realXtend content developed at Centria

Posted by Juhana Jauhiainen on February 4, 2009 under News | Read the First Comment

Centria is the R&D unit of the Central Ostrobothnia University of Applied Sciences. Our staff and students have used realXtend since summer 2008.

What have we accomplished using realXtend?

1. Games
 We have developed a virtual version of the Finnish board game Star of Africa, and ported a board game called Galactica Battle Farce, developed by Ville Malila.

2. Building
We have built a virtual model of our school building in the realXtend viewer without any external 3D-software.

3. Importing external data
Using a coordinate transformation functions previously developed at Centria we brought GPS-data to rex and used them to move objects on a 3D-map of Ylivieska. A model of the building our Ylivieska branch works in has also been imported to rex.

4. x1o experiments
X10 can be used to connect the real life environment with rex. Some small scale x10 testing has been done, using light modules and motion detectors. The x10 testing has been done taking advantage of the examples released with rexserver. For example, motion detectors can be used to show alarms in rex.

5. Phidgets and ZigBee
Recently we have used Phidgets with realXtend. Phidgets are sensors or input devices which can be used to move objects in rex. Phidgets include various sensors including humidity, accelerometers and RFID readers. ZigBee sensors, such as a ZigBee accelerator for controlling prims, have been integrated with Rex too.

Other interesting projects at Centria

Centria has developed a 3D-map engine for mobile devices and desktop. It uses OpenGL and runs smoothly on the Nokia N95 and other similar mobile devices. Several ongoing software projects at Centria are involved in sensors, sensor networks, GPS and other technologies related to location awareness and ubiquitous computing.

Our goals in realXtend

The current development goals of Centria in realXtend are to test and develop other home automation systems than x10 and participate in the development of the mobile realXtend viewer. One home automation techonology we might use is Z-Wave. It is a low-power wireless technology designed specifically for remote control applications.

For more information:

Ville Autio (firstname.lastname@centria.fi)
R&D Engineer
Centria R&D
Vierimaantie
584100 Ylivieska
Finland
Tel 00 358 44 44 92 626