Mobile graphics: SIGGRAPH Asia 2017 course

Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

A study of smart device-based mobile imaging and implementation for engineering applications

Title from PDF of title page, viewed on June 12, 2013Thesis advisor: ZhiQiang ChenVitaIncludes bibliographic references (pages 76-82)Thesis (M.S.)--School of Computing and Engineering. University of Missouri--Kansas City, 2013Mobile imaging has become a very active research topic in recent years thanks to the rapid development of computing and sensing capabilities of mobile devices. This area features multi-disciplinary studies of mobile hardware, imaging sensors, imaging and vision algorithms, wireless network and human-machine interface problems. Due to the limitation of computing capacity that early mobile devices have, researchers proposed client-server module, which push the data to more powerful computing platforms through wireless network, and let the cloud or standalone servers carry out all the computing and processing work. This thesis reviewed the development of mobile hardware and software platform, and the related research done on mobile imaging for the past 20 years. There are several researches on mobile imaging, but few people aim at building a framework which helps engineers solving problems by using mobile imaging. With higher-resolution imaging and high-performance computing power built into smart mobile devices, more and more imaging processing tasks can be achieved on the device rather than the client-server module. Based on this fact, a framework of collaborative mobile imaging is introduced for civil infrastructure condition assessment to help engineers solving technical challenges. Another contribution in this thesis is applying mobile imaging application into home automation. E-SAVE is a research project focusing on extensive use of automation in conserving and using energy wisely in home automation. Mobile users can view critical information such as energy data of the appliances with the help of mobile imaging. OpenCV is an image processing and computer vision library. The applications in this thesis use functions in OpenCV including camera calibration, template matching, image stitching and Canny edge detection. The application aims to help field engineers is interactive crack detection. The other one uses template matching to recognize appliances in the home automation system.Introduction -- Background and related work -- Basic imaging processing methods for mobile applications -- Collaborative and interactive mobile imaging -- Mobile imaging for smart energy -- Conclusion and recommendation

Videos in Context for Telecommunication and Spatial Browsing

The research presented in this thesis explores the use of videos embedded in panoramic imagery to transmit spatial and temporal information describing remote environments and their dynamics. Virtual environments (VEs) through which users can explore remote locations are rapidly emerging as a popular medium of presence and remote collaboration. However, capturing visual representation of locations to be used in VEs is usually a tedious process that requires either manual modelling of environments or the employment of specific hardware. Capturing environment dynamics is not straightforward either, and it is usually performed through specific tracking hardware. Similarly, browsing large unstructured video-collections with available tools is difficult, as the abundance of spatial and temporal information makes them hard to comprehend. At the same time, on a spectrum between 3D VEs and 2D images, panoramas lie in between, as they offer the same 2D images accessibility while preserving 3D virtual environments surrounding representation. For this reason, panoramas are an attractive basis for videoconferencing and browsing tools as they can relate several videos temporally and spatially. This research explores methods to acquire, fuse, render and stream data coming from heterogeneous cameras, with the help of panoramic imagery. Three distinct but interrelated questions are addressed. First, the thesis considers how spatially localised video can be used to increase the spatial information transmitted during video mediated communication, and if this improves quality of communication. Second, the research asks whether videos in panoramic context can be used to convey spatial and temporal information of a remote place and the dynamics within, and if this improves users' performance in tasks that require spatio-temporal thinking. Finally, the thesis considers whether there is an impact of display type on reasoning about events within videos in panoramic context. These research questions were investigated over three experiments, covering scenarios common to computer-supported cooperative work and video browsing. To support the investigation, two distinct video+context systems were developed. The first telecommunication experiment compared our videos in context interface with fully-panoramic video and conventional webcam video conferencing in an object placement scenario. The second experiment investigated the impact of videos in panoramic context on quality of spatio-temporal thinking during localization tasks. To support the experiment, a novel interface to video-collection in panoramic context was developed and compared with common video-browsing tools. The final experimental study investigated the impact of display type on reasoning about events. The study explored three adaptations of our video-collection interface to three display types. The overall conclusion is that videos in panoramic context offer a valid solution to spatio-temporal exploration of remote locations. Our approach presents a richer visual representation in terms of space and time than standard tools, showing that providing panoramic contexts to video collections makes spatio-temporal tasks easier. To this end, videos in context are suitable alternative to more difficult, and often expensive solutions. These findings are beneficial to many applications, including teleconferencing, virtual tourism and remote assistance

A Low-Cost Tele-Presence Wheelchair System

This paper presents the architecture and implementation of a tele-presence wheelchair system based on tele-presence robot, intelligent wheelchair, and touch screen technologies. The tele-presence wheelchair system consists of a commercial electric wheelchair, an add-on tele-presence interaction module, and a touchable live video image based user interface (called TIUI). The tele-presence interaction module is used to provide video-chatting for an elderly or disabled person with the family members or caregivers, and also captures the live video of an environment for tele-operation and semi-autonomous navigation. The user interface developed in our lab allows an operator to access the system anywhere and directly touch the live video image of the wheelchair to push it as if he/she did it in the presence. This paper also discusses the evaluation of the user experience