Google Street View launched

Google has launched its controversial Street View mapping service in the UK, with web and mobile phone users able to see 360-degree views of 25 cities from Southampton to Aberdeen. The company has spent almost a year collecting images, with a fleet of specially modified cars crawling along 22,369 miles of British roads and the resultant images provide a snapshot of a bygone era before the recession hit the British high street.

Many of the pictures were taken last summer - although the unseasonally wet weather played havoc with Google's camera cars - and show stores that have since gone bust, including Woolworths. Even household goods retailer The Pier is still open for business on London's Tottenham Court Road in the world of Street View as is Zavvi just down the road. There have been issues with complaints about privacy (for specific cases as well since the system went online yesterday) but at the same time it's fascinating to finally see this available.

Click here to see City University where I am doing my PhD in Street View.

ELSIN 2009 conference paper accepted

A full paper I've co-authored with colleagues from Bournemouth University has been accepted for publication at this year's 14th annual ELSIN conference in Bulle-en-Gruyere, Switzerland. The European Learning Styles Information Network (ELSIN) is an association of academics, researchers, trainers and practitioners in the fields of education, psychology, business, computer science, information systems, management and other related fields who are interested in the theory and application of learning and cognitive styles and strategies of learning and thinking. The paper is tiled "Risky Business: A new approach to teaching risk assessments in sports".

ELSIN organises an annual three-day conference in June. The programme consists of invited keynote lectures, paper sessions, workshops, symposia, and informal social activities and will this year take place between the 17th and the 19th of June.

http://www.elsin2009.com/

Cityscape 1.6 video demonstration

I've posted on the automatic urban modelling tool Cityscape in the past but I thought I'd post a video demonstration of that too, now that the application has reached version 1.6. CityScape was created to reduce the tedious, labor intensive process of building and modifying urban environments, empowering the interactive world builders of tomorrow.

Using rapid urban modeling and active adjustment features, CityScape is able to achieve substantial improvements in workflow efficiency over traditional object modeling tools and scene editors. Worlds created by CityScape are compatible with a variety of file formats and optimized for real-time rendering engines.

For more information, a demo or for purchasing the app visit http://pixelactive3d.com/Products/CityScape/

The making of Mirror's Edge

I've posted previously on the very impressive (particularly on the urban modelling front) Mirror's Edge game. I've just come across an online article where Johannes Söderqvist, Art Director of the Mirror’s Edge game, takes the people from the CGSociety website through thoughts on the production of the game. The production team wanted to remove the focus on vehicles and guns found on modern platform games and develop an extension of what people could do physically, especially within a slightly futuristic urban setting.

If you're interested in post-mortem, making-of articles about games this one is definitely worth reading, they don't go through the urban modelling part as much as I'd like! Still, this is an interesting read on a game that tried to push the envelope. You can find the article at http://features.cgsociety.org/story_custom.php?story_id=4943

Street Fighter 4, the best non-photorealistic game so far?

It's been out for a couple of months now but I've only recently had the time to spend some time playing with Capcom's Street Fighter 4 and, yes, IMO it is the best and most complete non-photorealistic rendering game out there so far, not just in terms of graphics performance but, and perhaps more importantly, visual style and how that blends in and actually improves the game itself.

While Street Fighter IV features models and backgrounds rendered in 3D, the gameplay remains on a traditional 2D plane. Producer Yoshinori Ono has stated that he wanted to keep the game closer to Street Fighter II. A new system called "Focus Attacks" ("Saving Attack" for the Japanese version) has been introduced, as well as Ultra moves. The traditional six-button control scheme returns, with new features and special moves integrated into the input system, mixing classic gameplay with additional innovations.

All the characters and environments in Street Fighter IV are rendered as 3D models with polygons, similar to the Street Fighter EX sub-series Capcom produced with Arika. However, there are a couple of key differences. Art director and character designer Daigo Ikeno, who previously worked on Street Fighter III 3rd Strike added a stylized effect to give them a hand-drawn look with visual effects accented in calligraphic strokes, ink smudges and ink sprays during the fights.

Using online games to study human behaviour

Can researchers study the populations of online video games, like Everquest 2, just as they study traditional communities like Miami, Pittsburgh or Minneapolis? A research study by a University of Minnesota computer scientist and colleagues from across the country shows that online, interactive gaming communities are now so massive that they mirror traditional communities. These findings are creating a new evolution of social science research where researchers are able to study human behavior using the game.

