Generating Customizable Guided Tours For Networked Virtual Environments

Abstract

Interactive 3D graphics is becoming a popular way of publishing information on the Internet. However, most networked VR systems today are still not very intuitive to use, especially for a novice user equipped with a regular PC and a 2D mouse. One way to improve such systems is by providing the user with some guidance during the navigation of a virtual environment. In this paper, we present a software system capable of generating customizable guided tours for a networked virtual environment. The implemented system incorporates motion planning algorithms in Robotics into the latest development of network-based virtual reality standards such as VRML 2.0. A user can simply click on the locations they wish to visit and select a visiting sequence, and the system will automatically generate a tour plan and guide the user walk through the desired locations. Experimental results are presented using a 3D model of our departmental building. We expect the result of this research to be used as new ...