VALIDITY OF LANDMARK SELECTION GIVEN DIFFERENT 3D SCAN PROCESSING PARAMETERS: LANDMARK LOCATION ON 3D MODELS OF YACCHI CRANIA

This project tests the validity of the use of models generated with 3-D technology for the purposes of advancing craniometric methods in anthropology. The literature describing this technology as it is being incorporated and applied is focused on the classification of crania within population structure and evolutionary development. 3-D modeling methods create data that are static over time - as long as the collection and processing has a statistically insignificant impact on deviation from the original true sample. This thesis is interested in the questions of data collection given variations between processing and metadata of 3-D models and uses data from crania recovered from cave burials discovered on Kume Island, Okinawa Japan. The collection has been captured in surface scans and by 3-D coordinate digitizer at different times by different researchers. Adapting 3-D scanning and 3-D medical imaging technology into anthropology is highly advantageous in terms of the quality and quantity of data that can be collected and shared. Models generated from surface imaging are an excellent tool for research that serves to transmit the information encoded in the skull. Recent surface imaging technology is very user friendly from a novice perspective. However, there are different capture and processing specifications between equipment and software, which have the potential to create error due to variation caused by the data capture processes. A review of recent research working to capitalize on 3-D models belies the variation in standards of imaging and model processing. These projects tend to be preferential to data that are collected from samples with a low error rate. Error could be due to deviation of symmetry or damage. However, recovered human crania in historic and archaeological contexts are unlikely to have low rates of damage. In spite of the potential variations introduced by the applications of process parameters, there was no convincing degree of non-correspondence in correlation tests to two comparison approaches. The ultimate goal is to develop guidelines for data collection and processing that are capable of capitalizing 3-D data from any of the available technologies and processing output that is computationally efficient as well as statistically correspondent

Digital Library Services for Three-Dimensional Models

With the growth in computing, storage and networking infrastructure, it is becoming increasingly feasible for multimedia professionals—such as graphic designers in commercial, manufacturing, scientific and entertainment areas—to work with 3D digital models of the objects with which they deal in their domain. Unfortunately most of these models exist in individual repositories, and are not accessible to geographically distributed professionals who are in need of them. Building an efficient digital library system presents a number of challenges. In particular, the following issues need to be addressed: (1) What is the best way of representing 3D models in a digital library, so that the searches can be done faster? (2) How to compress and deliver the 3D models to reduce the storage and bandwidth requirements? (3) How can we represent the user\u27s view on similarity between two objects? (4) What search types can be used to enhance the usability of the digital library and how can we implement these searches, what are the trade-offs? In this research, we have developed a digital library architecture for 3D models that addresses the above issues as well as other technical issues. We have developed a prototype for our 3D digital library (3DLIB) that supports compressed storage, along with retrieval of 3D models. The prototype also supports search and discovery services that are targeted for 3-D models. The key to 3DLIB is a representation of a 3D model that is based on “surface signatures”. This representation captures the shape information of any free-form surface and encodes it into a set of 2D images. We have developed a shape similarity search technique that uses the signature images to compare 3D models. One advantage of the proposed technique is that it works in the compressed domain, thus it eliminates the need for uncompressing in content-based search. Moreover, we have developed an efficient discovery service consisting of a multi-level hierarchical browsing service that enables users to navigate large sets of 3D models. To implement this targeted browsing (find an object that is similar to a given object in a large collection through browsing) we abstract a large set of 3D models to a small set of representative models (key models). The abstraction is based on shape similarity and uses specially tailored clustering techniques. The browsing service applies clustering recursively to limit the number of key models that a user views at any time. We have evaluated the performance of our digital library services using the Princeton Shape Benchmark (PSB) and it shows significantly better precision and recall, as compared to other approaches

Material Recognition Meets 3D Reconstruction : Novel Tools for Efficient, Automatic Acquisition Systems

