Cumincad : CUMINCAD Papers : Search Results

CumInCAD is a Cumulative Index about publications in Computer Aided Architectural Design
supported by the sibling associations ACADIA, CAADRIA, eCAADe, SIGraDi, ASCAAD and CAAD futures

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_id	9c87
authors	Camarata, Ken
year	2001
title	Navigational Blocks (an interplay between the physical and the virtual)
source	University of Washington, Design Machine Group
summary	The Navigational Blocks project demonstrates a tangible user interface that facilitates retrieval of historical stories in a tourist spot. Orientation, movement, and relative positions of physical Blocks support visitor navigation and exploration in a virtual gallery. The Navigational Blocks system provides a physical embodiment of digital information through tactile manipulation and haptic feedback. The simple cubic form of the Blocks is easy to understand and therefore easy to use to manipulate complex digital information. Electromagnets embedded in the Blocks and wireless communication encourage users to quickly rearrange the Blocks to form different database queries.
series	thesis:MSc
email
more	http://dmg.caup.washington.edu/xmlSiteEngine/browsers/stylin/publications.html
last changed	2004/06/02 19:12

_id	8aef
authors	Dave, Bharat
year	2001
title	Immersive Modeling Environments
source	Reinventing the Discourse - How Digital Tools Help Bridge and Transform Research, Education and Practice in Architecture [Proceedings of the Twenty First Annual Conference of the Association for Computer-Aided Design in Architecture / ISBN 1-880250-10-1] Buffalo (New York) 11-14 October 2001, pp. 242-247
doi	https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.acadia.2001.242
summary	The paper describes development of a large-format panoramic display environment. Unlike the ‘window-on-the-world’ metaphor associated with small displays, immersive environments foster a sense of ‘being-in-the-world’. That raises a question: Which aspects of human-computer interaction and information perception scale up or change substantially from small displays to immersive environments? The paper first describes implementation of our display environment, projects being explored in it, and motivates a focused research agenda. Finally, the paper describes an experiment to study differences in spatial judgments by subjects while working in traditional and immersive environments.
keywords	Immersive Modeling, Interaction, Perception, Information Abstractions, Navigation
series	ACADIA
email
last changed	2022/06/07 07:55

_id	4b30
authors	Ahmad Rafi, M.E. and Mohd Fazidin, J.
year	2001
title	ARMY WAR GAME SIMULATION (AWAS) system - Utilising architectural knowledge in virtual environments
source	CAADRIA 2001 [Proceedings of the Sixth Conference on Computer Aided Architectural Design Research in Asia / ISBN 1-86487-096-6] Sydney 19-21 April 2001, pp. 435-438
doi	https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.caadria.2001.435
summary	This research briefly examines the importance of collaborative design in developing a multi-user, multi-tiered, networked and real-time information base system. Aspects such as navigation, interaction, communication, movements (objects or virtual camera), control, level of details, spatial design and virtual spaces will be explained to show their importance in the development of virtual world. This paper will further explore the aspects of collaborative design in the context of Army War Game Simulation System (AWAS). A generic collaborative design-based framework will be demonstrated to simulate the overall operations of a war in command-control structure of the force.
series	CAADRIA
email
last changed	2022/06/07 07:54

_id	c39a
authors	Ahumada Gallardo, N., López Morales, B., Mora Olate, M.L. and Muñoz, V.C.
year	2001
title	MARCO ANTONIO DE LA PARRA COMO NARRADOR Y ENSAYISTA. MONOGRAFIA MULTIMEDIAL (Marco Antonio de la Parra as Narrator and Writer. Monography in Multimedia)
source	SIGraDi biobio2001 - [Proceedings of the 5th Iberoamerican Congress of Digital Graphics / ISBN 956-7813-12-4] Concepcion (Chile) 21-23 november 2001, pp. 268-270
summary	The analysis of Marco Antonio de la Parra’s novels and essays from the discourse perspective, is the contents of an interdisciplinary work for modernizing and improving communicative possibilities of universitary thesis through multimedia. For the multimedia design, the main and most recent digital creating software for the graphic treatment of texts and images were analised, then the navigation system and screens were designed, difining backgrounds, texts, audio and video, besides buttons and hits. Results permit: 1. To present the contents in an easy access and transportation support, reducing production costs. 2. The offering of three communication supports: written text, audio and video. 3. Ostensibly improves universitary thesis and seminars quality.
series	SIGRADI
email
last changed	2016/03/10 09:47

