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The purpose of this paper is to present a low-cost, highly mobile system for performing street-level imaging. Street-level imaging and geo-location-based services are rapidly growing in both popularity and coverage. Google Street View and Bing StreetSide are two of the free, online services which allow users to search location-based information on interactive maps. In addition, these services also provide software developers and researchers a rich source of street-level images for different purposes – from identifying traffic routes to augmented reality applications. Currently, coverage for Street View and StreetSide is limited to more affluent Western countries with sparse coverage throughout south-east Asia and Africa. In this paper, we present a low-cost system to perform street-level imaging targeted towards the congested, motorcycle-dominant south-east Asian countries. The proposed system uses a catadioptric imaging system to capture 360-degree panoramic images which are geo-located using an on-board GPS. The system is mounted on the back of a motorcycle to provide maximum mobility and access to narrow roads. An innovative backwards remapping technique for flattening the images is discussed along with some results from the first 150 km which have been captured from Southern Vietnam.

The design was a low-cost prototype design using low-cost off-the-shelf hardware with custom software and assembly to facilitate functionality.

The system was shown to work well as a low-cost omnidirectional mapping solution targeted toward sea-of-motorbike road conditions.

Some of the pictures returned by the system were unclear. These could be improved by having artificial lighting (currently only ambient light is used), a gyroscope-stabilised imaging platform and a higher resolution camera.

This paper discusses a design which facilitates low-cost, street-level imaging for a sea-of-motorcycle environment. The system uses a catadioptric imaging approach to give a wide field of view without excessive image storage requirements using dozens of cameras.

The purpose of this study is to propose a method for vulnerable pedestrians to visualize potential obstacles on sidewalks. In recent years, the number of vulnerable pedestrians has been increasing as Japanese society has aged. The number of wheelchair users is also expected to increase in the future. Currently, barrier-free maps and street-view applications can be used by wheelchair users to check possible routes and the surroundings of their destinations in advance. However, identifying physical barriers that pose a threat to vulnerable pedestrians en route is often difficult.

This study uses photogrammetry to create a digital twin of the three-dimensional (3D) geometry of the existing walking space by collecting photographic images taken on sidewalks. This approach allows for the creation of high-resolution digital elevation models of the entire physical sidewalk surface from which physical barriers such as local gradients and height differences can be detected by uniform image filtering. The method can be used with a Web-based data visualization tool in a geographical information system, permitting first-person views of the ground and accurate geolocation of the barriers on the map.

The findings of this study showed that capturing the road surface with a small wide-angle camera while walking is sufficient for recording subtle 3D undulations in the road surface. The method used for capturing data and the precision of the 3D restoration results are described.

The proposed approach demonstrates the significant benefits of creating a digital twin of walking space using photogrammetry as a cost-effective means of balancing the acquisition of 3D data that is sufficiently accurate to show the detailed geometric features needed to navigate a walking space safely. Further, the findings showed how information can be provided directly to users through two-dimensional (2D) and 3D Web-based visualizations.

The purpose of the study is to investigate the effects of interactivity and vividness on perceived usefulness and perceived enjoyment and their consequent impacts on consumer behavioral responses in a retail furniture VR store context. Considering the lack of VR empirical research, the indirect effect of interactivity and vividness on perceived usefulness and perceived enjoyment through telepresence and the moderating effect of consumer previous experience with VR are also included.

A commercial IKEA VR store was chosen for the study. Head-mounted display (HMD) VR headsets were employed for the VR shopping experience. The study was conducted at a laboratory at a large university in the southeastern United States. A total of 146 college students participated in the study.

Vividness had significant positive effects on perceived usefulness and perceived enjoyment, which in turn influenced attitude towards VR and behavioral intentions. Interactivity did not have positive impacts on perceived usefulness and perceived enjoyment. However, it indirectly affected perceived usefulness and perceived enjoyment through telepresence. The findings also proved the moderating effect of consumer previous VR experience between interactivity and perceived usefulness and between interactivity and perceived enjoyment. The relationship between attitude and behavioral intentions was also positive.

Notwithstanding the benefits of VR in relation to its utilitarian, hedonic, and behavioral values, little is known about consumers' responses towards the usage of VR as a shopping tool. The present study can be considered as a starting point in understanding the usefulness of VR from consumer and managerial perspectives. The findings of VR indicated in the study will help practitioners understand the urgency of adopting VR in a retail setting.

The purpose of this paper is to introduce the design of a training tool intended to improve deminers' technique during close‐in detection tasks.

Following an introduction that highlights the impact of mines and improvised explosive devices (IEDs), and the importance of training for enhancing the safety and the efficiency of the deminers, this paper considers the utilization of a sensory tracking system to study the skill of the hand‐held detector expert operators. With the compiled information, some critical performance variables can be extracted, assessed, and quantified, so that they can be used afterwards as reference values for the training task. In a second stage, the sensory tracking system is used for analysing the trainee skills. The experimentation phase aims to test the effectiveness of the elements that compose the sensory system to track the hand‐held detector during the training sessions.

The proposed training tool will be able to evaluate the deminers' efficiency during the scanning tasks and will provide important information for improving their competences.

This paper highlights the need of introducing emerging technologies for enhancing the current training techniques for deminers and proposes a sensory tracking system that can be successfully utilised for evaluating trainees' performance with hand‐held detectors.

