The goal of the Sensorpedia Mobile Platform was to develop a software application which can be run on a mobile computing device and used to transmit distributed data readings from citizens in near-real time. This application permits citizens to rapidly report event information, such as disaster occurrences, security anomalies, and accounts of emergencies.
Presentation from #andevcon by Anna Schaller
Peter van der Linden, Android Technology Evangelists from the Developer Platforms and Services team at Motorola Mobility. More info at http://developer.motorola.com
Biological organism simulation using procedural growth "Organimo 1.0"Devyani Singh
Designing a real-time system for growing plant organisms in Unity 3D game engine. The whole life cycle of the plant from the seed level to full growth level shall be shown. Moreover, the growth shown will be in sync with the day and night cycle. Different Plant types covered are basic tree, creeper plants, vines, under water plants, etc. Moreover study on simple Radiosity algorithm is also made. Small game or scenes in Unity3D are used to demonstrate the growth of such organisms.
The goal of the Sensorpedia Mobile Platform was to develop a software application which can be run on a mobile computing device and used to transmit distributed data readings from citizens in near-real time. This application permits citizens to rapidly report event information, such as disaster occurrences, security anomalies, and accounts of emergencies.
Presentation from #andevcon by Anna Schaller
Peter van der Linden, Android Technology Evangelists from the Developer Platforms and Services team at Motorola Mobility. More info at http://developer.motorola.com
Biological organism simulation using procedural growth "Organimo 1.0"Devyani Singh
Designing a real-time system for growing plant organisms in Unity 3D game engine. The whole life cycle of the plant from the seed level to full growth level shall be shown. Moreover, the growth shown will be in sync with the day and night cycle. Different Plant types covered are basic tree, creeper plants, vines, under water plants, etc. Moreover study on simple Radiosity algorithm is also made. Small game or scenes in Unity3D are used to demonstrate the growth of such organisms.
Come ogni nuova convergenza tecnologica l''Augmented Reality ridefinisce l'esperienza del corpo attraverso lo spazio e lo spazio attraverso i codici. Il buzz che circonda l'AR individua oggi un punto di convergenza tra tecnologie mature, sovraccarico delle potenzialità del presente.
A bit about Augmented Reality http://k3hamilton.com/AR/
Based on a presentation given on May 27, 2010 by Karen Hamilton and Jorge Olenenwa
Website has moved to http://k3hamilton.com/AR/ due to closing of wikispaces
Augmented reality The future of computingAbhishek Abhi
This is a PPT on Developing Augmented Reality this field is rapidly developing around the world. this ppt describes the entire meaning of the word augmented reality and what it is made up off and the working of this devices.
Tollan xicocotitlan a reconstructed city by augmented reality ( extended )ijdms
Work In Terminal presents the analysis, design, implementation and results of Reconstruction Xicocotitlan
Tollan-through augmented reality (Extended), which will release information about the Toltec capital
supplemented by presenting an overview of the main premises of the Xicocotitlan Tollan city supported
dimensional models based on the augmented reality technique showing the user a virtual representation of
buildings in Tollan phase.
We propose a methodology to measure object’s dimension using Augmented reality based smartphone application.
This technique is quite useful for various applications like proper package size estimation in packaging industry, interior object dimension for decoration industry ,measuring the area, breadth, angle, and depth of text and sprites for game development, animation, or graphic design purposes.
In particular this method is very useful whenever a measuring tape or scale is not available.
We use accelerometer, gyroscope available in smart-phones to record real-time data which help to understand mobile’s movement.
These data will be used to measure dimensions of the live object by calibrating mobile from one point to another using point cloud in unity.
The Quantify app's augmented reality capabilities provide enhanced visualization, enabling you to see measurements directly overlaid on the real-world environment.
PRO-VAS: utilizing AR and VSLAM for mobile apps development in visualizing ob...TELKOMNIKA JOURNAL
The development of mobile apps with augmented reality (AR) would enhance the capability in visualizing the scene or environment. Any apps supported by computer aided design versions with 3D models makes the design more realistic, such as in the form of websites or mobile apps. However, the current features for online platforms for shopping are quite limited and lack 3D visualization features. This paper presents the development of a mobile application, pro-visualizer app called PRO-VAS, that utilizes AR for scanning and visualizing the environment. PRO-VAS acts as a product visualizer that applies visual simultaneous localization and mapping (VSLAM) for localization of the product in AR based systems.
