@

multimedia @ VU

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research

research 06 / research 07

projects

workshops (organized)

program committees

Over the years, I have initiated new research that may, in retrospect, be characterized as research in intelligent multimedia. My group consisted of Ph.D. students, a post-doc and a scientific programmer, as well as (occasionally) students.

From 1994-2001, our research efforts have focussed on developing models and software architectures for multimedia and hypermedia applications. For describing the research we make a distinction between three (related) sub-projects, respectively structured hypermedia, interactive visualisation, and intelligent multimedia.

structured hypermedia


principal researcher: J. van Ossenbruggen
promotion: 10/4/2001
thesis: Structured hypermedia -- a matter of style
supervision: dr. A. Eliëns, prof. dr. J.C. van Vliet
collaboration(s): dr. L .Hardman and dr L. Rutledge (CWI)
status: finished

project description

The project started with the construction of a software framework for developing web-based hypermedia applications, the hush library. A number of prototype multimedia applications were built, exploring the extension of web-based hypertext with for example music and video. In cooperation with members of the CWI Multimedia Group, work was done on developing models for hypermedia applications. This cooperation resulted in the formalization of the Amsterdam Hypermedia Model, an extension of the Dexter Hypertext Reference Model.

selected publications

HUSH
A. Eliëns,, Hush -- a C++ API for Tcl/Tk,, The X Resource, Issue 14, April 1995, pp. 111-155
Time
J. van Ossenbruggen en A. Eliëns,, Music in Time-based Hypermedia,, Proc. European Conference on Hypermedia Technology 1994, pp. 224-227
Music
J.R. van Ossenbruggen and A. Eliëns, Bringing music to the Web, Proc. of the Fourth International World Wide Web Conference -- The Web Revolution, December 1995. World Wide Web Journal, O'Reilly and Associates, Inc., pp. 309-314
Animate
Anton Eliëns, Jacco van Ossenbruggen, and Bastiaan Schönhage, Animating the Web --- An SGML-based Approach, In: The Internet in 3D --- Information, Images and Interaction Academic Press, 1997 pp. 75-96
Jamming
Anton Eliëns, Martijn van Welie, Jacco van Ossenbruggen, and Bastiaan Schönhage, Jamming (on) the Web, Proceedings of the 6th International World Wide Web Conference --- Everone, Everything Connected, O'Reilly and Associates, Inc., April 1997, pp. 419--426
Style
Jacco van Ossenbruggen, Lynda Hardman, Lloyd Rutledge, and Anton Eliëns, Style Sheet Support for Hypermedia Documents, Hypertext'97 --- The Eighth ACM Conference on Hypertext ACM Press, 1997, pp 2 16-217
Markup
J. van Ossenbruggen, A. Eliëns, L. Rutledge and L. Hardman, Requirements for Multimedia Markup and Style Sheets on the World Wide Web, Proceedings of the Seventh International World Wide Web Conference (WWW7), in Computer Networks and ISDN Systems, volume 30,Elsevier Science B.V., April 1998, pp 694-696

interactive visualisation


project funding: USF SINS
principal researcher: S.P.C. Schönhage
promotion: 8/5/2001
thesis: Diva: Architectural Perspectives on Information Visualization
supervision: dr. A. Eliëns, prof. dr. J.C. van Vliet
collaboration(s): ASZ Research and Development
status: finished

project description

The theme of the subproject concerned the use of animations and visualisation to display business process simulation results in a hypermedia context. During the project the focus shifted towards visualisation, in particular business visualisation. Also, explorations were done to investigate interactive visualisation in 3D. In Schönhage's thesis several case studies can be found illustrating the use of visualisation to support business processes and in particular decision making processes.

selected publications

Simulate
A. Eliëns, F. Niessink, S.P.C. Schönhage, J.R. Vosse, P. Nash, Support for BPR -- simulation, hypermedia and the Web, Proceedings Euromedia'96, Euromedia, London 1996
DIVA
B. Schönhage, A. Eliëns, Multi-user visualization: a CORBA/Web-based approach, Int. Conf. on Digital Convergence: the future of the Internet and WWW, British Computer Society, Bradford, UK, 20-23 april 1998, 9 pgs
Users
B. Schönhage, P.P. Bakker, A. Eliëns, So many users, so many perspectives, IFIP 12.2 Working Conference on Designing Effective abd Uasable Multimedia Systems, Fraunhofer Institute. Stuttgart Germany, Sept. 8-10, 1998, Kluwer Academic, pp. 159-172
VRML
B. Schönhage and A. Eliëns, Dynamic and Mobile VRML Gadgets, In Proc. VRML99, 23 - 26 February 1999, Paderborn, Germany
Gadgets
S.P.C. Schönhage, A. van Ballegooij, A. Eliëns, 3D Gadgets for Business Process Visualization: a case study, VRML/Web 3D - 2000, Monterey CA, Febr 2000
BizViz
Bastiaan Schönhage and Anton Eliëns, Management through Vision: a case study towards requirements of BizViz, International Conference on Information Visualization 2000 (IV 2000) London, England 19-21 July, 2000

