Populating 3D Cities: a True Challenge

In this paper, we describe how we can model crowds in real-time using dynamic meshes, static meshes andimpostors. Techniques to introduce variety in crowds including colors, shapes, textures, individualanimation, individualized path-planning, simple and complex accessories are explained. We also present ahybrid architecture to handle the path planning of thousands of pedestrians in real time, while ensuringdynamic collision avoidance. Several behavioral aspects are presented as gaze control, group behaviour, aswell as the specific technique of crowd patches

Populating 3D Cities: A True Challenge

In this paper, we describe how we can model crowds in real-time using dynamic meshes, static meshes andimpostors. Techniques to introduce variety in crowds including colors, shapes, textures, individualanimation, individualized path-planning, simple and complex accessories are explained. We also present ahybrid architecture to handle the path planning of thousands of pedestrians in real time, while ensuringdynamic collision avoidance. Several behavioral aspects are presented as gaze control, group behaviour, aswell as the specific technique of crowd patches

A Modular and Open-Source Framework for Virtual Reality Visualisation and Interaction in Bioimaging

Life science today involves computational analysis of a large amount and variety of data, such as volumetric data acquired by state-of-the-art microscopes, or mesh data from analysis of such data or simulations. The advent of new imaging technologies, such as lightsheet microscopy, has resulted in the users being confronted with an ever-growing amount of data, with even terabytes of imaging data created within a day. With the possibility of gentler and more high-performance imaging, the spatiotemporal complexity of the model systems or processes of interest is increasing as well. Visualisation is often the first step in making sense of this data, and a crucial part of building and debugging analysis pipelines. It is therefore important that visualisations can be quickly prototyped, as well as developed or embedded into full applications. In order to better judge spatiotemporal relationships, immersive hardware, such as Virtual or Augmented Reality (VR/AR) headsets and associated controllers are becoming invaluable tools. In this work we present scenery, a modular and extensible visualisation framework for the Java VM that can handle mesh and large volumetric data, containing multiple views, timepoints, and color channels. scenery is free and open-source software, works on all major platforms, and uses the Vulkan or OpenGL rendering APIs. We introduce scenery's main features, and discuss its use with VR/AR hardware and in distributed rendering. In addition to the visualisation framework, we present a series of case studies, where scenery can provide tangible benefit in developmental and systems biology: With Bionic Tracking, we demonstrate a new technique for tracking cells in 4D volumetric datasets via tracking eye gaze in a virtual reality headset, with the potential to speed up manual tracking tasks by an order of magnitude. We further introduce ideas to move towards virtual reality-based laser ablation and perform a user study in order to gain insight into performance, acceptance and issues when performing ablation tasks with virtual reality hardware in fast developing specimen. To tame the amount of data originating from state-of-the-art volumetric microscopes, we present ideas how to render the highly-efficient Adaptive Particle Representation, and finally, we present sciview, an ImageJ2/Fiji plugin making the features of scenery available to a wider audience.:Abstract Foreword and Acknowledgements Overview and Contributions Part 1 - Introduction 1 Fluorescence Microscopy 2 Introduction to Visual Processing 3 A Short Introduction to Cross Reality 4 Eye Tracking and Gaze-based Interaction Part 2 - VR and AR for System Biology 5 scenery — VR/AR for Systems Biology 6 Rendering 7 Input Handling and Integration of External Hardware 8 Distributed Rendering 9 Miscellaneous Subsystems 10 Future Development Directions Part III - Case Studies C A S E S T U D I E S 11 Bionic Tracking: Using Eye Tracking for Cell Tracking 12 Towards Interactive Virtual Reality Laser Ablation 13 Rendering the Adaptive Particle Representation 14 sciview — Integrating scenery into ImageJ2 & Fiji Part IV - Conclusion 15 Conclusions and Outlook Backmatter & Appendices A Questionnaire for VR Ablation User Study B Full Correlations in VR Ablation Questionnaire C Questionnaire for Bionic Tracking User Study List of Tables List of Figures Bibliography Selbstständigkeitserklärun

Interactive product browsing and configuration using remote augmented reality sales services

Real-time remote sales assistance is an underdeveloped component of online sales services. Solutions involving web page text chat, telephony and video support prove problematic when seeking to remotely guide customers in their sales processes, especially with configurations of physically complex artefacts. Recently, there has been great interest in the application of virtual worlds and augmented reality to create synthetic environments for remote sales of physical artefacts. However, there is a lack of analysis and development of appropriate software services to support these processes. We extend our previous work with the detailed design of configuration context services to support the management of an interactive sales session using augmented reality. We detail the context and configuration services required, presenting a novel data service streaming configuration information to the vendor for business analytics. We expect that a fully implemented configuration management service, based on our design, will improve the remote sales experience for both customers and vendors alike via analysis of the streamed information

Assisted Viewpoint Interaction for 3D Visualization

Many three-dimensional visualizations are characterized by the use of a mobile viewpoint that offers multiple perspectives on a set of visual information. To effectively control the viewpoint, the viewer must simultaneously manage the cognitive tasks of understanding the layout of the environment, and knowing where to look to find relevant information, along with mastering the physical interaction required to position the viewpoint in meaningful locations. Numerous systems attempt to address these problems by catering to two extremes: simplified controls or direct presentation. This research attempts to promote hybrid interfaces that offer a supportive, yet unscripted exploration of a virtual environment.Attentive navigation is a specific technique designed to actively redirect viewers' attention while accommodating their independence. User-evaluation shows that this technique effectively facilitates several visualization tasks including landmark recognition, survey knowledge acquisition, and search sensitivity. Unfortunately, it also proves to be excessively intrusive, leading viewers to occasionally struggle for control of the viewpoint. Additional design iterations suggest that formalized coordination protocols between the viewer and the automation can mute the shortcomings and enhance the effectiveness of the initial attentive navigation design.The implications of this research generalize to inform the broader requirements for Human-Automation interaction through the visual channel. Potential applications span a number of fields, including visual representations of abstract information, 3D modeling, virtual environments, and teleoperation experiences