_id	174f
authors	Bakker, N.H.
year	2001
title	Spatial Orientation in Virtual Environments
source	Delft University of Technology
summary	Recently, a growing interest can be detected in the application of Virtual Environment (VE) technology as an operator interface. VEs are three-dimensional computer-generated images that can be shown on a conventional monitor, on a large screen display, or on a head-mounted display. In order to use these three-dimensional interfaces for finding and retrieving information, the user must be able to spatially orient themselves.Different types of VE technology are available for navigating in these VEs, and different types of navigation can be enabled. A choice has to be made between the different options to enable good spatial orientation of the user. There are two main types of VE interfaces: an immersive interface that provides rich sensory feedback to the user when moving around in the VE, and a non-immersive interface that provides only visual feedback to the user when moving around in the VE. Furthermore, navigation through the VE can either be continuous providing fluent motion, or can be discontinuous which means that the viewpoint is displaced instantaneously over a large distance.To provide insight into the possible effects of these options a series of nine experiments was carried out. In the experiments the quality of spatial orientation behaviour of test subjects is measured while using the different types of interface and the different types of navigation.The results of the experiments indicate that immersive navigation improves the perception of displacement through the VE, which in turn aids the acquisition of spatial knowledge. However, as soon as the spatial layout of the VE is learned the two types of navigation interface do not lead to differences in spatial orientation performance. A discontinuous displacement leads to temporary disorientation, which will hinder the acquisition of spatial knowledge. The type of discontinuous displacements has an effect on the time needed for anticipation. The disorienting effects of a discontinuous displacement can be compensated for by enabling cognitive anticipation to the destination of the displacement.These results suggest that immersive navigation might only be beneficial for application domains in which new spatial layouts have to be learned every time or in domains where the primary users are novices. For instance, in training firemen to teach them the layout of new buildings with VE, or in using architectural walkthroughs in VE to show new building designs to potential buyers. Discontinuous movement should not be allowed when exploring a new environment. Once the environment is learned and if fast displacement is essential then discontinuous displacement should be preferred. In this case, the interface designer must make sure that information is provided about the destination of a discontinuous displacement.
series	thesis:PhD
last changed	2003/11/21 15:16

_id	avocaad_2001_10
id	avocaad_2001_10
authors	Bige Tunçer, Rudi Stouffs, Sevil Sariyildiz
year	2001
title	Facilitating the complexity of architectural analyses
source	AVOCAAD - ADDED VALUE OF COMPUTER AIDED ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN, Nys Koenraad, Provoost Tom, Verbeke Johan, Verleye Johan (Eds.), (2001) Hogeschool voor Wetenschap en Kunst - Departement Architectuur Sint-Lucas, Campus Brussel, ISBN 80-76101-05-1
summary	It is common practice for architecture students to collect documents on prominent buildings relevant to their design task in the early stage of design. While practitioners can rely on a body of design experience of their own, during the process of a new design, students can only draw from the examples of success and failure from other architects. In the past, such precedent based learning was implicit in the master-apprentice relationship common in the educational system. Nowadays academics commonly no longer have the possibility to maintain an extensive design practice, and instead introduce important outside precedents to the students. Thus, the study of important historical precedents or designs plays an important role in design instruction and in the students’ design processes. While there is no doubt that the most effective outcome of such a study would be achieved when the student does entire the study herself, students also benefit from a collaboration with peers, where they form groups to do an analysis of various aspects of a same building or over a group of buildings. By integrating the respective results into a common, extensible, library, students can draw upon other results for comparisons and relationships between different aspects or buildings. The complexity this introduces is best supported in a computer medium.The Web offers many examples of architectural analyses on a wide variety of subjects. Commonly, these analyses consist of a collection of documents, categorized and hyperlinked to support navigation through the information space. More sophisticated examples rely on a database for storage and management of the data, and offer a more complex categorization of the information entities and their relationships. These studies present effective ways of accessing and browsing information, however, it is precluded within these analyses to distinguish and relate different components within the project documents. If enabled, instead, this would offer a richer information structure presenting new ways of accessing, viewing, and interpreting this information. Hereto, documents can be decomposed by content. This implies both expanding the document structure, replacing document entities by detailed substructures, and augmenting the structure’s relatedness with content information. The relationships between the resulting components make the documents inherently related by content.We propose a methodology to integrate project documents into a single model, and present an application for the presentation of architectural analyses in an educational setting. This approach provides the students with a simple interface and mechanisms for the presentation of an analysis of design precedents, and possibly their own designs. Since all the information is integrated within a single environment, students will benefit from each others’ studies, and can draw new conclusions across analyses and presentations from their peers.
series	AVOCAAD
email
last changed	2005/09/09 10:48