The main components of PRO-VAS are ARCore from Google for interactive purposes, and the depth mapping from red green blue depth (RGB-D) phone camera with point plane generator and markerless tracking method. The last component of the app is the set of objects from the unity store, which can be chosen in PRO-VAS for the scanned scene area. The app was tested in various environments involving different objects and has shown competitive results. In the future, more features and products can be added to the apps.
Come ogni nuova convergenza tecnologica l''Augmented Reality ridefinisce l'esperienza del corpo attraverso lo spazio e lo spazio attraverso i codici. Il buzz che circonda l'AR individua oggi un punto di convergenza tra tecnologie mature, sovraccarico delle potenzialità del presente.
A bit about Augmented Reality http://k3hamilton.com/AR/
Based on a presentation given on May 27, 2010 by Karen Hamilton and Jorge Olenenwa
Website has moved to http://k3hamilton.com/AR/ due to closing of wikispaces
Augmented reality The future of computingAbhishek Abhi
This is a PPT on Developing Augmented Reality this field is rapidly developing around the world. this ppt describes the entire meaning of the word augmented reality and what it is made up off and the working of this devices.
Tollan xicocotitlan a reconstructed city by augmented reality ( extended )ijdms
Work In Terminal presents the analysis, design, implementation and results of Reconstruction Xicocotitlan
Tollan-through augmented reality (Extended), which will release information about the Toltec capital
supplemented by presenting an overview of the main premises of the Xicocotitlan Tollan city supported
dimensional models based on the augmented reality technique showing the user a virtual representation of
buildings in Tollan phase.
We propose a methodology to measure object’s dimension using Augmented reality based smartphone application.
This technique is quite useful for various applications like proper package size estimation in packaging industry, interior object dimension for decoration industry ,measuring the area, breadth, angle, and depth of text and sprites for game development, animation, or graphic design purposes.
In particular this method is very useful whenever a measuring tape or scale is not available.
We use accelerometer, gyroscope available in smart-phones to record real-time data which help to understand mobile’s movement.
These data will be used to measure dimensions of the live object by calibrating mobile from one point to another using point cloud in unity.
The Quantify app's augmented reality capabilities provide enhanced visualization, enabling you to see measurements directly overlaid on the real-world environment.
PRO-VAS: utilizing AR and VSLAM for mobile apps development in visualizing ob...TELKOMNIKA JOURNAL
The development of mobile apps with augmented reality (AR) would enhance the capability in visualizing the scene or environment. Any apps supported by computer aided design versions with 3D models makes the design more realistic, such as in the form of websites or mobile apps. However, the current features for online platforms for shopping are quite limited and lack 3D visualization features. This paper presents the development of a mobile application, pro-visualizer app called PRO-VAS, that utilizes AR for scanning and visualizing the environment. PRO-VAS acts as a product visualizer that applies visual simultaneous localization and mapping (VSLAM) for localization of the product in AR based systems.
The main components of PRO-VAS are ARCore from Google for interactive purposes, and the depth mapping from red green blue depth (RGB-D) phone camera with point plane generator and markerless tracking method. The last component of the app is the set of objects from the unity store, which can be chosen in PRO-VAS for the scanned scene area. The app was tested in various environments involving different objects and has shown competitive results. In the future, more features and products can be added to the apps.
Running Head DESIGN IMPLEMENTATION PROPOSAL 1DESIGN IMPLEMEN.docxtodd271
Running Head: DESIGN IMPLEMENTATION PROPOSAL 1
DESIGN IMPLEMENTATION PROPOSAL 5
DESIGN IMPLEMENTATION PROPOSAL
Charles Williams
CS457 Unit 1 IP
Juan Echeverria
5/21/2019
Sales user interface design project
Introduction
The user interface is a very important aspect of any software. The user needs an interface that he/she can interact with much ease. As a result of this, the designer's major role should be the creation of a most pleasurable user interface that will allow the user to interact with the software without realizing the complications therein in the invoice. This proposal details the outline of the design implementation in relation to user interface designing.
Purpose of the system
The major purpose of designing user interface is to allow easy access, understanding and use of the major purpose of creating user interface are to create elements which anticipate what the user needs and allow the user to gain access, understanding, and application of the elements within the software. The elements within the interface allow interaction both visual and audio between the user and the system software (Chikurtev, Yovchev & Chikurtev, 2016). This software design is aimed to work with the sales software. A sales system allows the interaction of the customer with the system. Through the interface, the user can analyze sales, sales trends and other functions of the system with use as the interface is designed with elements and keys which allow zooming, inversion, and transformation of the images on the system using the user interface.
