Publications

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PhD Diary

XML in Theory and Practice

I performed the technical review for Chris Bates' book on all things XML. The book is appropriate for a beginning XML enthusiast who has a strong background in Information Systems and Web Enablement. John Wiley Europe published the book as ISBN 0-470-84344-6.

Teach Yourself Dynamic HTML in 7 Days

I am the primary author of this title published by Sam's Net. Rick Darnell is the co-author. Rick and I worked hard to be first to market with a self-help book on the emerging HTML 4 specification. Both Netscape's and Microsoft's approach to interactive Web page development are covered with respect to their latest version 4.0 web browsers. The Teach Yourself series is especially successful and this book follows the traditional recipe closely. The book comes complete with the HTML specification as well as explanations, examples, Q&A, quizzes and workshops. The book ISBN is 1-57521-335-4 and is available in soft cover, about two inches thick.

Teach Yourself VRML 2 in 21 Days

Book source code available here.

I am co-author of this title published by Sam's Net. Chris Marrin is the primary author. Chris worked for Silicon Graphics at the time and was responsible along with two others for the Moving Worlds VRML 2 proposal. Chris now works for Sony on their TV set top box project and is active in the EAI Working Group of the Web 3D Consortium. The 21 Days series is especially successful and this book follows the teach yourself recipe closely. The complete VRML 2 specification is covered with explanations, examples, Q&A, and exercises. The International Standards Book Number is 1-57521-193-9 and is available in soft cover, about two inches thick.

Personal Connection to the Ocean Via On-line Interactive Experiences

Campbell, B. D., Mott, B., "Personal Connection to the Ocean Via On-line Interactive Experiences", In Proceedings of the 7th International Aquarium Congress, Shanghai, China (Oct 19-24, 2008). (PDF)

Emergency Response Planning and Training through Interactive Simulation and Visualization with Decision Support

B. Campbell, O. Mete, T. Furness, S. Weghorst, Z. Zabinsky, "Emergency Response Planning and Training through Interactive Simulation and Visualization with Decision Support", 2008 IEEE International Conference on Technologies for Homeland Security (May 2008). (PDF)

Effects of landuse change on the hydrologic regime of the Mae Chaem river basin

Thanapakpawin, P., Richey, J., Thomas, D., Rodda, S., Campbell, B., Logsdon, M. Effects of landuse change on the hydrologic regime of the Mae Chaem river basin, NW Thailand, Journal of Hydrology 334:2, pp. 215-230 (February 2007). (PDF)

An Occlusion-Capable Optical See-through Head Mount Display for Supporting Co-located Collaboration

Kiyokawa, K.; Billinghurst, M.; Campbell, B.; Woods, Eric.; (2003). To appear in the Proceedings of the International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality, Tokyo, Japan (October 2003). Illustrates the design and advantages of an occlusion-capable head mount as demonstrated at SIGGRAPH 2002 in San Antonio, Texas. (PDF).

Web3D in Ocean Science Learning Environments: Virtual Big Beef Creek

I presented this paper (HTML) ( PDF) about informal science learning in a virtual environment based on the Big Beef watershed at the 2002 Web3D Symposium in Tempe, AZ (Feb 24-28, 2002) on behalf of the authors: Campbell, B., Collins, P., Hadaway, H., Hedley, N. and Stoermer, M. In Proceedings of the 2002 Web3D Symposium, pp. 85-91.

Magic Book Flora

I wrote a paper supporting the motivation behind my Boston CyberArts Festival Exhibit which ran April 21-May 6, 2001. The paper is entitled Distributing 3-D Content Through Genomes and Evolutionary Process: A Focus on Plants. Boston CyberArts Festival : Boston, MA (2001).

The Virtual Anatomy Lab: A Hands-on Anatomy Learning Environment

I presented a poster on The Virtual Anatomy Lab: A Hands-on Anatomy Learning Environment at MMVR2001:
Campbell, B.; Rosse, C.; Brinkley, J.F.; (2001). Proceedings of the Medicine Meets Virtual Reality (MMVR2001) Conference. (PDF)

Virtual Playground: Architectures for a Shared Virtual World.