_id	4e8c
authors	Chien, Sheng-Fen and Flemming, Ulrich
year	2001
title	Design space navigation in generative design systems
source	Automation in Construction 11 (1) (2002) pp. 1-22
summary	Generative design systems make it easier for designers to generate and explore design alternatives, but the amount of information generated during a design session can become very large. Intelligent navigation aids are needed if designers wish to access the information they generate with ease. We present a comprehensive approach to support information navigation in requirement-driven generative design systems, which gain their power form explicit representations of design requirements, which in turn add to the information generated by the system. Our approach takes into account studies dealing with human spatial cognition, wayfinding in physical environments, and information navigation in electronic media. We structure the information to be accessed in terms of a five-dimensional design space model that applies across generative design systems of the type considered here. The model structure supports basic generic navigation operations along its five dimensions. We validated the model in the context of the SEED-Layout system and used it to extend the built-in navigation tools of the system through novel ones, which we subjected to a limited usability study. The study suggests that these tools have promise and warrant further investigation.
series	journal paper
email
more	http://www.elsevier.com/locate/autcon
last changed	2003/05/15 21:22

_id	5eb9
authors	Gröhn, M., Mantere, M., Savioja, L. and Takala, T.
year	2001
title	Background screens on three walls and floor. The stereoscopic 3D Visualization of Building Services in Virtual Environment
source	Architectural Information Management [19th eCAADe Conference Proceedings / ISBN 0-9523687-8-1] Helsinki (Finland) 29-31 August 2001, pp. 523-528
doi	https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.ecaade.2001.523
summary	In currently on-going project we develop methods and techniques for visualizing building services in our virtual room. At first we have established a conversion and transmission path from contractors’ lighting modeling software to virtual environment software. Secondly we have visualized air flow data in a photo-realistic room in such a way that a nonspecialist can easily understand the behavior of air flow. Thirdly we have developed navigation techniques which allow an arbitrary visitor to explore the model without guidance.
keywords	Virtual Environment, Building Services, Flow Visualization, Interaction Techniques
series	eCAADe
email
last changed	2022/06/07 07:51

