Extending DoD modeling and simulation with Web 2.0, Ajax and X3D

DoD has much to gain from Web 2.0 and the Ajax paradigm in open source. The Java language has come a long way in providing real world case studies and scalable solutions for the enterprise that are currently in production on sites such as eBay.com (http://www.ebay.com) and MLB.com (http://www.mlb.com). The most popular Ajax application in production is Google Maps (http://maps.google.com), which serves as a good example of the power of the technology. Open Source technology has matured greatly in the past three years and is now mature enough for deployment within DoD systems. In the past, management within the DoD has been reluctant to consider Enterprise Level Open Source Technologies as a solution, fearing that they might receive little to no support. In fact, the Open Source Business Model is entirely based on first developing a broad user base then providing support as a service for their clients. DoD Modeling and Simulation can create dynamic and compelling content that is ready for the challenges of the 21st century and completely integrated with the Global Information Grid (GIG) concept. This paper presents a short history of Model View Controller (MVC) architectures and goes over various pros and cons of each framework (Struts, Spring, Java Server Faces), which is critical for the deployment of a modern Java web application. Ajax and various frameworks are then discussed (Dojo, Google Web Toolkit, ZK, and Echo2). The paper then touches on Ajax3D technologies and the use of Rez to generate 3D models of entire cities and goes on to discuss possible extended functionality of the Rez concept to create a terrain system like Google Earth in X3D-Earth.http://archive.org/details/extendingdodmode109453282US Navy (USN) author.Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited

Multimodal Content Delivery for Geo-services

This thesis describes a body of work carried out over several research projects in the area of multimodal interaction for location-based services. Research in this area has progressed from using simulated mobile environments to demonstrate the visual modality, to the ubiquitous delivery of rich media using multimodal interfaces (geo- services). To effectively deliver these services, research focused on innovative solutions to real-world problems in a number of disciplines including geo-location, mobile spatial interaction, location-based services, rich media interfaces and auditory user interfaces. My original contributions to knowledge are made in the areas of multimodal interaction underpinned by advances in geo-location technology and supported by the proliferation of mobile device technology into modern life. Accurate positioning is a known problem for location-based services, contributions in the area of mobile positioning demonstrate a hybrid positioning technology for mobile devices that uses terrestrial beacons to trilaterate position. Information overload is an active concern for location-based applications that struggle to manage large amounts of data, contributions in the area of egocentric visibility that filter data based on field-of-view demonstrate novel forms of multimodal input. One of the more pertinent characteristics of these applications is the delivery or output modality employed (auditory, visual or tactile). Further contributions in the area of multimodal content delivery are made, where multiple modalities are used to deliver information using graphical user interfaces, tactile interfaces and more notably auditory user interfaces. It is demonstrated how a combination of these interfaces can be used to synergistically deliver context sensitive rich media to users - in a responsive way - based on usage scenarios that consider the affordance of the device, the geographical position and bearing of the device and also the location of the device

Collaborative geographic visualization

Dissertação apresentada na Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia da Universidade Nova de Lisboa para a obtenção do grau de Mestre em Engenharia do Ambiente, perfil Gestão e Sistemas AmbientaisThe present document is a revision of essential references to take into account when developing ubiquitous Geographical Information Systems (GIS) with collaborative visualization purposes. Its chapters focus, respectively, on general principles of GIS, its multimedia components and ubiquitous practices; geo-referenced information visualization and its graphical components of virtual and augmented reality; collaborative environments, its technological requirements, architectural specificities, and models for collective information management; and some final considerations about the future and challenges of collaborative visualization of GIS in ubiquitous environment

