THE LEONARDO WEBD PROJECT: AN EXAMPLE OF THE WEB3D TECHNOLOGY APPLICATIONS FOR DISTANCE TRAINING AND LEARNING

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1 THE LEONARDO WEBD PROJECT: AN EXAMPLE OF THE WEB3D TECHNOLOGY APPLICATIONS FOR DISTANCE TRAINING AND LEARNING Stefano Tornincasa (1), Emilio Chirone (2) (1) Politecnico di Torino, Italy Dipartimento di Sistemi di Produzione (2) Universidad di Brescia, Italy Dipartimento Ingegneria meccanica ABSTRACT Design engineering require appropriate underpinning knowledge and the development of skills and competences through laboratory and workshop practice; moreover, the need of a continuous vocational training can t be completely satisfied for those people who can t benefit of the traditional learning infrastructures in the European community. Therefore it is necessary to supply this unsatisfied demand of qualifying lifelong learning and training by the means of new tools and technologies. In order to overcome this difficulty, the WEBD project (Web Based learning/training Biomedical and Design Engineering) is proposing to use advanced distance learning technologies to provide professional education for biomedical and design engineers. Web3D is ideal for distance education for the simple reason that it allows students to study realistic images of phenomena and objects and then ask questions to the instructor on line. The primary beneficiaries of the WEBD program, the biomedical and design technicians throughout Europe, will be trained to understand and use various tools, equipment and products by simulations with virtual reality-based multimedia, and without the often prohibitive cost of expensive machines and materials. The combination of multimedia and virtual reality that characterize the WEBD program will ultimately provide a user-friendly interface to encourage distance learning and foster new and innovative approaches to learning and professional training. This paper, exploring the past, present and future of computer graphics and WEB development, presents an overview to the concepts of Web3D focusing of its educational applications. Key words: Distance learning, Web3D, E-learning, VRML 1 Introduction Developments in the Internet, particularly the World Wide Web, and in multimedia technologies are resulting in new approaches to designing and developing teaching and learning in higher education. Design engineering is field that is currently experiencing shortages of professionally trained staff and which have significant existing future employment prospects. Design engineering require appropriate underpinning knowledge and the development of skills and competences through laboratory and workshop practice. Moreover, the need of a continuous vocational training can t be completely satisfied for those people who are

2 already at a disadvantage when it comes to competing in the labour market: young people, the elderly, the disabled and can t benefit of the traditional learning infrastructures in the European community. Therefore it is necessary to supply this unsatisfied demand of qualifying lifelong learning and training by the means of new tools and technologies and, in this context, the distance education seems to be considered as one of the most adequate and attractive means to face these changes. In this context, the paper proposes a new method for distance learning and training for high skill professional profiles using interactive Web3D technologies. The WEBD project (Web Based learning/training Biomedical and Design Engineering) is proposing to use advanced distance learning technologies to provide professional education for biomedical and design engineers using interactive 3D graphic and virtual reality tools. The educational benefits that can be expected are: 1) Simulation of 3D complex systems, for the ability of the Web3d technologies to observe system operation from a number of perspectives aided by high quality visualisation and interaction. 2) High levels of interactivity. Most people learn faster by doing and the Web3d system provides much greater levels of interactivity than other computer based systems. 3) Anywhere, anytime, anyone. The growth of the World Wide Web, highcapacity corporate networks, and high-speed desktop computers will make learning available to people 24 hours a day, seven days a week around the globe. This will enable businesses to distribute training and critical information to multiple locations easily and conveniently. Employees can then access training when it is convenient for them, at home or in the office. 2 The evolution of Web technologies Some researchers in the 1980s focused on using the network to share ideas and distribute software, models, and even the occasional image. This new ability to communicate instantly would break down the barriers surrounding academic and other researchers; the new capabilities were based on the development of , File Transfer Protocol (FTP), and Usenet (known as newsgroups or netnews). In the 1982 the term 'Internet' is used for the first time, and Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) becomes the universal language of the Internet. TCP, or "Transmission Control Protocol," converts messages into streams of packets at the source, then reassembles them back into messages at the destination. IP, or "Internet Protocol," handles the addressing, seeing to it that packets are routed across multiple nodes and even across multiple networks with multiple standards. In the early and mid 1980's the Internet and inter-networking were dominated by the technical and research community. It was a special-purpose information preserved for the support of communication and inquiry. Starting in the late 1980's and continuing into the early 1990's the Internet experienced explosive growth. For example, in 1987 the number of Internet hosts exceeded 10,000, in 1989 the number of hosts exceeded 100,000, and in 1992 there were over a 1,000,000 Internet hosts. Much of this growth did not come from more technologists and researchers joining the network but from non-traditional entrants to the network community. In particular, students and teachers were introduced to , news groups, listservs, ftp, and gopher, thus causing a 2

