Visionair Newsletter #5 April 2014 - Israel Institute …esml.iem.technion.ac.il/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/visio...VISIONAIR NEWSLETTER – April 2014 charge, based on the excellence

VISIONAIR NEWSLETTER – April 2014

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Visionair Newsletter #5 April 2014

VISIONAIR’s Trans National Access (TNA) Activities

are full speed ahead!

VISIONAIR Newsletter Editor’s note

Dear readers,

Trans National Access, TNA, is a major highlight of the VISIONAIR Project.

In this issue, we continue describing several TNA activities that were carried out in recent months

at several VISIONAIR laboratories and centers of excellence. As usual, you can read exciting

stories on projects that have been completed.

Through these reports we demonstrate what a transnational access project is. This should help you

consider how you can apply for such projects. Every researcher from Europe or one of the

associated countries is eligible to submit a project proposal for being supported by VISIONAIR.

Any discipline from the natural sciences through engineering to art is welcome. Whenever high

level of visualization and interaction elements are proposed, VISIONAIR will try to support your

project.

A project can take from a few days up to four weeks of research and utilization of our high level

infrastructure, including technologies such as CAVE, haptic devices, holography, and ultra-high

definition resolutions. Just go to our website, http://www.infra-visionair.eu/propose-new-

project.html, and access a simple form to describe your project and needs. We will then help you

refine the research question and emphasize its visualization content.

You are welcome to propose topics that extend the wide variety of project topics already carried

out. Not only do we help you; we also learn a lot from your research, so it is a great win-win

opportunity.

Enjoy reading, and we look forward to hearing from you!

Professor Dov Dori, VISIONAIR Newsletter

Editor

http://esml.iem.technion.ac.il/?page_id=1561

http://www.infra-visionair.eu/propose-new-project.html



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VISIONAIR Social network

If you expect following us and exchanging with us, we have now a LinkedIn group. Just follow the link and submit to enter the group. Forums and Open questions will be possible very soon within this social network.

http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=5087645&trk=myg_ugrp_ovr

For more direct contact about a TNA project you can also contact us by email : [email protected]

How and where to meet us?

VISIONAIR will have a presentation booth in the following conferences in the next month: you are welcome to join us and open discussions on these booths or VISIONAIR special tracks.

Booth at NEM summit in Nantes – October 28th-30th 2013: http://nem-summit.eu/about/

Booth and demonstrations at ICT Conference in Vilnius – November 6th-8th 2013: http://ec.europa.eu/digital-agenda/en/ict-2013

Special track at JVRC in Paris – December 11th-13th, 2013: http://jvrc2013.sciencesconf.org/

CogInfoCom in Budapest – December 2nd-5th, 2013: http://www.coginfocom.hu/conference/CogInfoCom13/

We are also actively preparing for our Third General Assembly which will take place in Poznan, Poland, Tuesday, February 4 to Friday, February 7, 2014. An open-forum will be organized on February 5th and 6th which is open to everybody and will feature presentation of VISIONAIR results and an opportunity to find out more about what we can offer. You are warmly welcome during these two days hosted by PSNC.

VISIOANIR has been represented with posters and presentations during the last month in the following events:

PLM 2013 in Nantes : http://www.plm-conference.org/

SGP 2012 in Genova : http://sgp.ge.imati.cnr.it/

We are open to present VISIONAIR in your community to support your colleagues to understand the opportunities offered by VISIONAIR

Permanent VISIONAIR Call for projects

VISIONAIR is a European funded infrastructure that grants researchers access to high level visualization facilities and resources. Both physical access and virtual services are offered by the infrastructure, free of

http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=5087645&trk=myg_ugrp_ovr

mailto:[email protected]

http://nem-summit.eu/about/

http://ec.europa.eu/digital-agenda/en/ict-2013

http://jvrc2013.sciencesconf.org/

http://www.coginfocom.hu/conference/CogInfoCom13/

http://www.plm-conference.org/

http://sgp.ge.imati.cnr.it/


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charge, based on the excellence of the project submitted. In addition to technical aspects, you take advantage of skills and knowledge of our experienced teams operating the platforms. The access to a facility will include:

Training on each specific facility

Access to the scientific environment supporting the platform

Access to networking environments

Scientific and engineering support for specific tasks development

Accommodation and logistic support

The current Call for Project leaves the topics open for you to decide based on your needs. Hosting and travel costs are covered by VISIONAIR for eligible applicants. For further information about the Call, please go to: http://www.infra-visionair.eu/propose-new-project.html

PSNC - Poznan Super Networking Center

The 3rd general assembly of VISIONAIR Poland, 4.02.14 -7.02.14. The 3rd general assembly of VISIONAIR has been hosted this year by PSNC (Poznan Super Networking Center) in Poland from February 4th to 7th. These four days were an opportunity to report the current actions, as well as to share common background about the technologies supported through VISIONAIR and proposed for access to a wide research community and results of TNA projects applied within VISIONAIR.

The capacity of VISIONAIR to create various type of research environments, including remote presence, ultra-high definition 3D and 2D, immersion in virtual words and augmented reality were presented. VISIONAIR has promoted high-level interaction between humans and these virtual words, supporting a highly multi-disciplinary activity within these virtual environments. With about 90 external projects currently running or already completed, topics span the gamut from scientific visualization, manufacturing applications, and design of innovative

processes, to ergonomics, psychology, cognitive science, art performance, and sports training. The open forum during the general assembly was the opportunity to show our results in these fields.



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With this multi-disciplinary support, VISIONAIR has become a natural connection point of many disciplines and communities. The virtual reality community, represented by officials from EURO-VR, the high performance computing community represented by PRACE officials, and the community working on ultra-high definition and streaming networks attended this event and shared common research interests. With this general assembly, VISIONAIR enters its fourth and last year of the project and the entire consortium in now looking towards the next steps towards continuing the current activities. Our primary goal remains to enable Trans National Access to our 29 Visualization and interactions facilities. New projects are still very welcome in the spirit and under the auspices of VISIONAIR.


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Networked Art Performance at the ICT 2013 in Vilnius

During the ICT 2013 conference in Vilnius (6-8.11.2013) PSNC, i2CAT, INRIA and Grenoble INP organized a networked art performance connecting real-time artistic actions in multiple cities around Europe. The Creative Ring demonstration, supported by the VISIONAIR project, presented advanced distributed research and artistic scenarios that included musicians in Poznan, Barcelona and Vilnius, dancers and 3D motion-capture system in Grenoble, as well as low-latency video transmission over the GEANT network. The event showed the potential of distributed music and dance creation over high broadband networks, combining arts and technology for creating a virtual distributed stage. The performance integrated, through the GEANT and PIONIER networks, four

European research centers working on ultra-high definition and virtual reality systems. Barcelona (i2CAT), Poznan (PSNC) and Vilnius (ICT event) hosted four musicians playing simultaneously on each venue. The audio-visual stream from the first team of musicians, hosted in PSNC, was sent to Barcelona, where it was combined with another instrumentalists. Subsequently, the integrated audio and video signal was transmitted to Grenoble. There, the real-time motion capture system tracked movements of a real dancer, and finally all the elements combined

were streamed over the network and displayed at the ICT stage in Vilnius, where the audience had the opportunity to enjoy the 3D view of the dancer dancing the composition from the four musician teams.


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The performance was the result of direct cooperation between the SPECIFI and VISIONAIR projects, and it was prepared by i2CAT, PSNC, Grenoble INP and INRIA, with the support of ENoLL and the ICUB.


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3D high-quality videoconferencing with augmented

reality in a remote sport and art training scenario The process of training athletes, especially those competing at the highest international level, involves

the transfer of very specific and often difficult to formalise knowledge from the mentor to the trainee.

Personal contact between the teacher and the trainee is crucial in any teaching arrangement, including

sports training. Even though scientific insight and findings have an ever-increasing influence on sport

preparations, the trainer is still the

authority making decisions, giving

direct advice to the athlete, and often

combining her intuition, using

psychological skills and computer

data, in order to make the right call.

The person of the coach, their

experience, example and supervision

play a very important and sometimes

underestimated role in the athlete's

success. In the end it is the athlete

who gets to perform in the spotlight using her natural and acquired skills, but the quality of guidance and

adequacy of the chosen training program often

mean the difference between hearing the

national anthem and going home with unfulfilled

hopes.

