Section: Partnerships and Cooperations

Regional Initiatives

Autonomy

Participants : Audrey Colbrant, Yohan Lasorsa, Jacques Lemordant, David Liodenot, Mathieu Razafimahazo.

Autonomy is a 22-month project funded by the global competitiveness cluster Minalogic (6th call for R&D projects) that started in March 2010, and is coordinated by ST Ericsson. Other partners are ST Microelectronics, Raisonance, Université de Grenoble, and Ivès.

The goal of the project is to develop high-tech tools to improve autonomy for people with disabilities. These tools are integrated in mobile devices such as cell phones or special-purpose devices, to improve the quality of life of people with disabilities. These devices access remote dedicated services to help geolocation and guiding. They take advantage of the latest advances in embedded systems: cameras, audio, video, GPS, RFID, compass, accelerometer, gyroscope. Two major application areas are addressed: software tools on cell phones for sight disabled people, and guiding and information tools for moving around in a city.

Grenoble Augmented City

Participants : Audrey Colbrant, Yohan Lasorsa, Jacques Lemordant, David Liodenot, Mathieu Razafimahazo.

Grenoble Augmented City is a large scale experimentation of augmented reality technologies, funded by the Rhône-Alpes Region for 12 months. Coordinated by CCSTI Grenoble , the project includes GRESEC (Stendhal University, Grenoble), the public libraries of Grenoble, the tourist office of Grenoble, and musée Dauphinois.

This project uses XML formats for multimedia content (HTML5), interactive audio (A2ML), and points of interest (W3C POI) in complex mixed reality applications. As a consequence, the authoring of a specific application is greatly simplified.

The MRB browser developed by WAM is a Mixed Reality Browser whose main features are:

• use of an XML format for Points of Interest (POI) issued from an on-going discussion within the W3C Points of Interest working group,

• use of HTML5 for the multimedia content of POIs, allowing easy authoring inside a standard HTML5 browser,

• navigation between POIs at the level of the format using MAUDL audio POIs,

• switching between Augmented Reality and Augmented Virtuality through the use of panoramic images and the concept of groups of POIs.

The MRB browser is running on the iPhone 4 and the iPad.

A cultural heritage visit of Grenoble can be downloaded from the web and played on site in Augmented Reality or remotely in Augmented Virtuality. This visit will be tested by visually impaired people.