VIRTUAL REAL WORLDS

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MellaniuM designs and creates virtual “real worlds” for customers who require detailed 3D environments that enable interactive walkthroughs, fly-around, and simulations using virtual real worlds generated using realistic 3D models in virtual real environments.

Customers provide information in the form of basic drawings and CAD drawings to produce 3D Models to be imported into the virtual real world environment..

Applications have been varied i.e.;

Engineering design mock-ups;

Architectural plans and models;

Marketing presentations;

3D interactive worlds;

3D Shops (3D Malls);

GIS modeling and environment.

The applications provide the users with the ability to provide detailed 3D information down to fractions of a mm with actual real texturing. Users can fly-through and/or walk round the virtual real world 3D models and simulated environments.

Many successful Virtual Worlds have been created;

Summary - a list of the benefits and user applications of a Virtual Real World.

Inside a typical 3D document museum provides flash video of inside the 3D document museum.

Inside a typical document museum2 provides flash video of looking down inside the a 'Virtual Real World' 3D museum.

To try to give solution to the problem of existing documentation and the specific project we have defined as methodological key-point the concept of 3D database and environment, originated from the observation that a 3D model and its environment can be seen as a large, ordered database of spatial information, and it can be added to and altered over time. 3D models and environments are, by their nature, highly intuitive interfaces to information, allowing the user to access an object and its environment interactively via its 3D representation rather than via its name in a traditional text field. A wide range of further information can be obtained by simply clicking on a part of a 3D model or within the spatial environment.

The use of 3D real world models instead of 2D black&white drawings is a great improvement to document an operation that is more of providing clarity for a construction and for buildings that are not simply a sum of planes and quadratic polynomials (planes, polygons, striped surfaces, portions of spheres and quadrics) as in a new building and environment design. 3D models with an environment offers us a better simulation when we try to replicate the real-life environment with its irregularities, out of plumb, textures, curvatures, bulges, hollows, sags and other signs of uniqueness, such as wind movement, sounds, etc., together with the forms created but never formally included in the classical rules of Vitruvius.

Digital 3D models and environments are a high-potential technique. Although creative, modeling is strongly rooted in knowledge acquisition. The ‘creation’ must resemble reality even if objective cognitive data are to be put to different use depending the modeling technique adopted. 3D virtual models and their environment are a break with the past limits of projection and cross-section, and of the analogy between the sheet of paper and the surface of the wall, since they present a world environment more in tune with the world as we naturally perceive it.

Until now, these problems did not receive an effective solution. The result is, compared with a growing need of “industrialization” or "standardization" of the virtual world process, is the complete lack of the use of the whole corpus of the information in the design process or very expensive operations in term of money and time.

On the other hand collecting, organizing, storing, and conveying knowledge of proposed, existing and historical conditions is a challenging problem in any discipline or domain. Typical of this problem is a enormous quantity of heterogeneous data (3D models, images, photos, drawings, texts, written documents, sounds, CAD/CAM files, etc.), which does not allow immediate usability and easy transfer and movement. Furthermore, the 3D nature is such that the use of textual descriptions rapidly degrades the quality of the information.

In the case of digital systems, search engines are currently being used to find information content over the Internet. While performing well with text, their performance degrades with multimedia and 3D data. Querying words is a much simpler task today than searching images, 3D models, or sounds. The reason is simple: a text is composed of words while a multimedia file is made out of images, models, textures, and sounds.

This is a major quantum jump compared to the previous state-of-the-art, since it exploits what has been called a “theatrical perception” of the world, meaning that all human experience is confined to the perceived world. Our way of taking possession of artifacts, as of all the space surrounding us, is essentially a visual and perceptive way, in which space and times are represented as continuous and iconic systems. Until today the figurative model on which we bring back every real world representation has always been based on three types of analysis:

reduction from 3D to 2D;

starting from few discreet points, construction of the entire continuous system through interpolation, usually linear;

recomposing of the whole world scene through fixed images and text.

To improve this process it is necessary to find read&write methods capable of preserving the continuous and creating aggregation systems that make data as much Unifi-able and transferable as possible.