Centre d’Alt Rendiment de Sant Cugat del Vallés

(CAR) proposed an experiment and

demonstration for enhancing the training

process which makes use of a system that

combines HD videoconferencing, stereoscopy,

motion tracking, augmented reality, instant replay, and frame-by-frame analysis in a remote scenario.

The proposed demonstration took place during the EXPERIMEDIA project 2nd year review and

preparations in CAR on November 11th-14th 2013. The demonstration was prepared with VISIONAIR

visualisation support from Poznan Supercomputing and Networking Center employees who were

operating the HD and 3D equipment brought from Poznan. The described experiment employed a system

allowing the coach to hold a training session without the need for his presence in the venue. He connected

remotely with his protégé trainees located in the training hall using a high definition (HD)

videoconferencing tool. Additionally, he was able to review and present archival footage of athletes

recorded with stereoscopic 3D HD cameras and stored in the system’s video repository. This footage also

contained a 3D model of a human body reflecting the athlete's movements collected via motion tracking.

The stream with the superimposed model was treated as one of the sides of the videoconference for both

the athletes and the coach to view.


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For the purposes of the experiment, a basic use case was identified and tested. It involved a coach and a

team of gymnasts who were perfecting their skills in a pommel horse exercise. The coach connected to

the system from a remote location, while the athletes used the terminal installed in their training hall.

Both sides were able to communicate in real time using HD videoconferencing. The coach additionally

had the possibility to observe the

gymnasts performing the routines

captured by 2D and 3D HD cameras

and to view instant replays and slow

motion analyses of the performances.

The CONFetti platform, which was

developed within the scope of

EXPERIMEDIA, was also demonstrated

on VISIONAIR Open Forum 2014 in

Poznan as a prime example of a

successful Trans-National Activity

project. For this event, the main subject

was the use of videoconferencing

technology for the creation of dance

choreography and training of dancers.

During the conference, Anna Beker,

choreographer and dance teacher from

Poznan dance school Jazz Dance Studio,

lead a remote dancers training session.

Anna was watching and commenting on

the choreography using SIP

videoconference in 3D in real-time,

while dancers were performing in a

remote location in another part of

the city. High resolution video (Full

HD) and high quality audio codec

allowed for reliable communication,

and the stereoscopic view enabled

watching all the details of the

dancers’ movements. After the

performance, the trainer and the

dancers had a possibility to re-play

and comment on the various parts of

the show.


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Remote Collaboration Scenario Demonstration

Remote collaboration in modification, rendering and visualization of 3D models was demonstrated during

VISIONAIR Open Forum in Poznan. The demonstration was part of a Joint Research Activity effort within

VISIONAIR. The scenario of the remote collaboration included a group of people working on a 3D model

and perceive the same virtual object from different perspectives and views using different kind of

displays, such as holographic table and UHD 3D displays. The software was originally developed by PSNC

during several years and used in many research projects. VITRALL is a distributed Web-based system

enabling real-time visualisation of complex 3D content using remote distributed servers equipped with

modern multi-GPU solutions. VITRALL uses Web-based communication between controlling servers,

rendering units, and clients, which can be located in different parts of the world. If a visualisation in some

desired resolution is too time consuming for maintaining good quality animation, more rendering units

may be added.

VITRALL was previously used in very different scenarios, but still it was necessary to implement additional

functionalities, such as a new JPEG client, in order to support UHD 3D display in PSNC and Holographic

table in KTH, and enable remote editing models. VITRALL was also enhanced so it can read remote 3D

models by using network communication and network file systems. Blender, a free and open source 3D

animation software suite, was used for model editing. Blender supports the entire 3D pipeline: modeling,

rigging, animation, simulation, motion tracking, and rendering. Using a combination of VITRALL and

Blender enables remote collaboration scenarios of pure visualization, where a group of people working

on an object needs to perceive it from the same or from different perspectives.


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Designers have access to remotely located objects and can edit them using Blender. Media people are

able to visualize 3D models in both 2D or 3D in different resolutions (up to 4K), angles, and perspectives.

