Static scene illumination estimation from video with applications

We present a system that automatically recovers scene geometry and illumination from a video, providing a basis for various applications. Previous image based illumination estimation methods require either user interaction or external information in the form of a database. We adopt structure-from-motion and multi-view stereo for initial scene reconstruction, and then estimate an environment map represented by spherical harmonics (as these perform better than other bases). We also demonstrate several video editing applications that exploit the recovered geometry and illumination, including object insertion (e.g., for augmented reality), shadow detection, and video relighting

Calipso: Physics-based Image and Video Editing through CAD Model Proxies

We present Calipso, an interactive method for editing images and videos in a physically-coherent manner. Our main idea is to realize physics-based manipulations by running a full physics simulation on proxy geometries given by non-rigidly aligned CAD models. Running these simulations allows us to apply new, unseen forces to move or deform selected objects, change physical parameters such as mass or elasticity, or even add entire new objects that interact with the rest of the underlying scene. In Calipso, the user makes edits directly in 3D; these edits are processed by the simulation and then transfered to the target 2D content using shape-to-image correspondences in a photo-realistic rendering process. To align the CAD models, we introduce an efficient CAD-to-image alignment procedure that jointly minimizes for rigid and non-rigid alignment while preserving the high-level structure of the input shape. Moreover, the user can choose to exploit image flow to estimate scene motion, producing coherent physical behavior with ambient dynamics. We demonstrate Calipso's physics-based editing on a wide range of examples producing myriad physical behavior while preserving geometric and visual consistency.Comment: 11 page

Digital gypsotheque. Online features as inclusive educational tool

The paper deals with the first results of an ongoing research on the issues of digitization of CH for educational and museum purposes. The research starts from the study of the small plaster casts collection kept inside the Santa Croce complex at the University of Cagliari. The workflow aims to investigate the potential of advanced technologies by reconciling the needs strictly related to the two principles of measurement and visualization. The construction of an information system will facilitate not only the classification and management of the digital plaster collection but also communication for scientific and didatic purposes. Two different possible applications are considered: the first for the construction of a web platform for the remote interactive query of the database, the second for the virtual visit of the rooms that host some of the casts through the delivery platform for point & click games developed in the PAC-PAC research project

Developing Adventures in Sustainable Urbanism\u27s Web Site

We designed and built a portion of a website to accompany Adventures in Sustainable Urbanism, a book co-written by Robert Krueger (our advisor), Tim Freytag, and Samuel Mössner. Specifically, we had to design and partially implement the Field Trips section of the site. We looked into what the elements of good website design (especially educational website design) were, and from there created two examples of good field trips and a means for people to add their own field trips

The Pop-Pickers Have Picked Decentralised Media: the Fall of Top of the Pops and the Rise of the Second Media Age

The BBC has recently announced that Top of the Pops, the long-running weekly popular music programme, will broadcast its final episode in the summer of 2006. This brief \'rapid response\' article considers how the conclusion of Top of the Pops\' 42 year history may be understood as representative or indicative of broader transformation in musical appropriation. As such it considers the fall of Top of the Pops in relation to the rise of what Mark Poster has described as a \'second media age\' (Poster, 1996). This second media age is defined by the emergence of decentralised and multidimensional media structures that usurp the broadcast models of the first media age. This article argues that the decommissioning of Top of the Pops, and the ongoing expansion of \'social networking\' sites such as MySpace and Bebo, illustrates the movement from a first to a second media age. In light of these transformations I suggest here that there is a pressing need to develop new research initiatives and strategies that critically examine these new digitalised forms of musical appropriation.Music, Digital, Digitalisation, Internet, Capitalism, Social Networking, Rhetoric, Second Media Age, Authenticity, Culture

Digital 3D Rocks: A Collaborative Benchmark for Learning Rocks Recognition

Naked eye rock recognition is an essential activity for professionals and students of geosciences, architecture and engineering. Through a hand holding rock specimen, it is usually required not only to identify the type of rock but recognize their texture and understand its expected properties mechanical and petrophysical properties. Although a wide choice of books, websites and apps are available in the literature and on the Internet, their contents are two-dimensional (2D) and static. Nowadays, the application of remote sensing techniques such as Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) or Structure from Motion (SfM) enable the generation of three-dimensional (3D) interactive models, which are here presented as a novel perspective of learning and practising rocks recognition. Despite limitations of the technique, 3D digital models of rocks permit their virtual visualization and manipulation to reveal parts of the specimens that are hidden in the 2D photograph, as well as details of the rock specimen’s texture such as grain and minerals size, distribution and organization along with the possibility of identifying petrological features, foliation, mineral orientations and others. This provides a novel perspective of learning and practising rocks identification. Herein, a benchmark of digital rocks collected all around the world and generated using SfM technique is presented. The rocks are organised using a straightforward classification system based on the texture jointly with a detailed description to aid the specimen recognition. A behavioural geomechanical classification is then applied. Moreover, a linked datasheet shows the engineering classification, the weathering degree, the guide physical and mechanical properties (general, and specific when available), the engineering uses and others. The information is organised on an open-access website hosted by the University of Alicante (https://web.ua.es/digitalrocks). This initiative also aims to encourage students and professionals to generate their own models and to provide the description to enlarge the repository.This work was partially funded by the University of Alicante (vigrob-157 Project, GRE14-4, GRE15-19 and GRE17-011 Projects), the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO) and EU FEDER under Projects TIN2014-55413-C2-2-P and TEC2017-85244-C2-1-P. Authors thank Ignacio Pérez-Rey/ Leandro Alejano for the description some used samples