Extracting 3D parametric curves from 2D images of Helical objects

Helical objects occur in medicine, biology, cosmetics, nanotechnology, and engineering. Extracting a 3D parametric curve from a 2D image of a helical object has many practical applications, in particular being able to extract metrics such as tortuosity, frequency, and pitch. We present a method that is able to straighten the image object and derive a robust 3D helical curve from peaks in the object boundary. The algorithm has a small number of stable parameters that require little tuning, and the curve is validated against both synthetic and real-world data. The results show that the extracted 3D curve comes within close Hausdorff distance to the ground truth, and has near identical tortuosity for helical objects with a circular profile. Parameter insensitivity and robustness against high levels of image noise are demonstrated thoroughly and quantitatively

Extracting 3D parametric curves from 2D images of helical objects

Helical objects occur in medicine, biology, cosmetics, nanotechnology, and engineering. Extracting a 3D parametric curve from a 2D image of a helical object has many practical applications, in particular being able to extract metrics such as tortuosity, frequency, and pitch. We present a method that is able to straighten the image object and derive a robust 3D helical curve from peaks in the object boundary. The algorithm has a small number of stable parameters that require little tuning, and the curve is validated against both synthetic and real-world data. The results show that the extracted 3D curve comes within close Hausdorff distance to the ground truth, and has near identical tortuosity for helical objects with a circular profile. Parameter insensitivity and robustness against high levels of image noise are demonstrated thoroughly and quantitatively

Hydrodynamics of flagellated microswimmers near free-slip interfaces

The hydrodynamics of a flagellated microorganism is investigated when swimming close to a planar free-slip surface by means of numerical solu- tions of the Stokes equations obtained via a Boundary Element Method. Depending on the initial condition, the swimmer can either escape from the free-slip surface or collide with the boundary. Interestingly, the mi- croorganism does not exhibit a stable orbit. Independently of escape or attraction to the interface, close to a free-slip surface, the swimmer fol- lows a counter-clockwise trajectory, in agreement with experimental find- ings, [15]. The hydrodynamics is indeed modified by the free-surface. In fact, when the same swimmer moves close to a no-slip wall, a set of initial conditions exists which result in stable orbits. Moreover when moving close to a free-slip or a no-slip boundary the swimmer assumes a different orientation with respect to its trajectory. Taken together, these results contribute to shed light on the hydrodynamical behaviour of microorgan- isms close to liquid-air interfaces which are relevant for the formation of interfacial biofilms of aerobic bacteria

Modeling of deformed swept volumes with SDE and its applications to NC simulation and verification

Representation of swept volumes has important applications in NC simulation and verification as well as robot-motion planning. Most research on .the representation of swept volumes has been limited to rigid objects. In this study, a sweep deferential equation (SDE) approach is presented for the representation of deformed swept volumes generated by flexible objects. The deformed swept volume analysis is integrated with machining physics to account for tool deformation/deflection for the NC simulation. End milling is modeled and analyzed and the tool deformations are calculated and integrated with the SDE program. A program is developed in C++ for the generation of deformed swept volumes. Using Boolean subtraction, the deformed swept volume of the tool is cut from the workpiece to simulate the machined part. It is shown that this representation approach constitutes an efficient and accurate NC simulation technique for collision detection, geometric verification as well as surface error prediction

Expressive rendering of animated hair

National audienceHair simulation is one of the crucial elements of a character realism in video games as well as animated movies. It is also one of the most challenging because of its complex nature. A simulation model needs to be able to handle hair fibers or wisp interaction while keeping the desired rendering style. During the past few years intensive work has been done in this field. Most of the authors have tried to render and animate hair as realistically as possible. Impressive results have been obtained and computation times have been reduced. Nevertheless this level of realism is not always desired by the animator. Most animated characters are represented with a hair model only composed of a few hair wisps or clumps in other words the individual hair fibers are not even accounted for. Only little work has been done to animate and render non-photorealistic hair for cel-characters1 . The goal of this work is to design an expressive rendering technique for a realistic animation of hair. This project is a part of an ANR research program for a joint industrial project with two production studios: Neomis Animation and BeeLight, two other INRIA project-teams: Bipop and Evasion and a CNRS lab (Institut Jean Le Rond d'Alembert de l'Université Pierre et Marie Curie). The aim of this project is to provide hair rendering and animating tools for movie making. According to the discussions we had with artists from Neomis studio, it appears that an animator will expect realism of hair motion combined with an expressive rendering technique that is dedicated to animated movies

