Introducing the YAMAMOTO map modelling toolkit

The basic idea of the modeling process is to use graphical representations of the environment like architectural plans or aerial photographs as source for the modeling. The geometric location model is drawn over the background of a bitmap image. A mesh of polygons is used to represent the logical and physical entities of the environment, like streets, places, buildings and rooms.
The polygons are used to represent physical boundaries in the environment by their edges, outdoors those are mostly discontinuities in the surface, and indoors walls or doors. Polygons may also be used to define the boundaries of logical entities, like buildings or floors, which may be refined in separate nodes.
Besides the geometrical model, the editor allows the symbolical annotation of the polygons and their edges. URIs are used to refer to instances within an symbolical location model, where spatial relations like a lattice may be represented, which can not be expressed by the tree-structure of the geometrical refinements.
In order to support indoor positioning techniques, the editor allows to place landmarks and beacons within the model. They can be used to represent infrared beacons or RFID tags, either as points or ranges.

Modelling buildings with multiple levels in 3D

The latest release is based on the OpenGL 3D renderer and allows to model buildings with multiple levels through the use of layers on different heights. Polygons can connect two layers and represent stairs or slopes. The resulting data structure can be used for route finding between different levels. The Yamamoto editor includes the PathFinder module, which implements a shortest path algorithm that returns routes between any start and destination points in the building.

NEW: With release 1.2 it is possible to automatically visualize building models in an egocentric 3D view, where edges and surfaces are rendered as stairs, doors or windows by simply changing their attributes. An avatar view allows to virtually explore the building.