History of system development
The user interface came into the picture in the year 1981. It was discovered that graphics on the digital user’s interface in conjunction with the pointing device would allow great use of the system. This led to the creation of Xerox Star an integration of desktop computer in the year 1973 (Laaksoet al. 2016). 1.0 Macintosh operating system was the second to be designed with a complete graphical user's interface. The system had only a few of the current operating system which was window-based icons. The window allowed movement through the use of the mouse (Pathak, et al. 2018). In early 2000, there was more advancement with Apple creating Optical devices which developed to magic mouse allowing the user to have more interaction using different fingers (Jones, Clothier, & Jiang, 2018).
System operation
The creation of user interfaces since their creation had not been applied until early 2000. Apple picked up the pace through the creation of an optical mouse. The development and advancement of the mouse led to application and wide application of user interfaces. In the year 2001, UI was introduced with the touch-based user interface. Later, the mouse was designed to become extra-sensitive allowing the designers to scrub buttons from the computer. The use of user interfaces evolved leading to the creation of smartphones in addition to tablets (OGGIONNI, 2018). The UI .
Augmented Reality AR is the technology that overlaps virtual objects onto real world objects. It has three main features the combination of the real world and the virtual world, real time interaction, and 3D registration. The algorithms used to produce graphical images and other sensor based inputs on real world objects uses the camera of your device. The shortest route and graphics information in 3D is not notified in normal maps. To avoid such problems we have developed a 3D virtual environment that gives graphics and contains more information about a particular place. This project is done by using the “UNITY†application, the engine can be used to create three dimensional, two dimensional which helps to view all these graphics and routes in a 3D view. R. Mohana Priya | Subash. R | Yogesh. R | Vignesh. M | Gopi. V "Augmented Reality Map" Published in International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development (ijtsrd), ISSN: 2456-6470, Volume-4 | Issue-3 , April 2020, URL: https://www.ijtsrd.com/papers/ijtsrd30220.pdf Paper Url :https://www.ijtsrd.com/engineering/electronics-and-communication-engineering/30220/augmented-reality-map/r-mohana-priya
Kubernetes & AI - Beauty and the Beast !?! @KCD Istanbul 2024Tobias Schneck
As AI technology is pushing into IT I was wondering myself, as an “infrastructure container kubernetes guy”, how get this fancy AI technology get managed from an infrastructure operational view? Is it possible to apply our lovely cloud native principals as well? What benefit’s both technologies could bring to each other?
Let me take this questions and provide you a short journey through existing deployment models and use cases for AI software. On practical examples, we discuss what cloud/on-premise strategy we may need for applying it to our own infrastructure to get it to work from an enterprise perspective. I want to give an overview about infrastructure requirements and technologies, what could be beneficial or limiting your AI use cases in an enterprise environment. An interactive Demo will give you some insides, what approaches I got already working for real.
State of ICS and IoT Cyber Threat Landscape Report 2024 previewPrayukth K V
The IoT and OT threat landscape report has been prepared by the Threat Research Team at Sectrio using data from Sectrio, cyber threat intelligence farming facilities spread across over 85 cities around the world. In addition, Sectrio also runs AI-based advanced threat and payload engagement facilities that serve as sinks to attract and engage sophisticated threat actors, and newer malware including new variants and latent threats that are at an earlier stage of development.
The latest edition of the OT/ICS and IoT security Threat Landscape Report 2024 also covers:
State of global ICS asset and network exposure
Sectoral targets and attacks as well as the cost of ransom
Global APT activity, AI usage, actor and tactic profiles, and implications
Rise in volumes of AI-powered cyberattacks
Major cyber events in 2024
Malware and malicious payload trends
Cyberattack types and targets
Vulnerability exploit attempts on CVEs
Attacks on counties – USA
Expansion of bot farms – how, where, and why
In-depth analysis of the cyber threat landscape across North America, South America, Europe, APAC, and the Middle East
Why are attacks on smart factories rising?
Cyber risk predictions
Axis of attacks – Europe
Systemic attacks in the Middle East
Download the full report from here:
https://sectrio.com/resources/ot-threat-landscape-reports/sectrio-releases-ot-ics-and-iot-security-threat-landscape-report-2024/
Slack (or Teams) Automation for Bonterra Impact Management (fka Social Soluti...Jeffrey Haguewood
Sidekick Solutions uses Bonterra Impact Management (fka Social Solutions Apricot) and automation solutions to integrate data for business workflows.
We believe integration and automation are essential to user experience and the promise of efficient work through technology. Automation is the critical ingredient to realizing that full vision. We develop integration products and services for Bonterra Case Management software to support the deployment of automations for a variety of use cases.
