HR: 1340h
AN: IN13A-0902    [Abstracts]
TI: Heard on The Street: GIS-Guided Immersive 3D Models as an Augmented Reality for Team Collaboration
AU: * QUINN, B B
EM: bbq@ci.berkeley.ca.us
AF: City of Berkeley, CA Information Technology Dept., 2180 MILVIA ST, 4TH FLOOR, BERKELEY, CA 94704, United States
AB: Grid computing can be configured to run physics simulations for spatially contiguous virtual 3D model spaces. Each cell is run by a single processor core simulating 1/16 square kilometer of surface and can contain up to 15,000 objects. In this work, a model of one urban block was constructed in the commercial 3D online digital world Second Life http://secondlife.com to prove concept that GIS data can guide the build of an accurate in-world model. Second Life simulators support terrain modeling at two-meter grid intervals. Access to the Second Life grid is worldwide if connections to the US-based servers are possible. This immersive 3D model allows visitors to explore the space at will, with physics simulated for object collisions, gravity, and wind forces about 40 times per second. Visitors view this world as renderings by their 3-D display card of graphic objects and raster textures that are streamed from the simulator grid to the Second Life client, based on that client's instantaneous field of view. Visitors to immersive 3D models experience a virtual world that engages their innate abilities to relate to the real immersive 3D world in which humans have evolved. These abilities enable far more complex and dynamic 3D environments to be quickly and accurately comprehended by more visitors than most non-immersive 3D environments. Objects of interest at ground surface and below can be walked around, possibly entered, viewed at arm's length or flown over at 500 meters above. Videos of renderings have been recorded (as machinima) to share a visit as part of public presentations. Key to this experience is that dozens of simultaneous visitors can experience the model at the same time, each exploring it at will and seeing (if not colliding with) one another---like twenty geology students on a virtual outcrop, where each student might fly if they chose to. This work modeled the downtown Berkeley, CA, transit station in the Second Life region "Gualala" near [170, 35, 35] (x,y,z meters). Visiting this model amounts to going inside a map, seeing oneself there, and seeing, gesturing with, and speaking to other visitors in the same space. The Second Life viewer client is free, and the model is hosted on a vast publicly accessible grid that as of 1 September 2007 is simulating 846 square kilometers and frequently has over 40,000 simultaneous users. For reference, this work uses less than 1/200,000 part of the total grid. For cost savings, GIS was used to construct the model at 1/3 scale so that some 35,000 square meters of Berkeley were modeled in less than 4000 square meters of simulator space. Our work in Second Life "Gualala" has shown that it is feasible to use real-life GIS data to guide the construction of a spatially accurate model that reflects the built surface and underground environment. Groups of visitors may position their proxy body, or avatars on the street corner and converse, greatly augmenting the experience of a conference call. Since each visitor controls their own camera position in real time, the model considerably augments a video conference call, and can permit individuals to manipulate 3D objects as part of a demonstration or discussion.
UR: http://secondlifegis.com
DE: 0530 Data presentation and visualization
DE: 0825 Teaching methods
DE: 3252 Spatial analysis (0500)
SC: Earth and Space Science Informatics [IN]
MN: 2007 Fall Meeting