Sailboat operation must account for a variety of environmental factors, including wind, tidal currents, shore features and atmospheric conditions.
We introduce the first method of rendering an augmented reality scene for sailing, using various visual techniques to represent environmental aspects, such as particle cloud animations for the wind and current.
The visual content is provided using a hardware/software system that gathers data from various scattered sources on a boat (e.g. instruments), processes the data and broadcasts the information over a local network to one or more displays that render the immersive 3D graphics.
Current technology provides information about environmental factors via a diverse collection of displays which render data collected by sensors and instruments.
This data is typically provided numerically or using rudimentary abstract graphical representations, with minimal processing, and with little or no integration of the various scattered sources.
My goal was to build the first working prototype of a system that centralizes collected data on a boat and provides an integrated 3D rendering using a unified AR visual interface.
Since this research is the first of its kind in a few largely unexplored areas of technological interest, I found that the most fruitful method to evaluate the various iterations of different components was to employ an autobiographical design method.
Sailing is the process of controlling various aspects of boat operation in order to produce propulsion by harnessing wind energy using sails.
Devising a strategy for safe and adequate sailboat control relies upon a solid understanding of the surrounding environment and its behaviour, in addition to many layers of know-how pertaining to employing the acquired knowledge.
My research is grouped into three distinct, yet interdependent parts; first, a hardware and software system that collects data with the purpose of processing and broadcasting visual information; second, a graphical interface that provides information using immersive AR graphics; and last, an in-depth investigation and discussion of the problem and potential solutions from a design thinking perspective.
The scope of this investigation is broad, covering aspects from assembling mechanical implements, to building electronics with customized sensing capabilities, interfacing existing ship's instruments, configuring a local network and server, implementing processing strategies, and broadcasting a WebGL-based AR scene as an immersive visual experience.
I also performed a design thinking investigation that incorporates recent research from the most relevant fields of study (e.g. HCI, visualization etc.) with the ultimate goal of integrating it into a conceptual system and a taxonomy of relevant factors.
The term interdisciplinary is most accurate in denoting the nature of this body of work.
At the time of writing, there are two major players that are starting to develop AR-based commercial products for marine navigation: Raymarine (an AR extension of their chart-based data) and Mitsubishi (AR navigation software for commercial/industrial shipping).
I am not aware of any marine AR visualization that is targeted at environmental awareness for sailboats through visualization (wind, tidal currents etc.) and my research constitutes the first documented and published efforts that approached this topic. / Graduate
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:uvic.ca/oai:dspace.library.uvic.ca:1828/12060 |
| Date | 28 August 2020 |
| Creators | Cojoc-Wisernig, Eduard |
| Contributors | Wyvill, B. (Brian), Kapron, Bruce M. |
| Source Sets | University of Victoria |
| Language | English, English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | Available to the World Wide Web |
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