PROJECT:
Shortcut


PROBLEM:
How to get from here to there on the Brown Campus. The campus was built 
in so many stages that there exist tons of forgotten paths and cut throughs 
that can take minutes off your trek to Pembroke, List, the CIT, Orwig, the 
PO or anywhere. The problem is that noone knows all of them and you don't 
find them out until it's too late to really use them. 


OVERVIEW:
Shortcut would be a way to find the shortest route between two places on or 
around the Brown campus. It would be based on a detailed 3-D model of the 
buildings and their locations. the model would need to be fairly complete 
in order to give the project any degree of usefulness. My vision is to have 
the user click on their location (or otherwise enter it) and click on their 
destination. the program would then, based on pre-=established preferences 
(shortest distance, shortest time, don't cut across lawns, etc.) and 
current conditions (rain, snow on ground, etc.) find the shotrtest 
acceptable path. 
the layout of the Brown Campus would need be precise and would have to 
include not only all the major and minor buildings on Campus but more 
importantly the places where there aren't buildings (and hence you can 
walk). A good example of this is the alleys around and behing d the green 
house that is between Metcalf Chemistry and Carmichael. The model could 
start with modeling the Main Green and the buildings and walkways on it. 
This would actually serve wome purpose since when there is snow covering 
the ground you can only walk on the walkways and there are certainly 
shorter paths.
When the path was found a 3-D line (tube) would show the user the path and 
could even do a fly through of the route to show them the way.


USERS:
Herein lies part of the problem. Only the machines in the Sunlab and some few 
dorm machines would have the graphics power to support this (I think). But it 
would be useful to anyone who walks to classes, meals and to get their mail 
which inludes every Brown student and most of the faculty. 


REQUIREMENTS
Functionality
   - Take input of point of departure and destination
	- Understand locations on Brown campus
	- Know names of buildings
	- Have text and graphical capabilities
   - Calculate shortest path with no restrictions
	- Interpret information from the model
	     - Know intersections of walkways
             - Know that a person cannot walk through solid objects
        - Find alternate paths
	- Determine mhich path is shortest
    - Display shortest path to user
        - As a series of directions
        - As visual path within model
Model
    - Accuracy
	- Buildings and walkways must be correct size
	- Buildings and Walkways must be in correct locations
	- All intersections must me modeled
    - Completeness
	- Must contain all building sand walkways in the designated space to 
	  prevent a path going through a building not in the model
	- Must distinguish solid objects that cannot be walked through (walls, 
	  fences, etc.)
Interface
    - Must caputre to user's location accurately (not simple "On Pembroke")
    - Must allow user to enter any destination
    - Should be point-and-click interface to allow for all possible locations
    - Should showcase graphical display of model
    - Should allow for 3-D picutre of chosen path and possible fly-through
Overhead
    - Machine support 3-D
    - Will need fast connection to server for display of complex 3-D images
    - Will be too big to run over web but would be nice for dorm-dwellers


PRIORITIES:
The true priority would have to be the model. Without it the projuce would 
not exist. the accuracy and completeness of it determine the usefulness fo 
the project as a whole. The next priority would be the user interface. 
Getting the data from the user accurately is the rest of the effectiveness. 
If the path does not lear from where to they are to where thy want to go it 
is useless. The actual algorithms for determining the shortest path are 
tertiary to these first two pieces since they are dependent on them.