SketchyDynamics: A Library for the Development of Physics Simulation Applications with Sketch-Based Interfaces

Sketch-based interfaces provide a powerful, natural and intuitive way for users to interact with an application. By combining a sketch-based interface with a physically simulated environment, an application offers the means for users to rapidly sketch a set of objects, like if they are doing it on piece of paper, and see how these objects behave in a simulation. In this paper we present SketchyDynamics, a library that intends to facilitate the creation of applications by rapidly providing them a sketch-based interface and physics simulation capabilities. SketchyDynamics was designed to be versatile and customizable but also simple. In fact, a simple application where the user draws objects and they are immediately simulated, colliding with each other and reacting to the specified physical forces, can be created with only 3 lines of code. In order to validate SketchyDynamics design choices, we also present some details of the usability evaluation that was conducted with a proof-of-concept prototype

SketchyDynamics apoio à produção de sistemas baseados em interfaces caligráficas para a simulação da dinâmica de corpos rígidos

Mestrado em Engenharia Informática - Área de Especialização em Sistemas Gráficos e MultimédiaO paradigma de interação proporcionado pelas interfaces caligráficas constitui uma forma natural de interação humano-computador. Esta naturalidade deve-se, sobretudo, à semelhança que este estilo de interação possui com a utilização de um lápis sobre papel, tarefa comum e intuitiva. Apesar disso é ainda pouco frequente o emprego de tais interfaces em aplicações informáticas, sendo o estilo de interação WIMP (Windows, Icons, Menus and Pointers) mais utilizado e favorecido. No entanto, antecipa-se um futuro no qual as interfaces caligráficas estarão cada vez mais presentes, pois é notório o surgimento de um número crescente não só de aplicações que adotam este estilo de interação, mas também de equipamentos que incentivam à sua utilização. Com base nesta premissa, é seguro afirmar a necessidade de investir nesta área, de modo a agilizar e acelerar a adoção do estilo de interação caligráfico e, assim, tornar a interação humano-computador num processo cada vez mais natural. O trabalho descrito neste documento visa um estudo à utilização das interfaces caligráficas orientada para a criação e controlo de um ambiente simulado. Mais concretamente, é apresentado o sistema SketchyDynamics, que integra um módulo de simulação da dinâmica de corpos rígidos em simbiose com uma interface caligráfica munida das ações necessárias para a manipulação da simulação. Recorrendo a este sistema, é facilitada a produção de aplicações que tirem partido destas funcionalidades, sem a necessidade de as reimplementar. É ainda descrita uma avaliação de técnicas de reconhecimento caligráfico realizada com o objetivo de determinar aquela que melhor se integraria no sistema desenvolvido. No âmbito desta avaliação são ainda apresentados alguns pormenores sobre a implementação dessas técnicas, bem como procedimentos que permitem uma maximização da sua eficácia. São também discutidos os resultados de uma avaliação de usabilidade conduzida com o propósito de validar o sistema SketchyDynamics do ponto de vista do utilizador. Os resultados desta avaliação mostram que este sistema foi bem-sucedido e que se encontra preparado para o utilizador final, não obstante a existência de margem para futuras melhorias.The interaction paradigm provided by sketch-based interfaces represents a natural method of human-computer interaction. This naturalness is largely due to the similarity that this interaction style has with the use of a pencil on a paper, an intuitive and common task. Despite that, the implementation of these interfaces on computer applications is still unusual, in favor of the WIMP (Windows, Icons, Menus and Points) interaction style. Nevertheless, we can predict a future where sketch-based interfaces will be increasingly more widespread, based on the recent emergence of not only applications that adopt this interaction style, but also equipment that encourage their use. With this premise in mind, it is safe to assert the need for investment in this area, in order to streamline and accelerate the adoption of the sketch-based interaction style and thus make the human-computer interaction a progressively more natural process. The work described in this document aims the study of the use of sketch-based interfaces in the creation and control of simulated environments. More specifically, we present the SketchyDynamics system, which incorporates a rigid body simulation module in symbiosis with a sketch-based interface provided with the necessary actions for the manipulation of the simulation. Using this system, we hope to ease the production of applications that take advantage of these features, without the need to implement them from scratch. An evaluation of various sketch recognition techniques, performed in order to find the one that best fits in the developed system, is also described. As part of this evaluation, we also present some details on the implementation of these techniques, as well as procedures that allow us to maximize their efficiency. Furthermore, we discuss the results of a usability evaluation that was conducted with the purpose of validating the SketchyDynamics system from the user’s point of view. The results of this evaluation suggest that, despite the existence of room for further improvements, the system was successful and is ready for final users

A profile-driven sketching interface for pen-and-paper sketches

This research is funded by the University of Malta under the research grant R30 31330 and is part of the project Innovative ‘Early Design’ Product Prototyping (InPro).Sketching interface tools are developed to allow designers to benefit from the powerful computational tools avail- able in computer aided design systems. However, despite the number of sketching tools such as PDAs and Tablet PCs available on market, designers typically create a number of initial conceptual ideas using paper-based sketches and scribbles such that these tools remain inaccessible to designers in the early design stages. In this paper we describe a profile-driven, paper-based sketching interface which infers the 3D geometry of objects drawn by designers using the traditional pen and paper sketching. We show that by making full use of the shape information present in the scribbled drawing, it is possible to obtain a paper-based sketching interface that retains the simplicity of the early- stage design drawings while allowing for the modeling of a variety of object shapes.peer-reviewe

Intuitive Shape Modeling by Shading Design

Shading has a great impact to the human perception of 3D objects. Thus, in order to create or to deform a 3D object, it seems natural to manipulate its perceived shading. This paper presents a new solution for the software implementation of this idea. Our approach is based on the ability of a user to coarsely draw a shading, under different lighting directions. With this intuitive process, users can create or edit a height field (locally or globally), that will correspond to the drawn shading values. Moreover, we present the possibility to edit the shading intensity by means of a specular reflectance model