This video focuses on the notifications, alerts, and approval requests using Slack for Bonterra Impact Management. The solutions covered in this webinar can also be deployed for Microsoft Teams.
Interested in deploying notification automations for Bonterra Impact Management? Contact us at sales@sidekicksolutionsllc.com to discuss next steps.
LF Energy Webinar: Electrical Grid Modelling and Simulation Through PowSyBl -...DanBrown980551
Do you want to learn how to model and simulate an electrical network from scratch in under an hour?
Then welcome to this PowSyBl workshop, hosted by Rte, the French Transmission System Operator (TSO)!
During the webinar, you will discover the PowSyBl ecosystem as well as handle and study an electrical network through an interactive Python notebook.
PowSyBl is an open source project hosted by LF Energy, which offers a comprehensive set of features for electrical grid modelling and simulation. Among other advanced features, PowSyBl provides:
- A fully editable and extendable library for grid component modelling;
- Visualization tools to display your network;
- Grid simulation tools, such as power flows, security analyses (with or without remedial actions) and sensitivity analyses;
The framework is mostly written in Java, with a Python binding so that Python developers can access PowSyBl functionalities as well.
What you will learn during the webinar:
- For beginners: discover PowSyBl's functionalities through a quick general presentation and the notebook, without needing any expert coding skills;
- For advanced developers: master the skills to efficiently apply PowSyBl functionalities to your real-world scenarios.
Software Delivery At the Speed of AI: Inflectra Invests In AI-Powered QualityInflectra
In this insightful webinar, Inflectra explores how artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming software development and testing. Discover how AI-powered tools are revolutionizing every stage of the software development lifecycle (SDLC), from design and prototyping to testing, deployment, and monitoring.
Learn about:
• The Future of Testing: How AI is shifting testing towards verification, analysis, and higher-level skills, while reducing repetitive tasks.
• Test Automation: How AI-powered test case generation, optimization, and self-healing tests are making testing more efficient and effective.
• Visual Testing: Explore the emerging capabilities of AI in visual testing and how it's set to revolutionize UI verification.
• Inflectra's AI Solutions: See demonstrations of Inflectra's cutting-edge AI tools like the ChatGPT plugin and Azure Open AI platform, designed to streamline your testing process.
Whether you're a developer, tester, or QA professional, this webinar will give you valuable insights into how AI is shaping the future of software delivery.
The Art of the Pitch: WordPress Relationships and SalesLaura Byrne
Clients don’t know what they don’t know. What web solutions are right for them? How does WordPress come into the picture? How do you make sure you understand scope and timeline? What do you do if sometime changes?
All these questions and more will be explored as we talk about matching clients’ needs with what your agency offers without pulling teeth or pulling your hair out. Practical tips, and strategies for successful relationship building that leads to closing the deal.
Builder.ai Founder Sachin Dev Duggal's Strategic Approach to Create an Innova...Ramesh Iyer
In today's fast-changing business world, Companies that adapt and embrace new ideas often need help to keep up with the competition. However, fostering a culture of innovation takes much work. It takes vision, leadership and willingness to take risks in the right proportion. Sachin Dev Duggal, co-founder of Builder.ai, has perfected the art of this balance, creating a company culture where creativity and growth are nurtured at each stage.
Generating a custom Ruby SDK for your web service or Rails API using Smithyg2nightmarescribd
Have you ever wanted a Ruby client API to communicate with your web service? Smithy is a protocol-agnostic language for defining services and SDKs. Smithy Ruby is an implementation of Smithy that generates a Ruby SDK using a Smithy model. In this talk, we will explore Smithy and Smithy Ruby to learn how to generate custom feature-rich SDKs that can communicate with any web service, such as a Rails JSON API.
JMeter webinar - integration with InfluxDB and GrafanaRTTS
Watch this recorded webinar about real-time monitoring of application performance. See how to integrate Apache JMeter, the open-source leader in performance testing, with InfluxDB, the open-source time-series database, and Grafana, the open-source analytics and visualization application.
In this webinar, we will review the benefits of leveraging InfluxDB and Grafana when executing load tests and demonstrate how these tools are used to visualize performance metrics.
Length: 30 minutes
Session Overview
-------------------------------------------
During this webinar, we will cover the following topics while demonstrating the integrations of JMeter, InfluxDB and Grafana:
- What out-of-the-box solutions are available for real-time monitoring JMeter tests?
- What are the benefits of integrating InfluxDB and Grafana into the load testing stack?
- Which features are provided by Grafana?