3D Spatial Data Infrastructures for web-based Visualization

In this thesis, concepts for developing Spatial Data Infrastructures with an emphasis on visualizing 3D landscape and city models in distributed environments are discussed. Spatial Data Infrastructures are important for public authorities in order to perform tasks on a daily basis, and serve as research topic in geo-informatics. Joint initiatives at national and international level exist for harmonizing procedures and technologies. Interoperability is an important aspect in this context - as enabling technology for sharing, distributing, and connecting geospatial data and services. The Open Geospatial Consortium is the main driver for developing international standards in this sector and includes government agencies, universities and private companies in a consensus process. 3D city models are becoming increasingly popular not only in desktop Virtual Reality applications but also for being used in professional purposes by public authorities. Spatial Data Infrastructures focus so far on the storage and exchange of 3D building and elevation data. For efficient streaming and visualization of spatial 3D data in distributed network environments such as the internet, concepts from the area of real time 3D Computer Graphics must be applied and combined with Geographic Information Systems (GIS). For example, scene graph data structures are commonly used for creating complex and dynamic 3D environments for computer games and Virtual Reality applications, but have not been introduced in GIS so far. In this thesis, several aspects of how to create interoperable and service-based environments for 3D spatial data are addressed. These aspects are covered by publications in journals and conference proceedings. The introductory chapter provides a logic succession from geometrical operations for processing raw data, to data integration patterns, to system designs of single components, to service interface descriptions and workflows, and finally to an architecture of a complete distributed service network. Digital Elevation Models are very important in 3D geo-visualization systems. Data structures, methods and processes are described for making them available in service based infrastructures. A specific mesh reduction method is used for generating lower levels of detail from very large point data sets. An integration technique is presented that allows the combination with 2D GIS data such as roads and land use areas. This approach allows using another optimization technique that greatly improves the usability for immersive 3D applications such as pedestrian navigation: flattening road and water surfaces. It is a geometric operation, which uses data structures and algorithms found in numerical simulation software implementing Finite Element Methods. 3D Routing is presented as a typical application scenario for detailed 3D city models. Specific problems such as bridges, overpasses and multilevel networks are addressed and possible solutions described. The integration of routing capabilities in service infrastructures can be accomplished with standards of the Open Geospatial Consortium. An additional service is described for creating 3D networks and for generating 3D routes on the fly. Visualization of indoor routes requires different representation techniques. As server interface for providing access to all 3D data, the Web 3D Service has been used and further developed. Integrating and handling scene graph data is described in order to create rich virtual environments. Coordinate transformations of scene graphs are described in detail, which is an important aspect for ensuring interoperability between systems using different spatial reference systems. The Web 3D Service plays a central part in nearly all experiments that have been carried out. It does not only provide the means for interactive web-visualizations, but also for performing further analyses, accessing detailed feature information, and for automatic content discovery. OpenStreetMap and other worldwide available datasets are used for developing a complete architecture demonstrating the scalability of 3D Spatial Data Infrastructures. Its suitability for creating 3D city models is analyzed, according to requirements set by international standards. A full virtual globe system has been developed based on OpenStreetMap including data processing, database storage, web streaming and a visualization client. Results are discussed and compared to similar approaches within geo-informatics research, clarifying in which application scenarios and under which requirements the approaches in this thesis can be applied

BIM implementation in architectural practices : towards advanced collaborative approaches based on digital technologies

