Virtual reality markup framework for generating interactive indoor environment

Abstract

This research proposes an interactive three-dimensional (3-D) application which can be used for modelling and manipulating interior architectural environments. This incorporates the concept of Virtual Reality [1] (VR) giving the user a real world experience. Virtual Reality is a trending technology which is gaining popularity due to the user experience it gives and its effectiveness. The proposed system consists of 4 major components. The user can add objects to the environment either using a description given in natural language or by giving a hand drawn sketch of the objects to be added. Natural Language Processing (NLP) techniques will be used to extract object details from the user description and Image Processing techniques will be used to extract object details from the hand drawn sketch. The user can control the 3D environment either by using hand gestures or voice commands. The hand gestures will be captured using a web camera and the voice commands will be captured using a microphone and Natural Language Processing (NLP) techniques will be used in order to extract the user's command. The 3-D application will be developed using VRML [2] (Virtual Reality Markup Language) which is a language for describing three-dimensional (3-D) image sequences and possible user interactions to go with them. Using the application developed using VRML, the user can interact with the virtual environment by viewing, navigation, moving and rotating objects within the environment thus it gives the user a feeling as actually living in the environment.