I presented a paper called Virtual Playground: Architectures for a Shared Virtual World (PDF) at ACM Proceedings of the Virtual Reality Software and Technology (VRST '98) Conference on November 2, 1998. I represented the following team: Schwartz, P., Bricker, L.,Campbell, B., Furness, T., Inkpen, K., Matheson, L., Nakamura, N., Shen, L., Tanney, S., and Yen, S.

VRML Developer's Journal

I have an article about creating a Kaleidoscope using VRML's External Authoring Interface in the first issue of the first volume of the Virtual Reality Developer's Journal as well as the August 1998 Java Developer's Journal.

The second issue of the VRDJ was never published. My submission focused on using the VRML 97 PROTO node to create group projects in VRML. Check out my suggestions for a Worldwide Kaleidoscope Project. Feel free to submit a Kaliedoscope piece to me. If I get enough, I will put a dynamic Kaleidoscope generator on the Web and let you know about it.

I had hoped to contribute regularly to the first ever magazine devoted entirely to VRML development.

Distributed Collaboration Project Final Project Report

Hedley, N. and Campbell, B. (1998).(R-99-3). Seattle: Human Interface Technology Lab.

Trade Space Navigation for VR Application Design.

Weghorst, S.; Emerson, T.; Kerr, A.D.; Campbell, B. (1997).(R-97-5) Seattle: HIT Lab.

VRML As a Superset of HTML: An Approach to Consolidation

I presented a paper called VRML As a Superset of HTML: An Approach to Consolidation (PDF) during the Annual Computer Science Conference on April 26, 1997 at The Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute-Hartford. I received the Most Original Paper award -- chosen out of the 48 papers presented.

Seattle Magazine

Seattle Magazine is a 10-issue-a-year publication covering all things Seattle. July-December 1999, I wrote one Link column per issue covering a different Seattle-based Web site genre and discussing the implications on cyberspace.

Project Chapter List

3D Collaborative Multiuser Worlds for the Internet

The whole thing in one document is here (1.37 MB)

Or, for pieces:

Thesis Proposal

Problem Statement

A collective vision for a shared, 3-dimensional, internet accessible cyberspace is rapidly becoming a reality in Silicon Valley. Successful technology companies are coming together and creating standards to support a cross-platform, cross-server, shared cyberspace. Living Worlds is an example of such a standard. Living Worlds focuses on standard connections of a web browser to the internet and the requirements of a server to communicate with a compatible browser in a standard manner. Many 3D web browsers have recently incorporated an external interface API that will allow others to write the scripts that make cyberspace come alive. Server technology is rapidly improving the shared behavior routines that allow one browser to see the effects of the actions of another cyberworld visitor. So, its time to start building the worlds this technology will support. How effective will we be able to communicate, educate, and entertain ourselves in cyberspace over an internet connection? The question is a wide open one. It is time to begin to build worlds and test out our abilities to collaborate in them.

Signficance of the Problem

Collaborative, shared digital worlds have been created in the past. Many have been created on dedicated networks such as the military’s DIS network, Japanese research lab networks, or university laboratory networks. The shared spaces were always created at great cost and with little opportunity to make them available to the mass public. The commercialization of the internet and the advent of the World Wide Web have made public availability to computer networks a possiblity. The internet is not a reliable deliverer of information. The attempt to port yesterday’s shared digital worlds have failed. These applications required reliable and rapid delivery of information. Today, the technology is being built from the bottom up to work with the inherent weaknesses of internet information delivery. The goals may be the same as cyberspace projects of the past, but the delivery strategies are quite different.

We have an opportunity to give cyberspace access to millions of world citizens. Some of these people will be able to truly participate in a cybersociety where they have struggled to participate in our society to date. Many physically challenged individuals are not mobile. They can’t easily run out and participate in a spontaneous societal event such as a political rally or sports team celebration. Even a typical world citizen can’t phsically get to where the educational and entertainment opportunities are available. Instead, they settle for struggling to find the best opportunity in their own neighborhoods. In too many neighborhoods the best opportunities are not near good enough. They are limited by the experience and knowledge of the neighbors that live there.

The technologies needed for cyberspace are falling into place. It is time to build cyberspace as it should be built to reach out to the needs of our society. It is everyone’s responsibility to build it right. I want to do my part by understanding the technology, trying it out, and providing feedback through a significant project/thesis paper. The Living Worlds standard addresses networking, user interface, application programming interface, and avatar representation issues. I will be learning specifics that will have broad, transferable teachings for me.

