EG2014

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https://diglib.eg.org/handle/10.2312/7703

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Teaching Interactivity: Introducing Design Students to Sensors and Microcontrollers
(The Eurographics Association, 2014) Narahara, Taro; Jean-Jacques Bourdin and Joaquim Jorge and Eike Anderson
This paper presents an educational case study and its pedagogical lessons in the context of design teaching. Smart products, adaptive designs, and intelligent spaces are in the forefront of current artistic discourse. They are critical components in sustainable designs where products monitor their own performance and respond to consumers' real-time needs and environmental factors. In order to prepare students in the design field to be able to present interaction-based ideas more effectively, the author developed a project-based course to produce interactive prototypes using sensors, actuators, and microcontrollers. The author introduces instructions using practical template materials that can demonstrate certain key notions such as feedback and kinematics at the earlier phase of learning while providing minimum yet sufficient fundamental skills and theoretical background on programming and electronics. This strategy allows students to acquire extensible knowledge that does not rely on higher-level software functions or specialized but inflexible plug-ins. Students can reinterpret given materials and modify them to produce custom tools that can realize their original project goals. By presenting methods used in the author's course and conceptual example projects by students, an efficient way to teach relatively complex technical materials without overpowering student creativity and motivation will be offered.
ShapeSynth: Parameterizing Model Collections for Coupled Shape Exploration and Synthesis
(The Eurographics Association and John Wiley and Sons Ltd., 2014) Averkiou, Melinos; Kim, Vladimir G.; Zheng, Youyi; Mitra, Niloy J.; B. Levy and J. Kautz
Recent advances in modeling tools enable non-expert users to synthesize novel shapes by assembling parts extracted from model databases. A major challenge for these tools is to provide users with relevant parts, which is especially difficult for large repositories with significant geometric variations. In this paper we analyze unorganized collections of 3D models to facilitate explorative shape synthesis by providing high-level feedback of possible synthesizable shapes. By jointly analyzing arrangements and shapes of parts across models, we hierarchically embed the models into low-dimensional spaces. The user can then use the parameterization to explore the existing models by clicking in different areas or by selecting groups to zoom on specific shape clusters. More importantly, any point in the embedded space can be lifted to an arrangement of parts to provide an abstracted view of possible shape variations. The abstraction can further be realized by appropriately deforming parts from neighboring models to produce synthesized geometry. Our experiments show that users can rapidly generate plausible and diverse shapes using our system, which also performs favorably with respect to previous modeling tools.
Thumbnail Galleries for Procedural Models
(The Eurographics Association and John Wiley and Sons Ltd., 2014) Lienhard, Stefan; Specht, Matthias; Neubert, Boris; Pauly, Mark; Müller, Pascal; B. Levy and J. Kautz
Procedural modeling allows for the generation of innumerable variations of models from a parameterized, conditional or stochastic rule set. Due to the abstractness, complexity and stochastic nature of rule sets, it is often very difficult to have an understanding of the diversity of models that a given rule set defines. We address this problem by presenting a novel system to automatically generate, cluster, rank, and select a series of representative thumbnail images out of a rule set. We introduce a set of view attributes that can be used to measure the suitability of an image to represent a model, and allow for comparison of different models derived from the same rule set. To find the best thumbnails, we exploit these view attributes on images of models obtained by stochastically sampling the parameter space of the rule set. The resulting thumbnail gallery gives a representative visual impression of the procedural modeling potential of the rule set. Performance is discussed by means of a number of distinct examples and compared to state-of-the-art approaches.
Optimizing BRDF Orientations for the Manipulation of Anisotropic Highlights
(The Eurographics Association and John Wiley and Sons Ltd., 2014) Raymond, Boris; Guennebaud, Gaël; Barla, Pascal; Pacanowski, Romain; Granier, Xavier; B. Levy and J. Kautz
This paper introduces a system for the direct editing of highlights produced by anisotropic BRDFs, which we call anisotropic highlights. We first provide a comprehensive analysis of the link between the direction of anisotropy and the shape of highlight curves for arbitrary object surfaces. The gained insights provide the required ingredients to infer BRDF orientations from a prescribed highlight tangent field. This amounts to a non-linear optimization problem, which is solved at interactive framerates during manipulation. Taking inspiration from sculpting software, we provide tools that give the impression of manipulating highlight curves while actually modifying their tangents. Our solver produces desired highlight shapes for a host of lighting environments and anisotropic BRDFs.