This also makes it possible to use complex facilities such as holographic tables. Users can control the

synchronization of viewing accuracy, position, size, color and viewpoints parameters, which indeed was

the focus of the scenario described below. Groups of designers, editors and planners are able to

collaborate using VITRALL and different types of displays. Moreover, VITRALL is open software and it can

be integrated with other platforms.

The scenario presented during the Open Forum

conference involved designing a children playground.

Three parties, located in different places and with

different visualization capabilities, had the

opportunity to independently view a model that had

been created, discuss online changes to the model

and make decisions about further design actions. One

of the parties involved in the demonstration was a 3D

model designer located in Barcelona. He used

the Blender modeling software for editing the

3D model and making changes proposed by the

other participants. 3D models were shared

across the network, so all the participants were

able to immediately see the effect of these

changes. A second person was sitting in front

of a holographic table in Stockholm. The

VITRALL server, located in Poznan, was

rendering three different views for three

projectors serving the holographic display. The holographic table operator could move and rotate the 3D

model in order to see it from all angles.

The third party was an audience on

Open Forum in Poznan. All the views of

the models, as well as two remote sides,

were projected on a screen via 4K 3D

videoconference. In this live design and

discussion process the playground

project was modified by inserting

additional items (swings, ladders, etc.)

and changing their position and

appearance. The show generated a lot

of attention and interest, as the

audience realized the immediate applicability of this system to real-world scenarios, and may questions

followed this exciting presentation.


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TNA Uncompressed live UHDTV 3D 60p Streaming

Over 2,000 Km

During the TERENA Networking Conference, which took place in Maastricht, The Netherlands, during 3-6

June 2013, SURFNet, together with Poznan Supercomputing and Networking Center, University of Twente

and CIENA, presented a long-distance human-robot

interaction with multi-stream uncompressed

stereoscopic UHDTV streaming. This was one of the

first demonstrations of streaming live 4K 3D over

2,000 Km with seamless latency. VISIONAIR has

made this experiment possible by providing open

access to visualization infrastructure and services

for the European research community. For this

demonstration, PSNC and University of Twente

UHD visualization infrastructures were used.

Conference participants, located in a specially build dark room, were able to play a game called “the

leaning tower of Pisa”. The tower was located

remotely, in Poznan, Poland. Users in

Maastricht controlled a remote robot arm to

place small objects of different sizes and

weights on the tower construction. Two Haptic

Master devices from the University of Twente

were used, both were network-connected to

each other, enabling the users to precisely

control the position and movement of remote

objects at a long distance with a very small

delay: the measured video latency was only 50 ms without network transmission. Participants had several

visual live feedbacks, including stereoscopic

Ultra High Definition TV high frame rate (60p), 4K

holographic illusion, and 2D and 3D displays

through various compressed and uncompressed

video streams. Users were able to feel the haptic

response from the robot arm.

Since all the video streams generated data flow

of 30 Gbit/s, a dedicated 40 Gbit/s all-optical

path was established from Poland, via Germany

to Netherlands, reaching about 2,000 Km. For

the purpose of the experiment, Ciena provided

an Ultra-Long Haul network system to establish the 40Gbit/s connection between SURFnet and PSNC. The

link’s one-way delay was about 10 ms, making the robot collaboration and video feedback feasible.


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The demonstration proved the possibility of

combining cutting-edge visualization,

networking and remote collaboration

technologies. Picture quality of all displays

was excellent, especially the immersive

stereoscopic large screen in UHDTV

resolution. The demonstration partners

successfully combined multiple research

and education aspects and will share this

knowledge with others. Lessons learned

from the experiment and the experience

collected can be used in future

collaboration scenarios for more complex use cases

involving e-Health, e-Culture, or e-Education.

VISIONAIR support in such complex demonstrations

and collaboration of multiple partners would be much

more complicated, if not impossible.