We are at a stage where Building Information Modelling (BIM) has reached a maturity level to be widely adopted by the professionals and organizations within the Architectural, Engineering and Construction (AEC) industry. An industry which is highly fragmented and not advanced in terms of digitalization, making an effective collaboration hard to achieve. The advances in Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) have brought about the promise of improving collaborative procedure in a wide range of industries. The widespread adoption of BIM has paved the way for the introduction of ICT within the AEC sector. The reported benefits of BIM imply on its potential for contributing to a successful inter-disciplinary collaboration. This calls for attention from architects who shall consider how BIM allows the architectural practices to operate in truly novel ways to achieve new building efficiencies and organizations. This research was designed to investigate the crucial factors for an effective collaboration based on advanced ICT and enabled by BIM with respect to architectural practices. An effective inter-disciplinary collaboration allows architects as the authors of the projects to oversee the development and delivery of the projects more consistently with their design intends. The concerns about the move towards adopting BIM by architectural firms were reviewed and its influential factors and barriers were discussed. As we read about it, BIM is indicated by different terms to describe its essence: ‘’BIM methodology’’, ‘’BIM technology’’, ‘’BIM process’’, ‘’BIM systems’’ and etc. However, none of these terms can include all aspects of BIM. The term ‘’ecosystem’’ was adopted to describe the nature of BIM and the reason for which is described in this work. To further constitute the BIM ecosystem, its dimensions of People, Products and Processes were presented in detail with respect to collaborative procedures. It included the delineation of a number of BIM policies and protocols, tools and technologies, roles and skills which are all related to and suitable for architectural practices in their interdisciplinary collaboration. Through three case studies, the research questions and hypothesis were put into investigation. Based on the idea of change management and the socio-technical nature of BIM collaboration, a qualitative research approach was adopted. Various techniques were used to gather information to be analyzed through a coding process of the qualitative data. The codes were interpreted as the factors influencing collaboration and were grouped to form the crucial concepts contributing to effective BIM-enabled collaborative procedures. It was revealed that the “joint decision making” factor is the most crucial one in this respect followed by “collaboration involvement” and “interoperability”. These findings were based on the frequency of the codes related to these factors in the data analysis. The crucial concepts in BIM-enabled collaboration were revealed to be “collaboration conditions” followed by “software capacity” and “human resources organization”. The findings confirm the research hypotheses that BIM implementation asks architects to assume a leadership role in collaborative procedures and that it allows for the integration of ICT into the technological pipeline of architectural practices. However, the validity of the two hypotheses is subject to certain conditions that are discussed in this work. The research finds the area of BIM education a place of great interest for future research work as the factor of “training” has a great influence on the overall success of BIM-enabled collaboration. Furthermore, it was revealed that the crucial factor of “interoperability” needs more attention from both industry and academic sectors. The impacts of BIM implementation on existing and emerging roles within the industry is another area of great interest for future works and research.Estamos en una etapa en la que Building Information Modeling (BIM) ha alcanzado un nivel de madurez que será ampliamente adoptado por el Profesionales y organizaciones dentro de la industria de Arquitectura, Ingeniería y Construcción (AIC). Una industria que es altamente fragmentado y no avanzado en términos de digitalización, lo que hace que una colaboración efectiva sea difícil de lograr. Los avances en las Tecnologías de la Información y la Comunicación (TIC) han traído la promesa de mejorar la colaboración Procedimiento en una amplia gama de industrias. La adopción generalizada de BIM ha allanado el camino para la introducción de las TIC en el sector de la AIC. Los beneficios reportados de BIM implican en su potencial para contribuir a un éxito interdisciplinario colaboración. Esto requiere la atención de arquitectos que deben considerar cómo BIM permite que las prácticas arquitectónicas operen en formas verdaderamente novedosas para lograr nuevas eficiencias de construcción y organizaciones. Esta investigación fue diseñada para investigar los factores cruciales para una colaboración efectiva basada en TIC avanzadas y habilitado por BIM con respecto a las prácticas arquitectónicas. Una colaboración interdisciplinaria efectiva permite a los arquitectos como autores de los proyectos para supervisar el desarrollo y la entrega de los proyectos de manera más coherente con sus propósitos de diseño. Se revisaron las preocupaciones sobre el movimiento hacia la adopción de BIM por parte de las empresas de arquitectura y sus factores influyentes y Se discutieron las barreras. A medida que leemos sobre esto, BIM se indica mediante diferentes términos para describir su esencia: "metodología BIM", "Tecnología BIM", "Proceso BIM", "Sistemas BIM" y etc. Sin embargo, ninguno de estos términos puede incluir todos los aspectos de BIM. El término "ecosistema" se adoptó para describir la naturaleza de BIM y la razón por la cual se describe en este trabajo. A más constituyen el ecosistema BIM, sus dimensiones de Personas, Productos y Procesos se presentaron en detalle con respecto a procedimientos colaborativos. Incluía la delineación de una serie de políticas y protocolos BIM, herramientas y tecnologías, roles y habilidades que están relacionadas y son adecuadas para las prácticas arquitectónicas en su colaboración interdisciplinaria. A través de tres estudios de caso, las preguntas de investigación y la hipótesis se pusieron en investigación. Basado en la idea de cambio. La gestión y la naturaleza sociotécnica de la colaboración BIM, se adoptó un enfoque de investigación cualitativa. Varios se utilizaron técnicas para recopilar información para analizarla a través de un proceso de codificación de los datos cualitativos. Los codigos fueron interpretados como los factores que influyen en la colaboración y se agruparon para formar los conceptos cruciales que contribuyen a la eficacia procedimientos colaborativos habilitados por BIM. Se reveló que el factor de "toma de decisiones conjunta" es el más crucial en este sespeto seguido de "participación colaborativa" e "interoperabilidad". Estos hallazgos se basaron en la frecuencia de códigos relacionados con estos factores en el análisis de datos. Los conceptos cruciales en la colaboración habilitada por BIM se revelaron como "Condiciones de colaboración" seguidas de "capacidad de software" y "organización de recursos humanos". Los hallazgos confirman la investigar las hipótesis de que la implementación BIM les pide a los arquitectos que asuman un papel de liderazgo en los procedimientos de colaboración y que permite la integración de las TIC en la línea tecnológica de las prácticas arquitectónicas. La investigación considera que el área de educación BIM es un lugar de gran interés para futuros trabajos de investigación, ya que el factor de "capacitación" tiene un gran influencia en el éxito generalPostprint (published version

Designing a Framework for Exchanging Partial Sets of BIM Information on a Cloud-Based Service

The rationale behind this research study was based on the recognised difficulty of exchanging data at element or object level due to the inefficiencies of compatible hardware and software. Interoperability depicts the need to pass data between applications, allowing multiple types of experts and applications to contribute to the work at hand. The only way that software file exchanges between two applications can produce consistent data and change management results for large projects is through a building model repository. The overall aim of this thesis was to design and develop an integrated process that would advance key decisions at an early design stage through faster information exchanges during collaborative work. In the construction industry, Building Information Modeling is the most integrated shared model between all disciplines. It is based on a manufacturing-like process where standardised deliverables are used throughout the life cycle with effective collaboration as its main driving force. However, the dilemma is how to share these properties of BIM applications on one single platform asynchronously. Cloud Computing is a centralized heterogeneous network that enables different applications to be connected to each other. The methodology used in the research was based on triangulation of data which incorporated many techniques featuring a mixture of both quantitative and qualitative analysis. The results identified the need to re-engineer Simplified Markup Language, in order to exchange partial data sets of intelligent object architecture on an integrated platform. The designed and tested prototype produced findings that enhanced project decisions at a relatively early design stage, improved communication and collaboration techniques and cross disciple co-ordination

Planning and 3D Spatial Media: Progress, Prospects, and the Knowledge and Experiences of Local Government Planners in Ireland

For three decades the case has been made for the development and adoption of digital tools that better support spatial decision-making in planning using 3D information. Here we report on a study that interviewed planners from local authorities in Ireland concerning their knowledge and experience of 3D spatial media. We consider the potential uses of these tools in planning, and the prospects for their adoption within local government planning departments. The interviews reveal that the planning system, as currently resourced and operated in Ireland, provides significant challenges and few incentives for the adoption of 3D spatial media