Detection and Reconstruction of Freeform Sweeps
(The Eurographics Association and John Wiley and Sons Ltd., 2014) Barton, Michael; Pottmann, Helmut; Wallner, Johannes; B. Levy and J. Kautz
We study the difficult problem of deciding if parts of a freeform surface can be generated, or approximately generated, by the motion of a planar profile through space. While this task is basic for understanding the geometry of shapes as well as highly relevant for manufacturing and building construction, previous approaches were confined to special cases like kinematic surfaces or moulding surfaces. The general case remained unsolved so far. We approach this problem by a combination of local and global methods: curve analysis with regard to movability , curve comparison by common substring search in curvature plots, an exhaustive search through all planar cuts enhanced by quick rejection procedures, the ordering of candidate profiles and finally, global optimization. The main applications of our method are digital reconstruction of CAD models exhibiting sweep patches, and aiding in manufacturing freeform surfaces by pointing out those parts which can be approximated by sweeps.
Automatic Generation of Tourist Brochures
(The Eurographics Association and John Wiley and Sons Ltd., 2014) Birsak, Michael; Musialski, Przemyslaw; Wonka, Peter; Wimmer, Michael; B. Levy and J. Kautz
We present a novel framework for the automatic generation of tourist brochures that include routing instructions and additional information presented in the form of so-called detail lenses. The first contribution of this paper is the automatic creation of layouts for the brochures. Our approach is based on the minimization of an energy function that combines multiple goals: positioning of the lenses as close as possible to the corresponding region shown in an overview map, keeping the number of lenses low, and an efficient numbering of the lenses. The second contribution is a route-aware simplification of the graph of streets used for traveling between the points of interest (POIs). This is done by reducing the graph consisting of all shortest paths through the minimization of an energy function. The output is a subset of street segments that enable traveling between all the POIs without considerable detours, while at the same time guaranteeing a clutter-free visualization.
Perceptual Depth Compression for Stereo Applications
(The Eurographics Association and John Wiley and Sons Ltd., 2014) Pajak, Dawid; Herzog, Robert; Mantiuk, Radoslaw; Didyk, Piotr; Eisemann, Elmar; Myszkowski, Karol; Pulli, Kari; B. Levy and J. Kautz
Conventional depth video compression uses video codecs designed for color images. Given the performance of current encoding standards, this solution seems efficient. However, such an approach suffers from many issues stemming from discrepancies between depth and light perception. To exploit the inherent limitations of human depth perception, we propose a novel depth compression method that employs a disparity perception model. In contrast to previous methods, we account for disparity masking, and model a distinct relation between depth perception and contrast in luminance. Our solution is a natural extension to the H.264 codec and can easily be integrated into existing decoders. It significantly improves both the compression efficiency without sacrificing visual quality of depth of rendered content, and the output of depth-reconstruction algorithms or depth cameras.
3D Timeline: Reverse Engineering of a Part-based Provenance from Consecutive 3D Models
(The Eurographics Association and John Wiley and Sons Ltd., 2014) Dobos, Jozef; Mitra, Niloy J.; Steed, Anthony; B. Levy and J. Kautz
We present a novel tool for reverse engineering of modeling histories from consecutive 3D files based on a timeline abstraction. Although a timeline interface is commonly used in 3D modeling packages for animations, it has not been used on geometry manipulation before. Unlike previous visualization methods that require instrumentation of editing software, our approach does not rely on pre-recorded editing instructions. Instead, each stand-alone 3D file is treated as a keyframe of a construction flow from which the editing provenance is reverse engineered. We evaluate this tool on six complex 3D sequences created in a variety of modeling tools by different professional artists and conclude that it provides useful means of visualizing and understanding the editing history. A comparative user study suggests the tool is well suited for this purpose.
