radar-project.de White Paper RADAR White Paper - Martin Memmel

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1 radar-project.de White Paper

2 Contact: Dr. Martin Memmel German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence DFKI GmbH Trippstadter Straße Kaiserslautern, Germany fon fax mail web Version 1.16 (2016/03/03)

3 Table of Contents 1 Background Location based services Creating contents for augmented reality services RADAR Main Features User management Contribution of geocontents Associating contents with a geocontent Selecting contents as primary resource of a geocontent Support for multimedia contents Managing and organizing contents Tag management Groups Search Interactive maps Map search Embedding interactive RADAR maps in HTML pages QR codes Accessing external services in a timeline visualization Push services Data exchange Integration with other platforms Localization Using RADAR Contents in Augmented Reality Services 25 4 RADAR System Architecture...26

4 1 1.1 Background Location based services In the course of the rise of mobile devices with more and more functionalities (especially Apple's iphone and Android-based devices), location-based services constantly grow in popularity. More and more information is enriched with geodata and thus can not only be presented in a virtual space, but in real, mobile contexts and in a context-sensitive way adapted to the user's preferences. A special kind of such location-based services are augmented reality services that provide a computer-supported, extended reality by displaying relevant information in the user's environment. With the new generation of mobile devices and available reality browsers, there is for the first time an infrastructure that allows for the creation of augmented reality services without the need of a complex instrumentation and the development of respective interfaces. Thus, the plenitude of localized information can principally be made available to end users in different scenarios by means of augmented reality services, depending on the users' locations as well as their preferences and contexts. Screenshot from the augmented reality service Layar

5 1.2 Creating contents for augmented reality services Core problem of current augmented reality services are the availability of data that can be used within the services (data is prevailing that was created specifically for the respective service), the creation and provision of data for the services (complex contribution processes including the need to setup an own service API, non-standard and proprietary metadata formats and data structures, etc.), and the heterogeneity as well as complexity of data that can be used within the services (caused by the fact that the systems can only use proprietary and specifically prepared data, an integration and aggregation of other relevant data is currently not or only hardly possible). Ideally, it would be possible to allow any end user without specific technical expertise to provide contents in the respective services, use geodata from various sources (digital libraries, social and semantic web) in the services, and to be able to provide geocontents in a way such that they can not only be used in one, proprietary service. To tackle these problems, RADAR provides an open infrastructure that not only allows for an easy contribution of arbitrary geocontents, but also for accessing a variety of existing geocontents so that they can easily be used in different contexts and scenarios.

6 RADAR Main Features 2 In the following an overview of RADAR main features is provided. 2.1 User management All content that was added with visibility public in RADAR can be accessed without registration yet, registration is mandatory for adding any kind of information to the system. RADAR offers a complete user management, comprising the following features (among others): Registration with/without need to confirm via (configurable) Ajax-based availability tests for nickname / Forgot your password? functionality Stay logged in (optional, using cookies) Registration page in RADAR

7 User profiles with adaptable visibility for other users. The entries comprise, among others: address buddy icon social network contact information (e.g., LinkedIn, XING) affiliation (configurable: free text or using a predefined set of entries) interests (configurable: free text or using a predefined set of entries) Profile page in RADAR

8 Social networking functionalities contact management Messaging with optional message forwarding to the provided account Message management in RADAR

9 2.2 Contribution of geocontents A geocontent in RADAR denotes Information or an aggregation of information related to a specific location. To contribute a new geocontent in RADAR, only the following information is required, to represent the content in the system: the position of the geocontent a title as well as at least one tag to characterize the geocontent Additionally, an optional description can be provided. The owner of the geocontent can modify this information at any time. Contributing a geocontent in RADAR

10 2.2.1 Associating contents with a geocontent Each geocontent can be enriched with arbitrary multimedia contents such as text documents, images, movies or audio files. By specifying the so called association rights,the owner of a geocontent can decide who is allowed to add such multimedia contents. The following rights are offered: public: any logged in user can associate additional contents private: no other users are allowed to associated additional contents group: only members of selected closed groups may associate additional contents The owner of a geocontent can remove associations between the geocontent and associated resources at any time Selecting contents as primary resource of a geocontent Each RADAR geocontent presented in a search result within RADAR or in an external service such as Layar or Wikitude can only be associated with one preview image/ multimedia content (e.g., to display a 3D model or to automatically start a video or audio file when approaching an object). To select this content, RADAR offers to select an arbitrary content associated with the geocontent as so called primary resource for this geocontent.