Path planning approaches based on conventional occupancy grid maps are problematic in off‐road environment because impossible areas include not only obstacles but also landscapes like ramps and pits. The purpose of this paper is to develop a path planning method in a hybrid grid map, which aims to provide a better solution for outdoor navigation.

A hybrid vision system which consists of one stereo vision and one omnidirectional vision is adopted to provide environmental information for 2.5D grid and 2D grid mapping, respectively. An improved planning method originated from conventional D*‐based search algorithm is proposed for more efficient navigation in such hybrid grid maps.

It is confirmed by simulations and experiments that the path planning in the hybrid grid map is more efficient than that in conventional grid maps. Furthermore, it helps to guarantee a safe exploration for field and planetary robots.

This paper proposes a path planning approach in a hybrid grid map representing unstructured environment. The map consists of two different grid representations with diverse resolutions and structures, named 2.5D and 2D grids. The navigation process is expected to become efficient by reducing the replanning times and track length.

The purpose of this paper is to present a path planning algorithm for a non‐circular shaped mobile robot to autonomously navigate in an unknown area for humanitarian demining. For that purpose the path planning problem comes down to planning a path from some starting location to a final location in an area so that the robot covers all the reachable positions in the area while following the planned path.

The proposed algorithm uses occupancy grid map representation of the area. Every free cell in the grid map represents a node in the graph being searched to find the complete coverage path. The complete coverage path is followed by the dynamic window algorithm, which includes robot's kinematic and dynamic constraints.

The proposed algorithm finds the complete coverage path in the graph accounting for the dimensions of the mobile robot, where non‐circular shaped robots can be easily included. The algorithms are implemented under the ROS (robot operating system) and tested in the stage 3D simulator for mobile robots with a randomly generated simulation map of an unknown area.

Some parts of the area close to obstacles are hard to cover due to complex non‐circular shaped robot and non‐perfect path following. The future work should include better path following algorithm.

The proposed algorithm has shown itself as effective and could meet the working demands of humanitarian demining.

The algorithm proposed in the paper enables complete coverage path planning of non‐circular shaped robots in unknown areas.

Dunlop Aircraft Tyres Division has won an important first contract to supply tyres to Aeroplex for Malev's fleet of Boeing 767s. The contract was placed by Aerospares Shannon, which was appointed by Aeroplex to provide total initial provisioning for the Boeing 767 account.

The COVID-19 virus outbreak began in December 2019 and rapidly spread to every continent on Earth. The analysts have predicted that COVID-19 and other similar pandemics will continue in the coming decade and badly affect offline businesses. As a result, the offline platform is also shifting to the online platform and online demands are increasing daily. The traditional two-dimensional E-Commerce websites are designed to provide simple, browser-based interfaces to allow users to access available products and services. Whilst virtual representations are an essential consideration in establishing trust, most virtual representation sites fall short in mimicking real-life human representation. This paper aims to focus on three-dimensional (3D) E-Commerce technology that presents how virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) can help deal with limitations and improve E-Commerce operations. It is built as an internet-only tool, a person-centred shopping assistant created following user-centred design principles to be used on various computing platforms, including desktop and mobile devices. The paper shows how VR and AR can offer more precise product information in 3D E-Commerce environments. The virtual store experience is also enhanced by an AR assistant that helps the users by giving them all the required information in audio form or using its avatar.

Implementation of VR and AR in E-Commerce will increase customer satisfaction. Sub hypothesis – to study the implementation of VR in E-Commerce. To study the implementation of AR in E-Commerce. To study the inclusion of E-Commerce sites in an open-world game. To study the customer satisfaction of users using VR stores.

The scope of work is concentrated on the urban Indian market especially targeting the country’s youth who are already or ready to indulge in VR such as video games, cinema and other activities (Mattsson and Barkman, 2019). This demography is more open to learning and using VR. The primary segment of E-Commerce that we are concentrating upon is fashion. Here, the regular user needs to have more immersed knowledge about the product rather than just the written information like how would they look in a dress or will the size available on the website fit me or not.

A perfect system does not exist in the world. A terrible disease has landed on the planet. Very soon, it will be impossible to escape from this current situation. The effects of this plague have been felt in every sector of the world. The researchers also claim that physical stores will continue to exist. There will never be anything that replaces the ability to hold and use products or have personal face-to-face interactions with retail professionals. For the time being, brick-and-mortar retail is having a difficult time, but immersive technology is starting to be used to enhance the in-store experience. The good news is that this should help retailers increase their chances of survival. However, the melody of 3D E-Commerce is it would help out the in-store experience.

Image‐based localisation has been widely investigated in mobile robotics. However, traditional image‐based localisation approaches do not work when the environment appearance changes. The purpose of this paper is to propose a new system for image‐based localisation, which enables the approach to work also in highly dynamic environments.

The proposed technique is based on the use of a distributed vision system (DVS) composed of a set of cameras installed in the environment and of a camera mounted on a mobile robot. The localisation of the robot is achieved by comparing the current image grabbed by the robot with the images grabbed, at the same time, by the DVS. Finding the DVS's image, most similar to the robot's image, gives a topological localisation of the robot.

Experiments reported in the paper proved the system to be effective, even exploiting a pre‐existent DVS not designed for this application.

Whilst, aware that DVSs, as the one used in this work, are not diffuse nowadays, this work is significant because a novel idea is proposed for dealing with dynamic environments in the image‐based localisation approach and the idea is validated with experiments. Camera Sensor networks currently are an emerging technology and they may be introduced in several daily environments in the future.