Gunnar Liestøl

Bio: Gunnar Liestøl is an academic researcher from University of Oslo. The author has contributed to research in topics: Augmented reality & Situated. The author has an hindex of 12, co-authored 35 publications receiving 451 citations.

Digital Heritage. Progress in Cultural Heritage: Documentation, Preservation, and Protection

Abstract: This paper presents an automatic methodology capable of registering non-overlapping laser scans based on a bundle block adjustment for the orientation estimation of synthetic images generated from the 3D data and camera images using a Structure-from-Motion (SfM) method. Adding camera images to the registration of the generated images can improve the block geometry. The SfM process provides accurate image orientations and sparse point clouds, initially in an arbitrary model space. This enables an implicit determination of the 3D-to-3D correspondences between the sparse points and the laser data then, the Helmert transformation is introduced and its parameters are computed. This results in registering the non-overlapping scans, since the relative orientations between the generated images are determined at the SfM step and transformed to the absolute coordinate system directly. The proposed approach was tested on real case studies and experimental results are shown to demonstrate the effectiveness of the presented method.

Digital media revisited: theoretical and conceptual innovation in digital domain

Abstract: Arguing that "first encounters" have already applied traditional theoretical and conceptual frameworks to digital media, the contributors to this book call for "second encounters," or a revisiting. Digital media are not only objects of analysis but also instruments for the development of innovative perspectives on both media and culture. Drawing on insights from literary theory, semiotics, philosophy, aesthetics, ethics, media studies, sociology, and education, the contributors construct new positions from which to observe digital media in fresh and meaningful ways. Throughout they explore to what extent interpretation of and experimentation with digital media can inform theory. It also asks how our understanding of digital media can contribute to our understanding of social and cultural change.The book is organized in four sections: Education and Interdisciplinarity, Design and Aesthetics, Rhetoric and Interpretation, and Social Theory and Ethics. The topics include the effects on reading of the multimodal and multisensory aspects of the digital environment, the impact of practice on the medium of theory, how digital media are dissolving the boundaries between leisure and work, and the impact of cyberspace on established ethical principles.

Aesthetic and rhetorical aspects of linking video in hypermedia

Abstract: This paper reports on the development of a hypermedia environment for public access in a museum. It discusses problems encountered when making video interactive and multilineal and when linking video and text in the creation of the system. Through the exchange of properties between print and vidtm, media approaches to linking and continuity are presented. Visual examples are used to illustrate this and related to the need to further develop aesthetic and rhetorical aspects of linking video in hypermedia.

Situated Simulations: A Prototyped Augmented Reality Genre for Learning on the iPhone

Abstract: Rhetorical and aesthetic aspects of digital textuality tends to lag behind developments in hardware and software. Constructive humanistic approaches to digital media may prevent this deficiency. This paper reports on a project where digital genre design is conducted as a method to invent innovative expressive solutions and document structures based on the ongoing convergence of mobility, broadband, high resolution graphics and GPS-positioning technology. The prototyped genre â?? Situated Simulations â?? is a kind of augmented reality system based on the iPhone. The genre in question is aimed at users in contexts of both learning and leisure.

Along the Appian Way. Storytelling and Memory across Time and Space in Mobile Augmented Reality

Abstract: In this indirect augmented reality system we have reconstructed about 1 km of the Via Appia Antica with three time periods represented: 320 CE, 71 BCE, and 49 BCE. This situated simulation explores the notion of narrative movement and travel across space and time in a cultural heritage context. The transitions between the temporal phases are triggered by the users active repositioning on location. Included in the system is also a quiz consisting of verbal and image–based alternatives to a variety of questions related to the information provided in the virtual environments. We describe the main elements of the simulation, its technical solution and production, as well as the feedback from real users testing on location. We close with a reflection on the multimodal quiz and how it relates to memory and learning.

A Survey of Augmented, Virtual, and Mixed Reality for Cultural Heritage

Abstract: A multimedia approach to the diffusion, communication, and exploitation of Cultural Heritage (CH) is a well-established trend worldwide. Several studies demonstrate that the use of new and combined media enhances how culture is experienced. The benefit is in terms of both number of people who can have access to knowledge and the quality of the diffusion of the knowledge itself. In this regard, CH uses augmented-, virtual-, and mixed-reality technologies for different purposes, including education, exhibition enhancement, exploration, reconstruction, and virtual museums. These technologies enable user-centred presentation and make cultural heritage digitally accessible, especially when physical access is constrained. A number of surveys of these emerging technologies have been conducted; however, they are either not domain specific or lack a holistic perspective in that they do not cover all the aspects of the technology. A review of these technologies from a cultural heritage perspective is therefore warranted. Accordingly, our article surveys the state-of-the-art in augmented-, virtual-, and mixed-reality systems as a whole and from a cultural heritage perspective. In addition, we identify specific application areas in digital cultural heritage and make suggestions as to which technology is most appropriate in each case. Finally, the article predicts future research directions for augmented and virtual reality, with a particular focus on interaction interfaces and explores the implications for the cultural heritage domain.

Information and Communications Technologies for Sustainable Development Goals: State-of-the-Art, Needs and Perspectives

Abstract: In September 2015, the United Nations General Assembly accepted the 2030 Development Agenda, which has included 92 paragraphs, and the Paragraph 91 defined 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs) and 169 associated targets. The goal of this paper is to discover the correlations among SDGs and information and communications technologies (ICTs). This paper discusses the roles and opportunities that ICTs play in pursuing the SDGs. We identify a number of research gaps to those three pillars, social, economic, and environmental perspectives, of sustainable development. After extensive literature reviews on the SDG-related research initiatives and activities, we find that the majority of contributions to SDGs recognized by the IEEE and ACM research communities have mainly focused on the technical aspects while there are lack of the holistic social good perspectives. Therefore, there are essential and urgent needs to raise the awareness and call for attentions on how to innovate and energize ICTs in order to best assist all nations to achieve the SDGs by 2030.

Hypertext fiction reading: haptics and immersion

Abstract: Reading is a multi-sensory activity, entailing perceptual, cognitive and motor interactions with whatever is being read. With digital technology, reading manifests itself as being extensively multi-sensory – both in more explicit and more complex ways than ever before. In different ways from traditional reading technologies such as the codex, digital technology illustrates how the act of reading is intimately connected with and intricately dependent on the fact that we are both body and mind – a fact carrying important implications for even such an apparently intellectual activity as reading, whether recreational, educational or occupational. This article addresses some important and hitherto neglected issues concerning digital reading, with special emphasis on the vital role of our bodies, and in particular our fingers and hands, for the immersive fiction reading experience.

Hyperlinking time-based data files

Abstract: A network data processing system is disclosed that uses novel methods and apparatus to hyperlink from full motion videos. The present invention can be used with any standard video file by adding a header identifying a video map location and a script location identifying where the hyperlinks are associated with the video file for any given frame. The present invention includes a new viewer that reads the header and issues the header information, X-coordinate, Y-coordinate, and time coordinate for a particular hyperlink selection made by a user via a computer pointing device. An HTTP Server and video script then operate in conjunction to obtain the corresponding map and identify a network address associated with the coordinate information provided by the viewer.