I-Explore

Project Members:
Lor ZhiChang, Miriam Schneider, Jayashree Karlekar, Daniel HII Jun Chung, Steven Zhou

Idea:
Abstract: Exploring buildings, streets or entire cities from the past is currently only possible in a museum, and is often presented in the form of static displays (models, plans, drawings, photos). Similarly, designs of new buildings are generally presented away from the actual building site, and abstract plans or at best models are used. This stretches the viewers' imagination, as it is often difficult for them to relate these displays to the current location and looks, and to immerse themselves in the scenes.

The iExplore project aims to alleviate these problems by developing a mobile hand-held system that can be used to view buildings, streets, historic sites, landscapes or cityscapes on location, and for interactively exploring them through time (going into the past and the future) as well as space (by the user walking around the city, for example). The look of the objects in the past or future would be overlaid onto the present objects in the mobile device's display.

Objectives:

Develop an accurate, mobile location detection and movement tracking technology for the mobile device that work on a coarse scale (where is the user) as well as a fine scale (where is the user looking). Develop an accurate registration method for aligning virtual and real objects in the mobile device. Design architectural models suitable for exploration. Develop an intelligent client-server architecture that helps in location detection and allows users to share location-specific photos and videos from different time periods as well as models of future developments.

Daniel Hii's role in the iExplore project is to provide his expertise and knowledge in architectural and urban design as well as their detailing. The architectural content for the project from 2D mapping to 3D modeling, site 2D information and the textures mapping required are all part and parcel of his work. He is also involved in the testing of linking all these data for the usage of mobile 3D model visualization. Explorations are required to get the most efficient 3D modeling and texture format to be run on mobile devices as they have less processing power, memory and storage capacity than their desktop counterparts. From there onwards, other possible features can be explored to enhance realism which includes adding shaders and particle systems for the 3D graphics generated.The core of his job is to make sure the represented 3D models are accurate and correct architecturally.

The applications designed to test our new motion-based interfaces are explained below:

Car Racing: To steer a car in the game, the user turns the phone like a steering wheel. Moving it back and forth controls the speed.

Map Navigation: The phone acts as a magnifying glass over a virtual map. Moving the phone forwards and backwards zooms through different resolutions of the map, and moving the phone along the map plane scrolls it in any direction.