X3D multi-user virtual environment platform for collaborative spatial design

发布时间：2011-06-21 19:52:59

X3D Multi-user Virtual Environment Platform forCollaborative Spatial DesignCh. Bouras Ch. Tegos V. Triglianos Th. TsiatsosComputer Engineering and Informatics Dept.(CEID), Univ. of Patras, Greece, and Research Academic Computer Technology Institute (CTI), Greece Computer Engineeringand Informatics Dept.(CEID), Univ. ofPatras, GreeceComputer Engineeringand Informatics Dept.(CEID), Univ. of Patras,GreeceDepartment ofInformatics, AristotleUniversity ofThessaloniki, andResearch AcademicComputer TechnologyInstitute (CTI), Greecebouras@cti.gr tegos@ceid.upatras.gr triglian@ceid.upatras.gr tsiatsos@csd.auth.grAbstractIt is well known that both space and the spatial organization play an important role in our work and learning environments as well as in everyday life. There is a definite need for many persons to design their space along with an expert and to preview it in order to test its functionality. Many times there is a need for the inhabitants and workers to collaborate in order to co-design their space from distance.Multi-user 3D virtual environments are a powerful form of collaborative telecommunication applications, enabling the users to share a common three dimensional space and interact with each other as well as with the environment surrounding them, in order to collaboratively solve problems or aid learning processes. This paper presents the work done for extending a multi-user virtual environments platform, to support collaborative spatial design applications. Furthermore, a usage scenario is presented concerning the collaborative design of a classroom for educational purposes.1.IntroductionThe maturation of the Internet and the need for electronic communication formed the basis for the research and development of collaborative telecommunication applications. Collaborative Virtual Environments (CVE) is a promising form of this typeof applications. More specifically, a CVE can actively supports human-human communication in addition to human-machine communication and it uses a Virtual Environment. The central concept of CVEs is the one of a multi-user virtual world, i.e. a computer generated space where participants can meet and interact. CVEs might vary in their representational richness from three dimensional 3D graphical spaces, 2.5D and 2D environments to text-based environments [9]. CVEs can enable the users to share a common 3D space and interact with each other as well as with the environment surrounding them, in order to collaboratively solve problems or aid learning processes. This is an exciting field with much potential for inter-disciplinary collaboration particularly in the fields of computer science, psychology, sociology, architecture and urban planning, cultural and media studies as well as artificial intelligence.Collaborative virtual environments using desktop PCs are particularly useful for spatial activities when the participants are distributed [8]. This implies that they could be used in order to support spatial collaboration. According to [8], spatial collaboration is an everyday activity in which people work together to solve a spatial problem (for example, a group of people will often arrange furniture together or exchange directions with one another).The work presented in this paper inspired from two different cases. The first one is to help people with disabilities to re-organize their personal or work space in a more functional manner. The second one is to help teachers to create more effective learning spaces according to special characteristics of their classroom and audience. A usage scenario concerning the second of the above–referred cases is presented in this paper.27th International Conference on Distributed Computing Systems Workshops (ICDCSW'07)0-7695-2838-4/07 $20.00 © 2007

X3D multi-user virtual environment platform for collaborative spatial design

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