intelligent multimedia


principal researchers: dr. A.Eliëns, dr. Z. Huang
programmer: drs. C. Visser
funding: NWO WASP (612-60-003), NWO RIF (612-61-607)
cooperation(s): drs. A. van Ballegooij (CWI), dr. L. Rutledge (CWI), prof. dr. P. de Bra (TUE/CWI), dr. Z. Ruttkay (CWI)
status: ongoing

project description

We are developing a high-level platform for 3D virtual environments based on agent-technology, using the languages DLP, Java, and VRML. This work is done in the context of the NWO WASP and RIF projects. Our goal is to study aspects of the deployment and architecture of virtual environments as an interface to multimedia information systems. As demonstrators we have developed a distributed soccer-game prototype with intelligent autonomous avatar-embodied agents as players.

research directions

The intelligent multimedia research theme may be regarded as continuing the subprojects described before. In addition it combines research wrt. intelligent agents and virtual worlds, as defined for respectively the WASP and RIF projects. Currently, our efforts are directed towards realizing the technology needed for developing intelligent multimedia applications. This technology is intended to be used, among others, for student projects. In particular, we aim for developing demonstrators in the area of persuasive technology, and thus explore design methods and patterns for the realization of emotionally charged virtual worlds. This work is being done in cooperation with dr. C. Dormann and dr. Z. Ruttkay from CWI.

selected publications

DLPart
A. Eliëns, Distributed Logic Programming for Artificial Intelligence, AI Communications Vol. 4 No. 1, 1991, pp. 11-21
Taxonomy
Zhisheng Huang, Anton Eliëns, Alex van Ballegooij, Paul De Bra, A Taxonomy of Web Agents, IEEE Proceedings of the First International Workshop on Web Agent Systems and Applications (WASA '2000), 2000.
VirtualContext
Lloyd Rutledge, Alex van Ballegooij and Anton Eliëns, Virtual Context - relating paintings to their subject, Culture Track of WWW9 in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, Tuesday, May 16th, 2000
Language
Cees Visser, Anton Eliëns, A High-Level Symbolic Language for Distributed Web Programming, Internet Computing 2000, June 26-29, Las Vegas
NBQ
A. van Ballegooij and A. Eliëns, Navigation by Query in Virtual Worlds, Web3D 2001 Conference, Paderborn, Germany, 19-22 Feb 2001
Architecture
Zhisheng Huang, Anton Eliëns, and Paul De Bra, An Architecture for Web Agents, Proceedings of the Conference EUROMEDIA 2001, 2001.
Avatars
Zhisheng Huang, Anton Eliëns, and Cees Visser, Programmability of Intelligent Agent Avatars, Proceedings of the Agent'01 Workshop on Embodied Agents, June 2001, Montreal, Canada
Community
Zhisheng Huang, Anton Eliëns, and Cees Visser, 3D Agent-based Virtual Communities, Proc. Web3D 2002 Conference, Tempe Arizona

Additional research

digital dossier(s)


principal researcher(s): dr. A.Eliëns
students: Y. Wang, C. van Riel
additional research: dr. J.F. Hoorn, H. van Vugt
cooperation(s): T. Scholte, Y. Hummelen (ICN), G. Weijers (Montevideo)
status: ongoing

project description

The digital dossier(s) resulted from the Multimedia Casus, in cooperation with the Instituut Collectie Nederland and the Institute for Time-based Arts. Digital dossier(s) are explored as a means to capture the information connected to (a collection of) artworks in an immersive way, as an alternative to topical (flat) websites or information systems, by means of a suitable metaphor, such as a virtual musuem, an artist atelier, or a concept map in 3D space. In the project, we explored the use of agent technology as well as technology that is usually applied for the development of games or 3D infotainment.

