Collaborative 3D applications are becoming very popular over the internet, however, these applications are mainly meant for desktop computers with fast internet bandwidth. With the increasing popularity and capabilities of mobile 3D applications, huge research interests have been generated in collaborative techniques and efficient rendering methods of 3D graphical objects in multi-modal devices. This research will examine how annotation can be used to improve collaboration and manipulation of 3D objects over multimodal devices.

The whole candidature is focused on collaboration and will be separated into several categories: examining different types of resources required for 3D rendering in mobile devices, investigating how annotation can improve 3D applications in terms of data reduction and selective rendering and collaboration techniques in multimodal devices. The findings of this research will help to improve the feasibility of collaborative 3D applications where different users can manipulate a common 3D object efficiently.

Enclosed Space Defination (right), for example, is a simple but innovative approach to improve rendering efficiency by using a simplified but rich definition and concepts of portal rendering. This can be achieved by creating an annotation mechanism for better understanding of the 3D scene and by doing so, filtering off redundant objects. The decision making process can then be significantly improved based on new knowledge obtained from the annotation of 3D scenes.

The Enclose Space Defination is but only an example on how annotation can be used to improve 3D rendering in mobile devices. This research will also be investigating manipulative capabilities of multimodal devices collaboratively.

Figure: Enclosed space Defination

Wiki (short for the concept of “Wiki Wiki Web”) is a type of website that allows users themselves to easily edit and comment text content through standard web browsers. The open philosophy and ease of use proved to be very effective in knowledge managing, document co-authoring and collaborative learning for various levels of users. Currently, Wikis use text as their primary medium. Even though more and more rich media contents (e.g. audio, video, graphics) are produced by various users on daily basis. There is lack of research to apply current Wiki collaboration pattern to such media. On top of that, the emergence of fast reliable networks and advanced mobile devices also begs the question if such rich-media Wiki can provide a natural and efficient way for people to collaborate on the move.

This project will investigate techniques to facilitate mobile collaboration around rich media in a Wiki-like way.

Mobile Audio Wiki (right) This Mobile Audio Wiki prototype is developed to validate if an audio-as-medium wiki can deliver a more pervasive and natural manner for people to collaboratively create and share knowledge. In general, Mobile Audio Wiki allows you

Mobile Audio Wiki

Mobile computing software cannot currently meet the needs of users that need to collaboratively work with location information. Even though mobile computing devices are becoming increasingly complex, with many now featuring satellite-positioning in addition to the standard work and communication applications, there is currently a lack of software that combines collaboration and location information on mobile devices. This is further complicated by mobile users having different requirements to those of conventional desktop users.

This research will develop a framework to support of collaborative mobile applications involving spatial information.

Map Annotations for Windows Mobile (right) was the first prototype from this project. It enables users to track their position and annotate on maps provided by Microsoft Virtual Earth while mobile and offline from GPS enabled Windows Mobile PDAs. When online, their position and annotations can be shared with other users.

Map Annotations for Windows Mobile (Larger Image)

MCM, Mobile Collaborative Mapping (right), the current prototype implementation, features a simple browser based user interface and enables personalised templates for entering data via annotations to the map. It is especially targeted at scientists performing field work. Access MCM.

Collaboration is facilitated through a server-side revision based annotation storage system. The annotation server also supports output to standard Geo RSS annotations that can be used with GIS and online maps like Live Maps and Google Maps. Revision histories can be downloaded in generic comma-separated format, this allows users to easily download and re-align data for processing.

MCM is a Mashup of VirtualEarth and geographic annotations with a custom silverlight interface. Browser based offline work is by this silverlight interface and its use of the browser cache and silverlight-provided offline storage.

Mobile Collaborative Mapping (Larger Image)

Traditional methods of input on mobile devices are cumbersome and difficult to use. Devices have become smaller, while their operating systems have become more complex, to the extent that they are approaching the level of functionality found on desktop computer operating systems. The buttons and toggle-sticks currently employed by mobile devices are a relatively poor replacement for the keyboard and mouse style user interfaces used on their desktop computer counterparts. For example, when looking at a screen image on a device, we should be able to move the device to the left to indicate we wish the image to be panned in the same direction.

This research investigates a new input model based on the natural hand motions and reactions of users. The model developed by this work uses the generic embedded video cameras available on almost all current-generation mobile devices to determine how the device is being moved and maps this movement to an appropriate action. This model holds the promise of being a simpler and more intuitive method for users to interact with their mobile devices, and has the added advantage that no hardware additions or modifications are required the existing mobile devices.

Current versions use a specially modified DirectX version of the Augmented Reality Toolkit (ARTFilterDX) developed here in the MQUTeR centre.