Pen-based Methods For Recognition and Animation of Handwritten Physics Solutions

There has been considerable interest in constructing pen-based intelligent tutoring systems due to the natural interaction metaphor and low cognitive load afforded by pen-based interaction. We believe that pen-based intelligent tutoring systems can be further enhanced by integrating animation techniques. In this work, we explore methods for recognizing and animating sketched physics diagrams. Our methodologies enable an Intelligent Tutoring System (ITS) to understand the scenario and requirements posed by a given problem statement and to couple this knowledge with a computational model of the student\u27s handwritten solution. These pieces of information are used to construct meaningful animations and feedback mechanisms that can highlight errors in student solutions. We have constructed a prototype ITS that can recognize mathematics and diagrams in a handwritten solution and infer implicit relationships among diagram elements, mathematics and annotations such as arrows and dotted lines. We use natural language processing to identify the domain of a given problem, and use this information to select one or more of four domain-specific physics simulators to animate the user\u27s sketched diagram. We enable students to use their answers to guide animation behavior and also describe a novel algorithm for checking recognized student solutions. We provide examples of scenarios that can be modeled using our prototype system and discuss the strengths and weaknesses of our current prototype. Additionally, we present the findings of a user study that aimed to identify animation requirements for physics tutoring systems. We describe a taxonomy for categorizing different types of animations for physics problems and highlight how the taxonomy can be used to define requirements for 50 physics problems chosen from a university textbook. We also present a discussion of 56 handwritten solutions acquired from physics students and describe how suitable animations could be constructed for each of them

Integration of sketch-based ideation and 3D modeling with CAD systems

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University.This thesis is concerned with the study of how sketch-based systems can be improved to enhance idea generation process in conceptual design stage. It is also concerned with achieving a kind of integration between sketch-based systems and CAD systems to complete the digitization of the design process as sketching phase is still not integrated with other phases due to the different nature of it and the incomplete digitization of sketching phase itself. Previous studies identified three main related issues: sketching process, sketch-based modeling, and the integration between the digitized design phases. Here, the thesis is motivated from the desire to improve sketch-based modeling to support idea generation process but unlike previous studies that only focused on the technical or drawing part of sketching, this thesis attempts to concentrate more on the mental part of the sketching process which play a key role in developing ideas in design. Another motivation of this thesis is to produce a kind of integration between sketch-based systems and CAD systems to enable 3D models produced by sketching to be edited in detailed design stage. As such, there are two main contributions have been addressed in this thesis. The first contribution is the presenting of a new approach in designing sketch-based systems that enable more support for idea generation by separating thinking and developing ideas from the 3D modeling process. This kind of separation allows designers to think freely and concentrate more on their ideas rather than 3D modeling. the second contribution is achieving a kind of integration between gesture-based systems and CAD systems by using an IGES file in exchanging data between systems and a new method to organize data within the file in an order that make it more understood by feature recognition embedded in commercial CAD systems.This study is funded by the Ministry of Higher Education of Egypt

Hybrid sketching : a new middle ground between 2- and 3-D

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 2005.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 124-133).This thesis investigates the geometric representation of ideas during the early stages of design. When a designer's ideas are still in gestation, the exploration of form is more important than its precise specification. Digital modelers facilitate such exploration, but only for forms built with discrete collections of high-level geometric primitives; we introduce techniques that operate on designers' medium of choice, 2-D sketches. Designers' explorations also shift between 2-D and 3-D, yet 3-D form must also be specified with these high-level primitives, requiring an entirely different mindset from 2-D sketching. We introduce a new approach to transform existing 2-D sketches directly into a new kind of sketch-like 3-D model. Finally, we present a novel sketching technique that removes the distinction between 2-D and 3-D altogether. This thesis makes five contributions: point-dragging and curve-drawing techniques for editing sketches; two techniques to help designers bring 2-D sketches to 3-D; and a sketching interface that dissolves the boundaries between 2-D and 3-D representation. The first two contributions of this thesis introduce smooth exploration techniques that work on sketched form composed of strokes, in 2-D or 3-D. First, we present a technique, inspired by classical painting practices, whereby the designer can explore a range of curves with a single stroke. As the user draws near an existing curve, our technique automatically and interactively replaces sections of the old curve with the new one. Second, we present a method to enable smooth exploration of sketched form by point-dragging. The user constructs a high-level "proxy" description that can be used, somewhat like a skeleton, to deform a sketch independent of(cont.) the internal stroke description. Next, we leverage the proxy deformation capability to help the designer move directly from existing 2-D sketches to 3-D models. Our reconstruction techniques generate a novel kind of 3-D model which maintains the appearance and stroke structure of the original 2-D sketch. One technique transforms a single sketch with help from annotations by the designer; the other combines two sketches. Since these interfaces are user-guided, they can operate on ambiguous sketches, relying on the designer to choose an interpretation. Finally, we present an interface to build an even sparser, more suggestive, type of 3-D model, either from existing sketches or from scratch. "Camera planes" provide a complex 3-D scaffolding on which to hang sketches, which can still be drawn as rapidly and freely as before. A sparse set of 2-D sketches placed on planes provides a novel visualization of 3-D form, with enough information present to suggest 3-D shape, but enough missing that the designer can 'read into' the form, seeing multiple possibilities. This unspecified information--this empty space--can spur the designer on to new ideas.by John Alex.Ph.D

Natural and Smooth Pen-based Interaction Utilizing Multiple Pen Input Channels

高知工科大学博士(工学) 平成22年3月19日授与 (甲第176号