Augmenting the World using Semantic Web Technologies

Communications in Computer and Information Science, 2014

Mobile devices are currently the most popular way of delivering ubiquitous augmented reality experiences. Traditionally, content sources for mobile augmented reality applications can be seen as isolated silos of information, being designed specifically for the intended purpose of the application. Recently, due to the raising in popularity and usage of the Semantic Web technologies and the Linked Data, some efforts have been made to overcome current augmented reality content sources limitations by integrating Linked Data principles and taking advantage of the significant increase in size and quality of the Linked Open Data cloud. This paper presents a literature review of the previous efforts in this respect, while highlighting in detail the limitations of current approaches, the advantages of integrating Linked Data principles in mobile augmented reality applications and up-to-date challenges in regarding this still novel approach. The authors conclude by suggesting some future research directions in this area.

2017

In this paper, a semantic model for distributed Augmented Reality services is presented. The services are built with the use of a novel Semantic Augmented Reality Ontology (SARO). SARO is based on semantic web standards (RDF, RDFS and OWL 2) and constitutes one of the main elements of the Contextual Augmented Reality Environments (CARE) approach. The model is used to build ubiquitous dynamic Augmented Reality presentations based on semantically described AR services in a contextual manner. In the paper, a visual design tool - the CARE Modeler - is also presented. The tool conforms to the SARO ontology and helps developers to model contextual Augmented Reality experiences. Finally, example presentations based on an AR service designed with the use of the tool are presented.

ARCAMA-3D (Augmented Reality for Context Aware Mobile Applications with 3D) is a mobile platform that allows us to overlay a 3D representation of the surroundings with augmented reality objects. In this paper, we show how these 3D objects, which are overlaid on the real view captured by the camera of the mobile device, are coupled with the Linked Open Data (LOD) cloud. With this approach, the data aggregation for a mobile augmented reality system is provided using the interconnected knowledge bases on the Web. This offers the possibility to enrich our 3D objects with structured information on the cloud. The objects that act as an augmented reality interface are used to provide an interactive access to these information. This approach provides an opportunity for people who publish information on the LOD cloud to interlink their data with 3D urban models. In order to achieve this, we propose an extensible data model that takes into account the temporal evolution of real world entities (such as buildings, monuments, etc.) and we publish our 3D models using this data model.

International Journal of Recent Contributions from Engineering, Science & IT (iJES)

With a view to creating a mixed reality that combines coexisting real and virtual objects and to providing users with real-time access to information in an interactive manner, augmented reality enriches users’ physical environment by incorporating digital and real objects and rendering them in the physical environment in the proper time and spatial framework. Due to its nature, augmented reality can be combined with and exploit other innovative technologies in order to improve its efficiency and potentials. Some such technologies are semantic web, knowledge graphs and deep learning. The study main purpose and contribution is to showcase the benefits of developing semantically enriched augmented reality applications and to present a system architecture for developing such applications as well as to showcase and assess an augmented reality application developed following the proposed architecture. The specific application aims at facilitating end-users’ day-to-day activities, enhancin...

Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 2012

This paper describes how semantic and Linked Data technology are incorporated into an Augmented Reality (AR) platform in the SmartReality project 1 and form the basis for enhanced AR mobile applications in which information and content in the user's surroundings can be presented in a more meaningful and useful manner. We describe how things of interest are described semantically and linked into the Linked Open Data cloud. Relevant metadata about things is collected and processed in order to identify and retrieve related content and services. Finally, the user sees this information intuitively in their Smart Reality view of the reality around them. We highlight how the use of semantics and Linked Data enables an AR experience which is more relevant for a user and with respect to what they have around them, and which can be automated and adapted at lower cost to content and application providers.

Augmented reality (AR) has received attention in the cultural heritage domain as an interactive medium for the requesting and consumption of information regarding heritage sites. This article proposes a mobile AR system based on Semantic Web technology to provide contextual information on heritage sites. Whereas most location based AR systems are designed to present simple information on a Point of Interest (POI), the proposed system offers information related to various elements of cultural heritage, both tangible and intangible, linked to the POI. This is accomplished through a cultural heritage ontology that aggregates heterogeneous data and semantically connects them to each other. First, we extracted cultural heritage data from five web databases and modelled contextual information for the target heritage site (Injeongjeon Hall and its vicinity in Changdeokgung Palace in South Korea) by applying the selected ontology in three stages. Second, we implemented a mobile AR application and conducted a user study to assess the learning and engagement impacts of the proposed system. We found that the application offers an agreeable user experience in affective, cognitive and operative aspects. Third, our analysis results revealed that specific usage patterns were significant with regard to learning outcomes. Finally, we explored how the study's key findings can offer practical design guidance for system designers to enhance mobile augmented reality information systems for heritage sites, and to show system designers how to support particular usage patterns to better accommodate specific user experiences.