- Demonstration of InfluxDB and Grafana using a practice web application
To view the webinar recording, go to:
https://www.rttsweb.com/jmeter-integration-webinar
Connector Corner: Automate dynamic content and events by pushing a buttonDianaGray10
Here is something new! In our next Connector Corner webinar, we will demonstrate how you can use a single workflow to:
Create a campaign using Mailchimp with merge tags/fields
Send an interactive Slack channel message (using buttons)
Have the message received by managers and peers along with a test email for review
But there’s more:
In a second workflow supporting the same use case, you’ll see:
Your campaign sent to target colleagues for approval
If the “Approve” button is clicked, a Jira/Zendesk ticket is created for the marketing design team
But—if the “Reject” button is pushed, colleagues will be alerted via Slack message
Join us to learn more about this new, human-in-the-loop capability, brought to you by Integration Service connectors.
And...
Speakers:
Akshay Agnihotri, Product Manager
Charlie Greenberg, Host
Transcript: Selling digital books in 2024: Insights from industry leaders - T...BookNet Canada
The publishing industry has been selling digital audiobooks and ebooks for over a decade and has found its groove. What’s changed? What has stayed the same? Where do we go from here? Join a group of leading sales peers from across the industry for a conversation about the lessons learned since the popularization of digital books, best practices, digital book supply chain management, and more.
Link to video recording: https://bnctechforum.ca/sessions/selling-digital-books-in-2024-insights-from-industry-leaders/
Presented by BookNet Canada on May 28, 2024, with support from the Department of Canadian Heritage.
Encryption in Microsoft 365 - ExpertsLive Netherlands 2024Albert Hoitingh
In this session I delve into the encryption technology used in Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Purview. Including the concepts of Customer Key and Double Key Encryption.
Accelerate your Kubernetes clusters with Varnish CachingThijs Feryn
A presentation about the usage and availability of Varnish on Kubernetes. This talk explores the capabilities of Varnish caching and shows how to use the Varnish Helm chart to deploy it to Kubernetes.
This presentation was delivered at K8SUG Singapore. See https://feryn.eu/presentations/accelerate-your-kubernetes-clusters-with-varnish-caching-k8sug-singapore-28-2024 for more details.
Accelerate your Kubernetes clusters with Varnish Caching
[AR] EncountAR Final Report - demo link in descriptions
1. ECE 1778 - CREATIVITY AND PROGRAMMING FOR MOBILE DEVICES
encountAR Final Report
Scott Pollock, Faculty of Information, Museum Studies
spollock.u.toronto@gmail.com
Tony Zhou, Department of Engineering
tooniz@gmail.com
Sheng Xu, Department of Engineering
xusheng1@ecf.utoronto.ca
For Professor Jonathon Rose, ECE 1778
April 2012
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1. INTRODUCTION
This report summarizes the development of a mobile phone application for the museum
field that brings on-line strategies of visitor engagement on-site, in the museum gallery itself.
Our project team created an original mobile app, on the iOS platform, that uses augmented
reality (AR) to ‘hang’ visitor comments inside the galleries they visit. Unlike other AR
applications museums use to deliver content, our app is designed as a participatory
experience, allowing visitors to encounter previous visitors’ commentary, respond to an
open-ended statement that the previous visitor has ‘hung,’ and pose a statement to be
completed by the next visitor who encounters the virtual domain.
The app provides solutions for on-site visitor engagement, breaking free of the traditional
feedback systems. The app allows museum visitors to ‘see themselves’ in the exhibit, add
their own insight and comments and make connections between the artifacts or artwork on
display and the personal meaning each visitor constructs during their visit. For the museum
visitor, it is an exercise in what Livingstone (2007) calls an “intertextual experience,” the
opportunity for museums to share authority by design in their exhibits with their visitors.1
For the museum practitioner, the app is a new visitor research tool to better understand
augmented reality as a platform for visitor engagement. Curators can post an open-ended
statement about the exhibition and monitor visitor responses. The app offers measurable
indicators of learning success in a fun, exploratory way.
We developed the app as a pilot project for the Royal Ontario Museum’s Jane Ash Poitras:
New Acquisitions of Contemporary First Nations Art Daphne Cockwell Gallery of Canada:
First Peoples. Working with the curator of the exhibit, we designed the components to
encourage visitors to think and react to the artist’s work in ways the curator had intentioned
and discover ways visitors interact with the exhibit in ways unimagined.
1
Livingston, P. (2007). A question of truth: Writing experience into an exhibition. In Visitor voices in museum exhibitions. (pp. 69-72). Washington, D.C:
Association of Science-Technology Centers.
