1. Fish4Knowlege (F4K): a Virtual World Exhibition Space for a Large Collaborative Project
Dr. Jessica Chen-Burger1, Prof. Austin Tate2
1Computer Science, Heriot-Watt, University
2 Artificial Intelligence Applications Institute,
University of Edinburgh and
Virtual University of Edinburgh (Vue)

2. What is F4K Project ? A EU funded 2.5 millions Euro FP7 project
Detecting targets in noisy environments
open sea at sites of the south Taiwan
Recognising fish species
Exploiting ontologies to interpret user queries.
Exploiting ontologies to convert queries into workflow sequences.
Storing and accessing massive amounts of video and RDF data in a timely manner.
Integration of the research in a publically usable web tool.
Creation of a fish database suitable for behavioural and environmental studies.
Training of staff in cross-disciplinary methods (computer vision with database and workflow scientists, computer scientists with biologists).
David Whiteley, e-Commerce: Strategy, Technologies and Applications,
David Whiteley, eCommerce slides -

3. PIs of F4K
Robert Fisher (coordinator), Univ. of Edinburgh (United Kingdom) – machine vision
Jessica Yun-Heh Chen-Burger, Univ. of Edinburgh (United Kingdom) – workflow
Daniela Giordano, Università di Catania (Italy) - machine vision
Lynda Hardman, Centrum voor Wiskunde en Informatica (Netherlands) – user query
Fang-Pang Lin, National Applied Research Laboratories (Taiwan) – HPC, data mgmt
Kwang-Tsao Shao, Biodiversity Research Center, Academia Sinica – domain expert

4. Source: NCHC

5. Sensor Grid in Taiwan 福山 鴛鴦湖 關刀溪 塔塔加 南仁山 Orchid Island
Ken-Ting 墾丁
Orchid Island 蘭嶼
Ken-Ting coral reef at
Third Nuclear Power Station
Source adapted from: NCHC

6. Motivation for the F4K Virtual World Gallery
Technologies for 3D interactive virtual environments for multiple simultaneous users are advanced and maturing
Fish4Knowledge project has an important visual aspect to show marine life observations
Addition outlet to traditional academic web sites, scientific conferences and journal publications.

7. Front of the F4K Gallery
2012 B2B E-Commerce Survey: Results and Trends, Feb 2012

8. Ground Level Exhibition Hall
2012 B2B E-Commerce Survey: Results and Trends, Feb 2012

9. Tunnel to the Underwater Level
2012 B2B E-Commerce Survey: Results and Trends, Feb 2012

10. The Underwater Level
2012 B2B E-Commerce Survey: Results and Trends, Feb 2012

11. Oculus Rift Virtual Reality View

12. Conclusions and Discussion
To provide a fun, interactive and educational space - to provide different learning experiences and to attract different audience
Promotion of the virtual world site is difficult, due to technical requirements and issues
Age limitation prevents young people’s involvements: primary/secondary school children
Nevertheless, this project has attracted people outside of normal research communities, and we are keen to have follow-up projects, when appropriate
Second Life is generally for adults 18 years and older; however, if you are 13 years of age or older you can use Second Life with some restrictions. If you're: years old you can access regions and search results that have a General maturity rating.8 Feb 2012
Issues Encountered in the Development of the F4K Virtual World Facilities
The central design idea of the underwater virtual aquarium is to provide a fun, interactive and educational space that gives its visitors a “surreal” experience - in that visitors can “walk about”, “touch” things, interact with objects or “talk” with virtual fish. When there is more than one visitor in this space, people can choose to share their experiences through Second Life and OpenSimulator’s live voice and text-chat facilities. When appropriate, the Fish4Knowledge team has run events and can hold future exhibition events where project works are presented. This learning experience is intended to be different from those provided by conventional publications, web sites and 2D media.
What we have encountered are the difficulty of introducing new users to the complexities of the viewer interface, especially when they lack any game playing experience or have lower power computers. Voice set up can be especially difficult.
We have also found that the promotion of the facility to the potential community of interest is difficult even with the various social interaction mechanisms used by virtual worlds like Second Life and the OpenSimulator community. One problem was also the age limitations set for Second Life users which meant that we could not attract primary and secondary school children to our site. Nevertheless, our real-life project had attracted many marine scientists and enthusiasts’ interests that we continue to receive feedback. If possible, we plan to create follow-up projects, when we will consider how to enhance our current set up in the virtual world to encourage more participants.

13. Images from Ken Ting National Park
Thank you for listening
Images from Ken Ting National Park