_id	0865
authors	Mishima, Yoshitaka and Szalapaj, Peter John
year	2001
title	Architectural Design Development through Multimedia Interaction
source	Proceedings of the Ninth International Conference on Computer Aided Architectural Design Futures [ISBN 0-7923-7023-6] Eindhoven, 8-11 July 2001, pp. 299-314
summary	This paper describes the development of a multimedia system aimed at architects and architectural students for the purpose of helping them to understand the basic concepts of architectural analysis. Analytical features in the system that we have developed include many design-theoretic concepts such as massing, balance and circulation. Other concepts are more directly related to the built environment and include elements such as lighting, structure and construction. The system illustrates architectural analysis carried out on a range of building types dynamically, and allows users to navigate architectural analyses interactively. Users can learn about the differences between buildings and their corresponding analyses in a supportive non-linear learning process, and can explore building types depending upon their own interests or needs. The prototype system contains analyses of three British building projects. They show different types of architecture in order to demonstrate important design theoretic and environmental differences. Conceptual models in the system show important aspects of a particular analysis simply, and each analysis is additionally described with text, animations, video clips and interviews with architects (talking heads). Most of the models were generated by the use of architectural CAD software. Animation techniques were used to describe the analyses of buildings clearly and dynamically. Users can visualise how whole buildings were designed from an analytical point of view, and the system illustrates design thinking by showing dynamic presentations of analyses. Users can structure their own design learning processes through a series of interactions. These interactions are supported with flexible cross-referencing mechanisms implemented in Macromedia Director 8.0 exploiting Frame Markers, Event Handling, Navigation, and Buttons in the context of the object-oriented Lingo programming language. The navigation component of this system has a logical matrix structure reflecting the fact that analytical information is interrelated across building types, giving rise to vertical and horizontal patterns of access. The features of Director 8.0 can control this navigation in a flexible yet structured way. Users not only learn about analysis, but also how to present their own designs to the public through the use of different kinds of presentation techniques, particularly through the use of conceptual models. We intend that users can show their projects from their own analytical viewpoints instead of simply showing realistic images of final designs. Presentations can also be recorded in the system, and these can in turn be used as reference material for other users. This system is currently being developed further by storing presentations and translating them into different languages (e.g. Japanese) so that foreign users in other institutions can interact with these presentations. This system has been evaluated in the context of an undergraduate CAD course at the School of Architecture, University of Sheffield, UK. We are currently examining the usefulness of the system based upon an evaluation process, in addition to including more building types for future study.
keywords	Analysis Of Form, Dynamic Interaction, Conceptual Models
series	CAAD Futures
email
last changed	2006/11/07 07:22

_id	0b0e
authors	Neto de Faria, J., Pellegrin, L., Senna, N. and Cardoso, V.
year	2001
title	REVISTA PROTÓTIPO DESIGN: DIVULGAÇÃO E PUBLICAÇÃO DE NOVO MODELO DE REVISTA (Magazine Protótipo Design: Promotion and Publication of a New Magazine Model)
source	SIGraDi biobio2001 - [Proceedings of the 5th Iberoamerican Congress of Digital Graphics / ISBN 956-7813-12-4] Concepcion (Chile) 21-23 november 2001, pp. 257-259
summary	The magazine “Protótipo Design” proposes the exploration of cyberspace in the construction of a virtual design magazine capable of using coherently the resources offered by the new media and employing adequately the existing languages. The magazine works its interface with the intention of always offering new possibilities in the navigation analogies in order to edify the cyberspace with a unique form, not delimited by wore down analogies with the impressed magazines. Another preoccupation that moves the magazine is the investigation of the use of the Internet as a more economic form of publishing the theoretical and practical researches in design.
series	SIGRADI
email
last changed	2016/03/10 09:56

_id	1744
authors	Scaletsky, C., Schatz, F., Bignon, J.-C. and Halin, G.
year	2001
title	A CRIAÇÃO DE UMA FERRAMENTA DE AUXÍLIO À CONCEPÇÃO INICIAL EM ARQUITETUR A ATRAVÉS DE UM SISTEMA ABERTO DE REFERÊNCIAS (The Creation of an Aiding Tool for the Early Stages of Architectural Design through an Open System of References)
source	SIGraDi biobio2001 - [Proceedings of the 5th Iberoamerican Congress of Digital Graphics / ISBN 956-7813-12-4] Concepcion (Chile) 21-23 november 2001, pp. 80-82
summary	Using references is a standard practice during processes of design creation. Many researches think that it is possible to organize references through a computerized system. Reference has a potential knowledge and it is possible to transfer it to a new design situation. Our approach suggest that universe of references will not be exclusively cases of architectural precedents but also other elements. A computerized system which organizes these references and allows permits a visual, interactive and progressive navigation will encourage new design ideas.
series	SIGRADI
email
last changed	2016/03/10 09:59