For decades, the accurate acquisition of geometry and reflectance properties has represented one of the major objectives in computer vision and computer graphics with many applications in industry, entertainment and cultural heritage. Reproducing even the finest details of surface geometry and surface reflectance has become a ubiquitous prerequisite in visual prototyping, advertisement or digital preservation of objects. However, today's acquisition methods are typically designed for only a rather small range of material types. Furthermore, there is still a lack of accurate reconstruction methods for objects with a more complex surface reflectance behavior beyond diffuse reflectance. In addition to accurate acquisition techniques, the demand for creating large quantities of digital contents also pushes the focus towards fully automatic and highly efficient solutions that allow for masses of objects to be acquired as fast as possible. This thesis is dedicated to the investigation of basic components that allow an efficient, automatic acquisition process. We argue that such an efficient, automatic acquisition can be realized when material recognition "meets" 3D reconstruction and we will demonstrate that reliably recognizing the materials of the considered object allows a more efficient geometry acquisition. Therefore, the main objectives of this thesis are given by the development of novel, robust geometry acquisition techniques for surface materials beyond diffuse surface reflectance, and the development of novel, robust techniques for material recognition. In the context of 3D geometry acquisition, we introduce an improvement of structured light systems, which are capable of robustly acquiring objects ranging from diffuse surface reflectance to even specular surface reflectance with a sufficient diffuse component. We demonstrate that the resolution of the reconstruction can be increased significantly for multi-camera, multi-projector structured light systems by using overlappings of patterns that have been projected under different projector poses. As the reconstructions obtained by applying such triangulation-based techniques still contain high-frequency noise due to inaccurately localized correspondences established for images acquired under different viewpoints, we furthermore introduce a novel geometry acquisition technique that complements the structured light system with additional photometric normals and results in significantly more accurate reconstructions. In addition, we also present a novel method to acquire the 3D shape of mirroring objects with complex surface geometry. The aforementioned investigations on 3D reconstruction are accompanied by the development of novel tools for reliable material recognition which can be used in an initial step to recognize the present surface materials and, hence, to efficiently select the subsequently applied appropriate acquisition techniques based on these classified materials. In the scope of this thesis, we therefore focus on material recognition for scenarios with controlled illumination as given in lab environments as well as scenarios with natural illumination that are given in photographs of typical daily life scenes. Finally, based on the techniques developed in this thesis, we provide novel concepts towards efficient, automatic acquisition systems

A Proposal for a Three Detector Short-Baseline Neutrino Oscillation Program in the Fermilab Booster Neutrino Beam

A Short-Baseline Neutrino (SBN) physics program of three LAr-TPC detectors located along the Booster Neutrino Beam (BNB) at Fermilab is presented. This new SBN Program will deliver a rich and compelling physics opportunity, including the ability to resolve a class of experimental anomalies in neutrino physics and to perform the most sensitive search to date for sterile neutrinos at the eV mass-scale through both appearance and disappearance oscillation channels. Using data sets of 6.6e20 protons on target (P.O.T.) in the LAr1-ND and ICARUS T600 detectors plus 13.2e20 P.O.T. in the MicroBooNE detector, we estimate that a search for muon neutrino to electron neutrino appearance can be performed with ~5 sigma sensitivity for the LSND allowed (99% C.L.) parameter region. In this proposal for the SBN Program, we describe the physics analysis, the conceptual design of the LAr1-ND detector, the design and refurbishment of the T600 detector, the necessary infrastructure required to execute the program, and a possible reconfiguration of the BNB target and horn system to improve its performance for oscillation searches.Comment: 209 pages, 129 figure

2D and 3D surface image processing algorithms and their applications

This doctoral dissertation work aims to develop algorithms for 2D image segmentation application of solar filament disappearance detection, 3D mesh simplification, and 3D image warping in pre-surgery simulation. Filament area detection in solar images is an image segmentation problem. A thresholding and region growing combined method is proposed and applied in this application. Based on the filament area detection results, filament disappearances are reported in real time. The solar images in 1999 are processed with this proposed system and three statistical results of filaments are presented. 3D images can be obtained by passive and active range sensing. An image registration process finds the transformation between each pair of range views. To model an object, a common reference frame in which all views can be transformed must be defined. After the registration, the range views should be integrated into a non-redundant model. Optimization is necessary to obtain a complete 3D model. One single surface representation can better fit to the data. It may be further simplified for rendering, storing and transmitting efficiently, or the representation can be converted to some other formats. This work proposes an efficient algorithm for solving the mesh simplification problem, approximating an arbitrary mesh by a simplified mesh. The algorithm uses Root Mean Square distance error metric to decide the facet curvature. Two vertices of one edge and the surrounding vertices decide the average plane. The simplification results are excellent and the computation speed is fast. The algorithm is compared with six other major simplification algorithms. Image morphing is used for all methods that gradually and continuously deform a source image into a target image, while producing the in-between models. Image warping is a continuous deformation of a: graphical object. A morphing process is usually composed of warping and interpolation. This work develops a direct-manipulation-of-free-form-deformation-based method and application for pre-surgical planning. The developed user interface provides a friendly interactive tool in the plastic surgery. Nose augmentation surgery is presented as an example. Displacement vector and lattices resulting in different resolution are used to obtain various deformation results. During the deformation, the volume change of the model is also considered based on a simplified skin-muscle model