Morphing a Stereogram into Hologram

This paper develops a simple and fast method to reconstruct reality from stereoscopic images. We bring together ideas from robust optical flow techniques, morphing deformations and lightfield 3D rendering in order to create unsupervised multiview images of a scene. The reconstruction algorithm provides a good visualization of the virtual 3D imagery behind stereograms upon display on a headset-free Looking Glass 3D monitor. We discuss the possibility of applying the method for live 3D streaming optimized via an associated lookup table.Comment: PDF, 8 pages, 4 Fig

Augmented and Virtual Reality techniques for footwear

The use of 3D imaging techniques has been early adopted in the footwear industry. In particular, 3D imaging could be used to aid commerce and improve the quality and sales of shoes. Footwear customization is an added value aimed not only to improve product quality, but also consumer comfort. Moreover, customisation implies a new business model that avoids the competition of mass production coming from new manufacturers settled mainly in Asian countries. However, footwear customisation implies a significant effort at different levels. In manufacturing, rapid and virtual prototyping is required; indeed the prototype is intended to become the final product. The whole design procedure must be validated using exclusively virtual techniques to ensure the feasibility of this process, since physical prototypes should be avoided. With regard to commerce, it would be desirable for the consumer to choose any model of shoes from a large 3D database and be able to try them on looking at a magic mirror. This would probably reduce costs and increase sales, since shops would not require storing every shoe model and the process of trying several models on would be easier and faster for the consumer. In this paper, new advances in 3D techniques coming from experience in cinema, TV and games are successfully applied to footwear. Firstly, the characteristics of a high-quality stereoscopic vision system for footwear are presented. Secondly, a system for the interaction with virtual footwear models based on 3D gloves is detailed. Finally, an augmented reality system (magic mirror) is presented, which is implemented with low-cost computational elements that allow a hypothetical customer to check in real time the goodness of a given virtual footwear model from an aesthetical point of view

Projector-Based Augmentation

Projector-based augmentation approaches hold the potential of combining the advantages of well-establishes spatial virtual reality and spatial augmented reality. Immersive, semi-immersive and augmented visualizations can be realized in everyday environments – without the need for special projection screens and dedicated display configurations. Limitations of mobile devices, such as low resolution and small field of view, focus constrains, and ergonomic issues can be overcome in many cases by the utilization of projection technology. Thus, applications that do not require mobility can benefit from efficient spatial augmentations. Examples range from edutainment in museums (such as storytelling projections onto natural stone walls in historical buildings) to architectural visualizations (such as augmentations of complex illumination simulations or modified surface materials in real building structures). This chapter describes projector-camera methods and multi-projector techniques that aim at correcting geometric aberrations, compensating local and global radiometric effects, and improving focus properties of images projected onto everyday surfaces

Advanced Visualization and Intuitive User Interface Systems for Biomedical Applications

Modern scientific research produces data at rates that far outpace our ability to comprehend and analyze it. Such sources include medical imaging data and computer simulations, where technological advancements and spatiotemporal resolution generate increasing amounts of data from each scan or simulation. A bottleneck has developed whereby medical professionals and researchers are unable to fully use the advanced information available to them. By integrating computer science, computer graphics, artistic ability and medical expertise, scientific visualization of medical data has become a new field of study. The objective of this thesis is to develop two visualization systems that use advanced visualization, natural user interface technologies and the large amount of biomedical data available to produce results that are of clinical utility and overcome the data bottleneck that has developed. Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) is a tool used to study the quantities associated with the movement of blood by computer simulation. We developed methods of processing spatiotemporal CFD data and displaying it in stereoscopic 3D with the ability to spatially navigate through the data. We used this method with two sets of display hardware: a full-scale visualization environment and a small-scale desktop system. The advanced display and data navigation abilities provide the user with the means to better understand the relationship between the vessel\u27s form and function. Low-cost 3D, depth-sensing cameras capture and process user body motion to recognize motions and gestures. Such devices allow users to use hand motions as an intuitive interface to computer applications. We developed algorithms to process and prepare the biomedical and scientific data for use with a custom control application. The application interprets user gestures as commands to a visualization tool and allows the user to control the visualization of multi-dimensional data. The intuitive interface allows the user to control the visualization of data without manual contact with an interaction device. In developing these methods and software tools we have leveraged recent trends in advanced visualization and intuitive interfaces in order to efficiently visualize biomedical data in such a way that provides meaningful information that can be used to further appreciate it

Virtual reality as an educational tool in interior architecture

Ankara : The Department of Interior Architecture and Environmental Design and the Institute of Fine Arts of Bilkent Univ., 1997.Thesis (Master's) -- Bilkent University, 1997.Includes bibliographical references.This thesis discusses the use of virtual reality technology as an educational tool in interior architectural design. As a result of this discussion, it is proposed that virtual reality can be of use in aiding three-dimensional design and visualization, and may speed up the design process. It may also be of help in getting the designers/students more involved in their design projects. Virtual reality can enhance the capacity of designers to design in three dimensions. The virtual reality environment used in designing should be capable of aiding both the design and the presentation process. The tradeoffs of the technology, newly emerging trends and future directions in virtual reality are discussed.Aktaş, OrkunM.S

Virtual reality flight control display with six-degree-of-freedom controller and spherical orientation overlay

A virtual reality flight control system displays to the pilot the image of a scene surrounding a vehicle or pod having six degrees of freedom of acceleration or velocity control by the pilot and traveling through inertial space, the image itself including a superimposed figure providing the pilot an instant reference of orientation consisting of superimposed sets of geometric figures whose relative orientations provide the pilot an instantaneous feel or sense of orientation changes with respect to some fixed coordinate system. They include a first set of geometric figures whose orientations are fixed to the pilot's vehicle and a second set of geometric figures whose orientations are fixed with respect to a fixed or interstellar coordinate system. The first set of figures is a first set of orthogonal great circles about the three orthogonal axes of the flight vehicle or pod and centered at and surrounding the pilot's head, while the second set of figures is a second set of orthogonal great circles about the three orthogonal axes of a fixed or interstellar coordinate system, also centered at and surrounding the pilot's head