The research team analyzed three years of data (over 60 terabytes) from the complete server logs and click-streams of Sony's popular PC game EverQuest 2. The data tracked every action performed in one of the world's most popular massively multiplayer online (MMO) games. Everquest 2 has more than 300,000 players who average 26 hours per week playing the game. Because of the intense level of involvement and multi-player environment of the game, the researchers were able to study human behavioral dynamics using the game as a proxy.

The researchers used the virtual world to model the social and behavioral dynamics of individuals, groups, and networks within large communities. Their study presented evidence that the social sciences are at the threshold of a fundamental shift not only in our understanding of the social and behavioral sciences, but also the ways in which we study them.

This interdisciplinary research project was funded by the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Army with cooperation from Sony. Multiplayer online games and virtual worlds have become increasingly popular and have communities comprising millions. They allow social scientists to study, theorize and model the social and behavioral dynamics of individuals, groups, and networks within large communities. The researchers described how this research offers new insights as well as challenges and opportunities for advancing social, behavioral, and computational science.

Eutechnyx recognised as a game development placement company

For students interested in game dev. placements, some interesting news for you. UK developer Eutechnyx has been recognised at the recent National Council for Work Experience awards event. The studio, which specialises in driving games, was singled out in the NCWE Work Experience Awards 2008/2009 ceremony as 'highly commendable' for its efforts with its Level Up student placement program.

“Level Up has been a huge success for Eutechnyx and we are very honoured to have received this commendation,” said Arwen Duddington, Level Up team leader. Level Up invites students to spend a year working on a project under the guidance of a number of developers who provide mentoring and feedback. The program also aims to deliver commercial releases of the games made within its remit.

“Although the courses on offer at the universities can be excellent, there are some skills that can only be learnt in the workplace,” claimed Duddington, “Level Up allows us to work with the students and shape their work ethics and approach to real world development, which, when coupled with their academic studies, produces fantastic results.”

http://www.eutechnyx.com/

Virtual Reality technology to let you see, hear, smell, taste and touch

The first virtual reality headset that can stimulate all five senses will be unveiled at a major science event in London on March 4th. What was it really like to live in Ancient Egypt? What did the streets there actually look, sound and smell like? For decades, Virtual Reality has held out the hope that, one day, we might be able visit all kinds of places and periods as ‘virtual’ tourists. To date, though, Virtual Reality devices have not been able to stimulate simultaneously all five senses with a high degree of realism.

With funding from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), scientists from the Universities of York and Warwick believe they have been able to pinpoint the necessary expertise to make this possible, in a project called ‘Towards Real Virtuality’. ‘Real Virtuality’ is a term coined by the project team to highlight their aim of providing a ‘real’ experience in which all senses are stimulated in such a way that the user has a fully immersive perceptual experience, during which s/he cannot tell whether or not it is real.

Teams at York and Warwick now aim to link up with experts at the Universities of Bangor, Bradford and Brighton to develop the ‘Virtual Cocoon’ - a new Real Virtuality device that can stimulate all five senses much more realistically than any other current or prospective device. For the user, the ‘Virtual Cocoon’ will consist of a headset incorporating specially developed electronics and computing capabilities. It could help unlock the full potential benefits of Real Virtuality in fields such as education, business and environmental protection. A mock-up of the Virtual Cocoon will be on display at ‘Pioneers 09’, an EPSRC showcase event to be held at London’s Olympia Conference Centre on Wednesday 4th March.

HCI International 2009 poster accepted

I have just received confirmation that a poster publication I have co-authored with colleagues from Bournemouth University has been accepted for the upcoming 13th HCI International 2009 conference.

The publication is titled "Developing a Virtual Reality Stroke Rehabilitation Prototype" and I will be presenting that alongside the full paper I also have accepted at the same conference (see here). The conference takes place between the 19th and 24th July 2009 at San Diego, California, USA and proceedings will be published as part of the Lecture Notes In Computer Science series by Springer and are ISI indexed.

http://www.hcii2009.org/

XNA game design camp

Microsoft and Channel 4 have partnered with Pixel Lab to host a two-day game design challenge at the University of Derby. Taking place from March 20th, the X48 event will bring together 80 students for what is being branded as 'the first XNA GameCamp'.

