Description of iRoom Applications:

iRoom is a developed  to provides multiple computer displays and input devices which are simultaneously visible, linked and  usable by one or more users. It uses the Event Heap which acts as  mechanism by which multiple users, machines and applications can all simultaneously interact as consumers and generators of system events.

The basic software infrastructoure consists of:

Event heap: 

This acts as a global tuplespace for submission of events . Different applications on different devices subscribe to this tuplespace to recive commands in the form of events and then act accordingly on them .

Each event has the following fields:

• TargetId :    MachineID of device this event is intended to. Used in case of point to point events.
• GroupID:    A unique ID assigned to a group of devices.Useful in case of multicasting events (i.e. sending an event from one application to many other applications)
• EventType:   Type of event, used to distinguish between different events.Some of the events used are:

• MultiBrowseEvent: To start html pages and other applications
• CifeEvents: Defined to submit cife events. These are special strings defined below and groupID  based events ie picked up by all applications.
•  ShowDocumentEvents:  To display images in ImageViewer.

• CommandToExecute:  The command string associated with the event.

• MultiBrowsed: htmlpage /application name            
• CifeEvent:
  • a="some area"                    e.g. ,     a=A
  • d="some date"                    e.g. ,     d=2000-12-12
  •  c="some component"       e.g. ,     c=wall2

   

Event Heap Client:

This is installed on each each device in the workspace . It provides the default event heap listener for a device in the iRoom to  provide the following functionality:

• Acts as  generator and consumer of the events posted to the event heap.
• Enables starting of programs on a iRoom  machine from any other machine in the iRoom. This is done by posting the event with the executable name as the "CommandToExecute" and the TargetID as the machine ID of the machine on which the specified executable needs to be run. All the iRoom machines watch for events and pick and act on any event which is sent to their TargetID
• The eheap client provides a simple command line script called "mbsubmit" to post events to the event heap. 

Event heap client requires the device to have a  unique machine ID and machine name across the iRoom workspace it is installed in.

Pointright:

It is a software system that allows pointer and mouse control to be smoothly switched among displays. A single free-floating mouse and keyboard is used to control multiple screens. When the cursor reaches the edge of a screen it seamlessly moves to the adjacent screen and keyboard control is simultaneously redirected to that machine. The system automatically reconfigures itself as displays go on or off or change the machine they are currently displaying.

We use a wireless keyboard and a mouse in CIFE iRoom .

The machine hosting the event heap server also hosts the pointright server and the other machines have pointright clients running.

XML Database:

This is a native XML database provided by "Excelon" . 

This is the database to store project information of construction data models. It provides a simple query mechanism and a webinterface to access the database across the internet .

Cife Application Suite:

Cife application suite consists of applications which have been programmed to listen for and act on different types of events submitted to the event heap.

1) 4D viewer:

To  display construction models in time and space dimensions.

A iRoom mode was added to this application to make it respond to events. Currently it acts on the following events:

• Date events: The 4D viewer jumps to the project status on that date.
• View events: There are certain predefined views in the 4D model. This event makes the 4D viewer show the specified view.
• Component events: Highlights the building component specified.

How to start the 4D viewer in iRoom mode ?

Executable: Invizn.exe

2) DataViewers:

These are generated from the project data in the XML database as a result of query by the user.

• Tree View: To display details of construction activities and building components in a tree format .
• Table View: To display details of construction activities and building components in a table format .
• Document View: To display details of specification items  in a document  format .

These views have the functionality to submit events to the event heap on mouse click and also highlight data being displayed according to some defined relationships based on events received. Some of the relationships are:

• Related to a construction activity highlight all related building components and vice versa.
• Highlight all specification items reted to a building component/ construction activity.
• Highlight all construction activities related to a date.

These applications are capable of submitting date events and highlight building component events for the 4D viewer and other applications. 

More on functionality of data viewers

Executable: CifeSvr.bat

3) MS Project Listener:

This picks up any date events and makes the status line of the currently being displayed project to move to that date.

