Hydrosys

User interfaces

The user interfaces are the "face" of HYDROSYS and form the portal to access and use data from the sensors. Apt interfaces have been developed both for handheld computers and mobile phones, taking the end-user requirements into account. Hereby, a range of human factors and ergonomics studies highly affected the research and development.

The user interfaces aid in performing the on-site analyses, supporting the data retrieval from the sensor network. The user interface holds special components that provide sensor placement information, and allow for remote control of cameras that are mounted at different locations provided through a unique multi-camera interface and underlying system. In addition a special module has been developed that connects to a simplified simulation system (sensitivity maps) to perform predictions in the field. Several interfaces are available that make use of a highly optimized user interface component structure to improve performance on platforms with limited computation possibilities such as used by the consortium. Users can perform data selections / searches on data sets from the deployment areas, access simulation results, and change visualization settings.

Results

The creation of the interfaces is grounded in an extensive human factors studies that focused among others on perceptual factors of interaction on small-screen display devices and the usage of multi-camera systems. Among others, we performed a mock-up test to evaluate font sizes, colour schemes, and transparency effects of user interfaces on small screens, and the validation of three different techniques we developed for navigation through multi-camera setups.

Additionally, several new designs of a handheld construction for the ultra-mobile PC (UMPC) with all its sensors were created. Based on the premise of ergonomics and stability for outdoor usage, we came up with three robust prototypes that protect the included sensors (like the camera or orientation sensor) and allows for additional and more ergonomic input, extending the pen and mini-keyboard input methods supported through the UMPC (a Panasonic Toughbook CF-U1). The final encasing is a light yet robust construction that can hold and protect all the sensors in a modular way using a mixture of materials in an innovative way. The encasing represents the current state of the art in high-quality outdoor AR setups and is extremely useful for deployment in any other outdoor AR scenario too.

Finally, the cell phone offers the interesting possibility to connect directly to a custom-developed mobile sensor. This sensor can sense oxygen and temperature levels annd provide direct feedback to the cellphone visualization system.

Publications

Veas, E., Kruijff, E. Handheld Devices for Mobile Augmented Reality. In Proceedings of the 9th ACM International Conference on Mobile and Ubiquitous Multimedia (MUM2010), 2010.

Veas, E., Mulloni, A., Kruijff, E., Regenbrecht, H., Schmalstieg, D. Techniques for View Transition in Multi-Camera Outdoor Environments. In Proceedings of Graphics Interface 2010 (GI2010), 2010.[PDF]

Nurminen, A. 2009. Mobile 3D City Maps, Doctoral Dissertation. Helsinki University of Technology.

Froechlich, P., Baldauf, M., Oulasvirta, A. and Nurminen, A. On the move and wired to the world. Communications of the ACM. (in press)