Project No.: 5003-045360 01.04.96 - 31.12.99

Project leader: Prof. Peter Stucki, Institut für Informatik, University of Zurich
e-mail: stucki@ifi.unizh.ch

Name of project: A virtual reality framework for the design, optimization and management of a mobile telematics infrastructure

Partners:
Prof. Peter Widmayer, Institut für Theoretische Informatik, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology at Zurich (ETHZ)
Helmut Köchler, Swissphone Telecommunications, Samstagern

Funding: Sfr 638,122.-

Summary:
Virtual reality is an enabling technology capable of overcoming the typical failings of current information systems (e.g. limited space for information presentation or a limited information search capacity). The installation of interactive, virtual environments on powerful computer system platforms offers the potential for more intuitive simulations and interpretations of problem areas as such science, engineering, manufacturing and marketing. Virtual reality and interactive 3D simulation enable users to immerse themselves in a virtual 3D environment and interact with photorealistic three-dimensional objects.

With the liberalization of the telecom market and the growth of competition in this sector, there is an increasingly urgent need for suitable models for network design and management tools. Against this backdrop, the present project seeks to design and implement a prototype network management system for mobile telecommunications. An object-oriented database management system is used to manage the physical, technical, logistical and administrative information. It is hoped that 3D interaction and presentation will bring a better understanding of spatial information and quicker problem-solving. In concrete terms, IT infrastructure is being used to optimize the configuration of mobile radio telephony base stations. Finally, the project should also result in shorter resource and service management cycles.

In phase one, the terrain was modelled by a triangulated irregular network and a very simple model of wave propagation (line-of-sight approach) was assumed. To achieve a corresponding computational efficiency, a modified hidden surface removal algorithm was developed in which the viewpoint is the radiation point. The next step is to continue research on the following two paths:

• acquisition of more precise data to describe the terrain, implementation of an LOD (level of detail) study, systematic use of the CGAL (computational geometry algorithm library), step-by-step refinement of the wave propagation model, development of procedures for automatic antenna placement;
• visualization and management of scientific data, taking into consideration distributed database functionality, functional streamlining, acoustic sounds and nonverbal communication.

Cooperation:
The project is split between the two academic partners as follows: the University of Zurich multimedia laboratory is responsible for the virtual reality user interface and the database link, while the ETHZ theoretical mathematics unit is concentrating on spatial data structures, wave propagation algorithms and level-of-detail aspects. The entire project is being monitored by the industrial partner Swissphone, who will test the developed prototype with relevant applications.