11 2.3 Support for multimedia contents Besides geocontents, RADAR supports arbitrary multimedia contents (bookmarks, text documents, audio, video, ) by offering the following features: automatic metadata generation (based on Aperture 1) tag recommendations (type-ahead-find) generation of preview images for all common multimedia formats Embedded player for various resource types (e.g., flash, mp3) Sample contribution page for adding a web page to RADAR. On the right side, automatically extracted metadata is offered. At the bottom, other platforms that can be joined with RADAR are offered to allow for synchronously publishing the information on the respective systems. 1

12 For each content contributed in RADAR, a respective detail page with a variety of information and interaction means is offered. Display of static (e.g., title, description) and dynamic (e.g., number of views) metadata Metadata editing Assigning the content to portfolios, groups, and collections Tagging, commenting, and rating Report a problem, send to a friend Detail page of a geocontent in RADAR For geocontents, RADAR further offers: A small map showing the position of the geocontent; the owner can use this map to re-position the content. The list of all associated contents and respective interaction means (e.g., select as primary resource ).

13 2.4 Managing and organizing contents RADAR offers a variety of means to organize and manage contents. Logged in users have a personal portfolio with all contents they have gathered (geocontents as well as other multimedia contents) Each content can be added to a favorites list Collections offer an additional way of organizing contents Groups (later explained in more detail) allow for assigning contents to different topics or users Tags allow for adding freely chosen keywords to contents These organization types also allow for so called social browsing functionalities, i.e., the direct and intuitive navigation to related contents. RADAR offers various means to manage and organize contents

14 2.5 Tag management RADAR offers comfortable tag management: tag renaming tag removal access to tagged contents Tag management in RADAR

15 2.6 Groups Groups in RADAR can be used to aggregate users as well as geocontents. Group messages can be sent, group contents can be searched, and users can subscribe to group-specific activity reports. Group overview pages allow for immediate access to all group related information. A group overview page in RADAR

16 RADAR offers the following types of groups: open groups: Every member of the system can join an open group without the permission of a group administrator. Group members, group resources, and group activities are accessible for all (also anonymous) users. closed, public groups: Group members, group resources, and group activities are accessible for all (also anonymous) users. Joining and thus having the possibility to share resources to such a group requires the permission of a group administrator. closed, private groups: All group activities are only visible for group members, resources can be contributed with group visibility, and joining the group requires the permission of a group administrator.

17 2.7 Search RADAR offers different search and ranking options for the objects existing in the system. Resource search Search in selected metadata fields (title, description, tags,...) Search in selected groups Various ranking options (most viewed, best rated, most recent, most bookmarked ) expert search with different filters (mime type, license, date, ) Example of a search result page in RADAR

18 Group search Search within title and description Various ranking options (number of members, number of contents,...) Member search Depending on the users' privacy settings Interactive maps Map search Geocontents in RADAR can also be searched by means of an interactive map. For each group, a map search restricted on the contents of the group is offered. Map search in RADAR

19 The interactive map is realized using the GoogleMaps Javascript API V3 2 and offers the following interaction means: Choice between map, satellite, and hybrid mode Zooming Dragging Search for locations by providing names or coordinates If the number of geocontents to be displayed gets too big, they will be aggregated in so called clusters3. The number with which the clusters are labeled shows how many geocontents were aggregated. By clicking a cluster, a new map section is offered that shows all geocontents from this cluster Embedding interactive RADAR maps in HTML pages For each interactive map in RADAR, a so called embed code is offered. Using this code, the respective map and all related interaction means can easily be embedded in any HTML page. The width and height of the map are freely configurable. Embedded RADAR map This functionality is realized using the Fluster library (