Coded Exposure HDR Light-Field Video Recording
(The Eurographics Association and John Wiley and Sons Ltd., 2014) Schedl, David C.; Birklbauer, Clemens; Bimber, Oliver; B. Levy and J. Kautz
Capturing exposure sequences to compute high dynamic range (HDR) images causes motion blur in cases of camera movement. This also applies to light-field cameras: frames rendered from multiple blurred HDR lightfield perspectives are also blurred. While the recording times of exposure sequences cannot be reduced for a single-sensor camera, we demonstrate how this can be achieved for a camera array. Thus, we decrease capturing time and reduce motion blur for HDR light-field video recording. Applying a spatio-temporal exposure pattern while capturing frames with a camera array reduces the overall recording time and enables the estimation of camera movement within one light-field video frame. By estimating depth maps and local point spread functions (PSFs) from multiple perspectives with the same exposure, regional motion deblurring can be supported. Missing exposures at various perspectives are then interpolated.
SimSelect: Similarity-based Selection for 3D Surfaces
(The Eurographics Association and John Wiley and Sons Ltd., 2014) Guy, Emilie; Thiery, Jean-Marc; Boubekeur, Tamy; B. Levy and J. Kautz
Surface selection is one of the fundamental interactions in shape modeling. In the case of complex models, this task is often tedious for at least two reasons: firstly the local geometry of a given region may be hard to manually select and needs great accuracy; secondly the selection process may have to be repeated a large number of times for similar regions requiring similar subsequent editing. We propose SimSelect, a new system for interactive selection on 3D surfaces addressing these two issues. We cope with the accuracy issue by classifying selections in different types, namely components, parts and patches for which we independently optimize the selection process. Second, we address the repetitiveness issue by introducing an expansion process based on shape recognition which automatically retrieves potential selections similar to the user-defined one. As a result, our system provides the user with a compact set of simple interaction primitives providing a smooth select-and-edit workflow.
Designing Large-Scale Interactive Traffic Animations for Urban Modeling
(The Eurographics Association and John Wiley and Sons Ltd., 2014) Garcia-Dorado, Ignacio; Aliaga, Daniel G.; Ukkusuri, Satish V.; B. Levy and J. Kautz
Designing and optimizing traffic behavior and animation is a challenging problem of interest to virtual environment content generation and to urban planning and design. While some traffic simulation methods have appeared in computer graphics, most related systems focus on the design of buildings, roads, or cities but without explicitly considering urban traffic. To our knowledge, our work provides the first interactive approach which enables a designer to specify a desired vehicular traffic behavior (e.g., road occupancy, travel time, emissions, etc.) and the system will automatically compute what realistic 3D urban model (e.g., an interconnected network of roads, parcels, and buildings) yields the specified behavior. Our system both altered and improved traffic behavior in novel procedurally-generated cities and in road networks of existing cities. Our urban models contain up to 360 km of roads, 300,000 vehicles, and typically cover four hours of simulated peak traffic time. The typical editing session time to "paint" a new traffic pattern and to compute the new/changed urban model is two to five minutes.
Deformation with Enforced Metrics on Length, Area and Volume
(The Eurographics Association and John Wiley and Sons Ltd., 2014) Jin, Shuo; Zhang, Yunbo; Wang, Charlie C. L.; B. Levy and J. Kautz
Techniques have been developed to deform a mesh with multiple types of constraints. One limitation of prior methods is that the accuracy of demanded metrics on the resultant model cannot be guaranteed. Adding metrics directly as hard constraints to an optimization functional often leads to unexpected distortion when target metrics differ significant from what are on the input model. In this paper, we present an effective framework to deform mesh models by enforcing demanded metrics on length, area and volume. To approach target metrics stably and minimize distortion, an iterative scale-driven deformation is investigated, and a global optimization functional is exploited to balance the scaling effect at different parts of a model. Examples demonstrate that our approach provides a user-friendly tool for designers who are used to semantic input.