3 significant part of the network's growth. In the 1990s we are entering the network age where collaboration is the key (fig.1). FTP TCP/IP Workstation PHIGS & PEX libraries C programming language Solids modeling capabilities Raster terminal and minicomputer CORE Graphics Fortran Interchange Primitive & surfaces Format (GIF) WWW browser Mosaic 3D accelerated workstation OpenGL, Acis, Parasolid Kernel object-oriented programming C++ texture mapping, HTML Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG) Fig. 1. The evolution of the 3D graphic Network computing Java, Java 3D Web3D, internet 2 Hardware independence VRML X3D Moving Picture Coding Experts Group (MPEG1, MPEG2, MPEG4) Streaming technologies Everyone wants to share information across the network; hyperlinking was accomplished by embedding the means to access remote sites within the text of a page using Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), the source code for the Web. HTML allowed users to make connections between Internet sites: all a user had to do was click on the link to be transferred across the network to the specified site. Web browserssoftware reads the HTML source code and converts it into readable text. But there weren't many Web sites at first and, besides, they-and the first browsers-were textbased, and therefore were neither graphical nor exciting. But in 1993 was released Mosaic, a free, easy-to-use, graphical browser based on X-Windows. When the first graphics-based Web browser becomes available, traffic on the Internet expands at a 341,634% annual growth rate. In 1994, at the First International Conference on the Web was held in Geneva, the writer and educator Mark Pesce introduced the notion of virtual reality (VR) - computer graphics "worlds" that resided in "cyberspace"- to the nascent Web community. VRML, the Virtual Reality Markup, or Modeling, Language, was created in 1994 to put virtual worlds on the Internet. It is the 3D version of HTML, which is used to create Web pages. Within a week, over a thousand people signed up for the list contributed to the discussion about what VRML should be, and how it should be implemented. In the next months, the VRML community selected the Open Inventor ASCII File Format from Silicon Graphics, Inc. as the basis of VRML. The Inventor File Format supports complete descriptions of 3D scenes with geometry, lighting, materials, 3D user interface 3