selected publications

AWC
Hoorn J., Eliëns A., Huang Z., van Vugt H.C., Konijn E.A., Visser C.T., Agents with character: Evaluation of empathic agents in digital dossiers, Emphatic Agents, AAMAS 2004 New York 19 July - 23 July, 2004
ECA
Anton Eliëns and Zhisheng Huang and Johan F. Hoorn and Cees T. Visser, ECA Perspectives - Requirements, Applications, Technology, In: Zsofia Ruttkay and Elisabeth Andr{\'e} and W. Lewis Johnson and Catherine Pelachaud (eds), Evaluating Embodied Conversational Agents, Dagstuhl Seminar Proceedings (04121), 2006
Navigate
Eliëns A., van Riel C., Wang Y., Navigating media-rich information spaces using concept graphs -- the abramovic dossier , In Proc. InSciT 2006, V.P. Guerrero-Bota ed. Open Institute of Knowledge, Merida, Spain, pp. 186-190
Present
Wang Y., Eliëns A., van Riel C., Content-oriented presentation and personalized interface of cultural heritage in digital dossiers, In Proc. InSciT 2006, V.P. Guerrero-Bota ed. Open Institute of Knowledge, Merida, Spain, pp. 125-129
Guide
van Riel C., Eliëns A., Wang Y., Exploration and guidance in media-rich information spaces: the implementation and realization of guided tours in digital dossiers, In Proc. InSciT 2006, V.P. Guerrero-Bota ed. Open Institute of Knowledge, Merida, Spain, pp. 143-147
ConceptMaps
van Riel C., Wang Y. & Eliëns A. , Concept map as visual interface in 3D Digital Dossiers: implementation and realization of nthe Music Dossier, In Proc. CMC2006, A,J, Canas and J.D. Novak eds., University of Costa Rica, pp. 104-111
WebDossier
Eliëns A., Wang Y. van Riel C. and Scholte T. (2007), 3D Dossier -- a new way of presenting cultural heritage on the Web, Web3D Symposium, 15-18 april, Perugia, Italy
IPEFIC
Van Vugt, H. C., Konijn, E. A., Hoorn, J. F., Keur, I., & Eliëns, A.,, Realism is not all! User Engagement with Task-Related Interface Characters, Interacting with Computers, 2006

game technology for immersive (serious) applications


principal researcher(s): dr. A.Eliëns
students: S.V. Bhikharie
cooperation(s): Z. Obrenovic (CWI), D. Vyas (VU)
status: ongoing

project description

Many applications, such as virtual reality theatre, or games in an educations context, require an approach that uses immersion as a way to involve the user in a more compelling way. To achieve such a high level of user involvement, we explore the use of state-of-the-art game technology for developing such applications. Related research issues encompass, the use of operating system level multimedia technology (such as DirectX), the architure and extensibility of commercial game engines (such as the Half Life 2 Source SDK), and the use of communcation facilities to allow multimodal interaction (such as the AMICO toolkit).

selected publications

VULife
Eliëns A., S.V. Bhikharie , game @ VU -- developing a masterclass for high-school students using the Half-life 2 SDK , In Proc. GAME'ON-NA 2006, P. McDowell ed., Eurosis-ETI, pp. 49-53, Sept 19-21, Monterey, USA
Odyssee
Eliëns A. , Odyssee -- explorations in mixed reality theatre, In Proc. GAME'ON-NA 2006, P. McDowell ed., Eurosis-ETI, pp. 62-64, Sept 19-21, Monterey, USA Eliëns A. & Chang T., Let's be serious -- ICT is not a (simple) game, FUBUTEC 07, Eurosis, Delft, April 2007
SL
Eliëns A. Feldberg F., Konijn E., Compter E., VU @ Second Life -- creating a (virtual) community of learners, In Proc. EUROMEDIA 2007, L. Rothkrantz and Ch. van der Mast (eds), Eurosis, pp. 45-52 (best paper award nomination)
PanoramaWeb
Yin S. & Eliëns A., PANORAMA: A Rich VRML Application Platform For Online Gaming , Workshop Web 3D Games, Web3D Symposium 07, Perugia Italy, April 15-18
Shaders
Bouterse M.C. and Eliëns A., Simulating Infinite Curved Spaces using Vortex Shaders, accepted for GAME-ON 07, Nov 20-22, Bologna
Climate
Eliëns A., van de Watering M., Huurdeman H., Bhikharie S.V., Lemmers H., Vellinga P. , Clima Futura @ VU -- communicating (unconvenient) science, accepted for GAME-ON 07, Nov 20-22, Bologna
Mashups
Eliëns A. Feldberg F., Konijn E., Compter E., Mashups in Second Life @ VU, accepted for GAME-ON 07, Nov 20-22, Bologna
Aesthetics
Eliëns A. and Vyas D., Panorama -- explorations in the aesthetics of social awareness, accepted for GAME-ON 07, Nov 20-22, Bologna


(C) Æliens 2014