The Video Mesh: A Data Structure for Image-based Three-dimensional Video Editing

This paper introduces the video mesh, a data structure for representing video as 2.5D “paper cutouts.” The video mesh allows interactive editing of moving objects and modeling of depth, which enables 3D effects and post-exposure camera control. The video mesh sparsely encodes optical flow as well as depth, and handles occlusion using local layering and alpha mattes. Motion is described by a sparse set of points tracked over time. Each point also stores a depth value. The video mesh is a triangulation over this point set and per-pixel information is obtained by interpolation. The user rotoscopes occluding contours and we introduce an algorithm to cut the video mesh along them. Object boundaries are refined with per-pixel alpha values. The video mesh is at its core a set of texture mapped triangles, we leverage graphics hardware to enable interactive editing and rendering of a variety of effects. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our representation with special effects such as 3D viewpoint changes, object insertion, depth-of-field manipulation, and 2D to 3D video conversion

Energy management in mobile devices with the cinder operating system

We argue that controlling energy allocation is an increasingly useful and important feature for operating systems, especially on mobile devices. We present two new low-level abstractions in the Cinder operating system, reserves and taps, which store and distribute energy for application use. We identify three key properties of control -- isolation, delegation, and subdivision -- and show how using these abstractions can achieve them. We also show how the architecture of the HiStar information-flow control kernel lends itself well to energy control. We prototype and evaluate Cinder on a popular smartphone, the Android G1.National Science Foundation (U.S.) (grant #0831163)National Science Foundation (U.S.) (grant #0846014)Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC)King Abdullah University of Science and TechnologyMicrosoft ResearchNational Science Foundation (U.S.) (Cybertrust award CNS-0716806)National Science Foundation (U.S.) (POMI (Programmable Open Mobile Internet) 2020 Expedition Grant #0832820)T-Mobile US

Low Power system Design techniques for mobile computers

Portable products are being used increasingly. Because these systems are battery powered, reducing power consumption is vital. In this report we give the properties of low power design and techniques to exploit them on the architecture of the system. We focus on: min imizing capacitance, avoiding unnecessary and wasteful activity, and reducing voltage and frequency. We review energy reduction techniques in the architecture and design of a hand-held computer and the wireless communication system, including error control, sys tem decomposition, communication and MAC protocols, and low power short range net works

The Iray Light Transport Simulation and Rendering System

While ray tracing has become increasingly common and path tracing is well understood by now, a major challenge lies in crafting an easy-to-use and efficient system implementing these technologies. Following a purely physically-based paradigm while still allowing for artistic workflows, the Iray light transport simulation and rendering system allows for rendering complex scenes by the push of a button and thus makes accurate light transport simulation widely available. In this document we discuss the challenges and implementation choices that follow from our primary design decisions, demonstrating that such a rendering system can be made a practical, scalable, and efficient real-world application that has been adopted by various companies across many fields and is in use by many industry professionals today