4 widgets, and viewers. It had all of the features that developers needed to create highly interactive 3D applications, as well as an existing tools base with a wide installed presence. The final result was the first release of virtual reality language, called VRML 1.0. In 1995 a team of programmers at Sun Microsystems release an Internet programming language called Java, which radically alters the way applications and information can be retrieved, displayed, and used over the Internet. In 1996 the WWW browser war begins, fought primarily between Netscape and Internet Explorer, has rushed in a new age in software development, whereby new releases are made quarterly with the help of Internet users eager to test upcoming (beta) versions. 2.1 The failure of the VRML language Virtual Reality Modelling Language (VRML) is a description language for threedimensional objects, widely accepted as a 3D standard for transmission of 3D objects and environments over the World Wide Web. VRML allows graphic designers to create objects that live in a 3D space, and to add simple behaviours to those objects. On August 4,1996, the official VRML 2.0 specification was released at Siggraph 96 in New Orleans, and initiated the formation of the VRML Consortium (tab. I). Standard objects (cube, sphere, cone, cylinder, text) Arbitrary objects (surfaces, linesets, pointsets) Ability to fly through, walk through, examine scenes Lights, Cameras (viewpoints), Textures on objects Clickable links Define and reuse objects VRML 97: All VRML 1.0 features plus: Animated objects Switches and Sensors Scripts (Java or JavaScript) for behaviours Interpolators (colour, position, orientation, etc.) Extrusions Background colours and textures Sound (.wav and MIDI) Animated textures Event routing VRML 1.0 VRML 97 Tab. I. VRML 1.0 and VRML 97 specifications Today, VRML97 is the informal name of the International Standard (ISO/IEC :1997). It is almost identical to VRML 2.0, but with many editorial improvements to the document and a few minor functional differences (VRML97 is also the name of the VRML Technical Symposium that took place in February 1997 in Monterey, CA.). The VRML97 International Standard was developed by the Joint Technical Committee 1 (JTC 1) of ISO and IEC in partnership with the VRML Consortium. VRML is referred to as a "scene description language," because it tells a VRML viewer, or browser, how to construct a 3D environment. Plugins use the facilities provided by many web browsers to display VRML worlds in your web browser. Actually the most used browser VRML are: Blaxxun Contact (Blaxxun Inc.). Cosmo Player (Cosmo Software, Computer Associates). Cortona (Parallel Graphics). VRML language had however some problems that have limited a very commercial success. For example, every browser plugin produces very different results and very heavy plugin (3MB). 4

Fig. 2. This examples shows how use the levers and joystick to control the excavator, tower crane, and dumptruck. 2.2 The evolution the VRML: X3D EXtensible 3D (X3D) is the next-generation open standard for 3D on the web.

5 Fig. 2. This examples shows how use the levers and joystick to control the excavator, tower crane, and dumptruck. 2.2 The evolution the VRML: X3D EXtensible 3D (X3D) is the next-generation open standard for 3D on the web. It is an extensible standard that can easily be supported by content creation tools, proprietary browsers, and other 3D applications, both for importing and exporting. It replaces VRML, but also provides compatibility with existing VRML content and browsers. X3D is a software system for defining interactive, animated 3D graphics integrated with other rich media such as hypertext, audio and video. Starting from VRML, in order to correct the problem of limited diffusion of VRML language X3D is a software standard for defining web- and broadcast-based 3D content integrated with multimedia. X3D is intended for use on a variety of hardware devices and in a broad range of applications. X3D improves upon VRML with new features, additional data encoding formats, stricter conformance, and a componentized architecture that allows for a modular approach to supporting the standard. Today X3D is still under development and supporting a variety of encoding formats, including the extensible Markup Language (XML). 2.3 Waiting the X3D standard.. The VRML failure, however has had the opposite effect to constrain content creators, technical wizards, and entrepreneurs inventing new ways to give people real-time, three-dimensional, interactive computer graphics on the Web. These graphics were not virtual worlds separate from the rest of the Web, but objects and environments that could be viewed and manipulated via Web 3D players from within standard browsers. 5