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Visualizations of Molecular Interactions for Chemical

Education at the Technion, Israel Institute of

Technology

Proposer: Prof. Pascual Lahuerta, University of Valencia (Spain)

Visited laboratory: Enterpise Systems Modeling Laboratory (ESML), Haifa, Israel

Visit Dates: 1 May to 12 May, 2013

Pascual Lahuerta, a Professor of Chemistry at the University of Valencia (Spain), is part of a group of three

chemical education experts who collaborate to develop online materials to improve students’ conceptual

understanding of molecular interactions in chemical education. The group has focused on creating

interactive chemistry teaching materials for 12th grade or lower. Prof. Lahuerta was hosted by Prof. Judy

Dori and Prof. Dov Dori and visited the Technion's Science Teaching Visualization Laboratory and the

Enterprise Systems Modeling Laboratory )ESML( at the Technion, Israel Institute of Technology during

May 1 – 13, 2013.

The motivation for this visit was to share

ideas in an attempt to analyze what is

difficult for students to understand and why,

and to develop ways to illustrate many

aspects of chemical reactions.

The visit included attending a chemistry

lesson held in Nazareth high school, in which

the teacher, Ms. Amal Jaris, and the students

learn with visualized chemistry materials

using a smart board.

At the Science Teaching Visualization

Laboratory, Prof. Lahuerta introduced his

chemistry visual materials website, which is based on simulations of reactions and other chemical

processes at the submicroscopic - molecular

level. He described the possibilities and

limitation of his tool. The common activities of

the visitor and the hosts focused on structural

data of molecules as well as solutions of

reactions with gases. The pedagogic principle

is to put forward a general claim and lead the

students to understand why this claim is true

through visual simulations. At the Enterprise

Systems Modeling Laboratory – ESML, we used

OPM to jointly model the process of Science

http://edu.technion.ac.il/chemical-education/judy/main.html

http://edu.technion.ac.il/chemical-education/judy/main.html

http://ie.technion.ac.il/dori.phtml

http://esml.iem.technion.ac.il/

http://www1.technion.ac.il/en


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Practicing, in particular, creating simulations of chemical reactions and further attempts were made to

improve this process. Prof. Lahuerta summarized his visit saying "I leave the Technion convinced that we

will continue our very productive collaboration".

Integration and Evaluation of Interaction Potential of

Handheld Devices into VR systems at University of

Kaiserslautern

Christian Weidig, Research Engineer

There is a wide set of interaction devices and interaction metaphors available to realize interaction within

virtual environments. For different applications specialized interaction metaphors are well established.

For other fields of applications and user needs choosing the best way of interaction is not that trivial. In

parallel new interaction metaphors are under development to suit users’ needs by new devices like

tablet-PCs. The bigger the choice of interaction devices for VR systems, the harder it is to choose!

Arts et Métiers ParisTech, Fraunhofer IPK, Grenoble INP, HLRS Stuttgart, INRIA Rennes, MTA Sztaki,

University College London, University Aix Marseille, University of Kaiserslautern joined forces to guide

external users, who are usually not VR and interaction experts, in choosing proper interaction metaphors

to solve their problems. This JRA aims to classify and cluster established and newly developed interaction

metaphors. By comparing available interaction metaphors, external users should be able to identify the

interaction metaphor they need without focusing on a given VR system or specific facility.

For example, in a study on immersive modelling environments, the Fraunhofer IPK investigated the use

of gesture-based interaction techniques and tangible user interfaces (TUI), and came up with a

preliminary list of advantages and challenges with respect to the categories of tangible manipulation,

spatial interaction, embodied facilitation, and expressive representation. Another example is the

implementation of tablet-based interaction within the UNIKL CAVE. The results of this research will help

focus the interaction selection on the TNA content and requirements rather than on the technical

characterization of a specific installation.


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The partners in this JRA have developed new interaction metaphors, and the range of options is now

quite broad. It covers the spectrum from predefined interaction metaphors based on tablet-PCs all the

way to completely free individual gesture recognition approaches. Each metaphor provides a different

core functionality, so VISIONAIR can now offer a wide range of various interaction metaphors requested

by external users.

