1 Kaj Grønbæk & Preben MogensenHT’00 Hypermedia in the Virtual Project Room - Toward Open 3D Spatial Hypermedia Preben Mogensen & Kaj Grønbæk InterMedia & Dept. of Computer Science University of Aarhus DK-8200 Aarhus C, Denmark {pmogensen,

2 Kaj Grønbæk & Preben MogensenHT’00 Outline Introduction Problem domain Collaboration support for architects and designers Sources of inspiration Spatial hypermedia and open hypermedia Collaborative Virtual Environments The Manufaktur prototype Architecture 3D spatial hypermedia Collaboration support Status and future work

3 Kaj Grønbæk & Preben MogensenHT’00 Toward virtual project rooms Projects in our lab focusing on support for designers/architects spatial organization of heterogeneous materials bridging between physical and virtual worlds designing office and project room layout distributed collaboration Prototypical user groups Industrial design: LEGO Futura, Design/Nord, etc. Landscape/Townscape architects The EU DESARTE Project Participatory design with Landscape architects and architects The original Manufaktur concept (PC version DirectX) Distributed Multimedia (DMM) project Distribution and collaboration architecture Stereo-based Manufaktur (SGI version with OpenGL) Collaboration with Aarhus School of Architecture Interactive Room project, e.g. designing a video analysis room

4 Kaj Grønbæk & Preben MogensenHT’00 Problem domain

5 Kaj Grønbæk & Preben MogensenHT’00 Studies of architects' and designers' work environments Designers and architects working on common projects are often physically co-located in large office spaces physical project rooms Important materials are constantly available in the room on bulletin boards, whiteboards, flipovers etc. People often work in smaller groups around boards, computers and tables. Need bridge between physical and computer based material e.g paper and physical objects Co-location stimulates collaboration peripheral awareness about common tasks, implicit learning seamless transition between individual and collaborative work

6 Kaj Grønbæk & Preben MogensenHT’00 Project room for landscape architects

7 Kaj Grønbæk & Preben MogensenHT’00 materials organized spatially...

8 Kaj Grønbæk & Preben MogensenHT’00 samples brought into the room...

9 Kaj Grønbæk & Preben MogensenHT’00 Technology Inspiration

10 Kaj Grønbæk & Preben MogensenHT’00 Spatial hypermedia in 2D Example: The classical VIKI system (Marshall and Shipman) CAOS - Open Collaborative Spatial Hypermedia Implicit grouping of related items based on spatial proximity

11 Kaj Grønbæk & Preben MogensenHT’00 A 2D desktop is insufficient to mimic physical organization of material 3D provides a better overview of materials

12 Kaj Grønbæk & Preben MogensenHT’00 Collaborative Virtual Environments (CVE) 3D collaborative environments MASSIVE-1 and 2 from Nottingham DIVE from SICS in Sweden Both systems support Tele-conferencing (audio,video, shared boards) in virtual worlds Internet distribution Collaboration between many users represented as avatars Use aura concept to express proximity in virtual spaces An aura is a specification of a 3D region in which a service or an avatar is visible or present When an avatar’s aura intersect with that of another person they can see each other and start communicating When an avatar’s aura intersect with that of a service (e.g. a conference table) the service become available DIVE uses VRML and MASSIVE uses proprietary OpenGL based software

13 Kaj Grønbæk & Preben MogensenHT’00 CVE examples DIVE( MASSIVE ( /systems/)

14 Kaj Grønbæk & Preben MogensenHT’00 Traditional CVE Weaknesses Focus on casual formation of meetings and conferences Avatars are not well-suited for illustrating ongoing work Documents are not taken serious - boils down to ”runic inscriptions” No integration of real working tools, such as CAD and Word processors

15 Kaj Grønbæk & Preben MogensenHT’00 The Manufaktur System

16 Kaj Grønbæk & Preben MogensenHT’00 Manufaktur: Document Centered CVE General infrastructure for document-centered CVE Management of Workspaces, collections of material belonging to, e.g. task or project contexts “Live” hypermedia-links to real documents Distributed and collaborative architecture Multi platform support (DirectX and OpenGL) No human-like avatars - hand and camera only Object Server Collaboration Server Open HM Server

18 Kaj Grønbæk & Preben MogensenHT’00 Manufaktur Open Hypermedia Integration PC - 3D Manufaktur External Applications Clients on local machine Networked Servers Webvise Client Webvise Server Collaboration Server XML TCP/IP TCP/IP ActiveX ODBC - TCP/IP Persistent Store Object Server RDB Storage SGI - 3D Manufaktur Ole Linking ActiveX

19 Kaj Grønbæk & Preben MogensenHT’00 Manufaktur display architecture DirectX COM OpenGL Performer PC - 3D Manufaktur SGI - 3D Manufaktur Stereo projection Shared servers

20 Kaj Grønbæk & Preben MogensenHT’00 Objects in Manufaktur Document-objects hot-links to office and CAD documents, updates are immediately visible 3D objects 3D Studio models, e.g. mobile phones, rollerskates, or landscapes can be loaded into the workspace Implantations objects and devices to custom ("furnish") the space Groupings explicitly or implicitly formed collections of objects that can be manipulated as a whole ActiveEndpoints ActiveX-based link anchors that can be placed on top of Document- objects (Microsoft platform only)

21 Kaj Grønbæk & Preben MogensenHT’00 Groupings

22 Kaj Grønbæk & Preben MogensenHT’00 Explicit and Implicit grouping – spatial hypermedia structuring Groups may be created manually add to group remove from group Groups may be identified semi-automatically based on intersecting auras invoking 3D spatial parsing on demand as future work, we consider background incremental parsing Groups can be stored and handled as hypermedia composite objects

23 Kaj Grønbæk & Preben MogensenHT’00 Implantations

24 Kaj Grønbæk & Preben MogensenHT’00 ActiveX-based open hypermedia links Endpoint: ID Moniker ActiveEndpoint (Anchor): ID External Document Link ActiveEndpoint (Anchor): ID External Document Endpoint: ID Moniker

25 Kaj Grønbæk & Preben MogensenHT’00 Conclusion

26 Kaj Grønbæk & Preben MogensenHT’00 Open issues Manufaktur as a "roomware" component Projection devices: Smartboard, HoloBench and tables Two-handed input, gesture interface, speech recognition Understanding workspaces and work practice Metaphors for workspaces Space topology and furnishing Representing hypermedia structures in 3D visualization of structures, natural integration in the common workspace Collaboration support tightly and loosely coupled collaboration common view common orientation

27 Kaj Grønbæk & Preben MogensenHT’00 Status and future work Single user version tested by users in work-like environments Architects in Austria, Denmark and the UK Integration of MS Windows version with SGI IRIX (HoloBench and similar) Roomware development and physical room design PC based client coupled with SGI based stereodisplay built into table Wall projections of shared workspaces Prototype room setup in June 2000 Test in distributed use setting: fall In collaboration with School of Architecture in Aarhus Proof of concept prototype Comprehensive prototype for Windows 2000

28 Kaj Grønbæk & Preben MogensenHT’00 3D workbenches Projection based VR immersion through active stereo vision Collaboration Between people at the same place Between remotely separated people