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2. BLOCK DIAGRAM OF PROJECT
FIGURE 2.1-2.2 APPLICATION BLOCK DIAGRAM
2.1 – STRUCTURAL OVERVIEW
Our application consists of two parts, mobile client and remote servers. The mobile client is
the iPhone mobile application written by our project team based on Qualcomm AR library
for providing a complete augmented reality experience. The remote servers are the existing
services provided by Facebook and Disqus. We used these two services to store, retrieve and
manage all user data in a centralized manner. In particular, we were able to leverage the
power of Disqus, an online discussion and commenting service as a central hub for
moderating all of the comments submitted by our users.
Figure 2.1 is a block diagram and a hierarchical view of the internal structure of our
application which includes three major components: pre-scan view, augmented reality view
and comments view controllers.
2.2 – AUGMENTED REALITY AND PRE-SCAN VIEW CONTROLLERS
Augmented reality and pre-scan view controllers are a group of controllers responsible for
controlling and presenting various user interface elements. It is built on the existing
Qualcomm Vuforia AR library. The Vuforia AR library enabled us to recognize different
museum objects through the iPhone camera and then overlay UI elements and other
information on top of the camera feed. For example, we are able to display question,
responses, avatars and instructions related to a specific art once the art is recognized in the
camera feed.
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2.3 – COMMENTS VIEW CONTROLLERS
Comment view controllers is a group of controllers responsible for displaying, posting,
retrieving, and parsing user responses from Disqus as well as user profiles from Facebook.
The communication between our application and Disqus is realized through JSON parser
and AFNetworking library since Disqus API can only be accessed with JSON. For
Facebook, we used standard Facebook iPhone API. Comments view controllers display user
profiles and comments by either passing data to the augmented reality and pre-scan view
controllers or by pushing views directly onto the screen.
3. STATEMENT OF FUNCTIONALITY
3.1 – APP STARTUP
While the app is loaded a splash screen (Fig. 3.1) is presented to the user, it is automatically
dismissed when loading completes. Upon entering the app, a semi transparent picture of
Mona Lisa is shown with text “scanning encountAR” as cues to what to do next. (Fig. 3.2).
FIGURE 3.1-3.2 (LEFT) SPLASH SCREEN, (RIGHT) PRE-SCAN CAMERA SCREEN
At the same time, a question mark button is presented for user to tap, which brings up a
sheet with additional help features (Fig. 3.3). Since normal operation requires only pointing
the camera to target paintings at this stage, as a design choice we allowed any tap on screen
to bring up this features menu. “Help” brings up more details instructions, “Torch on” turns
camera LED on to assist image recognition under dark conditions, “Autofocus” and
“Continuous autofocus off” allows maneuvering the camera focus in more predictable ways,
and lastly “Select Gallery” (Fig 3.4) allows the user to pick different sets of images to be
scanned. The sets of images are grouped under different museum exhibits.
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FIGURE 3.3-3.4 (LEFT) HELP FEATURES, (RIGHT) SELECT GALLERY SUBMENU
3.2 – IMAGE RECOGNITION & AUGMENTED REALITY
As user points the camera at one of the target paintings in currently selected gallery, an
overlay of images, texts, and buttons appear on top of the current camera view. They
dynamically track the location and orientation of the target painting as if they are post-it
notes stuck on the painting. (Fig 3.5) The combined views of the camera and its target
painting, and the overlay of dynamically tracking images, texts, and buttons, form the so
called Augmented Reality view or AR view.
FIGURE 3.5-3.6 (LEFT) AUGMENTED REALITY VIEW, (RIGHT) ENCOUNTAR RESPONSE VIEW
In the AR view, there is a variety of interactive features. An encountAR is composed of a
question section and a response section. The white-background bottons with a plus sign, a
back arrow, and a forward arrow are for posting a reply, viewing previous encountAR,
viewing next encountAR, respectively. Each painting is attached with a number of
encountARs specific to it, and users can tap the plus sign to add a response of his/her own
(Fig. 3.6). Facebook is integrated in a secure and seamless fashion allowing users to log into
their social profile.
3.3 – PAINTINGS, THREADS, AND COMMENTS
Users can tap “View encountARs” button on AR view to bring up a list of current
encountARs of the painting (Fig 3.7) – which are analogous to threads in discussion boards.
Under each encountAR, specific responses and comments can be viewed (Fig 3.8).
