EgoViz - A Mobile Based Spatial Interaction System

This paper describes research carried out in the area of mobile spatial interaction and the development of a mobile (i.e. on-device) version of a simulated web-based 2D directional query processor. The TellMe application integrates location (from GPS, GSM, WiFi) and orientation (from digital compass/tilt sensors) sensing technologies into an enhanced spatial query processing module capable of exploiting a mobile device’s position and orientation for querying real-world 3D spatial datasets. This paper outlines the technique used to combine these technologies and the architecture needed to deploy them on a sensor enabled smartphone (i.e. Nokia 6210 Navigator). With all these sensor technologies now available on one device, it is possible to employ a personal query system that can work effectively in any environment using location and orientation as primary parameters for directional queries. In doing so, novel approaches for determining a user’s query space in 3 dimensions based on line-of-sight and 3D visibility (ego-visibility) are also investigated. The result is a mobile application that is location, direction and orientation aware and using these data is able to identify objects (e.g. buildings, points-of-interest, etc.) by pointing at them or when they are in a specified field-of-view.