This document discusses research into creating and distributing collaborative 3D environments over the cloud using the Windows Azure platform. Previous projects involving interactive 3D applications are described. Prototypes of a single-user 3D shopping application and a multi-user 3D teapot application hosted on Azure are presented. Measurements of latency for the teapot application in different network conditions are provided. Future work areas like additional measurements, alternative state sharing methods, and integrating speech functionality are outlined.

1. Czech
Technical
University
in Prague
Faculty of
Electrical
Engineering
Collaborative 3D
Environments over
Windows Azure
Jiri Danihelka
PhD Candidate, Department of Computer Graphics and Interaction
Project Lead, R&D Centre for Mobile Application (RDC)
Czech Technical University in Prague
Dr. Lukas Kencl
Director, R&D Centre for Mobile Application (RDC)
Department of Telecom Engineering
Czech Technical University in Prague

2. Czech
Technical
University
in Prague
Faculty of
Electrical
Engineering
Principal Questions
 How to create and distribute 3D
interactive environments over the
cloud?
 How to enable their creation for 3rd
parties?
 How to do it using scalability of
Windows Azure Platform?
 How to bring these worlds on various
client platforms? (PC, tablet, phone)
Collaborative 3D Environments over Windows Azure 3

3. Czech
Technical
University
in Prague
Faculty of
Electrical
Engineering
Inspiration: (own, past) 3D
Mobile Internet Project
 Interactive 3D client-server solutions
 3D Mobile Talking Head
 3D e-Shop
 Technology
 VRML, Server scripts
 Standalone application or 3D-viewer plugin
 Server-based speech recognition and synthesis
 http://www.rdc.cz/3Dinternet/
 Best Paper Award, Danihelka, Hak, Kencl, Zara. 3D Talking-Head Interface to
Voice-Interactive Services on Mobile Phones. SiMPE Workshop at MobileHCI 2010
 Android and iPhone licenses sold commercially
 Careful considerations of functionality distribution
Collaborative 3D Environments over Windows Azure 44

4. Czech
Technical
University
in Prague
Faculty of
Electrical
Engineering
Long-term project big picture:
3D Collaborative Cloud Services
 Natural interaction: speech, 3D environment, real-time, multi-user
 Architecture: new graphics technologies together with cloud
scalability & functions
 Fast creation & deployment of cloud-based 3D apps (e-Shops,
Games, Education, etc)
Collaborative 3D Environments over Windows Azure
Windows Azure
Platform
Inventory
SQL Azure
Client
with web
browser
3D content
Azure Storage
SL 5
Businness logic
Azure Compute
Client
with
Windows
Phone
SL 4
XNA
Logic update
3D Service
administrator
Configuration Tools
5

5. Czech
Technical
University
in Prague
Faculty of
Electrical
Engineering
Prototype I: Single-user 3D shop
with Talking Head on Azure
Graphics accelerated hardware
Windows OS (later also Linux and Mac)
Web browser (IE, Firefox, Chrome)
MS Silverlight runtime plugin 5
Virtual 3D Store app (.xap file)
XNA drawing surface
3D Store content (3D models, textures)
Microsoft datacenter
Windows Azure
Azure Storage
Content data
files
Virtual 3D Store
(.xap file)
Cloud (Windows Azure)Client (MS Silverlight5 in browser)
4. .obj, .jpg
2. .xap
1. request
3. request
Collaborative 3D Environments over Windows Azure 7
Azure Compute
Web
Role
Web page
SL 5
HTTP
7

6. Czech
Technical
University
in Prague
Faculty of
Electrical
Engineering
Prototype II: 3D Teapot - Multi-user
collaboration on a shared 3D object
Collaborative 3D Environments over Windows Azure 8
Silverlight browser client XNA mobile app
pitch yaw color
-30.5 34.5 #FFAC58
Represented by a simple, shared state
8

7. Czech
Technical
University
in Prague
Faculty of
Electrical
Engineering
Demo

8. Czech
Technical
University
in Prague
Faculty of
Electrical
Engineering
Collaborative 3D Environments over Windows Azure
Client Software Architecture
10

9. Czech
Technical
University
in Prague
Faculty of
Electrical
Engineering
Azure Deployment
Architecture
Collaborative 3D Environments over Windows Azure 11

10. Czech
Technical
University
in Prague
Faculty of
Electrical
Engineering
Detailed architecture – browser client
Collaborative 3D Environments over Windows Azure
Azure Storage
(Europe)
Azure Compute
(West USA)
SQL Azure Server
(South-Central USA)
Client
with web
browser
Web
Role
Web page
SL 5
SL 5
1. http
request
Web page
SL 5
2. download
SL 5 page
3. SOAP communication with
web synchronization service using
Windows Communication Foundation
library (WCF)
4. store state to database
using SQL queries and Entity
Framework
pitch yaw color
-30.5 34.5 #FFAC58
12

11. Czech
Technical
University
in Prague
Faculty of
Electrical
Engineering
Collaborative 3D Environments over Windows Azure
WP7 Marketplace
(operated by Microsoft)
Azure Compute
(West USA)
state
Windows Phone
7.5 Mango
Web
Role
Application
SL 4 + XNA
1. download
request
2. download
application
3. SOAP communication with
web synchronization service using
Windows Communication Foundation
library (WCF)
Application
SL 4 + XNA
Detailed interconnection – mobile
XNA client
SQL Azure Server
(South-Central USA)
pitch yaw color
-30.5 34.5 #FFAC58
13

