Paper: Interactive product browsing and configuration using remote augmented reality sales services

Just had a paper "Interactive product browsing and configuration using remote augmented reality sales services" accepted into the ICSOC 2012 Workshop : Service Clouds in the Enterprise and Beyond.  QUT ePrints Link is here.

Abstract: Real-time remote sales assistance is an underdeveloped component of online sales services. Solutions involving web page text chat, telephony and video support prove problematic when seeking to remotely guide customers in their sales processes, especially with configurations of physically complex artefacts. Recently, there has been great interest in the application of virtual worlds and augmented reality to create synthetic environments for remote sales of physical artefacts. However, there is a lack of analysis and development of appropriate software services to support these processes. We extend our previous work with the detailed design of configuration context services to support the management of an interactive sales session using augmented reality. We detail the context and configuration services required, presenting a novel data service streaming configuration information to the vendor for business analytics. We expect that a fully implemented configuration management service, based on our design, will improve the remote sales experience for both customers and vendors alike via analysis of the streamed information.

Many thanks to Helen Paik (UNSW) and Alistair Barros (QUT) for their contributions.

Ross

Video: Towards a service framework for remote sales support via augmented reality

Demonstration video of AR Sales Services prototype mockup for USECA 2011 paper can be found here.

Ross

Paper: Towards a service framework for remote sales support via augmented reality

New paper accepted at USECA 2011 has been uploaded here.

Abstract. Real-time sales assistant service is a problematic component of remote delivery of sales support for customers. Solutions involving web pages, telephony and video support prove problematic when seeking to remotely guide customers in their sales processes, especially with transactions revolving around physically complex artefacts. This process involves a number of services that are often complex in nature, ranging from physical compatibility and configuration factors, to availability and credit services. We propose the application of a combination of virtual worlds and augmented reality to create synthetic environments suitable for remote sales of physical artefacts, right in the home of the purchaser. A high level description of the service structure involved is shown, along with a use case involving the sale of electronic goods and services within an example augmented reality application. We expect this work to have application in many sales domains involving physical objects needing to be sold over the Internet.

Paper: A Prototype Augmented Reality Collaborative Process Modelling Tool

We have had a BPM 2011 Demo paper accepted describing our new augmented reality process modelling prototype. A copy of the paper is available here. A video of the prototype is available here.

This work is the product of an Honours project by my new PhD student Erik Poppe. He will be continuing this work in his PhD project, supported by a scholarship from the Smart Services CRC.

Well done Erik!

Abstract at end of post.

Ross

Abstract.

Identifying, modelling and documenting business processes usually requires the collaboration of many stakeholders that may be spread across companies in inter-organizational business settings. While there are many process modelling tools available, the support they provide for remote collaboration is still limited. This demonstration showcases a novel prototype application that implements collaborative virtual environment and augmented reality technologies to improve remote collaborative process modelling, with an aim to assisting common collaboration tasks by providing an increased sense of immersion in an intuitive shared work and task space. Our tool is easily deployed using open source software, and commodity hardware, and is expected to assist with saving money on travel costs for large scale process modelling projects covering national and international centres within an enterprise.

Video: Augmented Reality Process Modelling Tool

In this video we show a prototype BPMN process modelling tool which uses Augmented Reality techniques to increase the sense of immersion.

The avatar represents a remotely logged in user, and facilitates greater insight into the editing actions of the collaborator than present 2D web-based approaches in collaborative process modelling.

We modified the Second Life client to integrate the ARToolkit in order to support pattern-based AR.

Open Source version of this project will be available soon.

Ross

Video: Virtual World Web Technologies

Video here from Damon Hernandez' youtube channel, showing a demo site he built using web based virtual world technologies such as HTML5. An Augmented Reality window is included to show a complete set of web-based test applications in various virtual interaction modalities.

A key driver for uptake of software applications is the ease of use. Using HTML5, WebGL, X3D, and X3Dom technologies will assist in widespread deployment of applications for easy access by clients.

Although I do remember people saying this a few years ago about VRML as well. :-)

Ross

Link: 30% Unity Business Non-games

In this article the CEO of Unity has stated that around 30% of licences for their game engine are from non-game companies seeking to use virtual worlds for business interests.

This may be a product of the cross-platform capabilities of the engine, as it can deploy implementations of worlds to web, pc, iphone, ipad and android, but it does go to show the growing usage of virtual worlds for marketing and business opportunities. We also use it at QUT in our games degree.

Bland statements aside, virtual worlds and games are now almost de rigour as marketing tie ins to films and products. The Salt movie and game comes to mind as the most recent idea.

What I wonder is what further unique linkages can be made between such environments and commonplace business processes. I think augmented reality holds some interesting possibilities here.

Ross

(Semi) Virtual Goods

Have just read this set of slides on the Asian economy in Virtual Goods by Benjamin Joffe. It seems there is a $7 Billion business in the area of selling things via virtual environments, ranging from Online Game Gold, to Mobile Apps. and all Avatars in between. The US market is hitting $1 billion, so this is a world wide phenomenon reputedly at $52 Billion in value.

This gets me thinking about the nature of virtual goods, and their value to a consumer. I buy virtual goods in a form, they are iPhone apps., iTune songs and movies. In my research, I also buy the odd virtual product in Second Life, as I am not prepared to spend time modelling chairs and desks for my business process demonstrations.

While this virtual goods economy is growing, it is also bounded somewhat by the usage of such goods in virtual environments, and a lot of people don't spend that much time in such spaces. What will be interesting is the merging of such worlds via forms of augmented reality and newer display systems that are emerging, including forms of paper-like electronic displays. Thus virtual goods become more and more integrated with actual physical environments. I would then upgrade the walls of my home with a downloaded purchase.

The logical extreme is the extension to 3D printers. Thus you will buy the virtual product (eg. a cup) and print it out for use in the real world. In fact, I wonder if such integration might indeed decrease the popularity of pure virtual worlds, as the integration of real and virtual opens up much more exciting possibilities.

New iPhone/Android Augmented Reality applications, such as Layor, are appearing in a viable commercial form, and so I expect to see a maturation of the integration between real and virtual both in representation, and economies.

Ross

Google Goggles

Google Goggles, sort of like beer goggles, but with a more reliable page rank for the visual target. ;-)

I wonder what sort of real time apps. could be build upon this technology. Especially interesting if the search results were incremental and personalised, and worked from a heads up display on a set of glasses. For instance, you could look up a person's Facebook details in real time as you talk to them. Shudder.

Ross

Augmented Virtuality for Processes

Google Earth with real time updates is now a possibility in the near future, with research being performed at Georgia Tech. A nice YouTube video is shown here of research into augmenting 3D Google Earth locations with camera updates, that are processed to show pedestrian and car movements in an area.

This is useful for showing process information updates in real time in a virtual setting.

We can now see that the various representation spaces for information: virtual world, image/video and augmented reality, seem to be heading towards a unified whole representation. Such a multi-space can be used to freely move in an out of 3D representations as we see fit, or to embed one within another - eg. Second Life as a 3D rendering on your physical desk using Augmented Reality technology.

So, the console view of your company's information, may indeed be spatially laid out in future, within a world visualisation like Google Earth.

Ross