Technical Possibilities of Cloud-Based Virtual Reality Implementing Software as a Service for Online Collaboration in Urban Planning

In this paper we discuss the technical possibilities of cloud-based virtual reality (cloud-based VR) computing tools for online collaboration in urban planning and design. We first create a digital asset representing our design proposal of a pedestrian bridge in Shibuya, Tokyo. A platform for cloud-based VR technology, i.e., a VR-Cloud server, is used to open the VR dataset to public collaboration over the Internet. The digital asset representing the design scheme of our pedestrian bridge includes buildings, roads, trees and street furniture for the entire urban area. The vehicles and people are designed and inputted into the virtual world of the urban area, in which they run and walk with predefined behaviour scenarios. Users share the VR world by accessing the VR-Cloud servers from remote clients, using cloud communication software to review vehicle and pedestrian crowd simulations and discuss the design concepts. Meanwhile, we compare the advantages and disadvantages of three cloud-based VR tools on their technical support for net collaboration: 1) VR-Cloud; 2) Google Earth; and 3) 3DVIA.

[1]  Enrico Masala,et al.  A cost-effective cloud computing framework for accelerating multimedia communication simulations , 2012, J. Parallel Distributed Comput..

[2]  MA Ya.  Synthesizing service resources in support for urban-rural planning:Status and prospects , 2013 .

[3]  Mitsuhiko Kawakami,et al.  Study on Visualization of Townscape Rules Using VRML for Public Involvement , 2007 .

[4]  Guoliang Fan,et al.  A web-based GIS Decision Support System for managing and planning USDA's Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) , 2007, Environ. Model. Softw..

[5]  Rajkumar Buyya,et al.  A survey on vehicular cloud computing , 2014, J. Netw. Comput. Appl..

[6]  H. Couclelis.  “Where has the Future Gone?” Rethinking the Role of Integrated Land-Use Models in Spatial Planning , 2005 .

[7]  Alexander Y. Sun,et al.  Enabling collaborative decision-making in watershed management using cloud-computing services , 2013, Environ. Model. Softw..

[8]  Alta de Waal,et al.  A smartphone-based ASR data collection tool for under-resourced languages , 2014, Speech Commun..

[9]  Rajkumar Buyya,et al.  Article in Press Future Generation Computer Systems ( ) – Future Generation Computer Systems Cloud Computing and Emerging It Platforms: Vision, Hype, and Reality for Delivering Computing as the 5th Utility , 2022 .

[10]  Imad Aad,et al.  From big smartphone data to worldwide research: The Mobile Data Challenge , 2013, Pervasive Mob. Comput..

[11]  Katina Michael,et al.  Location and tracking of mobile devices: Überveillance stalks the streets , 2013, Comput. Law Secur. Rev..

[12]  Xiao Ma,et al.  Energy Efficiency on Location Based Applications in Mobile Cloud Computing: A Survey , 2012, ANT/MobiWIS.

[13]  A. Valle,et al.  Diffusion of nuclear energy in some developing countries , 2014 .

[14]  Liang Zhong,et al.  Process virtualization of large-scale lidar data in a cloud computing environment , 2013, Comput. Geosci..

[15]  Mitsuhiko Kawakami,et al.  An online visualization tool for Internet-based local townscape design , 2010, Comput. Environ. Urban Syst..

[16]  Gobinda G. Chowdhury,et al.  Building environmentally sustainable information services: A green is research agenda , 2012, J. Assoc. Inf. Sci. Technol..

[17]  Rajkumar Buyya,et al.  Inter‐Cloud architectures and application brokering: taxonomy and survey , 2014, Softw. Pract. Exp..

[18]  Jürgen Döllner,et al.  Service-oriented, standards-based 3D geovisualization: Potential and challenges , 2010, Comput. Environ. Urban Syst..

[19]  John P. Wilson,et al.  Design and implementation of a web-based platform to support interactive environmental planning , 2009, Comput. Environ. Urban Syst..

[20]  Zhenjiang Shen,et al.  Design Coordination Regarding Urban Design Guidelines Using Google Earth , 2013 .

[21]  Shuliang Li,et al.  A Web-enabled hybrid approach to strategic marketing planning: Group Delphi+a Web-based expert system , 2005, Expert Syst. Appl..

[22]  Heiko A. von der Gracht,et al.  Heading towards a multimodal city of the future , 2014 .

[23]  Qunying Huang,et al.  Evaluating open-source cloud computing solutions for geosciences , 2013, Comput. Geosci..

[24]  Shaohua Zhang,et al.  Towards cloud Augmented Reality for construction application by BIM and SNS integration , 2013 .

[25]  Edith C. H. Ngai,et al.  Quality-of-information aware data collection for mobile sensor networks , 2012, 2012 IEEE International Conference on Pervasive Computing and Communications Workshops.

[27]  Karin K. Breitman,et al.  A cloud computing based framework for general 2D and 3D cellular automata simulation , 2013, Adv. Eng. Softw..

[28]  Justin Grover.  Android forensics: Automated data collection and reporting from a mobile device , 2013 .