[Sigmakee-sumo] SketchUp 3D Warehouse project

[Rich M. <rd...@cf...>]

I didn't get very far on my class project, but I'm still quite
interested in getting feedback on how to approach it, etc.  If
any of the following sounds interesting, please get in touch!

-r


Basically, the question is

  How can ontological analysis and/or tools be used
  to improve the Trimble (SketchUp) 3D Warehouse
  (http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/)?

I should note that I have no real say in how the 3D Warehouse
develops, but Trimble has said that they intend to rework things,
so they might be open to offbeat ideas.


At present, the 3D Warehouse has a fairly simple structure:

Structure
=========

Warehouse

  There is only one 3D Warehouse.  It contains millions of Models,
  organized as Collections of Collections and Collections of Models.

Collection

  A Collection may contain either Collections or Models, but not
  both.  A Collection may be contained in multiple Collections.
  So, Collections form a directed graph, not a hierarchy.

  The 3DW maintains (for each Collection):
    - a unique, opaque ID 
    - title, tags, and description
    - the Owner (who created it)
    - ratings and reviews
    - which Collection(s) contain it
    - which Collections (or Models) it contains
    - when it was created and last modified

Model

  A Model is a file containing the description of some number of 3D
  entities (eg, Components, Edges, Faces, Groups).  Each Model also
  contains some amount of metadata, stored in attribute dictionaries.

  The 3DW maintains (for each Model):
    - a unique, opaque ID 
    - file type (Collada, Google Earth, SketchUp)
    - title, tags, and description
    - ratings and reviews
    - related Models (Other models you might like)
    - the Author (who uploaded it)
    - the Complexity (number of polygons)
    - which Collection(s) contain it
    - whether it has Dynamic Attributes
    - whether (and where) it is Geolocated
    - when it was created and last modified
    - how many Views, Downloads, and Google Earth model clicks
      it has had (over time)

Author

  An Author is someone who has uploaded one or more Models.


Notions
=======

Use existing tags and harvest other ones from the title, description, etc.
Attempt to ground these tags in SUMO, possibly using some sort of Bayesian
techniques to disambiguate word senses.

Use Geolocation information, if available, to characterize locations.

Create an ontology-based browser for authors and users, allowing them to
specify unambiguous categories, etc.

 -- 
http://www.cfcl.com/rdm            Rich Morin
http://www.cfcl.com/rdm/resume     rd...@cf...
http://www.cfcl.com/rdm/weblog     +1 650-873-7841

Software system design, development, and documentation