_id	02bb
authors	Schnabel, Marc Aurel and Kvan, Thomas
year	2001
title	THREE-D MAZE: GETTING LOST IN VIRTUAL REALITY
source	SIGraDi biobio2001 - [Proceedings of the 5th Iberoamerican Congress of Digital Graphics / ISBN 956-7813-12-4] Concepcion (Chile) 21-23 november 2001, pp. 145-147
summary	Virtual Environments (VE) influence design processes increasingly. We investigate the outcome of creation, interpretation and communication of architectural design, by using a three-dimensional (3D) maze together with text-based communication in a series of collaborative design experiments. The goal of our study was to identify how designers use and communicate design ideas by using VEs versa conventional methods of two-dimensional representations such as paper and pen. We developed a 3D-maze tool and set-up a series of experiments, including navigation- and perception-challenges, transcription of design, remote communication between design partners and controlled observations. We discuss how architects collaborate with partners and communicate their proposals in VE compared to actions in paper environments.
series	SIGRADI
email
last changed	2016/03/10 09:59

_id	d7d5
authors	Schnabel, Marc Aurel and Kvan, Thomas
year	2001
title	Design communication in immersive virtual environments: An initial exploration
source	Architectural Information Management [19th eCAADe Conference Proceedings / ISBN 0-9523687-8-1] Helsinki (Finland) 29-31 August 2001, pp. 472-478
doi	https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.ecaade.2001.472
summary	Using Virtual Environment (VE) to visualize ideas from the initial steps of design, the architect is challenged to deal with perception of space, solid and void, without translations to and from a two dimensional media. In this moment, we may expect new forms of design expression. The goal of our study was to identify how designers use and communicate early design ideas by using immersive three-dimensional VEs. We explored initial intentions of 3Dimmersive design schemes, textual descriptions and collaborations within immersive VE. We set-up a series of experiments including navigation- and perception-tasks, designing in immersive VE, transcription of design, remote communication between design partners and controlled observations. The paper describes these experiments. Finally we summarize observations from this research, for instance the simplicity to interconnect design-ideas cross platforms, conclude with possible future directions of our investigation, initiating a broader research including other disciplines.
keywords	Virtual Reality, Design Processes, Communication Methods, Preliminary Design, Evaluation
series	eCAADe
email
last changed	2022/06/07 07:57

_id	cf2003_m_026
id	cf2003_m_026
authors	WYELD, Theodor G.
year	2003
title	An Object Server System for 3D Digital Design Collaboration
source	Digital Design - Research and Practice [Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Computer Aided Architectural Design Futures / ISBN 1-4020-1210-1] Tainan (Taiwan) 13–15 October 2003, pp. 235-248
summary	Moving through and between computer generated 3D objects we experience a 'virtual world'. Virtual Worlds have created a dream-like landscape. They also have facilitated a paradigm shift for architects working with CAD tools where they now desire to “design three-dimensional spaces in an immersed way” (Strehlke and Engeli 2001). Architects are already working in computer-moderated collaborative networked organisations. A 3D Virtual World offers a different kind of collaboration. To understand how architects might design in an 'immersed way', three experiments are described. The experiments attempt to investigate how participants experience the 3D spaces within which they collaborated. In particular, the last experiment makes use of 'shared objects' in the scene. The software chosen to create these Virtual Worlds was VRML and JAVA due to their flexibility and rapid prototyping. Where VRML differs from most CAD languages is in its openness. This paper describes an object sharing client-server architecture based on a simple multi-user system providing navigation in CosmoPlayer 2.11 ported through Netscape. The Object Server System allows multiple clients, as avatars, and objects to be manipulated in a 3D Virtual World. The system updates the transforms of the objects explicitly allowing their transform values to be shared across multiple browser sessions.
keywords	collaboration, multi-user, object sharing
series	CAAD Futures
last changed	2003/09/22 12:21

