Applying Linked Open Data to Green Design

Abstract

Increasing levels of environmental consciousness have spurred interest in urban agriculture and greening. However, plant cultivation in a limited urban space isn't necessarily a simple matter. On one hand, a plant that's not a hardy species might die; on the other, a plant that overgrows could disrupt the balance of vegetation in the surrounding environment. The authors propose an Android application called Green-Thumb Camera, which allows users to search for plants that fit particular environmental conditions from the linked open data (LOD) cloud. Queries are made using smartphone sensor information, and the application then uses augmented reality to overlay an image of the adult plant in the specified space. The authors describe the LOD content generation method and details of the application and then evaluate the accuracy of the LOD data and the application's usability.