Platform Independent Real-Time X3D Shaders and their Applications in Bioinformatics Visualization

Since the introduction of programmable Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) and procedural shaders, hardware vendors have each developed their own individual real-time shading language standard. None of these shading languages is fully platform independent. Although this real-time programmable shader technology could be developed into 3D application on a single system, this platform dependent limitation keeps the shader technology away from 3D Internet applications. The primary purpose of this dissertation is to design a framework for translating different shader formats to platform independent shaders and embed them into the eXtensible 3D (X3D) scene for 3D web applications. This framework includes a back-end core shader converter, which translates shaders among different shading languages with a middle XML layer. Also included is a shader library containing a basic set of shaders that developers can load and add shaders to. This framework will then be applied to some applications in Biomolecular Visualization

Analysis domain model for shared virtual environments

The field of shared virtual environments, which also encompasses online games and social 3D environments, has a system landscape consisting of multiple solutions that share great functional overlap. However, there is little system interoperability between the different solutions. A shared virtual environment has an associated problem domain that is highly complex raising difficult challenges to the development process, starting with the architectural design of the underlying system. This paper has two main contributions. The first contribution is a broad domain analysis of shared virtual environments, which enables developers to have a better understanding of the whole rather than the part(s). The second contribution is a reference domain model for discussing and describing solutions - the Analysis Domain Model

The addition of the haptic modality to the virtual reality modeling language

Thesis (S.B. and M.Eng.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 1998.Includes bibliographical references (p. 40-43).by Evan F. Wies.S.B.and M.Eng

Developing serious games for cultural heritage: a state-of-the-art review

Although the widespread use of gaming for leisure purposes has been well documented, the use of games to support cultural heritage purposes, such as historical teaching and learning, or for enhancing museum visits, has been less well considered. The state-of-the-art in serious game technology is identical to that of the state-of-the-art in entertainment games technology. As a result, the field of serious heritage games concerns itself with recent advances in computer games, real-time computer graphics, virtual and augmented reality and artificial intelligence. On the other hand, the main strengths of serious gaming applications may be generalised as being in the areas of communication, visual expression of information, collaboration mechanisms, interactivity and entertainment. In this report, we will focus on the state-of-the-art with respect to the theories, methods and technologies used in serious heritage games. We provide an overview of existing literature of relevance to the domain, discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the described methods and point out unsolved problems and challenges. In addition, several case studies illustrating the application of methods and technologies used in cultural heritage are presented

Serious Games in Cultural Heritage

Although the widespread use of gaming for leisure purposes has been well documented, the use of games to support cultural heritage purposes, such as historical teaching and learning, or for enhancing museum visits, has been less well considered. The state-of-the-art in serious game technology is identical to that of the state-of-the-art in entertainment games technology. As a result the field of serious heritage games concerns itself with recent advances in computer games, real-time computer graphics, virtual and augmented reality and artificial intelligence. On the other hand, the main strengths of serious gaming applications may be generalised as being in the areas of communication, visual expression of information, collaboration mechanisms, interactivity and entertainment. In this report, we will focus on the state-of-the-art with respect to the theories, methods and technologies used in serious heritage games. We provide an overview of existing literature of relevance to the domain, discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the described methods and point out unsolved problems and challenges. In addition, several case studies illustrating the application of methods and technologies used in cultural heritage are presented

The design of 3D cyberspace as user interface: Advantages and limitations

Virtual reality propagandists, technologists and the Internet community have long debated the issue of the usability of online three-dimensional (3D) environments. A lot of work was published about the benefits of 3D spaces for human-computer interaction and information visualisation due to their realism (Anders, Kalawsky, Crossley, Davies, McGrath, Rejman-Greene, 1998, Hamit, 1993, Heim, 1992, Aukstakalnis, Blatner, Roth, 1992). This topic also receives continuous industry support including standardisation of Virtual Reality Modeling Language ( VRML, VRML Consortium, 1997) and the more recent Macromedia & Intel alliance to bring web 3D to the mainstream (200 1, Intel Corporation). The actual implementation of this technology is, however, still challenging (McCarthy & Descartes, 1998) and minimal because 3D is too new and waiting for good design to be discovered (Nielsen, 1998). The practical aim of this project is to fulfil the niche by creating a functional 3D interface for the access of two-dimensional (2D) information, such as text, using VRML. The theoretical aim is to contribute to further research into 3D usability by describing and analysing the design process in terms of possibilities, challenges and limitations

3D visualisation of the laetoli footprints on the internet

Bibliography: p. 84-86

TREE-D-SEEK: A Framework for Retrieving Three-Dimensional Scenes

In this dissertation, a strategy and framework for retrieving 3D scenes is proposed. The strategy is to retrieve 3D scenes based on a unified approach for indexing content from disparate information sources and information levels. The TREE-D-SEEK framework implements the proposed strategy for retrieving 3D scenes and is capable of indexing content from a variety of corpora at distinct information levels. A semantic annotation model for indexing 3D scenes in the TREE-D-SEEK framework is also proposed. The semantic annotation model is based on an ontology for rapid prototyping of 3D virtual worlds. With ongoing improvements in computer hardware and 3D technology, the cost associated with the acquisition, production and deployment of 3D scenes is decreasing. As a consequence, there is a need for efficient 3D retrieval systems for the increasing number of 3D scenes in corpora. An efficient 3D retrieval system provides several benefits such as enhanced sharing and reuse of 3D scenes and 3D content. Existing 3D retrieval systems are closed systems and provide search solutions based on a predefined set of indexing and matching algorithms Existing 3D search systems and search solutions cannot be customized for specific requirements, type of information source and information level. In this research, TREE-D-SEEK—an open, extensible framework for retrieving 3D scenes—is proposed. The TREE-D-SEEK framework is capable of retrieving 3D scenes based on indexing low level content to high-level semantic metadata. The TREE-D-SEEK framework is discussed from a software architecture perspective. The architecture is based on a common process flow derived from indexing disparate information sources. Several indexing and matching algorithms are implemented. Experiments are conducted to evaluate the usability and performance of the framework. Retrieval performance of the framework is evaluated using benchmarks and manually collected corpora. A generic, semantic annotation model is proposed for indexing a 3D scene. The primary objective of using the semantic annotation model in the TREE-D-SEEK framework is to improve retrieval relevance and to support richer queries within a 3D scene. The semantic annotation model is driven by an ontology. The ontology is derived from a 3D rapid prototyping framework. The TREE-D-SEEK framework supports querying by example, keyword based and semantic annotation based query types for retrieving 3D scenes

Modeling and Simulation of the Humanoid Robot HOAP-3 in the OpenHRP3 Platform

The aim of this work is to model and simulate the humanoid robot HOAP-3 in the OpenHRP3 platform. Our purpose is to create a virtual model of the robot so that different motions and tasks can be tested in different environments. This will be the first step before testing the motion patterns in the real HOAP-3. We use the OpenHRP3 platform for the creation and validation of the robot model and tasks. The procedure followed to reach this goal is detailed in this article. In order to validate our experience, different walking motions are tested and the simulation results are compared with the experimental ones.This work has been supported by the Comunidad de Madrid Project S2009/DPI-1559/ROBOCITY2030 II, the CYCIT Project PI2004-00325 and the European Project Robot@CWE FP6-2005-IST-5