Attendees will use the facilities at the University and are charged with creating prototypes projects using XNA Game Studio 3.0 within the two-day time limit. The event is designed to encourage the next-generation of game development professionals and foster innovation. At the weekend's closing ceremony, finished prototypes will be presented to a Microsoft-led panel of judges.

Channel 4's commissioning editor for education Alice Taylor said: "We're fully behind encouraging collaboration and competition between young and emerging British indie gaming talent, and fully approve of the freewheeling creative environment that X48 is going to produce. We'll be setting the theme of the challenge, and keeping an eye out for both talent and games that we can continue to support or develop post-event."

"X48 is a great opportunity to bring like-minded students together and inspire them to create games using XNA," added at Microsoft UK's academic lead, Andrew Sithers. "Partnering with Channel 4 and the University of Derby brings together technology, creativity and talent at an event that will pit the UK's best student game developers against the clock."

http://www.x48gamecamp.com/

Google Earth discovers Atlantis?!

On a very amusing piece of news which has developed the last few days (and even got some coverage in The Sun!) the lost city of Atlantis is still lost, despite hopes that Google Earth had located the fabled city on the floor of the Atlantic Ocean!

Observers noted what seemed to be a grid of streets and the outlines of a big city on the sea floor about 960km (600 miles) off the African coast. Experts had said this was one of the possible sites of the city described by Plato, the Greek philosopher.

But Google has just revealed that the lines represented sonar data collected from boats. "It's true that many amazing discoveries have been made in Google Earth including a pristine forest in Mozambique that is home to previously unknown species and the remains of an Ancient Roman villa," a Google statement said. "In this case, however, what users are seeing is an artefact of the data collection process. Bathymetric (or sea floor terrain) data is often collected from boats using sonar to take measurements of the sea floor," it was added.

"The lines reflect the path of the boat as it gathers the data. The fact there are blank spots between each of these lines is a sign of how little we really know about the world's oceans." It is in my opinion incredibly intriguing, amusing yet fascinating that we've now reached a digitization point in time where technology like Google Earth can be associated with the discovery of mythical Atlantis. You can find the original The Sun article below for a bit of light entertainment!

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article2255989.ece

Virtual 3D model of Philadelphia

An interesting virtual city project I've come across recently; Virtual Philadelphia is a 3D online virtual city mirrored off the Center City of Philadelphia, PA, full of historical landscapes and buildings, hundreds of years of culture and one of the most beloved and popular US cities.

GeoSim compiles gigabytes of aerial photos, street images, laser scans and geodetic measurements of Philadelphia to build an accurate 3D city model, capable of providing a genuine life simulation of the physical streets, buildings and urban landscape with the "look and feel" of a real city.

Through a broadband Internet connection, Virtual Philadelphia conveys to anaudience of local residents, national and international tourists and visitors the true experience of being there, combined with a variety of location-related content and useful applications, such as Local Search, Virtual Tours, City Planning, E-Shopping and Human Interaction.

As a user you have the option to walk, hover, jump to and simply roam through true-to-life Virtual Philadelphia, or to meet other users, to click on any building, bus stop or shop to find out more information about it or even to go inside.

http://www.geosimphilly.com/

SIGGRAPH embracing games?

The SIGGRAPH 2009 Computer Animation Festival will this year for the first time include a segment on real-time rendering projects, in which the top selections will be played and demonstrated live on various platforms. A jury of industry professionals and experts will judge the entries on creativity, innovation, performance, and the ability to render in real time in front of the live audience.

Selected contributors will have an opportunity to show their projects for the Computer Animation Festival Evening Theater audience, and to showcase their work in The Sandbox, where attendees get a hands-on gaming experience. "The addition of live, real-time rendering work is going to make this one of the most dynamic and innovative festivals in SIGGRAPH history," says Ronen Barzel, SIGGRAPH 2009 conference chair.

"The gaming industry has been a substantial innovator in real-time graphics, and now the best gaming work can be showcased at SIGGRAPH alongside the latest developments in research, science, art, and technology from around the globe."