Communications in Computer and Information Science, 2014

Mobile augmented reality applications have seen tremendous growth in recent years and tourism is one of the fields in which this set of technologies has been proved to be a natural fit. Augmented reality has the potential of enhancing the surroundings of the tourist in a meaningful way. In order to provide personalized and rich content for the augmented reality application, researchers have explored the use of Semantic Web and especially Linked Data principles and technologies. In this paper we review existing projects at the intersection of these technologies and current aspects, not necessarily specific, but highly relevant to the integration of Linked Open Data in mobile augmented reality applications for tourism. In this respect, we discuss approaches in the area of geodata integration, quality of the open data, provenance information and trust. We conclude with recommendations regarding future research in this area.

The SmartReality project is a new Austrian national project dedicated to exploring how people can access smarter information about the things around them through a combination of Augmented Reality, Web services and semantic technologies. This paper introduces the project and our initial thoughts concerning the current and necessary state of AR standards, interfaces and platforms.

2017

Augmented reality (AR) is a Context-aware services service which allows users to have an enhanced perception of the real world through a composition of virtual and actual objects. In recent years, AR has received tremendous attention from both academic and industry sectors. However, developers and end users are still suffering from lack of standard formats and protocols. We believe the obstacles stopping AR from flourishing are partially inherited from context-aware services and partially stem from the architecture of the current AR applications. Here, we aimed to develop a new model that can support AR framework for sharing Content between AR applications and communication between AR users. By incorporating Web 2.0 standards in Client-server architecture, we designed a new architecture for AR named Client Federated Servers (CFS). We implemented an AR application named Scratcher as a proof of concept. Scratcher allows users to search and share Targets as well as communicate with each other. Glossary xii Firstly, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my wife Mona Aminorroayaee for her continuous support during my studies. I would like to thank my supervisor Dr. Alex Aravind for his input, guidance, and feedback. The door to Prof. Aravind's office was always open when I had questions. Dear friends, your support surely helped me to finish my thesis and better its quality. My sincere gratitude to my friends and lab mates, namely, Behrooz Dalvandi for helping me in the application development, Mani Samani for helping me in the documentation and his feedback, Conan Veitch for thesis proofreading and his feedback, Nahid Taheri, Shanthini Rajendran, Darshik Shirodaria, Raja Gunasekaran, Arthi Babu, Gurpreet Lakha, and Braemen Stoltz for their passionate participations in my presentations and their feedback. I would also like to thank my committee members Dr. Luke Harris and Dr. Samuel Walters for their very valuable comments on this thesis and their guidance. I also thank my external examiner Dr. Balbinder Deo for his feedback and his comments and Dr. Ian Hartley for chairing my thesis defence. xi Glossary Activity diagram UML activity diagram. 66 Adoptability The likelihood of a product to be accepted and used by other developers. 77 All-in-one systems A system that has all of its components in one place. 31 API Application Programming Interface (API) specifies how to interact with software components. 3 AR resource Context and Content information of an augmented reality system. 67 Augmented reality browser Type of browsers that use camera to detect and display information related to location around the user. 59 Client Federated Servers The proposed framework of this thesis which is an enhancement over Client-server. ii Client-server Refers to a computational model that service providers called servers and service requesters called clients are scattered over a network. ii, xii Context Provider Services that collect and share context information. In augmented reality context is target or point of interest. 99 Co-routine Is type of a function that can pause the execution and return the controller to caller and resume the execution from where it was stopped if control ever returns to the function. 80 xii Content The information that is going to be delivered to the user in a Context-aware services service. ii Content providers Services that collect and share virtual objects. 51 Context Any information that can be used to characterize the situation of an Entity. 1 Context-aware services Services that are trying to provide relevant information to the user by recognizing a situation and adapting according to changes. ii, xii Cross-platform The ability of a software to run on multiple computer platforms. xiv, 4 Data flow diagram UML data flow diagram. 63 End user The ultimate intended user of a product. 63 Entity An entity is a person, place, or object that is considered relevant to the interaction between a user and an application, including the user and applications themselves. xiii, 1 HTTP requests A communication protocol that allows a computer to send a request and a server to respond. 33 Hub A center for data exchange and routing. 43 KHARMA Is an open architecture for augmented reality that allows user contribution through HTML and JavaScript. 40 Open systems Systems that have a combination of flexibility, interoperability, and portability. 26 Participatory AR Refers to type of augmented reality with multiple users interacting in a shared space. 106 Points of interest A location that a Virtual content is going to be registered for it. This is the equivalent of Targets for location based AR applications. xiv, 13 xiii Proprietary standards Protocols and specifications for a software or hardware that is controlled by a company rather than a standards organization. 31 Prototype Incomplete version of a software that serves a special purpose in software development. 8 Push notification service A message that is sent by servers and pops up on a mobile device. It does not need users to be in the application or use the application. 71 Registration Aligning Virtual content on Targets. 11 Scalability Capability of a system to handle its growth in work or number of clients. 30 Scratcher Is an AR prototype application that have been developed as a proof of concept. ii SDK Software Development Kit is a set of application development tools that facilitates developing an application. xiv, 4 Target Hub The structure that collects and shares Targets with clients. 54 Targets Visual patterns that are to be recognized by an AR application. ii, xiii, xiv Token An ID issued by server to verify the client for future requests. 66 Unity Is a a Cross-platform game engine developed by Unity Technologies. 4 Use case diagram UML use case diagram. 64 User profile Representation of user model or user identity. 33 Virtual content Computer generated objects such as texts, images, videos and audios that are going to be delivered user upon detection of the Targets and/or Points of interests. xiii, xiv Vuforia Is a Software Development Kit (SDK) to enable augmented reality functions. 4 xiv WebClient Class A .NET class that Provides functions for sending and receiving data from a URI. 89 WWW class Is a small utility module for simple access to web pages. 86 XML Is a hypertext system that operates over the Internet. 40 xv