_id	avocaad_2001_03
id	avocaad_2001_03
authors	M.K.D. Coomans, J.P. van Leeuwen, H.J.P. Timmermans
year	2001
title	Abstract but Tangible, Complex but Manageable
source	AVOCAAD - ADDED VALUE OF COMPUTER AIDED ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN, Nys Koenraad, Provoost Tom, Verbeke Johan, Verleye Johan (Eds.), (2001) Hogeschool voor Wetenschap en Kunst - Departement Architectuur Sint-Lucas, Campus Brussel, ISBN 80-76101-05-1
summary	In the VR-DIS research program, an innovative design-information modelling technique has been proposed that is based on features. In this modelling technique, the designer is invited not only to model the form and spatial aspects of his or her design, but also to model the structure of the data behind the design. The designer is offered a way to control how abstract design data is structured and stored. In this way, the designer is given the power to model concepts like conformity, contrast, and scale on the formal data level, and this for both graphical and non-graphical design characteristics. Further, the designer is invited to input formal descriptions of own design concepts, and use these personal concepts during the design process. With this new information modelling technique, we expect that the designers will be better capable to handle the complexity of linking diverse kinds of information involved in a design process. This new way of computer aided design offers a unique design freedom: any design concept becomes addressable. On the other hand, this technique also puts the responsibility for the content of the CAD database entirely in the hands of the designer. In order to be able to enjoy the design freedom fully and at the same time handle the responsibility over the design database, a computer tool is needed that shows the precise content of the database, and that is easy and quick to interact with. Only with such a tool, the designer will be capable of keeping the complex data model in pace with his or her design reasoning. To realise this requirement, a “feature browser” has been developed with a 3D graphical user interface. It shows the data objects as 3D blocks, mutually linked by rubber-band arrows that closely reflect the database structure. The whole forms an interactive 3D graph. The intuitiveness and user friendliness of the interface was improved by adding features like the visualisation of the browsing history, the visualisation of link-semantics, and animated visual feedback effects. The hardware part of the interface is worked out as a Fish Tank VR set-up. This hardware configuration improves the experienced realism of the displayed 3D objects up to a feeling of physical presence. The interface as a whole therefore provides a highly attractive display of the abstract design data; abstract but tangible. It is a tool in which complex data structures can be explored and controlled: complex but manageable.
series	AVOCAAD
email
last changed	2005/09/09 10:48

_id	5a82
authors	Bouvet, D., Froumentin, M. and Garcia, G.
year	2001
title	A real-time localization system for compactors
source	Automation in Construction 10 (4) (2001) pp. 417-428
summary	An operator-aiding system for compactors must incorporate a localization system. In this paper, we consider real-time kinematic (RTK) GPS and we present the solutions we have developed to maintain the positioning error lower than 0.2 m even during the satellite (limited) masking phases. By combining gyro, steering angle and speed measurements, we show that it is possible to obtain satisfying performances in dead-reckoning navigation with a low-cost internal sensor set. A forward–backward Kalman filter is proposed to deal with particularly long maskings, which typically occur when the machine works under bridges. Results of experiments carried out with an instrumented machine are presented to validate the proposed solutions.
series	journal paper
more	http://www.elsevier.com/locate/autcon
last changed	2003/05/15 21:22

_id	0f2b
authors	Brown, Andre G.P. and Knight, Michael W.
year	2001
title	NAVRgate: Gateways to architectural virtual reality - A review and thought on future directions
source	CAADRIA 2001 [Proceedings of the Sixth Conference on Computer Aided Architectural Design Research in Asia / ISBN 1-86487-096-6] Sydney 19-21 April 2001, pp. 195-198
doi	https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.caadria.2001.195
summary	A core element in the success of a virtual environment is the ease and appropriateness of the navigation process. Navigation is a two part process which consists of a facility for enabling movement [Locomotion] and sensory input to aid the navigator in finding they way around [Cognition]. Our work has focussed on Navigation in Virtual Environments for Architecture and that work is summarised here.
series	CAADRIA
email
last changed	2022/06/07 07:54