Real-time rendering will focus on mathematical or other industrial simulations, research projects, real-time artist explorations, new uses of pioneering technology and scientific visualizations. SIGGRAPH 2009 will be held in New Orleans from August 3-7 at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center.

http://www.siggraph.org/s2009/

Microsoft to challenge Wii?

Microsoft is looking to acquire an Israeli imaging company in a bid to 'anxiously outdo the Wii' according to new reports on the web. According to a report in the Israel press, the format-holder is looking to buying 3DV Systems and its camera-based motion-sensing technology and integrate it into its games business. Reportedly, Microsoft will pay $35m for the firm, whose ZCams tech is in effect like Sony's EyeToy but with more precise imaging and motion sensing due to their 3D cameras.

Venturebeat's Dean Takahashi has also reported on the acquisition, recapping his own experiences with the tech during a previous demo: "When I did a demo of the technology, I was able to control a game just by waving my arms around. I could fly a plane by pretending to hold a joystick and also box against a virtual fighter by throwing punches toward the camera. The motion detection was accurate, much more so than the Wii, which uses relatively cheap but primitive accelerometers and infrared technology for motion detection."

3DV has been spending recent years trying to commercialise the 3D camera technology, saying it could release the camera at a sub $100 price (a perfect add-on peripheral for the 360?). However, Microsoft has already said that it 'doesn't comment on rumour and speculation' but time will show whether this one stands up or not.

Microsoft Research India working on new ways of architectural digital tours

The India Digital Heritage Project is a huge undertaking by Microsoft Research India that tries to collect, store, and share data on architectural sites and stimulate research in visualization, computer vision, graphics and related fields.

Various academic and industry research organizations formed a Program Advisory & Monitoring Committee to monitor the project. MSR India's role is to provide technologies such as Photosynth and HD View (the latter at its beta) to help showcase various Indian heritage sites in both 2D and 3D. At the moment, the project encompasses five sites with either Photosynth or HD View (beta) examples (example in the vid below).

Users can choose to follow a "guided-tour" where a narrator explains the historical and cultural importance of what is being viewed. As you can see, the potential of this project is really phenomenal. Slideshows of pictures and videos really aren't enough for digital tours of landmarks but putting together technologies like Photosynth and HD View (beta) can seriously improve the experience. The engineers, researchers, and designers that had to work to put this together have only recently finished a pilot prototype for the Sri Andal Temple in Srivilliputtur.

HD View, developed by Microsoft Research's Interactive Visual Media group, is a viewer meant for large images (think billions of pixels) that have been stitched together using smaller images. Photosynth, on the other hand, is a technology that analyzes and pieces together multiple images of an area or object from multiple angles to create virtual worlds called a "synth." The latter has actually undergone an update recently, with "a lot more features and improvements in the works."

Travel grants for UK engineering scientists

Having just been awarded a Royal Academy of Engineering travel grant to visit this years HCI International conference at California, US, I thought I'd post some information for all other UK scientists in computer science/engineering discipline looking to fund conference travel from external sources.

The Royal Academy of Engineering International Travel Grant Scheme is intended to help Engineering Researchers in the UK make study visits overseas. This enables them to remain at the forefront of new developments and be aware of corresponding activity overseas. The scheme is intended to benefit individuals with their current work and ultimately engineering in the country as a whole by facilitating technology transfer opportunities. It is also a means of maintaining the prestige of the nation’s engineering overseas. I've been personally awarded this travel grant for the second year in a row now and can heartily recommend applying for it.

http://www.raeng.org.uk/research/researcher/travelgrant/default.htm

Also, there's the Royal Society's new International Travel Grants scheme which runs with fixed deadlines (next one's 16th of March). Royal Society's objectives include strengthening of UK science by providing support to excellent individuals to engage with the best science around the world as well as supporting science communication. The International Travel Grant scheme aims to contribute to fulfilling this objective by supporting international collaborations and the participation of UK scientists in overseas conferences.

http://royalsociety.org/funding.asp?id=2348

New non-photorealistic game, Madworld

Carrying on my research in non-photorealistic graphics, it is exciting to see new real-time games utilising the medium. The new and very impressive newcomer is MADWORLD an inventive third-person action game exclusively for Wii. Produced by Atsushi Inaba, MADWORLD has a unique black and white style (similar to Sin City in some ways), depicting an incredibly sharp backdrop that straddles graphic novels and 3D worlds.