Sensors, 2021

Indoor navigation systems incorporating augmented reality allow users to locate places within buildings and acquire more knowledge about their environment. However, although diverse works have been introduced with varied technologies, infrastructure, and functionalities, a standardization of the procedures for elaborating these systems has not been reached. Moreover, while systems usually handle contextual information of places in proprietary formats, a platform-independent model is desirable, which would encourage its access, updating, and management. This paper proposes a methodology for developing indoor navigation systems based on the integration of Augmented Reality and Semantic Web technologies to present navigation instructions and contextual information about the environment. It comprises four modules to define a spatial model, data management (supported by an ontology), positioning and navigation, and content visualization. A mobile application system was developed for test...

New Review of Hypermedia and Multimedia, 2014

This paper presents a content structure for building mobile augmented reality (AR) applications in HTML5 to achieve a clean separation of the mobile AR content and the application logic for scaling as on the Web. We propose that the content structure contains the physical world as well as virtual assets for mobile AR applications as document object model (DOM) elements and that their behaviour and user interactions are controlled through DOM events by representing objects and places with a uniform resource identifier. Our content structure enables mobile AR applications to be seamlessly developed as normal HTML documents under the current Web eco-system.

Due the proliferation of smartphones in everyday use, several different outdoor navigation systems have become available. Since these smartphones are able to connect to the Internet, the users can obtain location-based information during the navigation as well. The users could interactively get to know the specifics of a particular area (for instance, ancient cultural area, Statue Park, cemetery) with the help of thus obtained information. In this paper, we present an Augmented Reality system which uses Semantic Web technologies and is based on the interaction between the user and the smartphone. The system allows navigating through a specific area and provides information and details about the sight an interactive manner.

This paper presents a low cost architecture that extensively uses XML technologies to present generic digital content using the web and augmented reality. We describe our client-server architecture with particular emphasis on unique XML schemas that are used to design a generic XML repository and illustrate its use with two different application scenarios. Our solution allows management through XML and publication to a visualisation client supporting both virtual and augmented reality integrated with standard web browsing. Two application scenarios have been developed to illustrate the effectiveness of the system.

Indoor navigation is an important research topic nowadays. The complexity of larger buildings, supermarkets, museums, etc. makes it necessary to use applications which can facilitate the orientation. While for outdoor navigation already exist tried and tested solutions, but few reliable ones are available for indoor navigation. In this paper we investigate the possible technologies for indoor navigation. Then, we present a general, cost effective system as a solution. This system uses the advantages of semantic web to store data and to compute the possible paths as well. Furthermore it uses Augmented Reality techniques and map view to provide interaction with the users. We made a prototype based on client-server architecture. The server runs in a cloud and provides the appropriate data to the client, which can be a smartphone or a tablet with Android operation system.

2005

Augmented reality (AR) applications use geometric models as a central component of their operation. Both rendering and interaction require a detailed knowledge of the environment and the objects to be visualized. Usually such models are created especially for a single application and provide exactly the required information. With the combination of AR and ubiquitous computing more complex requirements for such models are appearing. In this paper we describe our experimental prototypes of semantic data models for ubiquitous augmented reality applications and discuss some further research directions and approaches to such world models.