Supporting guided navigation in mobile virtual environments

Abstract

Developing interactive 3D graphics for mobile Java applications is a reality. Recently, the Mobile 3D Graphics (M3G) API was proposed to provide an efficient 3D graphics environment suitable for the J2ME platform. However, new services and applications using interactive 3D graphics, which have already achieved reasonable standards on the desktop, do not yet exist for resource-constrained handheld devices. In this work, we developed a framework for supporting guided navigation in mobile virtual environments. To illustrate its main functionalities, a virtual rescue training was designed, implemented and tested on mobile phones. Users can load virtual environments from a remote PC server, navigate through them, find an optimal and collision-free path from one place to another, and obtain additional information on the objects.

Showing Users the Way: Signs in Virtual Worlds

“…When users looked into hallways that did not lead to the destination, a "do not enter" sign was displayed. More recently, Barbosa and Rodrigues [3] developed a cell phone application to aid firefighters as they navigate burning building. Exit signs were provided throughout a virtual model of the building to indicate exit routes.…”

A lightweight 3D visualization and navigation system on handheld devices

“…Chang and Ger developed an application for handheld devices [5], for viewing 3D graphical environments, however, contrary to our work, the application is imagebased rendering. Garcia et al developed a framework and a virtual rescue training application for firefighters, aimed at simulating an indoor space, which allows users to navigate through 3D environments, find an optimal and collision-free path from one place to another, and obtain additional information on objects [2].…”

Presenting evacuation instructions on mobile devices by means of location-aware 3D virtual environments

“…The first investigations were thought for outdoor environments [13,7,11,3]. Later, some projects explored the use of 3D models for helping users in the navigation of indoor environments [1,14,4,12].…”

“…Garcia Barbosa et al [1,14] developed a framework (based on the M3G standard) which allows users to load 3D models from a remote PC server, navigate them, find an optimal and collision-free path from one place to another, and obtain additional information on objects. They developed two applications based on that framework: a virtual rescue training for firefighters [1], and a 3D virtual tour application where multiple mobile clients navigate and interact with each other in a shared 3D model [14].…”

“…They developed two applications based on that framework: a virtual rescue training for firefighters [1], and a 3D virtual tour application where multiple mobile clients navigate and interact with each other in a shared 3D model [14]. A significant limitation of the framework is the lack of automatic positioning: the user has to navigate the model manually.…”