Consortium
giCentre
GI Group
Location and Timing
EPSRC
Technology
Camineo
MRGIS
AREL
Virtual City
Organisations
Other Projects
LOCUS Description |
The current architecture of the LOCUS project can be subdivided into six distinct categories including the following: |
The purpose of having a GIS database is to store and maintain all the necessary geo-referenced spatial data into a secure server which will be used in urban navigation. To serve the demands of current Location Based Services (LBS), our server should feed the client, which will be either a PDA or a 3G phone, through an optimised network with minimum lattency in real-time performance. Currently, we are designing our GIS database based on SQL technologies, which will hold 2D maps, 3D maps, video animations and textual information (i.e. directions, descriptions, etc). |
We are modeling the geographical information using a
full-featured GIS software for visualizing, analyzing, creating, and managing data with a geographic component
called ArcView. Using this tool, we import both digital maps or GIS raw data (building height information) and generate an accurate 3D mesh of the environment. This mesh is originally exported into VRML file format for further precessing. Then to enhance the geometry and appearance of the 3D mesh we import it into a 3D modeling software package called 3D Studio Max. We perform operations such as texturing, lighting and mesh optimization as well as manually model parts of the environment which is not included in the inputted geometry (i.e. trees, bins, etc). An example of the above can be found in the Virtual City project. |
Routing tools are developed to provide advanced navigational assistance to mobile users. Early exploratory work into data mining mobile trajectories has calculated speeds for transportation networks, based upon previously exhibited user behaviour. This has shown that speeds on the network vary not only by type of road, but over space, for example typically speeds are slower in inner cities, and through time, for example slower in 'rush hours'. This has allowed the development of tools that can provide routing advice based upon the experience of previous users, and so may suggest different routes depending on whether the journey is to be taken, for example, on a Monday morning or a Saturday afternoon. Future research aims to account for the behaviour for different modes of transport, and to set up a routing server to satisfy the route requests from mobile clients. |
Currently, LOCUS is using global positioning system (GPS) devices such as Pharos and Holux, to provide positioning information during urban navigation. Specificaly, the GPS streams provides our mobile architecture with three degrees-of-freedom (DOF) or x, y and z. Furthermore, to calculate the orientation of the user during navigation three 3 DOF (yaw, pitch, roll) are required and this can be acquired by the integration of a magnetic three-axis digital compass such as Honeywell HMR3300. The calculation of all 6 DOF allows us to provide positional and orientation information during urban navigation. |
For the Virtual Reality (VR) Interface LOCUS is developing two different mobile prototypes based either on VRML or Direct3D APIs. For the graphics component the first interface uses Pocket Cortona as a plug-in to Pocket Internet Explorer which can visualize and interact with VRML models (VRML 2.0 and GeoVRML) through the provided functionality of the interface. On the other hand, the second interface is based on Windows Mobile Direct3D and works as a stand-alone mobile application. Both interfaces are currently operational in PDAs. |
The Mixed Reality (MR) Interface (based on MRGIS) is capable of superimposing geographical information including 3D maps (landscapes and buildings), 2D images (2D digital maps), 3D sound and textual information. The MR interface is designed to provide navigational information in real time and accurately possition it anywhere in the environment (both indoor and outdoor environments). Users can interact with the geographical information using standard I/O devices (i.e. mouse, keyboard), sensor devices (i.e. SpaceMouse) as well as natural techniques (i.e. marker cards). |
News & Events
LOCUS in Financial Times,
full story...
ENC 2006, full story...
GRAPP 2006, full story...
NAV 05, Pushing the
Boundaries, full story...
Innovate 2005 - Knowledge
Transfer for Industrial
Collaboration, full story...
Terra Future, full story...
GNSS security operations
- Protecting the Citizen, full
story...
Location Based Services:
understanding the Japanese
experience, full story...
The fifth Cities Revealed
Annual Event 2005,
full story...
Location Based Services:
from business models to
applications, full story...