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FIGURE 3.7-3.8 (LEFT) ENCOUNTARS VIEW, (RIGHT) ENCOUNTAR THREAD VIEW
From the app curator’s point of view, the whole encountAR conversation system extends
beyond the app to an external admin system called Disqus – a commercially available web
service (Fig 3.9) where the curator can manage comments, setting levels of user access, and
add restricted words.
FIGURE 3.9 DISQUS ADMIN INTERFACE, MORE INFORMATION ON DISQUS.COM
6 April 2012
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3.4 – WHAT IS LACKING
All orientations of the phone – the phone needs to be positioned in landscape orientation
for parts of the app to visually make sense. The main reason is due to complex calculation of
3D matrix of image recognition coordinates.
Dynamically create encountARs – current encountARs are pre-generated images. The
main challenge with dynamic in-app generation is the time it takes to code the algorithm for
generating an encountAR image. There are elements of randomness such as sizes, locations,
and orientations of words, which help visual appeals but make coding time-consuming (Fig.
3.10).
FIGURE 3.10 AN ENCOUNTAR QUESTION-PORTION CONSISTS OF RANDOMLY POSITION TEXT AND A PROFILE
4. TEAM ENCOUNTAR
TONY ZHOU - PROGRAMMER
FACULTY OF ELECTRICAL & COMPUTER ENGINEERING
• Research on Qualcomm Vuforia SDK Research on Qualcomm SDK and alternative
solutions.
o Research and compared IQ Engines, Qualcomm Vuforia, and native OpenCV
• Image Recognition of the app through Qualcomm SDK
o Fine tuned the recognition features already available and respond with required 3D
matrix data.
o Tested with 20 images of different sizes, patterns, contrast levels.
• Help menu and additional features
o Help screen consisting of a view controller displaying user instructions
o Torch consisting of turning on and off back camera LED assisting camera visibility
in dark rooms
o Autofocus capabilities
o Gallery Selection where user can switch between different datasets
• Graphics design for the interactive screens of the app
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o Used photoshop for creating most of graphics on scanning screen and augmented
reality screen
o Also produced in-app special effects – manipulation of alpha/transparency, drop
shadows, gradient buttons.
SHENG XU - PROGRAMMER
FACULTY OF ELECTRICAL & COMPUTER ENGINEERING
• Research on Qualcomm Vuforia SDK
o Understand Vuforia architecture and its “QCAR” library
• Facebook integration
o Research and understand the Facebook iphone API
o Create a login system that allows the users to sign in with their Facebook accounts
o Retrieve user profile including name, email address and display picture from
Facebook
• Comment system and Disqus integration
o Research and understand the general Disqus API
o Create custom Disqus API for iphone using JSON parser for retrieving and storing
user information, question and comments on Disqus
o Designed comment system hierarchy to meet the comment storage needs of our
application
o Create UI for displaying comments and questions.
o Integrate with Facebook so that user can post with Facebook profiles
• Splash screen and icon
o Use Photoshop to create our application’s main splash screen and icon
SCOTT POLLOCK - APPER
FACULTY OF INFORMATION - MUSEUM STUDIES
• Concept and UI design
o Research mobile and AR applications specific to museum sector
o Research participatory models of communication featured in app
o Coordinate user feedback from on-site tests and presentation at museum studies
conference to influence app’s functionality
• Liason with Royal Ontario Museum staff
o Share project development, obtain artist permission and coordinate in-gallery testing
of app
• Project Manager
o Assign tasks, write and submit project reports
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o Design, develop and manage presentations
o Coordinate scheduling for meetings
• encountAR development
o Use Photoshop/inDesign to design and create graphics for encountARs
o Use Photoshop to design help screen
5. LESSONS LEARNED & REFLECTIONS
TONY - “I learned that feature prioritization is important. Our initial brainstorm
contained two to three times the features we have now. By project proposal we have
already reduced them to a much smaller amount, but we had not given priorities to
all features. We should have divided each week to smaller units of work to ensure we
always had scheduled enough time to meet required features first then proceed with
opportunistic ones.”
SHENG - “I learned that design is very important for any applications. We have made
a lot of design changes during the development process. Therefore, it is important to
make the code as flexible as possible. This means it is better to write everything in
multiple reusable functions rather than a huge block of code. For example, our codes
were written in the way so that it can be easily modified to accommodate any
changes in the comment system design.”
SCOTT - “I learned how important it is to clarify the user experience from the start.
Many of the features I envisioned for the app could have been more clearly
presented to the developers early on. From here, we could have prioritized our tasks
better and set a manageable schedule to develop our targeted features more fully
(and let others go).”
