kurt

590 Proposal for Fall 2003

RFID Communities and Metadata Moss

I am proposing a research project, supervised by Scott Fisher, to design a system and interface for mobile platforms that uses networked embedded RFID tags in common objects to create communities of these objects so that contextual and environmental metadata is available to the user. A user could navigate through the data using a complex augmented reality HMD system or a simple wireless device, like a mobile phone.

The architecture of the system would establish a network of physical objects in a small room as an experiment. The power of such a system would be in the organization of objects into communities or groups. While specific objects and the metadata derived from them are interesting alone, it is important to know the context and relationships of the object to its physical surroundings and its virtual or networked surroundings. These relational connections could be made by both the manufacturer of the object and/or by the system self-organizing through a variety of analyses. The prototype system will attempt to show how even in a small space of familiar objects, the communities of objects will empower the user to derive more use from the grouped metadata as she explores the physical and virtual spaces.

Interfacing with such a system requires an elegant method of visually symbolizing the massive amount of data than can rapidly accumulate even in a small space with a few objects. There are two ways I propose to simplify this problem. The first is to represent the amount and density of the metadata associated with an object as a type “moss” that grows and glows when seen through the HMD of the augmented reality system. This simple visual metaphor helps the user to understand what the virtual space of information looks like when applied over the top of the physical space. The semi-transparent nature of the moss would prevent it from interfering with the visual field of the user.

The second way to simplify the massive amounts of metadata produced by such a system is to create a “focus and framing” system that the user controls. The metaphor of depth of field in photography may be applied here to help the user understand how to control how much information she is viewing. A photograph with a large depth of field contains more information because more of the environment is in focus. The frame clearly isolates a subject and excludes other possible subjects that would change the meaning of the image should they appear in it. The focus and framing system would be a set of filters that the user could dynamically adjust as she moves through the environment. I prefer not to think of this as a “zoom” because the viewer always maintains the same focal length: that of the eye.

The first proposed application of this system in an entertainment context would be a “day-in-the-life-of” program that would provide a sort of interactive reality show about celebrities. The celebrity would wear a mobile device that records the objects and environments that she moves through by using the RFID tags and metadata. The focus and framing tool would be set to include and exclude objects determined by the producer. Internet users could then find the objects, comment on them in the virtual space (comments that would become attached to that object), and buy them or replicas of them. Combining this system with a TV documentary program like MTV’s “Cribs” would allow for a unique experience that brings the user into the world of the subject.

For this project in the Fall semester of 2003 I propose to research and design in three specific areas:

1. Infrastructure and network design for augmented reality systems.

2. Embedded RFID tags.

3. Interface and application design for virtual and augmented environments.

I would produce a paper summarizing my research and design proposal for implementing the system. Additionally I would produce a detailed walkthrough of a user’s experience of the entertainment application of the system. The Spring 2004 semester would be used for creating a working prototype.