Environmental Media: Linking Virtual Environments to the Physical World Scott S. Fisher Keio University at Shonan Fujisawa Graduate School of Media and Governance 5322 Endoh, Fujisawa, Kanagawa, JAPAN sfisher@sfc.keio.ac.jp Abstract The goal of this project is to explore potential applications of location-based information services over wireless networks. Initial efforts have been focused on the design and prototyping of an “environmental media” system for linking virtual environments to the physical world through integration of capabilities and technology components from the fields of virtual reality, mixed reality, mobile multimedia, and wearable computing. In effect, the user is able to browse a spatially correspondent digital information database about a specific location as it changes over time, or can access interpretive annotations posted by domain experts. Keywords: Augmented Reality, Mixed Reality, Mobile Multimedia, Wearable Computing, Context visualization, Environmental Media, Location-based Services. 1 Introduction In the past decade, the development of Virtual Environment technologies has provided a unique capability to completely immerse a user in computer- generated worlds for a wide variety of application domains. But in general, the user’s senses are isolated from their physical surroundings and focused completely on the computer-based simulations. More recently with the improvement of see-through display technology, Augmented Reality technology has been developed that provides a capability to overlay digital information onto a user’s immediate surroundings - although applications have mostly been confined to interior settings as a result of restrictions on data transmission, tracking, and image registration capabilities. Currently, with the addition of high- bandwidth wireless network and high-resolution tracking technologies, a Wearable Environmental Media platform (WEM) is under development to display a wide range of location-specific and context-sensitive information to a mobile user in an exterior environment. 2 Overview and Objectives The goal of this research is to design and prototype a wearable system that will allow a mobile user to access digital information in the form of virtual media objects, virtual environments, and real-time data visualizations that are linked to specific locations. The primary objectives in development of this environmental media system are: • To assist, enhance, and amplify a user’s interactions with the physical world though use of environmental media. • To develop innovative interface techniques and authoring tools for the development, display, and access of location-linked virtual environments. • To implement a robust and flexible wireless communications infrastructure for transmission of multimedia data about a specific location to a mobile user. • To explore the concept of “context visualization” and to develop design guidelines on how to make explicit, and display for a mobile user, the layers of information and digital data that are attached to objects, people, places, as well as information about the relationships between them. A long-term goal is to evaluate the unique advantages and opportunities that Wearable Environmental Media can provide as a learning technology in such applications areas as virtual fieldtrips, ecological literacy, environmental perception, and context visualization. 3 System Development The primary emphasis of this project is on the development of methods for organization and presentation of site-specific information to both remote and on-site users, and on development of user-interface configurations and software “authoring” tools for linking information to specific locations. As a test bed to evaluate these concepts and configurations, an initial technology platform has been developed that consists of a very lightweight stereoscopic camera and display system with wireless audio/video transmission that is mounted on a remote users head and body. Additional