12. Czech
Technical
University
in Prague
Faculty of
Electrical
Engineering
Measurement setup
Collaborative 3D Environments over Windows Azure
 Configurable auto-movement of teapot
 Logging latency of GetState & UpdateState operations
 2 scenarios:
 24 simultaneous instances at university classroom
► Incrementally increasing # of instances
► Excellent network connectivity
► 2 instances per machine
 2 simultaneous instances at a public café (Starbucks, Prague
center)
► Typical use case
► WiFi connectivity
Auto-movementLogging
15

13. Czech
Technical
University
in Prague
Faculty of
Electrical
Engineering
Measurements - Latency
Collaborative 3D Environments over Windows Azure
Latency (ms) Classroom Starbucks
Mean 91.40 204.38
St Dev 165.86 100.95
Median 63 195
Min 46 78
Max 8078 2101
Classroom
24 instances
Starbucks
2 instances
16

14. Czech
Technical
University
in Prague
Faculty of
Electrical
Engineering
Increase of response delay
based on number of clients
Collaborative 3D Environments over Windows Azure 17

15. Czech
Technical
University
in Prague
Faculty of
Electrical
Engineering
Set and Get operations
Collaborative 3D Environments over Windows Azure
 Writing to a database (Set) takes more time
than retrieving data (Get)
19

16. Czech
Technical
University
in Prague
Faculty of
Electrical
Engineering
Lessons Learned & Future Work
 Azure lessons
 Carefully consider data-center and geographic
distribution
► SQL processing elsewhere?
 Atomicity of SQL operations has to be considered
 Shared state closer to web/worker roles
 UDP vs TCP
 Geographic distribution
 Further Work
 Much more measurements
 Sharing state by other means – e.g. Azure Mobile Services
 Prototype 3: Multi-user seeing each other
 Integrate with speech recognition and synthesis
 Open platform for rapid 3rd party configuration
 Dynamic workload migration between client and cloud
based on immediate conditions and context
Collaborative 3D Environments over Windows Azure 20

17. Czech
Technical
University
in Prague
Faculty of
Electrical
Engineering
Thank you! Q&A
R&D Center for Mobile Applications
Dept of Telecom Engineering
Czech Technical University in Prague
Jiri Danihelka
RDC Project Lead
jiri.danihelka@rdc.cz
Dr. Lukas Kencl
RDC Director
lukas.kencl@rdc.cz
URLs:
www.rdc.cz
http://www.rdc.cz/3Dinternet/
http://danihelka.blob.core.windows.net/sync/usa/index.html
http://danihelka.blob.core.windows.net/world//index.html
Collaborative 3D Environments over Windows Azure 21

18. Czech
Technical
University
in Prague
Faculty of
Electrical
Engineering
Czech Technical University
in Prague
 Established 1707
 Edict of Emperor Joseph I.
 Among oldest technical universities in Central Europe
 8 Faculties
 Electrical Engineering (since 1950) – FEE
► Computing, Telco, EE, Cybernetics, Electronics
 ~25’000 students
 http://www.cvut.cz/
 Top 500 Worldwide, Top 120 TU
 Tight cooperation with:
 Google
 IBM
 Microsoft
 Vodafone
 T-Mobile
 Cisco
 Honeywell
 Rockwell Automation
Collaborative 3D Environments over
Windows Azure 22

19. Czech
Technical
University
in Prague
Faculty of
Electrical
Engineering
Department of Telecommunications
Engineering
 Head
 Prof. Boris Simak
 Staff
 Researchers and teachers ≈25
► PhD students ≈50
www.comtel.cz
 Teaching
 Major provider of KME courses (Communications,
Multimedia, Electronics)
 Research Groups
 Wireless Network
 Signal Processing
 Transmission Systems
 Switching Systems
 Management in Telecommunications
 Strong industrial collaboration:
 Vodafone, T-Mobile, Telefonica, Cisco, Juniper Networks –
JNAA signed 2012!, Huawei, 3M, Alvarion, Sitronics,
Microsoft, IBM
 R&D Centre for Mobile Applications
Collaborative 3D Environments over
Windows Azure 23

20. Czech
Technical
University
in Prague
Faculty of
Electrical
Engineering
R&D Centre 4 Mobile Applications (RDC)
24
 Major Long-term Industrial Research Partners
 Department research centre focused on industrial
cooperation
 Research areas
 Applications, Interfaces and
Infrastructure for the Mobile Internet
► Voice and 3D Mobile Interaction
► LBS and Mobile Crowdsensing
► Energy-efficient Networks
► Privacy and Security
► Assistive Technologies
► NG Network Architecture
 ~20 Students on Industrial Scholarship (top talent)
 Interconnected to live Vodafone CZ network
 On site GSM MSC and IBM Voice Server
 History of industry tech transfer
 Cross-departmental collaboration
 CGI, Cybernetics, ...
 www.rdc.cz
Collaborative 3D Environments over
Windows Azure 24