In recent times the support field have tried to give a first answer to this problem making enormous use of computational methods and “metadata” (literally “data about data” or, using a wider picture, “the sum total of what one can say about any information object at any level of aggregation”) as description of semantic categories from heterogeneous data, an attempt to describe the essential properties of other discrete computer data objects—specifically, the data objects that make up the information on the World Wide Web.

However, “metadata” has resulted an increasingly ubiquitous terminology understood in different ways by the diverse professional communities that design, create, develop, describe, preserve, maintain, and use information systems and resources and practically we have seen just a proliferation of the types of metadata without striving to define any true standardization. Furthermore, it has been recently envisioned by an expert from the librarian domain that in the near future that concepts of metadata records will be replaced by a “borderless network of related entities”.

Apart from the possibilities offered us by the visualization of virtual real worlds, a powerful tool offering the digital paradigm in this field is the concept of the 3D database and environment. For the architect or designer - operators used to reason first of all in spatial terms - this might be a great improvement: from the making of textual to visual database with hypermedia and multimedia possibilities that allows you to collect and integrate huge quantities of heterogeneous data from any discipline or domain with easy access, to extremely complex data structures and constant user guidance.

Main characteristics of a 3D database and environment are:

fully replace physical archives with digital files having the same basic features;
allow the same data to be used and analyzed in a variety of ways;
provide a 3D representation of the real world complex matching its real-life counterpart;
provide scientific interactive and simulation capability for use as a design/marketing tool;
furnish both iconic as well as orthogonal visualization with realistic perspective;
use of the mode both as representation and as metaphors for navigation.

The latest generation have been exposed to this 3D environment or have experience most of their lives; to them it is quite natural and accept the virtual real world concept enthusiastically. They readily accept the possibility of people meeting in an environment of there choosing while being physically somewhere else in the real world; in fact they can't understand why it doesn't exist today.

See article on Virtual Real Worlds and virtual humans.

Our development group is particular skilful in facing this kind of approach: we have a background as architectural planner, engineering designer, systems engineering, digital video and photography, with a specific reference to historical and traditional architecture and engineering methodology, a wide know-how as experts and implementers of GIS systems, finally, in-depth experience both in 3D data capture & modeling in a real time interactive environment in a visual database development environment. Semantic 3D digital modeling and 3D environment data acquisition has already been widely used by our group in projects of varying scale.

Experience in the specific field includes:

3D scanner and environment survey of the local fields and buildings;
Photogrammetry and Topography survey and modeling detailed artifacts;
3D models and actual real environment of a projected Smelting furnace;
3D Database and detailed multimedia components for agricultural research;
GIS for the area and a GIS interactive map on hydro-geological surveys .

The GIS (geographic information systems) is a system for the management, analysis, and display of geographic knowledge, which is represented using a series of information sets such as maps and globes, geographic data sets, processing and work flow models, data models, and metadata. See GIS Getting Started for more information. This involves the collection and use of data on a wide range of land management schemes and countryside and environmental designations. Presenting this information in a 3D environment will lead to improved decision-making and increased efficiency.

Areas of land can be displayed with a sense of presence;

For more information on obtaing your 'Virtual Real World' contact the MellaniuM team using SKYPE; using one of the following SKYPE IDs; "mmelaney" (Mark), or "kenisken6616" (Ken), or "joe133592" (Joe); it costs you nothing.

Skype is available for free from Skype - The whole world can talk for free.

Smelting furnace images provides images of the modeled furnace.

Inside the Smelting furnace video provides flash video of inside the furnace.

Outside the Smelting furnace video provides flash video of outside furnace.

Shockwave and mpg video files which demonstrate the capabilities of this concept are available on request; see above for details.

Team 'MellaniuM' uses industry standard tools to create the 'virtual real worlds' using in-house developed methods and processes to tailor the 3D environment to individual requirements. Interactive development using up-to-date communications with the user e.g., internet, Skype, etc.; is a prime asset for the design, development and maintenance of the 'virtual real world' projects.

Click here for the Summary - a list of the benefits and user applications of a Virtual Real World. Future things to come from MellaniuM Design.

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