Tese 5,9MB - Instituto Superior Técnico

97 Pages·2008·5.91 MB·English

Urban Sketcher:
Creating Urban Scenery
Using Multimodal Interfaces
on Large Screen Displays
José Pedro do Sacramento Aleixo Dias
Dissertação para obtenção do Grau de Mestre em
Engenharia Informática e de Computadores
Júri
Presidente: Prof. AnaMariaSeverinodeAlmeidaePaiva
Orientação: Prof. JoaquimArmandoJorge
Vogais: Prof. JoãoMadeirasPereira
Novembro de 2008

Resumo
Desenvolveu-seumsistemaparaecrãsdelargaescala,fazendousodeponteiroslaserconvencionaiscomo
interface de entrada. Este sistema suporta uso colaborativo. Foi criada uma interface inovadora de modo
a suportar a interacção com tais dispositivos, baseada no conceito de portões e menus circulares não-
intrusivos.
Os utilizadores são capacitados de navegar num mundo virtual utilizando um conjunto de modos de
navegação, nomeadamente: primeira pessoa, modo bússola e modo examinar, assim como um modo de
vôo multimodal, integrando comandos de voz e movimento dos braços. Podem ser criadas e modeladas
formas simples, fazendo uso de um conjunto de ferramentas de modelação que definem um novo modelo
de interacção para a modelação de objectos. Podem ser instanciados edifícios a partir de um conjunto de
estilos de fachada pré-existentes, pelo desenho da sua planta e alçado, dando origem a edifícios únicos.
Estilos adicionais podem ser gerados, recorrendo a um formato XML para definir regras de distribuição de
elementosnasfachadasdeedifícios. Osedifícioserestantesobjectospodemsertransformadoseclonados.
Podemanexar-seanotaçõesaobjectos,demodoasuportarcenáriosderevisão. Umprocessoalternativode
criaçãodeedifíciosépropostoparatirarproveitodosistematantonasprimeirasfasescomonaapresentação
deprojectos.
A arquitectura do sistema é descrita, seguida de detalhes de implementação e testes de avaliação. É
demonstrado que os utilizadores conseguiram fazer uso das capacidades do sistema com sucesso. As
conclusõesdoprojectoetrabalhofuturofechamestedocumento.
Palavras-Chave: traço,edifício,interfacemultimodal,navegação,ecrãlargaescala,BREP
i

Abstract
A system was developed for the creation of urban scenarios produced on large screen displays using laser
pointersasinputdevicesandsupportingcollaborativeusage. Anovelinterfacehadtobedevelopedtosupport
interaction with such input devices, based on the concept of gates and circular menus with a non-intrusive
interface.
Users can navigate on a virtual world using a set of comprehensive navigation modes, namely: first
person, bird’seyeviewandexaminemodes, alongwithamultimodalflightmodecontrolledbyspeechcom-
mands and arm tracking. Simple shapes can be created and modeled using a minimalistic set of modeling
tools, defining a novel modeling interface. Buildings can be instantiated from a library of facade styles by
drawing the desired blueprint and setting the facade height to generate unique buildings. Additional styles
may be implemented by making use of a developed XML format for defining façade layout rules. Buildings
and other shapes can be transformed and cloned. Objects in the scene can have notes attached to them
toaidinreviewingsessions. Analternativebuildingcreationworkflowisproposedtotakeadvantageofthis
systemforearlyprototypesandshowcasingprojects.
Thesystemarchitectureisdescribedthoroughly,followedbyimplementationdetailsandevaluationtests.
Itisshownthatuserscouldsuccessfullymakeuseoftheofferedfeaturesbasedonastroke-basedinterface
andsetofcomprehensivemenus. Theprojectconclusionsandfutureworkclosethisdocument.
Keywords: stroke,building,multimodal,largescreen,BREP
iii

Acknowledgements
Theauthorwouldliketothankhissupervisor,ProfessorJoaquimJorge,forhisvision,creativityandguidance.
Youhavegivenmeconfidencethateverythingispossibleandassistedmeinachievingmygoals.
ThanksareduetotherestoftheportugueseIMPROVEteammembersBrunoAraújo, RicardoJotaand
LuísBruno. Ournumerousbrainstormingsessionsandsubsequenthardworkpaidoff.
TheauthorwouldalsoliketothankJoséAntónioGonçalvesfortakingpartinthemotiontrackingnavigation
modeandallthetestuserswhovolunteeredbothfortheGlasgowandLisbontests.
Hewouldliketothankmostofallhiswife,parentsandfriendsforallthesupportandunderstandinggiven
alongthislongjourney–Icouldn’thavemadeitwithoutyou!
v

Table of Contents
Resumo i
Abstract iii
Acknowledgements v
TableofContents ix
ListofFigures xii
ListofTables xiii
ListofAcronyms xv
1 Introduction 1
2 RelatedWork 3
2.1 ExistingSolutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
2.1.1 Interaction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
2.1.2 InputModalities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
2.1.3 OutputModalities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
2.1.4 ShapeCreation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
2.1.5 SceneNavigation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
2.2 ComparativeAnalysisofBuildingModelingSoftware . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
2.2.1 AutoCAD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
2.2.2 ArchiCAD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
2.2.3 RevitBuilding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
2.2.4 SketchUp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
2.2.5 ComparisonofTestedSolutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
3 Design 17
3.1 ProposedSolution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
3.2 SystemArchitecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
3.3 UrbanSketcherInput/OutputCommunication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
3.4 Stroke-BasedInputInterface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
3.4.1 Strokes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
3.4.2 Gates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
3.4.3 Menus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
3.4.4 StrokeGestures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
3.4.5 MainMenuvsContextualMenu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
3.5 MultimodalInputInterface. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
3.6 ContentCreationConcepts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
vii
3.6.1 Apply-to-SceneCreation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
3.6.2 InstancingaBuilding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
4 Implementation 25
4.1 Navigation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
4.1.1 FirstPersonMode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
4.1.2 CompassMode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
4.1.3 ExamineMode. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
4.1.4 MultimodalFlightMode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
4.1.5 Otherpossiblenavigationalmodes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
4.2 CreatingContent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
4.2.1 ShapeInternalStructure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
4.2.2 ShapeInstancing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
4.2.3 ShapeTemplates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
4.2.4 BuildingStyle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
4.2.5 InstancingBuildings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
4.3 EditingContent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
4.3.1 FaceandEdgeSelection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
4.3.2 DeterminingandSelectingDirections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
4.3.3 ShapeOperations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
4.4 Reviewing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
4.5 ProposedWorkFlow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
4.5.1 ScenarioCreation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
4.5.2 BuildingStyleCreation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
5 Evaluation 37
5.1 IntermediateTests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
5.1.1 TestEnvironments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
5.1.2 Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
5.2 FinalTests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
5.2.1 Conditions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
5.2.2 TestEnvironment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
5.2.3 Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
6 Conclusion 45
6.1 Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
6.2 MainContributions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
6.3 ConclusionsandFutureWork . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Bibliography 49
viii