An Interaction Testing Environment for Internet of

Things at the Laboratory for Manufacturing Systems

& Automation - LMS-HOLO.GR

Proposer: Mario Lorenz, Technische Universität Chemnitz, Germany

Visited laboratory: Laboratory for Manufacturing Systems

& Automation (LMS)

We developed an immersive environment, capable of testing

usability and trust levels of different interaction techniques

and interaction devices. In business and a home scenarios

users have to fulfil predefined tasks using a real smart phone

or tablet to interact with virtual devices. The Virtual Reality

(VR) evaluation environment developed and used within the

FP7 uTRUSTit project was adapted to a power wall with active

stereoscopic

projection and a

Mixed Reality

(MR) setup using

the Vuzix STAR1200XLD see-through glasses, which enables

side-by-side stereoscopic vision.

Although the STAR 1200XLD is intended for Augmented

Reality (AR) applications, it was used to view the entire virtual

worlds in stereoscopic view, allowing the participants to see

the virtual world and the real mobile devices. During the

evaluation, the participants have to move through the virtual

world hands-free as they are holding and using a mobile

device. Two navigation methods examine the effect on the

users' presence or usability. The first uses the Nintendo Wii

Balance Board, where the user navigates by weight shifting.

Leaning forward and backward creates translational

movements, and turning to the right or to the left induce corresponding turnings. The second navigation

method uses the Microsoft Kinect Sensor. To navigate, the participants put their right foot in front for


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moving forward and back for moving backward. For rotational movement, the participants turn their

shoulders.

The project supported the development of an immersive environment capable of testing usability and

trust levels of interaction techniques (including different interaction devices). It led to a setup for an

evaluation environment where conclusions on usability and trust levels has been derived.

Presence and Usability in Virtual Environments at the

Laboratory for Manufacturing Systems & Automation

- LMS-HOLO.GR

Proposer: Peter Wolkerstorfer, CURE - Center

for Usability Research & Engineering, Austria

Visited laboratory: Laboratory for Manufacturing Systems & Automation (LMS)

We compared presence and its effect on usability

of two different virtual environments: One virtual

environment created with Power Wall and the

other was created with a Head Mounted Display

(HMD). The main objective was to learn about the

presence of the two virtual environments and the

subsequent effects on usability.

Participants experienced the same interaction tasks with an intelligent virtual environment. The project

collected measurements of participants’ perceived presence of the environment and usability of the

intelligent virtual environment.

Our objectives were to study under what

circumstances and to what extent the

level of the users’ presence in different

Virtual Reality technologies varies, and

which effect this has on perceived

usability. We examined differences in

perceived presence and usability between

power wall and HMD. The comparison

included new technologies such as optical-

see-through glasses which create a mixed-

reality environment.

The results provided valuable insight into

the presence and usability of these two virtual environments and the role of presence in these

environments, helping to make decisions regarding which environment to use for various needs. The


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overall reported presence for the Kinect navigation was higher than that for the Wii Balance Board

navigation, and this was independent of the environment. The reported presence for power wall overall

higher than that for Mixed Reality, independently of the navigation method.

ARTUR – A Digital Factory Assistant at ECN

Conducted by Ecole Centrale de Nantes, and in the scope of the visions about the factory of the future,

the ARTUR project aims to develop the concept of “Digital Factory Assistant”. The purpose of this concept

is to offer the operator in the factory the knowledge extracted from different sources and adapted to the

current working situation. This digital

assistant relies on coupling the

knowledge in the factory with

Augmented & Virtual reality, allowing

the user to react efficiently upon the task

that s/he is doing.

One of the objectives of the ARTUR

project is to design and implement a

workflow that extracts the CAD model of

the given reference and project it onto

the real part in the factory. The method, which for now is manual, transforms the CAD model and uses

an augmented reality marker to locate the exact projection position. Future results aim to automatically

transform the CAD model to a VRML model and add

locating parts. The main purpose is to modify the virtual

model according to the real working situation in the

workshop floor. The application of the first results on a

real use case showed the effectiveness of this solution

in preventing repetitive and non-value-added work,

thereby improving productivity.

Results of this project will be validated through the Joint

Research Activity 9.1 of Visionair project ‘Integration of

multimodal data and kinematic models into VR

simulations’. For more information about ARTUR project.

Visionair Newsletter #5 April 2014 - Israel Institute …esml.iem.technion.ac.il/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/visio...VISIONAIR NEWSLETTER – April 2014 charge, based on the excellence

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