Rate-distortion Optimized Compression of Motion Capture Data
(The Eurographics Association and John Wiley and Sons Ltd., 2014) Vasa, Libor; Brunnett, Guido; B. Levy and J. Kautz
Lossy compression of motion capture data can alleviate the problems of efficient storage and transmission by exploiting the redundancy and the superfluous precision of the data. When considering the acceptable amount of distortion, perceptual issues have to be taken into account. Current state of the art methods reduce the data rate required for high quality storage of motion capture data using various techniques. Most of them, however, do not use the common tools of general data compression, such as the method of Lagrange multipliers, and thus they obtain sub-optimal results, making it difficult to do a fair comparison of their performance. In this paper, we present a general preprocessing step based on Lagrange multipliers, which allows to rigorously adjust the precision in each of the degrees of freedom of the input data according to the amount of influence the given degree of freedom has on the overall distortion. We then present a simple compression method based on Principal Component Analysis, which in combination with the proposed preprocessing achieves significantly better results than current state of the art methods. It allows optimization with respect to various distortion metrics, and we discuss the choice of the metric in two common but distinct scenarios, proposing a perceptually oriented comparison metric based on the relation of the problem at hand to the problem of compression of dynamic meshes.
Multi-style Paper Pop-up Designs from 3D Models
(The Eurographics Association and John Wiley and Sons Ltd., 2014) Jr., Conrado R. Ruiz; Le, Sang N.; Yu, Jinze; Low, Kok-Lim; B. Levy and J. Kautz
Paper pop-ups are interesting three-dimensional books that fascinate people of all ages. The design and construction of these pop-up books however are done manually and require a lot of time and effort. This has led to computer-assisted or automated tools for designing paper pop-ups. This paper proposes an approach for automatically converting a 3D model into a multi-style paper pop-up. Previous automated approaches have only focused on single-style pop-ups, where each is made of a single type of pop-up mechanisms. In our work, we combine multiple styles in a pop-up, which is more representative of actual artist s creations. Our method abstracts a 3D model using suitable primitive shapes that both facilitate the formation of the considered pop-up mechanisms and closely approximate the input model. Each shape is then abstracted using a set of 2D patches that combine to form a valid pop-up. We define geometric conditions that ensure the validity of the combined pop-up structures. In addition, our method also employs an image-based approach for producing the patches to preserve the textures, finer details and important contours of the input model. Finally, our system produces a printable design layout and decides an assembly order for the construction instructions. The feasibility of our results is verified by constructing the actual paper pop-ups from the designs generated by our system.
Panorama Light-Field Imaging
(The Eurographics Association and John Wiley and Sons Ltd., 2014) Birklbauer, Clemens; Bimber, Oliver; B. Levy and J. Kautz
We present a novel approach to recording and computing panorama light fields. In contrast to previous methods that estimate panorama light fields from focal stacks or naive multi-perspective image stitching, our approach is the first that processes ray entries directly and does not require depth reconstruction or matching of image features. Arbitrarily complex scenes can therefore be captured while preserving correct occlusion boundaries, anisotropic reflections, refractions, and other light effects that go beyond diffuse reflections of Lambertian surfaces.
Crowd Sculpting: A Space-time Sculpting Method for Populating Virtual Environments
(The Eurographics Association and John Wiley and Sons Ltd., 2014) Jordao, Kevin; Pettré, Julien; Christie, Marc; Cani, Marie-Paule; B. Levy and J. Kautz
We introduce "Crowd Sculpting": a method to interactively design populated environments by using intuitive deformation gestures to drive both the spatial coverage and the temporal sequencing of a crowd motion. Our approach assembles large environments from sets of spatial elements which contain inter-connectible, periodic crowd animations. Such a Crowd Patches approach allows us to avoid expensive and difficult-to-control simulations. It also overcomes the limitations of motion editing, that would result into animations delimited in space and time. Our novel methods allows the user to control the crowd patches layout in ways inspired by elastic shape sculpting: the user creates and tunes the desired populated environment through stretching, bending, cutting and merging gestures, applied either in space or time. Our examples demonstrate that our method allows the space-time editing of very large populations and results into endless animation, while offering real-time, intuitive control and maintaining animation quality.