6 This later recasting of the VRML concept from that of creating separate virtual worlds to integrating 3D into the Web has not dampened the enthusiasm of companies creating 3D players, nor has it stopped content creators from adopting the commercial solutions. Web 3D players work something like game engines: they put 3D objects or scenes onto people's screens, render the objects in real time, and manage interactions. Typically, the players live on a Web 3D company's server and are accessed through browser plug-ins that must be downloaded and installed. Now Web3D is a term meant to encompass all of the many specific technologies for displaying and representing 3D graphics on Web pages. Web3D as a term evolved somewhat from VRML, the Virtual Reality Modeling Language, as a way of broadening the scope of technologies used for 3D on the Web. 3 WEB3D technologies comparison In this section some Web3D technologies are presented. Some Web3D technologies don't require any browser plug-ins. All they require is a Java enabled browser DAnywhere 3DAnywhere is written entirely in Java, so it will run on any Java-enabled system. This includes systems such as Microsoft Windows, Apple MacOS, Sun Solaris, and Linux. Moreover, viewers are not limited to using a specific browser, so anybody using Microsoft Internet Explorer, Netscape Navigator, or any other Java enabled browser can view web sites using 3DAnywhere. This means that no platform- or browser-specific Plug-Ins is required. Almost all elements in a 3DAnywhere scene are dynamic. What this means is that the author can enable the user to perform all sorts of operations in the applet without having to reload it. Such operations might include rotating, zooming, changing points of view, playing with colours and textures, even loading a whole new 3D scene. The interactive 3DAnywhere presentations can be controlled through an incredible amount of parameters and Java Script API functions. This enables advanced authors to create a totally customisable and user responsive 3D look and feel to their web site. 3.2 Cult3D Cult3D is a suite of software applications and file formats for the preparation, distribution and presentation of realistic, interactive 3D objects. Cult3D objects based on 3D models are imported from mainstream content creation tools such as 3DS Max or Maya and they may embed advanced interaction and behaviour implemented in Java. Cult3D objects are embedded in html pages and compressed in file size to suit all modem connections. Software-based rendering works on all major platforms with a high speed and visually realistic rendering. 3.3 Viewpoint Viewpoint Experience Technology (VET) is Viewpoint Corporation s unique technology that streams 3D and rich media content (media atoms) over the Internet via the Viewpoint Media Player, a Web browser plug-in. Media atoms are any form of media that can be used in a VET scene. VET uses XML (Extended Mark-up Language) to create an.mtx file that is the command center of a Viewpoint scene. Using XML commands in this guide, developers can manipulate and animate elements of a VET scene. It is important to understand that Viewpoint does not use XML in the traditional 6

7 manner, as a way to describe structured data in a web page. Instead, Viewpoint uses XML s structure, which is well suited to describing 3D and rich media scenes, as a language to describe a scene to the Viewpoint Media Player and to orchestrate hierarchical relationships between media atoms. Viewpoint Media Files - mts and.mtx formats - can be exported directly from many 3D modelling applications or published from the Viewpoint Scene Builder, a utility designed to assemble and edit the content of a Viewpoint scene. 3.4 Spinfire SpinFire Publisher is a desktop application used to transform CAD files from any major system into.3d files. SpinFire Engine is a Software Development Kit (SDK), which uses COM (Component Object Model) to allow customers to integrate.3d publishing features into a back-end publishing system. The SpinFire Viewer Features are: - Rotate, pan, and zoom to quickly locate and visualize design features. - View, measure, and mark-up designs for analysis and collaboration (fig. 2). - Real-time cross-sectioning revealing critical design details normally hidden from view. - Planning views (front, back, top, bottom, left, right) to accurately visualize design profiles. Fig. 2. View, measure, and mark-up designs with Spinfire module 4 Web3D as an educational tool: the Leonardo project WEBD Web3D techniques will have a major influence on the educational process in the future with the range of potential applications being potentially large. Web3D has the potential to revolutionise education, particularly the higher education establishments. Multimedia based systems are probably better suited for primary and secondary education 7

since subjects at this level are based on teaching broad principles or general concepts. At the higher education level the need is for more in depth understanding of complex subjects.

