A Portable Framework for Semantic Zooming inInformation-Rich Virtual Environments |
Nicholas F. Polys
Umur Yilmaz
Virtual Environments Course: Dr. Doug Bowman
Virginia Tech Computer Science
Problem Information Rich Virtual Environments are enhanced with multiple information types embedded within their spatial view construct, but management and design of information displays within realtime 3D environments is hard:
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Goals
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Background Display of information about perceptual objects (active in the world scenegraph):
see also:
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Requirements for Annotations 1] Text and graphs are always right-side up. Expose all Text FonstStyle fields. a) use a true 3D Billboard b) always align with NavigationInfo Up exposedField 2] Annotation panels should be able to contain text, images, or Geometry2D components (for graphs, etc) 3] Text legibility can be improved using a background panel for contrast a) expose text and panel colors, transparency b) auto-size panel
4] Legibility can be improved by scaling annotations by a function of user distance
5] Reference line – expose beginPoint (on object), color 6] Annotations may contain multiple levels of detail which do not necessarily correspond 1-1 with the referent’s LODs 7] Support multiple targets for rendering optimization: a) embedded in scene ('near' referent) b) on HUD : at near clipping plane/ last rendered [Overlay requires access another level up in the runtime: like Java’s Canvas2D Component] c) expose the ImagePlane as a Transformation branch – should be normalized to window width and height
8] Embedded Annotations may need layout algorithms to reduce occlusion from the user’s Viewpoint; they must be transformable and should 'know' their bounds |
Functionality I - Portable nodes (VRML PROTOs) Text -
Image - default texture mapping Generic Heads-Up-Display (HUD) framework :
Semantic Objects:
Emergent Behavior Benefits:
Issues:
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Functionality II - Cortona/IE specific nodes VRML + HMD: |
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uses Menagerie world:
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EAI examples (use MS VM + IE): |
Usage Declare EXTERNPROTO file location and interface to use in any scene.
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Benefits
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Current & Future Work
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Conclusions
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© 2003