_id	887c
authors	Knight, Michael and Brown, André
year	2001
title	Towards a natural and appropriate Architectural Virtual Reality: the nAVRgate project. Past, present, future
source	Proceedings of the Ninth International Conference on Computer Aided Architectural Design Futures [ISBN 0-7923-7023-6] Eindhoven, 8-11 July 2001, pp. 139-149
summary	The lure of virtual environments is strong and the apparent potential is enticing. But questions of how Human Computer Interaction (HCI) issues should be handled and married with best practice in Human-Human Interaction (HHI) remains largely unresolved. How should architectural images and ideas be most appropriately represented, and how should designers interact and react through this computer mediated medium? Whilst there is never likely to be unanimity in answer to such questions, we can develop new ideas and new systems, test them, report on them and invite comment. The nature and novelty of virtual environments is such that refinements and innovations are likely to come from a variety of sources and in a variety of ways. The work described here explains the evolution and current plans for the development of a particular approach that has been developed and refined by the authors. Low-cost, effective and appropriate are the key words that have driven the developments behind the evolving nAVRgate system that has arisen from this work, and that is described here.
keywords	Virtual Environments, Navigation, Interaction, Perception
series	CAAD Futures
email
last changed	2006/11/07 07:22

_id	9de9
authors	Laakso, Mikko
year	2001
title	Practical Navigation in Virtual Architectural Environments
source	Helsinki University of Technology, Espoo, Finland
summary	The interest towards virtual reality (VR) and virtual environments (VE) is growing all the time. The applications being developed for VE run a wide spectrum, from games to business planning. This thesis concentrates on navigation in virtual architectural environments, movement in worlds that are very similar to our own. Navigation in a virtual world should be practical, intuitive and simple. Unfortunately, it is very often far from that - for some reason the usability issues in VEs have been usually left with little attention. Currently it is easy for a user to get lost and disoriented when traveling in a VE. This situation must change, navigating through virtual environments can no longer be considered a task reserved for the experts only. 3D-worlds and architectural applications for the common user require new, intuitive interface techniques. This thesis addresses issues related to both physical and cognitive aspects of navigation as well as theoretical models that bind them together. In the technology survey of this thesis, the virtual environment technology is presented. Different visual display systems, new input devices and some 3D user interface design aspects are described. The literature survey section discusses the main issues concerning navigation theory. The two parts of navigation, travel and wayfinding, are described in detail. The major challenges are discussed and some solutions and various research results are presented. A major part of the thesis consists of the description of HCNav, a new navigation system developed by the author. The system was constructed for use in the virtual room at Helsinki University of Technology. The purpose of HCNav is to provide a very intuitive and practical navigation interface. Three new experimental input devices, namely custom wand, data glove and speech recognition system, were tested. Another important part of the work is to evaluate the effectiveness of the HCNav system. A usability test was conducted to determine if the use of HCNav was actually improving navigation performance. Twelve subjects participated in a test where HCNav was compared with a traditional navigation software used previously in the virtual room. The experiment setup has been described and the results analyzed. The results are promising and show that the navigation methods adopted in HCNav are clearly better.
keywords	Virtual Environments, Navigation, Usability
series	thesis:MSc
last changed	2003/02/12 22:37

_id	bfec
authors	Tserng, H.P., Ran, B. and Russell, J.S.
year	2001
title	Erratum to ""Interactive path planning for multi-equipment landfill operations"" [Autom. Constr. 10 (2000) 155-168]"
source	Automation in Construction 10 (4) (2001) pp. 541-541
summary	A methodology and several algorithms for interactive motion planning are developed for multi-equipment landfill operations in an automated landfill system (ALS). A system for establishing ALS is also proposed in the paper. To develop a multi-truck/multi-compactor ALS, the major problems can he classified into three principal categories: (1) navigation system for multiple devices, (2) job-site geometric model, and (3) instantaneous motion planning and control system for equipment in the work site. To solve the problems from the three categories, this paper will present a methodology to simulate the operational processes of landfill vehicles and equipment in pre-planning a landfill project as well as finding efficient and collision-free motion patterns to control autonomous landfill equipment during the construction phase. Furthermore, by linking this system to a global positioning system (GPS), the efficient traffic routing and collision-free path for each piece of equipment can he calculated by using real-time positional data acquisition in a 3-D geometric model of a landfill site.
keywords	Multi-equipment landfill operations; Automated landfill system; Global positioning system
series	journal paper
more	http://www.elsevier.com/locate/autcon
last changed	2003/06/02 09:33

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