20 2.9 QR codes RADAR offers the generation of so called QR (Quick Response) codes for all contents in the system. Thus, objects in contexts without GPS access can also be referenced, e.g., within buildings. A QR code generated in RADA QR Codes in RADAR are generated by using the Zebra Crossing library

21 2.10 Accessing external services in a timeline visualization RADAR offers a map-based search for geocontents not only from RADAR, but additionally from different Social and Semantic Web data sources. The results are displayed on a map as well as on an interactive timeline. Interactive timeline visualization of geocontents from different services

22 2.11 Push services RADAR offers several means to automatically get updates about new activities in the system. Feeds (Atom): all activities in the system activities in selected, public groups activities on resource in the own portfolio activities on selected resources all new resources in the system new resources in selected, public groups new resources contributed by selected users new resources matching arbitrary searches Extract of a sample RADAR resource feed

23 reports: all activities in the system activities in selected groups activities on selected resources

24 2.12 Data exchange RADAR was intentionally designed to allow for an easy use of data in other contexts. This comprises optional parallel upload to simultaneously contribute information to other platforms (e.g., Delicious, Diigo, Twitter), among others based on OAuth export of own contents, search results and group contents as a Netscape Bookmark File (importable in all common browsers and bookmarking platforms) embedded metadata (microformats, RDFa) 2.13 Integration with other platforms functionalities are also offered as Services (SOAP/REST Web Service API) widgets to embed Information about contents in RADAR integration means for arbitrary metadata associated with contents Two examples for the integration of information from ALOE instances by means of widgets 2.14 Localization RADAR offers full UTF-8 support and other localization means for all RADAR components (already existing: DE/EN). This concerns all kinds of system messages, labels (also regarding interaction elements), icons, etc.

25 3 Using RADAR Contents in Augmented Reality Services RADAR supports the provision of geocontents within the augmented reality services Layar and Wikitude5. Each of these services offers so called channels here, the terminology varies (Layar: layer, Wikitude: world, ). Channels are used to aggregated specific types of geocontent. E.g., there are channels for cash machines, restaurants, events, etc. To use RADAR contents in one of the augmented reality services, users first always have to manually create a respective channel. This requires having a developer account for the corresponding service. For each channel, arbitrary information such as a title, an icon, a description, etc. can be provided. Before connecting RADAR to such a channel, the geocontents that shall be used of course have to exist therefore, each channel has to be associated with groups from RADAR (arbitrary many, but at least one). The contents from these groups will then be displayed in the respective channel. To specify which geocontents shall be used in channel, a so called API endpoint has to be provided this is a URL under which information about the geocontents is offered in a specific format specified by the respective service. To get such an API endpoint for RADAR contents, simply send a short note to the administrator of the corresponding RADAR instance. 5 The systems are freely available. The choice of services also guarantees the availability of any information created within RADAR for all common mobile operating systems: Android, Bada, Blackberry, iphone, Nokia, Symbian, Windows Mobile.

26 RADAR System Architecture 4 RADAR has been developed according to Web2.0 design paradigms and realizes an open social media system for contributing, managing, and sharing arbitrary geocontents from different sources such as the social and semantic web and digital libraries. The RADAR infrastructure consists of the following main components: The RADAR Web Interface is an intuitive, web based GUI for comfortable contribution, sharing, and management of arbitrary geocontents. It is based on DFKI's ALOE6 infrastructure and offers a plenitude of social media features. The RADAR Adapters allow pushing RADAR geocontents to existing augmented reality browsers such as Layar 7 and Wikitude8. At least one of the browsers supported by RADAR is available for any common phone type (this includes Android, Bada, Blackberry, Nokia, Symbian, and Windows Mobile). Thus, basically any owner of a smartphone can access the data created within the system. The RADAR Web Service realizes a rich Web Service API and thus allows integrating RADAR contents and functionalities in different contexts and applications