Implementing Topic Maps for NUI in kinect

[dharmasam9]

hi all,
I am working on kinect from quite some time , so i decided to make an application on topic maps and use gestures to navigate through it. So I decided to use wandora as a back end for managing my topic map(adding new topics,manage associations etc) and use kinect application as a frontend for visualization of topic maps.

Here are my questions :-

1)Say i get XTM file from server ,then what modules should i have to write in C# to visualize topic maps (Graph topic model ).

2)Which specific part of wandora source deal with graph visualization of TM.Mainly showing only required topics and showing other topics on demand.From where is the data retrieved if i expand a node.Is it from database?

3)For details about a topic I am thinking of using http requests to server and display .Is this recommended?

My questions may not be that accurate but basically i have to build a TM visualization application for NUI(natural user interface ) in kinect,similar to graph topic model visualization in wandora software.

Help would be very useful .

[akivela]

Hello

Very interesting idea indeed!

You can use Wandora's embedded HTTP server to get topic maps -- XTM, for example -- out of Wandora [1]. Use HTTP variable topic to get any topic with a subject identifier. But -- a big warning -- the XTM service module doesn't give you topic's associations at the moment. We'll fix this bug in next Wandora version released 29th of February (2012).

If you use XTM feeds provided by Wandora's embedded server, you are at your own to build a visualization out of XTM feed. You have to do some research of available visualization libraries written C# and capable to import XTM. Unfortunately Wandora is written in Java and probably doesn't help much if you take the C# path.

However, the XTM feed visualized with a C# application is not the only path you must choose from. I figured out three alternative paths.

First one is to build a browser visualization out of Topic Map and use Kinect to steer the browser [2]. This option may be much faster in development time as you don't have to build C# application for visualization. On the other hand, HTML based visualizations may not be as good looking as you might get with C#.

Second, very interesting alternative, is to build a Processing application that uses Kinect [3] and then transfer both the Kinect support and the Processing application to Wandora's Processing panel [4].

Third option is to write a Kinect support directly into Wandora application [5].

Coming back to your second question about which Wandora source parts handle graph visualization. I suppose you mean the graph topic panel [6]. Look at [7] and [8]. I think, you have to modify these classes heavily in order to make them suitable for you. Wandora is also written in Java.

About your third question related to the general client/server architecture. Wandora can be used to serve XTM fragments if you are not expecting heavy traffic. Single user environments should work fine.

Again, I would question the choice of transferring XTM fragments from Wandora to you C# visualization application. It might be easier to choose some other data-fragment-format. Maybe a simple graph-format such as graphml. But the choice is yours, of course.

In any case, I would be very interested in hearing how you proceed and seeing a working demonstration. I am also very pleased to help in Wandora related issues. Good Luck.

Kind Regards,
Aki / Wandora Team

[1] http://www.wandora.org/wandora/wiki/ind ... ice_module
[2] http://www.engadget.com/2010/11/25/kine ... the-force/
[3] http://www.shiffman.net/2010/11/14/kine ... rocessing/
[4] http://www.wandora.org/wandora/wiki/ind ... opic_panel
[5] http://linktohow.blogspot.com/2011/07/h ... -java.html
[6] http://www.wandora.org/wandora/wiki/ind ... opic_panel
[7] http://www.wandora.org/wandora/docs/api ... Panel.html
[8] http://www.wandora.org/wandora/docs/api ... Panel.html

[dharmasam9]

hi akivela,
First of all thanks for your reply.I will let you know my application status as I advance . The project has just started.