Executable: MSProject.bat

4) RoomController:

Implemented  as a java servlet this gives us the current view of the iRoom and provides the ability to submit commands to open up different applications on different machines in a user friendly drag and drop manner.It provides the following functionalities:

• The room description and the applications/file  that can be opened can be user specified. These specifications need to be in xml format. 
• Also the user can enter new devices to the room description at runtime
• A Query Frame to query the XML database and to view the obtained results on the desired machine in a Tree/Document/Table format.

• Room Display Panel represents current room configuration: this is stored in a xml file   
• GUI Frame allows uses to add devices to room configuration at run time 
• Data Collections: Views/data/Commands that can be dropped on the room devices. This frame takes input from room.xml file at event heap server . User can specify his own data collection to open by clicking  on "File" menu and specifying the path of his data xml file.  Click here to view an example of data xml file

Invoking Room Controller ?

Executable: controller.bat

5) createRoomXml:

This application helps you generate an XML file which can then be used as an input to the Data Collections frame of  "Room Controller" 

Click here to view an example of xml file generated.

Executable: createData.bat

6)  DateSlider:

This is a  widget which provides the user with a simple date slider to post cife group date events to the event heap and all applications which are related to the date posted receive the vent and act on it accordingly.

Executable: dateSlider.bat

Takes the starting and the ending date for the slider as parameters. Example:  dateslider  01/01/2000 01/01/2006 .Heap name and heap server are optional arguments.

7)  Import-Export:

This  application  provides the user with an interface to import in a VFE ( 4D file ) and convert it into a XML file which can then be stored to the XML database and then used to generated the desire data views.

Executable: Import-Export.exe

8) Interface to the Excelon Database:

• It provides a simple interface to store XML files to the database.The XML files need to be a project description file conforming to W3C XMl standards .
  DTD for the project XML file.
• View the files present in the database and their contents 
• View the list of files defined for a 4D model. Clicking on any of the views submits a change view event to the event heap and if the related 4D-model is running it jumps to that view.

4DViewer (Invizn.exe)  in iRoom mode:

This application can be made to listen for events by selecting the iroom option in the file menu. It brings up a dialog box asking for what type of messages the application should be able to receive. 

• Cife events: The application picks up all messages sent to the event heap which are sent as "cife" group events. 
• Individual events: The application picks up events sent specifically to its target id. You need to specify a target Id when using this option to give your application a unique identity in the workspace. 

Currently the application is programmed to respond to following type of events.

• d            Move view to corresponding date                                            e.g. , d=2000/12/05
• c            Show the specified component                                                 e.g. , c=wall12     
• b            Highlight the specified builiding component                       e.g. , b=cmisc_egg

Example Invizn (4D Viewer) of a project 

After receiving "d=1998-12-01" command . (Invizn application jumps to show the project status on the date received )

Invoking Room Controller as a servlet:

The command to invoke the room controller is given in controller.bat file as http://graphics.stanford.edu/private/room-applet? and the following parameters:

• heapmachine = Heap Machine name 
• heapname = Heap name
• heapport  = -1
• file = room description file ( in xml format containing a description of layout of your room , default data collections file)  Click here to view an example of such a file

More on DataViewers:

This application is responsible for querying the XML  database and then displaying the results obtained in a predefined format.

Views supported are

• Tree
• Table
• Document

Elements for these views are

• Building Components
• Construction activities
• Specification items

Parameters

The command is invoked using CifeSvr.bat  which takes in a single argument specified as: " Type of View | Element for view | File in Database to use| Query" 

Functionality 

This application expects a config.txt file as configuration file to set the heapname, heapserver name and the XML database server.

This file is in the same path as the class files for this application and its contents should be modified to specify the database/event heap/event heap server that is being used.

• Database     URL of cmx server

• Heap           event Heap name

• Server        Event heap server name 

Table View

Tree View

Document View

The views have been color coded to specify the alternative/file they are viewing. This means that all views related to a file have the same background color. Each of the views generated is capable of submitting and receiving "Cife" group events.