POI Interoperability Demo

128th OGC Member Meeting — Delft

Open AR Cloud Team's presentation at the OGC SWG Meeting

Points Of Interest

One of the classical types of spatial content is "Points of Interest" (POI's). They are part of our daily lives when we use online maps on our smartphones to navigate the world. Although they come in many variations a "point of interest" (POI) is a location for which information is available. It could be information about a bus stop, a famous statue, an entrance to a building or even the location of an imaginary object like a "gym" in the game Pokemon Go.

Incompatible Formats and Proprietary Solutions Is the Current Reality

When working with POI data one of the biggest challenges is that such data had not been standardized outside of limited industry verticals. There are no universal standards that cover all types of POI data that any publisher or consumer of such data could leverage. Large companies can afford at great cost to aggregate different types of POI data and make it available through their proprietary platforms. Smaller companies and researchers are typically unable to take on such efforts.

The OGC POI Standard

The OGC Points of Interest (POI) Conceptual Model Standard provides a universal framework for POI data. When these POI data are used together with the OGC GeoPose 1.0 Standard for position and orientation, all the pieces are in place for sharing and accessing POI content across different applications. Both of these OGC standards are key building blocks of the Open AR Cloud's Open Spatial Computing Platform (OSCP).

Standards & Protocol References

Demonstration

The demonstration shows how two different Augmented Reality clients, MyGeoVerse and spARcl, can access and visualize Points of Interest (POI) data using the OGC Points of Interest (POI) Conceptual Model Standard.

MyGeoVerse serves as both the POI publishing platform and a native spatial browser, while spARcl provides access to the same POI data through a WebXR-based spatial browser. Augmented City's Visual Positioning System (VPS) provides localization, using geographic position information including latitude, longitude, and altitude.

The demonstration focuses on POI interoperability, illustrating how standardized location-based information can be shared and accessed across different spatial computing applications.

Two Spatial Browsers

spARcl WebXR spatial browser — a web browser by Open AR Cloud
MyGeoVerse spatial browser — a native app by XR Masters. XR Masters is a member of Open AR Cloud.

How It Works

Both MyGeoVerse and spARcl clients can connect to an OSCP GeoPose service using the Visual Positioning (VPS) implementation from Augmented City. This service is referred to as the GeoPose VPS server. Both clients send camera images and metadata to the GeoPose VPS server and receive their GeoPose estimates in return.
With geographic positioning information from the GeoPose service, the clients can determine the smartphone's real-world location using latitude, longitude, and altitude.
The clients query POI services and OSCP Content Discovery services to discover POI information associated with real-world locations near the user.
If POI information is available, both clients can display the POI information associated with the real-world location.

Step-by-Step Instructions

Download MyGeoVerse spatial browser app on Apple App Store or Google Play Store. After downloading, open the MyGeoVerse App and register.

Step 1

Watch the "How 2 Localize" video to find where the AR experience starts.

Step 2

Once you are there hit the "Start" button on the app and point the camera to the area.

Step 3

Now the app should be localized. Swipe the menu bar on the lower part of the screen and select "View" to see the POIs that are already available at this location.

Step 4

Select "Create POI" on the app menu and tap to place the POI at your desired location. Then, fill in the form about the POI you would like to create. When you are done, hit "Create".

Congratulations! You have created a POI.

Now, you can restart MyGeoVerse and view the POI you created at its intended location. You can then move on to the next step and access the same POI information using the spARcl WebXR browser.