6. APPER REFLECTION
Developing encountAR was an opportunity to contribute to the ROM’s growing investment
in new mobile technologies. The museum launched its mobile app available on iStore just
over a year ago. Users can access additional information about its collection, use it to find
their way around the museum, and download free audio tours. The museum is developing a
SCVNGR app to encourage visitors to interact with collections across the galleries
(generally, ROM visitors only visit 2-5 of the 30+ galleries during their visit). And in just
over a month, the ROM will be the first major museum in North America to launch an
integrated marketing and interpretive experience using augmented reality. Visitors will be
able to use their iPhones to ‘reskin’ dinosaur skeletons in the exhibition hall.
While all these initiatives increase visitor interaction with the collections, they still lack an
opportunity to encourage dialogue or socialization between museum visitors or staff.
As museum visitor advocate, scholar and enthusiast, David Carr wrote, “when a cultural
institution invites its users to bring original experiences and questions to each other, it
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encountAR Final Report
recognizes the truths that we are never finished becoming, and that we need to speak to each
other.”2 The encountAR app is influenced by Carr’s notion that as public learning domains,
museums need to encourage their users to think together more freely, encourage dialogue
and participate in the act of becoming something, together.3
encoutAR gave me the opportunity to sit and talk with Trudy Nicks, the ROM’s ethnology
curator. She wanted to know how “in the hell” (her words, not mine) this “Twitter” stuff
can help visitors better understand the exhibits she spends so much time developing.
Trudy and I met in the gallery she works in, talking about technology and its place in the
museum. Most importantly, we sat and watched scores of visitors walk right on by her work,
without ever stopping.
When I first proposed encountAR, she was pessimistic (to a degree) about the impact new
technologies are having. However, when I suggested she use it to ask visitors what they
found ‘funny’ or ‘interesting’ about her exhibits, she quickly came around. All of a sudden,
she cared about what visitors had to say and encountAR was her tool to listen. I’m not sure
if I can go so far as to call Trudy an ‘advocate,’ but she provide us with a half-dozen possible
encountARs for our project. All over a discussion about technology.
For the first time, both the institutions we support and the users who visit them are on equal
footing. We have the technology at our disposal to understand how these objects influence
us and find a way to make meaning of them, together. We have the common language, in
140 characters or less, to learn not only about the objects we encounter, but the individuals
we share these spaces with.
We no longer need to regulate these conversations on-line. With the technology available,
we can bring these conversations in side the walls of the museum. It’s time to think
differently. It’s time for encoutAR.
7. FUTURE WORK
For future development, we would propose the following changes or additions:
• Datasets are not required to be local to the app, they could be downloaded from an external
site instead. Having the dataset stored externally decouples dataset updates from app
updates, which enables the flexibility for rapid dataset updates.
• Following best practices of mobile applications, one could replace many texts with graphics.
This is extremely important for localization of apps in general.
• More social integrations – in addition to Facebook, signin with Twitter, G+; Broadcast
encountARs to multiple social networks to promote social engagement.
2
Carr, D. (2011). Bertha Bassam Lecture, Faculty of Information, University of Toronto. April 14, 2011. Unpublished lecture notes.
3
Carr, D (2010). Variable thinking, variable knowing. Keynote address, Visitor Studies Association Conference, Phoenix AZ, July 29 (to be published in
Visitor Studies).
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• The open ended questions/statements portion of EncountARs are currently images, an
algorithm can be used instead to generate them on-the-fly, which again adds flexibility.
• Certain artworks travel around the world, location tags can be added to user inputs. This
allows museums to find out more about the conversations, and at the same time enables
communication of audiences across different sites.
• On screen buttons were at times difficult to use. User gestures such as swipes can be
integrated into the app instead for a better user experience.
• Build a separate mobile application for the museum curator to remotely upload arts and
moderate comments instead of going to both Qualcomm and Disqus websites on a desktop
computer.
• Design a more user-friendly comment system user interface. One possible improvement is to
display all questions and comments on one page instead of using two separate table views.
NOTE: ENTREPENURIAL DEVELOPMENT
EncountAR would be open to entrepreneurial development to help museums and cultural
institutions with their interpretive and audience engagement strategies. The app could be
localized, developed for specific exhibits and museum projects (and take on different
names/personalities by design). Alternatively, it could be developed as a global network that
museums around the world could create ‘channels’ for. The Royal Ontario Museum has
expressed interest in using the app beyond pilot for an upcoming photography exhibition,
Observance and Memorial: Photographs from S-21, Cambodia (August 11, 2012 - March 17,
2013).
11 April 2012