Feedback Control for Rotational Movements in Feature Space
(The Eurographics Association and John Wiley and Sons Ltd., 2014) Borno, Mazen Al; Fiume, Eugene; Hertzmann, A.; Lasa, M. de; B. Levy and J. Kautz
Synthesizing controllers for rotational movements in feature space is an open research problem and is particularly challenging because of the need to precisely regulate the character s global orientation, angular momentum and inertia. This paper presents feature-based controllers for a wide variety of rotational movements, including cartwheels, dives and flips. We show that the controllers can be made robust to large external disturbances by using a time-invariant control scheme. The generality of the control laws is demonstrated by providing examples of the flip controller with different apexes, the diving controller with different heights and styles, the cartwheel controller with different speeds and straddle widths, etc. The controllers do not rely on any input motion or offline optimization.
Flower Reconstruction from a Single Photo
(The Eurographics Association and John Wiley and Sons Ltd., 2014) Yan, Feilong; Gong, Minglun; Cohen-Or, Daniel; Deussen, Oliver; Chen, Baoquan; B. Levy and J. Kautz
We present a semi-automatic method for reconstructing flower models from a single photograph. Such reconstruction is challenging since the 3D structure of a flower can appear ambiguous in projection. However, the flower head typically consists of petals embedded in 3D space that share similar shapes and form certain level of regular structure. Our technique employs these assumptions by first fitting a cone and subsequently a surface of revolution to the flower structure and then computing individual petal shapes from their projection in the photo. Flowers with multiple layers of petals are handled through processing different layers separately. Occlusions are dealt with both within and between petal layers. We show that our method allows users to quickly generate a variety of realistic 3D flowers from photographs and to animate an image using the underlying models reconstructed from our method.
Optimizing Stereo-to-Multiview Conversion for Autostereoscopic Displays
(The Eurographics Association and John Wiley and Sons Ltd., 2014) Chapiro, Alexandre; Heinzle, Simon; Aydin, Tunç Ozan; Poulakos, Steven; Zwicker, Matthias; Smolic, Aljosa; Gross, Markus; B. Levy and J. Kautz
We present a novel stereo-to-multiview video conversion method for glasses-free multiview displays. Different from previous stereo-to-multiview approaches, our mapping algorithm utilizes the limited depth range of autostereoscopic displays optimally and strives to preserve the scene s artistic composition and perceived depth even under strong depth compression. We first present an investigation of how perceived image quality relates to spatial frequency and disparity. The outcome of this study is utilized in a two-step mapping algorithm, where we (i) compress the scene depth using a non-linear global function to the depth range of an autostereoscopic display, and (ii) enhance the depth gradients of salient objects to restore the perceived depth and salient scene structure. Finally, an adapted image domain warping algorithm is proposed to generate the multiview output, which enables overall disparity range extension.
Game Level Layout from Design Specification
(The Eurographics Association and John Wiley and Sons Ltd., 2014) Ma, Chongyang; Vining, Nicholas; Lefebvre, Sylvain; Sheffer, Alla; B. Levy and J. Kautz
The design of video game environments, or levels, aims to control gameplay by steering the player through a sequence of designer-controlled steps, while simultaneously providing a visually engaging experience. Traditionally these levels are painstakingly designed by hand, often from pre-existing building blocks, or space templates. In this paper, we propose an algorithmic approach for automatically laying out game levels from user-specified blocks. Our method allows designers to retain control of the gameplay flow via user-specified level connectivity graphs, while relieving them from the tedious task of manually assembling the building blocks into a valid, plausible layout. Our method produces sequences of diverse layouts for the same input connectivity, allowing for repeated replay of a given level within a visually different, new environment. We support complex graph connectivities and various building block shapes, and are able to compute complex layouts in seconds. The two key components of our algorithm are the use of configuration spaces defining feasible relative positions of building blocks within a layout and a graph-decomposition based layout strategy that leverages graph connectivity to speed up convergence and avoid local minima. Together these two tools quickly steer the solution toward feasible layouts. We demonstrate our method on a variety of real-life inputs, and generate appealing layouts conforming to user specifications

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