As players battle opponents, they must master the use of various weapons and items found within their environment, such as chainsaws and street signs, while entertaining sports commentary adds to the third-person gameplay. With its irreverent humour and over-the-top violence, MADWORLD promises to deliver a unique core gaming experience currently missing on the Wii system. Time to invest in one for us not equipped with the Nintendo console?!

Southwark council using 3D urban model of London

Southwark Council has licensed a 3D digital model of London from architectural visualisation consultancy GMJ, to create a virtual skyline into which proposed buildings of the Elephant and Castle regeneration area will be positioned for assessment.

Forming part of their long term planning strategy, Southwark’s professional team along with planning consultants Tibbalds and architects Make, will use GMJ’s digital model to examine a range of scenarios for proposed buildings including the impact of height and density along with the affect on residential buildings, public places and the urban mix.

Jon Abbott, Elephant & Castle Project Director, commented, “There are always a lot of concerns to be taken into consideration when working on a project of this size and GMJ’s model will allow us to look at the impact from every angle to ensure the optimum design and position is achieved for all stakeholders including local residents.”

Accurate to within centimetres, GMJ’s extended model covers 44 sq km of central London and is detailed to the level of chimney stacks, parapet walls and tree canopies. Developers and architects can drop their proposed buildings into the model to help speed up planning applications.

London CityModel was selected by renowned architect Sir Terry Farrell as an exhibit in his prestigious Digital Cities: London’s Future exhibition which opened on November 21st at The Building Centre.

The exhibition examines how the latest technology will affect the future of architecture in cities, including digital building planning, pedestrian movement studies, congestion management and the adoption of digital city models to aid long term strategic skyline plans.

The Animator’s Survival Kit: Animated

A book I've got on my reading list for all of the games-related units I am teaching at Bournemouth University is Richard Williams’ The Animator’s Survival Kit, widely accepted as a must-have resource for animators.

After its publication in 2001, lecturers quickly added the title to required reading lists for students, while studio professionals began to keep a copy close at hand. So what could be done to improve on this established classic? Simple: add animation.

The book’s content originated from masterclasses that Williams gave to major studios such as Pixar, Dreamworks and ILM. His new 16-DVD box set, The Animator’s Survival Kit: Animated, amalgamates footage from one of these masterclasses, filmed at Blue Sky Studios, with the original content of the book.

The training starts by exploring how animators learn, explaining the importance of life drawing, how to think about animation, how to animate and how not to. Walk cycles, accents, vibrates, anticipation, eases, overlapping action and weight are among the many topics covered. Although the discs can be studied in any order, Williams suggests that “you swallow the whole pill: start from the basics and move on layer by layer through to [more] sophisticated uses”. The more you learn from the basics, the more sophisticated your work can become.

Aimed at both students and professionals, the discs excel in revealing the fundamental principles behind animation, making it suitable for animators working in any field, including classical, digital, games, stop-motion and online animation. During the course of the videos, Williams frequently reaches for a marker pen and illustrates his points with drawings.

In addition to between 30 and 50 minutes of video footage, each DVD includes up to 30 minutes of animation, running to hundreds of individual animated example over the course of the box set. Each can be viewed and analysed frame by frame, making this an invaluable resource.

Check this out at (pricing is steep, but it should be well worth it!) http://www.theanimatorssurvivalkit.com/

New Google Earth update, version 5

Google has just released a new version of Google Earth (version 5) with some new and very interesting features added. Those are the abilities to use the Google Earth environment to;

- See global changes with decades of historic imagery
If you've ever wondered how your neighborhood has changed throughout time, Google Earth now gives you access to the past. With a simple click, check out suburban sprawl, melting ice caps, coastal erosion and more
- Dive beneath the surface of the ocean
In the new ocean layer, you can plunge all the way to the floor of the sea, view exclusive content from partners like BBC and National Geographic, and explore 3D shipwrecks like the Titanic.
- Track and share your paths with others
Take placemarks a step further and record a free-form tour in Google Earth. Simply turn on the touring feature, press record, and see the world. You can even add a soundtrack or narration to personalize the journey

All three new features are well worth checking out for Google Earth enthusiasts and offer potential for a lot of new research concepts and ideas for people into LBS and urban modelling.