Ontology‐Based Representation and Modelling of Synthetic 3D Content: A State‐of‐the‐Art Review

Abstract

An indispensable element of any practical 3D/VR/AR application is synthetic three‐dimensional (3D) content. Such content is characterized by a variety of features—geometry, structure, space, appearance, animation and behaviour—which makes the modelling of 3D content a much more complex, difficult and time‐consuming task than in the case of other types of content. One of the promising research directions aiming at simplification of modelling 3D content is the use of the semantic web approach. The formalism provided by semantic web techniques enables declarative knowledge‐based modelling of content based on ontologies. Such modelling can be conducted at different levels of abstraction, possibly domain‐specific, with inherent separation of concerns. The use of semantic web ontologies enables content representation independent of particular presentation platforms and facilitates indexing, searching and analysing content, thus contributing to increased content re‐usability. A range of approaches have been proposed to permit semantic representation and modelling of synthetic 3D content. These approaches differ in the methodologies and technologies used as well as their scope and application domains. This paper provides a review of the current state of the art in representation and modelling of 3D content based on semantic web ontologies, together with a classification, characterization and discussion of the particular approaches.

Inference-based creation of synthetic 3D content with ontologies

“…In [26], a comprehensive review of approaches that use ontologies to support 3D representation and 3D modeling process has been presented. The main semantic web standards used to create ontology-based 3D content representations are the Resource Description Framework (RDF) [53], the RDF Schema (RDFS) [54] and the Web Ontology Language (OWL) [52].…”

“…Following [26], 3D content representation in this paper is defined as a document that specifies different 3D content components and properties, in particular geometrical, structural, spatial and presentational. Semantic 3D content representations are instances of 3D content ontologies, which are schemes specifying different possible classes and properties of 3D content components.…”

“…Mapping other classes of the domain ontology to PO classes is performed in a similar fashion (21)(22). Moreover, two basic shapes (mp:Box and mp:Cylinder) are created (24)(25)(26)(27)(28)(29)(30)(31)(32) and assembled into the do:Stand PO class (34)(35)(36)(37)(38)(39)(40)(41)(42). Every mp:Box and mp:Cylinder included in a do:Stand has dimensions and position (44)(45)(46)(47)(48)(49)(50)(51)(52)(53)(54)(55)(56).…”

“…In Line 20, the cut-off and the negation-as-failure operators are used to determine a stand, for which no x coordinate has been specified. Every artifact is placed on a stand (23)(24)(25)(26)(27). Every artifact that is not on any stand, is placed on a stand on which there is no artifact yet.…”

“…7 Visualization of the generated 3D scene st:paintedWoman is created in a similar way (14). Next, every do:Stand is expanded to a go:StructuralComponent that includes a go:Cylinder and a go:Box with appropriate dimensions and relative positions (16)(17)(18)(19)(20)(21)(22)(23)(24)(25)(26)(27)(28)(29)(30)(31). For every do:Stand and every do:Artifact, a position is determined (33)(34)(35).…”