Assessment criteria for 2D shape transformations in animation

The assessment of 2D shape transformations (or morphing) for animation is a difficult task because it is a multi-dimensional problem. Existing morphing techniques pay most attention to shape information interactive control and mathematical simplicity. This paper shows that it is not enough to use shape information alone, and we should consider other factors such as structure, dynamics, timing, etc. The paper also shows that an overall objective assessment of morphing is impossible because factors such as timing are related to subjective judgement, yet local objective assessment criteria, e.g. based on shape, are available. We propose using “area preservation” as the shape criterion for the 2D case as an acceptable approximation to “volume preservation” in reality, and use it to establish cases in which a number of existing techniques give clearly incorrect results. The possibility of deriving objective assessment criteria for dynamics simulations and timing under certain conditions is discussed

Making an Animation as a Means of Dissemination and as a Tool for Research into Historical Sites: The Case Study of San Julián de Samos

© 2021 The Author(s), This manuscript version is made available under the CC-BY 4.0 license https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This version of the article has been accepted for publication in International Journal of Humanities and Arts Computing. The final published paper is available online at: https://doi.org/10.3366/ijhac.2021.0266Versión final aceptada de: López-Salas, E. (2021). Making an Animation as a Means of Dissemination and as a Tool for Research into Historical Sites: The Case Study of San Julián de Samos. International Journal of Humanities and Arts Computing 15(1-2), 133-151. https://doi.org/10.3366/ijhac.2021.0266[Abstract] In this article we will examine how and why the animation ‘Creating the monastic site: from its origins to the nineteenth century’ allowed us to expand the digital art and architectural project ‘Digital Samos. A digital approach to the Monastery of San Julián de Samos’. On the one hand, by making the animation, we were able to create an easy-to-read and more effective visual product to disseminate our research results about the evolving nature of the monastic site of San Julián de Samos in north-western Spain, far beyond static computer-aided design reconstructions. On the other hand, we will see that the animation became a research tool that forced us as scholars to tackle the visualization of relational past realms in their entirety and on a short-term time basis, without compromising the rigour with which computer-based visualization methods and outputs should be used in the communication of and research into cultural heritage

Dynamic gesture recognition using transformation invariant hand shape recognition

In this thesis a detailed framework is presented for accurate real time gesture recognition. Our approach to develop a hand-shape classifier, trained using computer animation, along with its application in dynamic gesture recognition is described. The system developed operates in real time and provides accurate gesture recognition. It operates using a single low resolution camera and operates in Matlab on a conventional PC running Windows XP. The hand shape classifier outlined in this thesis uses transformation invariant subspaces created using Principal Component Analysis (PCA). These subspaces are created from a large vocabulary created in a systematic maimer using computer animation. In recognising dynamic gestures we utilise both hand shape and hand position information; these are two o f the main features used by humans in distinguishing gestures. Hidden Markov Models (HMMs) are trained and employed to recognise this combination of hand shape and hand position features. During the course o f this thesis we have described in detail the inspiration and motivation behind our research and its possible applications. In this work our emphasis is on achieving a high speed system that works in real time with high accuracy

Animating the evolution of software

The use and development of open source software has increased significantly in the last decade. The high frequency of changes and releases across a distributed environment requires good project management tools in order to control the process adequately. However, even with these tools in place, the nature of the development and the fact that developers will often work on many other projects simultaneously, means that the developers are unlikely to have a clear picture of the current state of the project at any time. Furthermore, the poor documentation associated with many projects has a detrimental effect when encouraging new developers to contribute to the software. A typical version control repository contains a mine of information that is not always obvious and not easy to comprehend in its raw form. However, presenting this historical data in a suitable format by using software visualisation techniques allows the evolution of the software over a number of releases to be shown. This allows the changes that have been made to the software to be identified clearly, thus ensuring that the effect of those changes will also be emphasised. This then enables both managers and developers to gain a more detailed view of the current state of the project. The visualisation of evolving software introduces a number of new issues. This thesis investigates some of these issues in detail, and recommends a number of solutions in order to alleviate the problems that may otherwise arise. The solutions are then demonstrated in the definition of two new visualisations. These use historical data contained within version control repositories to show the evolution of the software at a number of levels of granularity. Additionally, animation is used as an integral part of both visualisations - not only to show the evolution by representing the progression of time, but also to highlight the changes that have occurred. Previously, the use of animation within software visualisation has been primarily restricted to small-scale, hand generated visualisations. However, this thesis shows the viability of using animation within software visualisation with automated visualisations on a large scale. In addition, evaluation of the visualisations has shown that they are suitable for showing the changes that have occurred in the software over a period of time, and subsequently how the software has evolved. These visualisations are therefore suitable for use by developers and managers involved with open source software. In addition, they also provide a basis for future research in evolutionary visualisations, software evolution and open source development

Visualizing and Predicting the Effects of Rheumatoid Arthritis on Hands

This dissertation was inspired by difficult decisions patients of chronic diseases have to make about about treatment options in light of uncertainty. We look at rheumatoid arthritis (RA), a chronic, autoimmune disease that primarily affects the synovial joints of the hands and causes pain and deformities. In this work, we focus on several parts of a computer-based decision tool that patients can interact with using gestures, ask questions about the disease, and visualize possible futures. We propose a hand gesture based interaction method that is easily setup in a doctor\u27s office and can be trained using a custom set of gestures that are least painful. Our system is versatile and can be used for operations like simple selections to navigating a 3D world. We propose a point distribution model (PDM) that is capable of modeling hand deformities that occur due to RA and a generalized fitting method for use on radiographs of hands. Using our shape model, we show novel visualization of disease progression. Using expertly staged radiographs, we propose a novel distance metric learning and embedding technique that can be used to automatically stage an unlabeled radiograph. Given a large set of expertly labeled radiographs, our data-driven approach can be used to extract different modes of deformation specific to a disease