X3D Ontology for Querying 3D Models on the Semantic Web

The Semantic Web offers significant capabilities that transform the current Web into a global knowledge base including various cross-linked multimedia content with formal descriptions of its semantics understandable to humans and processable by computers. Content on the Semantic Web can be subject to reasoning and queries with standardized languages, methods and tools, which opens new opportunities for collaborative creation, use and exploration of web repositories. However, these opportunities have not been exploited so far by the available 3D formats and modeling tools, which limits the possibilities of search and reuse of 3D content as part of the Semantic Web. This work contributes a semantic development pipeline of the X3D Ontology, with corresponding conversion of X3D models into triple forms suitable for formal query. The ontology design reflects experience accompanying the development of the Extensible 3D (X3D) Graphics International Standard, in particular, the X3D Unified Object Model (X3DUOM). This approach combines semantic and syntactic elements of X3D models and metadata to support integration with the Semantic Web. The pipeline enables automatic generation of the X3D Ontology, thereby providing an up-to-date 3D representation with semantics during X3D specification development. By extending commonplace model conversions from other formats to X3D, the ontology presents the potential to enable integration of most forms of 3D content with the Semantic Web.