Specification of Project/Thesis

My project thesis will have three major sections. In the first section, I will review the history of shared digital worlds and investigate the tools available today for creating new ones. I will discuss the technologies used, the goals of the shared communications, and critique the strengths and weaknesses of each approach. I will conject on the new affordances the 3rd dimension add in a visible, collaborative world. In the second section, I will use the best technology available from the consortium of technology companies supporting the Living Worlds standard and build the best world I can to demonstrate the use of cyberspace to communicate and collaborate within a digital, virtual world. After trying out different techniques, I will focus my work on one aspect of the world/interface that seems to be critical in invoking collaborative behaviors among participants. At that time, I will get data based on applying the scientific method to groups of people using worlds with and without that feature. In the third section, I will document the strengths and weaknesses of using the technology for my intended purpose. I will present my data on the one collaborative feature I find most worthy of research. I will also invite participation in the world from anyone with an internet connection who is willing to download the necessary sofware and related files. I will keep myself present in the world as a participant and evaluator and document any serendipidous findings along the way.

I may change my scope should I find a specific technological bottleneck that I think I can help solve. I don’t expect that to happen. There are many experts with at least 15 years of networking and software engineering experience working on the Living Worlds standard. Instead, I expect to be able to opine on which aspects of the technology need the most work and what elements are most important in a virtual world to foster enthusiastic, collaborative participation. In other words, I will speak to the different bottlenecks and design decisions that have limited my virtual world’s acceptance by the general public, and focus on the questions that will require additional research.

Method of solution

For the first section, I have already found much on-line information about technologies used in the past to collaborate. Other theses have been already written critiquing those technologies. I will read, digest, and summarize the papers I encounter in my literature review. I will also continue creating the 3D objects, scripts, and code objects necessary for my world development. For the second section, I will continue to try out the available technologies for creating shared, 3D worlds for use over the internet. I have been creating worlds with other technologies not specifically intended for internet use. The companies involved with Living Worlds have been delivering software expressly for internet use. At the lowest level, my world can be created using an ASCII editor. I will use the best tools available to be a more productive developer. I expect to use the CosmoPlayer API with Java scripting to create my world and house it on a Living Worlds compatible server of which I am most familiar with Black Sun’s CyberHub server. Once my world is created, I will publicize it on-line in Usenets and on chat services, through the Contact Consortium, and via word of mouth. When others come to visit, I will be one of the participants and will guide others’ interaction. After they experience my world, I will follow up with a survey and email correspondence to get their feedback. At some point, when I have determined which aspect of my world seems important for invoking collaborative behaviors among participants, I will set up the appropriate test subject groups and test my hypothesis. I will keep a detailed journal of my progress including any surprise findings throughout the process.

Hardware and software to be used

For the client, based on all the software solutions I have seen to date, I expect to use Silicon Graphics’ CosmoPlayer as a 3D VRML viewer. The viewer can be extended by using its external interface and Java based routines I will acquire and write myself. I expect to be innovative in extending the interface to make it more appropriate for my specific virtual world. CosmoPlayer runs on Windows95, different flavors of UNIX, and soon, Macintosh machines. It supports the VRML 2.0 standard in its entirety. The VRML 2.0 standard is the standard I will use to deliver my world to each connected user. Other client software I will consider includes Dimension X’s Liquid Reality browser and Netscape’s Live3D browser.

On the server side, I will use a simple server already developed at The Human Interface Technology Laboratory in Seattle, WA to connect the visitors together in my world and pass information around to all participants. As my world gets more complicated, I will work to extend the current server through cusomized C code, and/or run an NT or Solaris based server with Black Sun’s CyberHub software to maintain the shared world. So far, Black Sun is leading the way in delivering servers that support the Living Worlds standard. I may find another server that performs better, but I don’t foresee that today. CosmoPlayer is already ready to plug into a Living Worlds compatible server and share client actions across virtual world participants.

My Project/Thesis Program Plan

Section 1 - Literature search and technology critiques    February 28, 1997
Section 2 - Virtual World Built                           December  1, 1997
Section 3 - Shared Experience Conclusions                 December 15, 1997
Defense                                                   December 21, 1997
Last Modified: Wednesday, 29-Nov-2008 11:17:56 PST