The Portfolio
MoMEx: Mobile Multimedia-Augmented Exhibition System
The MoMEx system enables for a customized multimedia-augmented presentation of exhibited objects on different
mobile devices like notebooks, tablet PCs, pocket PCs, or smart phones. Thereby, the presented content is supplied
to the system once in best quality. The system itself then adapts the supplied content either in advance (local
guide) or dynamically at run-time (networked guide) to the needs of the consumer as well as the capabilities of
the consumer's terminal.
Mobile Exhibition Guide
The Mobile Exhibition Guide is the result of the pilot project
MultiMundus.
Although the contents are currently tailored to some exhibited objects in Minimundus Klagenfurt, the system enables
for a multimedia-augmented presentation of object in arbitrary closed and open-air showrooms. In its first stage of
expansion, the guide offers an interactive navigation through the exhibition area by a map and interactive presentations
of selected exhibited objects on rentable (i.e. pre-configured) mobile devices. The following pictures give a rough
impression about the system on the example of the open-air museum
Minimundus.
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| Equipment (PDA in rugged case with head phones) |
Usage of the guide in the lab |
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| Menu of the Space Shuttle presentation |
Video presentation of the Space Shuttle |
The Mobile Exhibition Guide is available in two variations: a completely local
and a networked version.
Targets of Audience:
| Exhibitors: |
- museums and exhibitions
- regions (i.e. Kärnten Power Card)
- thematic roads
- excavations
|
| Event Managers: |
- sport events (Football, Beach volley ball, Ironman)
- Lange Nacht der Museen
|
Local Guide
The local exhibition guide works without wireless network. The presented content of exhibited objects is
adapted in advance to the capabilities of the consumer's device and provided on a storage card.
The local guide makes mainly sense in situations, when the environmental conditions do not allow a meaningful
usage of a wireless network (e.g. in caves), or when the consumer's device is not equipped with a WLAN adapter.
In contrary to the networked guide, the local guide does not enable for querying real-time statistics about
the usage of the guide in the exhibition area.
Networked Guide
The networked guide connects to a central server through a wireless network. In this scenario, the
server adapts the presented contents to the exhibited objects dynamically to the capabilities of the
consumer's device (screen, computing power) and to the prefereces of the consumer (language, age, interests).
The main advantages of the networked guide are the possibility to dynamically show real-time data from
live-servers (e.g. advertisment), and to query real-time statistics about usage of the system. The latter
enables the operator to dynamically adapt presentations according to statistical results.
Content Management System
The Content Managemet System is a web-based application that facilitates the management of profiles and object
presentations on the server. This enables the presentation designer to upload various media contents (texts, images,
videos, audios) to the server and to assign this contents to objects. The composition of the contents to an
object presentation is possible with an integrated presentation editor.
The main advantage of the CMS lies in the single provision of media contents in an optimal resolution and quality.
If e.g. the maximum supported screen resolution of a consumer device is 640x480 pixels, the video shall be provided
in VGA resolution. When the server needs to serve a consumer device with a much smaller resolution, then it
automatically adapts the video to a size proper for the requesting device. The same holds for all other kinds of
visual content like texts and images, of course.
Server Module for Real-time Statistics
The server module for real-time statistics is an optional component for the networked variant of the mobile
exhibition guide. The module enables for an analysis of session-related information about the usage of a
mobile exhibition guide, like consumed objects, visiting path in the area, or the selected profile. Due to
the real-time characteristic of this module, the system can take care about the needs and interests of the
consumer and offer her/him appropriate adapted content, dynamically.
The statistics module is also available for the local and rentable variant of the mobile guide. However,
real-time queries and analysis are not possible with this variant. Instead, the session-related data and
the statistical results are available to the operator, when the consumer returns the guide at the end of the visit.
AdViSTec: Adaptive Video Streaming Technology
The adaptive video streaming technology enables for a server-side, dynamic adaptation of video content to
capabilities of consumer devices (resolution, color depth, computing power) as well as to the instantaneous
load of the used transmission network. AdViSTec is based on the open source video toolkit
ViTooKi, which is the primary scientific result
of the ADMITS project (see menu item
Mission).
In contrary to the MoMEx system, AdViSTec is not directly targeted to end consumers. Moreover, it is a technique
which can be integrated in server and proxy systems to improve the supply of end consumers. For example, AdViSTec
is also part of the MoMEx server to dynamically adapt audiovisual contents.
Targets of Audience:
| Network operators: |
- mobile networks
- home networks
- P2P networks
- content distribution networks
|
Streaming-Server
The AdViSTec streaming server module offers a dynamic adaptation of standard compliant video contents (MPEG-1,
MPEG-2, and MPEG-4) to consumer device and network capabilities, as well as a standard compliant streaming of
these contents using RTSP/RTP. Thereby, the consumer device capabilities may be communicated by the application
as MPEG-21 Digital Item Adaptation descriptors. The network load is monitored and controlled by the server.
Proxy-Server
The AdViSTec proxy server module provides the same functions as the streaming server, but is also able to communicate
with third-party streaming servers. Moreover, it is also able to transcode contents from these servers and to store
the adapted contents for improved performance in future request handlings.
