Spatial personalised information and service provision as well as "lifelong learning" will play an important role in the future. Personal digital assistants (PDAs) can accompany and support people in many areas.

In this context, the project group will focus on the following topics:

• interactive three-dimensional worlds,
• mobile devices,
• location-based services and
• multimedia learning environments

• Wilko Heuten
• Hans-Jürgen Appelrath
• Jörg Baldzer

Completed basic studies with successfully completed intermediate diploma at the beginning of the winter semester 2001/2003.

Minimum results

• Active participation in the analysis, conception and implementation
• Fulfilment of assigned tasks
• Presentation and preparation of seminar presentations
• Preparation of interim and final reports and documentation

Hardware:

• PCs under WindowsNT and Windows 2000 and Windows XP
• Windows CE PDA (Compaq iPAQ)

Software:

• Microsoft Explorer
• JAVA, Java 3D
• JavaDoc, doxgen
• Macromedia Shockwave Studio 8.5
• Macromedia Flash MX
• CVS (version control)
• Rational Rose / Together (UML)
• LaTeX (for documentation)

In the future, personal digital assistants, so-called PDAs, will accompany and support people in many areas. Location-based services are an exciting usage scenario, especially if they become more personalised in future, i.e. tailored to the needs of the user. Simple questions such as 'Where can I find what? Where am I?? only outline a small part of the possibilities of acquiring and distributing location-based information with the help of a PDA. A further and particularly important possibility is the communication of 'location-based' learning content. learning content. Areas of application are, for example, museums, city tours or games with a "location character" (city rallies). (city rallies). One aspect of conveying learning content is the active involvement of the user in the learning process, which can be achieved by a high degree of interaction in combination with a multimedia presentation. Concrete learning content should, in the sense of 'location-based learning', relate to the user's current location and 'enrich' it with digital content. Due to recognition and orientation, it makes sense to display and support the user's current environment and interaction with virtual objects by means of a three-dimensional representation on the PDA. The structure of a client-server architecture must also be taken into account, as the client (PDA) is often not able to provide all the data (3D models, city maps, etc.) due to its limited resources or lack of up-to-dateness. This data must then be transmitted on the fly via standardised interfaces from the relevant servers.

In this context, the project group will focus on the following topics

• interactive three-dimensional worlds,
• mobile devices,
• location-based services and
• multimedia learning environments

and link them together in a suitable way. A range of new technologies must be taken into account:

• Windows CE PDAs
• 3D rendering and interaction (Java 3D, Shockwave 3D, VRML, X3D, etc.)
• 3D modelling
• Client-server architecture
Wireless networks (WLAN, Bluetooth)
• Positioning (GPS, radio cells, etc.)

After working on the above-mentioned topics, the project group should set up a concrete application scenario and realise a suitable (knowledge-mediating) interactive virtual world on a mobile end device.

• www.viwame.de

• Final report
• Interim report