Supporting Focus and Context Awareness in 3D Modelling Tasks Using Multi-Layered Displays

Most 3D modelling software have been developed for conventional 2D displays, and as such, lack support for true depth perception. This contributes to making polygonal 3D modelling tasks challenging, particularly when models are complex and consist of a large number of overlapping components (e.g. vertices, edges) and objects (i.e. parts). Research has shown that users of 3D modelling software often encounter a range of difficulties, which collectively can be defined as focus and context awareness problems. These include maintaining position and orientation awarenesses, as well as recognizing distance between individual components and objects in 3D spaces. In this paper, we present five visualization and interaction techniques we have developed for multi-layered displays, to better support focus and context awareness in 3D modelling tasks. The results of a user study we conducted shows that three of these five techniques improve users' 3D modelling task performance

Visual Dynamics: Probabilistic Future Frame Synthesis via Cross Convolutional Networks

We study the problem of synthesizing a number of likely future frames from a single input image. In contrast to traditional methods, which have tackled this problem in a deterministic or non-parametric way, we propose a novel approach that models future frames in a probabilistic manner. Our probabilistic model makes it possible for us to sample and synthesize many possible future frames from a single input image. Future frame synthesis is challenging, as it involves low- and high-level image and motion understanding. We propose a novel network structure, namely a Cross Convolutional Network to aid in synthesizing future frames; this network structure encodes image and motion information as feature maps and convolutional kernels, respectively. In experiments, our model performs well on synthetic data, such as 2D shapes and animated game sprites, as well as on real-wold videos. We also show that our model can be applied to tasks such as visual analogy-making, and present an analysis of the learned network representations.Comment: The first two authors contributed equally to this wor

Interactive Vegetation Rendering with Slicing and Blending

Detailed and interactive 3D rendering of vegetation is one of the challenges of traditional polygon-oriented computer graphics, due to large geometric complexity even of simple plants. In this paper we introduce a simplified image-based rendering approach based solely on alpha-blended textured polygons. The simplification is based on the limitations of human perception of complex geometry. Our approach renders dozens of detailed trees in real-time with off-the-shelf hardware, while providing significantly improved image quality over existing real-time techniques. The method is based on using ordinary mesh-based rendering for the solid parts of a tree, its trunk and limbs. The sparse parts of a tree, its twigs and leaves, are instead represented with a set of slices, an image-based representation. A slice is a planar layer, represented with an ordinary alpha or color-keyed texture; a set of parallel slices is a slicing. Rendering from an arbitrary viewpoint in a 360 degree circle around the center of a tree is achieved by blending between the nearest two slicings. In our implementation, only 6 slicings with 5 slices each are sufficient to visualize a tree for a moving or stationary observer with the perceptually similar quality as the original model

Digitally interpreting traditional folk crafts

The cultural heritage preservation requires that objects persist throughout time to continue to communicate an intended meaning. The necessity of computer-based preservation and interpretation of traditional folk crafts is validated by the decreasing number of masters, fading technologies, and crafts losing economic ground. We present a long-term applied research project on the development of a mathematical basis, software tools, and technology for application of desktop or personal fabrication using compact, cheap, and environmentally friendly fabrication devices, including '3D printers', in traditional crafts. We illustrate the properties of this new modeling and fabrication system using several case studies involving the digital capture of traditional objects and craft patterns, which we also reuse in modern designs. The test application areas for the development are traditional crafts from different cultural backgrounds, namely Japanese lacquer ware and Norwegian carvings. Our project includes modeling existing artifacts, Web presentations of the models, automation of the models fabrication, and the experimental manufacturing of new designs and forms