain, Portugal and eleven Latin American countries (Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Chile, Ecuador, Guatemala, Peru, Uruguay, Venezuela). This book gathers the works accepted in the event which aims to present the research efforts of the academy, industry or government agencies in the design, development and usability of applications for Interactive Digital Television (TVDi) and related technologies.RedAUT