8 since subjects at this level are based on teaching broad principles or general concepts. At the higher education level the need is for more in depth understanding of complex subjects. These subjects are often multi-disciplinary in nature with a subtle blend of theoretical and practical knowledge. Rather than simply replacing conventional teaching methods Web3D could be used to provide access to sophisticated laboratory facilities without the high costs normally associated with the up keep of these facilities. With the advances in electronic technology over the past 20 years, the standard training format of having an individual lecture to an audience has been supplemented and, in some cases, replaced by the rapid development and implementation of new training methods. Until recently, a significant drawback to distance training was the lack of direct interaction between the instructor and the students. The Web3D distance training permits users to experience and interact with a life-like model or environment, in safety and at convenient times, while providing a degree of control over the simulation that is usually not possible in the real-life situation. For example, in science, visualising phenomena such as the movement of astronomical bodies may help students learn. In the design engineering modules the advantage of the virtual reality tools is that it enables the student to interact with the simulation to conceptualize three dimensional functional relations that are not apparent from a less dynamic representation, and to visualize 3D models that are difficult to understand in other ways (fig. 3). Other conceivable areas where Web3D can be applied are to train operators of various kinds of equipment, where initial training in a virtual environment can avoid the expense, danger, and problems of monitoring and control associated with training in the real life situation. Fig. 3. The visualization of a 3D assembly to conceptualise the functional relations. 8

9 Fig. 4. The user can explode the assembly, hide and show a part, interactively, by using Internet explorer Web browser Fig. 5. The WEBD mechanical training module enables student to visualize 3D models directly from drawing views making them much easier to understand and learn 9

10 The WEBD 1 project is proposing to use advanced distance learning technologies to provide professional education for biomedical and design engineers. These areas reflect not only the interests of the partners but are the fields in which training, teaching and learning is very limited without real machines or lab practice, then Web3D virtual reality simulation and multimedia is the only reasonable key to this kind of education. The project is concerned with the design of an appropriate and intuitive interface for a range of learning modules; and to develop and pilot test educational material that will support the professional development in the two curriculum areas that have been chosen. The knowledge and know-how of the partners from five countries (Italy, Spain, Belgium, Rumania and Greece) will be integrated during the project such as to obtain the contribute of their special skills with a view to the educational and pedagogical aspects at university level and with an understanding of the need of continuing vocational and life long learning. 5 Conclusion Although photographs, 2D animations, and even videos were becoming increasingly popular on the WEB, the internet is substantially an 2D world without any interaction with the user and the Web has largely remained a flat land created with still or moving 2D images. In order to enable this movement of 3D onto the Web, developers and web designers began inventing new ways to give people real-time, three-dimensional, interactive computer graphics on the Web. Moreover, recently, the rapidly improving capabilities of 3D modeling software and the advent of WEB3D tools for designing web-based virtual environments are making virtual reality a feasible option for educators. The WEBD project will build on this opportunity by using the power of virtual reality to overcome the quality and integration limitations of computer-based training tools, such as to improve the quality of continuing vocational training to existing engineering/technical skills. The biomedical and design technicians and engineering students could be trained to understand and use various tools, equipment and products by simulations and multimedia without cost of expensive machines and materials, with the WEBD system. The inovatory aspect of this project is the combination of multimedia and virtual reality, providing a user friendly interface that will encourage the learning process, innovatory approaches and curriculum development in the two new technological areas above mentioned. References 1) CHIRONE E., TORNINCASA S., Multimedia tools for educational purpose in technical drawing, Proc. of 12th Int. Conf. on Engineering Design, ICED99, Monaco, ) CHIRONE E., TORNINCASA S., Applicazione di sistemi multimediali nell insegnamento del disegno tecnico, Proc. of the 11th ADM conference, Palermo, ) TORNINCASA S., Web3D Technology applications for distance training and learning: the Leonardo project WEBD. Proc. Of the Int. 12th ADM conference, Rimini,

Topics VRML. The basic idea. What is VRML? History of VRML 97 What is in it X3D Ruth Aylett

Topics VRML. The basic idea. What is VRML? History of VRML 97 What is in it X3D Ruth Aylett Topics VRML History of VRML 97 What is in it X3D Ruth Aylett What is VRML? The basic idea VR modelling language NOT a programming language! Virtual Reality Markup Language Open standard (1997) for Internet