Implicit muscle models for interactive character skinning

En animation de personnages 3D, la déformation de surface, ou skinning, est une étape cruciale. Son rôle est de déformer la représentation surfacique d'un personnage pour permettre son rendu dans une succession de poses spécifiées par un animateur. La plausibilité et la qualité visuelle du résultat dépendent directement de la méthode de skinning choisie. Sa rapidité d'exécution et sa simplicité d'utilisation sont également à prendre en compte pour rendre possible son usage interactif lors des sessions de production des artistes 3D. Les différentes méthodes de skinning actuelles se divisent en trois catégories. Les méthodes géométriques sont rapides et simples d'utilisation, mais leur résultats manquent de plausibilité. Les approches s'appuyant sur des exemples produisent des résultats réalistes, elles nécessitent en revanche une base de données d'exemples volumineuse, et le contrôle de leur résultat est fastidieux. Enfin, les algorithmes de simulation physique sont capables de modéliser les phénomènes dynamiques les plus complexes au prix d'un temps de calcul souvent prohibitif pour une utilisation interactive. Les travaux décrits dans cette thèse s'appuient sur Implicit Skinning, une méthode géométrique corrective utilisant une représentation implicite des surfaces, qui permet de résoudre de nombreux problèmes rencontrés avec les méthodes géométriques classiques, tout en gardant des performances permettant son usage interactif. La contribution principale de ces travaux est un modèle d'animation qui prend en compte les effets des muscles des personnages et de leur interactions avec d'autres éléments anatomiques, tout en bénéficiant des avantages apportés par Implicit Skinning. Les muscles sont représentés par une surface d'extrusion le long d'axes centraux. Les axes des muscles sont contrôlés par une méthode de simulation physique simplifiée. Cette représentation permet de modéliser les collisions des muscles entre eux et avec les os, d'introduire des effets dynamiques tels que rebonds et secousses, tout en garantissant la conservation du volume, afin de représenter le comportement réel des muscles. Ce modèle produit des déformations plus plausibles et dynamiques que les méthodes géométriques de l'état de l'art, tout en conservant des performances suffisantes pour permettre son usage dans une session d'édition interactive. Elle offre de plus aux infographistes un contrôle intuitif sur la forme des muscles pour que les déformations obtenues se conforment à leur vision artistique.Surface deformation, or skinning is a crucial step in 3D character animation. Its role is to deform the surface representation of a character to be rendered in the succession of poses specified by an animator. The quality and plausiblity of the displayed results directly depends on the properties of the skinning method. However, speed and simplicity are also important criteria to enable their use in interactive editing sessions. Current skinning methods can be divided in three categories. Geometric methods are fast and simple to use, but their results lack plausibility. Example-based approaches produce realistic results, yet they require a large database of examples while remaining tedious to edit. Finally, physical simulations can model the most complex dynamical phenomena, but at a very high computational cost, making their interactive use impractical. The work presented in this thesis are based on, Implicit Skinning, is a corrective geometric approach using implicit surfaces to solve many issues of standard geometric skinning methods, while remaining fast enough for interactive use. The main contribution of this work is an animation model that adds anatomical plausibility to a character by representing muscle deformations and their interactions with other anatomical features, while benefiting from the advantages of Implicit Skinning. Muscles are represented by an extrusion surface along a central axis. These axes are driven by a simplified physics simulation method, introducing dynamic effects, such as jiggling. The muscle model guarantees volume conservation, a property of real-life muscles. This model adds plausibility and dynamics lacking in state-of-the-art geometric methods at a moderate computational cost, which enables its interactive use. In addition, it offers intuitive shape control to animators, enabling them to match the results with their artistic vision

Image-Based Approaches to Hair Modeling

Hair is a relevant characteristic of virtual characters, therefore the modeling of plausible facial hair and hairstyles is an essential step in the generation of computer generated (CG) avatars. However, the inherent geometric complexity of hair together with the huge number of filaments of an average human head make the task of modeling hairstyles a very challenging one. To date this is commonly a manual process which requires artist skills or very specialized and costly acquisition software. In this work we present an image-based approach to model facial hair (beard and eyebrows) and (head) hairstyles. Since facial hair is usually much shorter than the average head hair two different methods are resented, adapted to the characteristics of the hair to be modeled. Facial hair is modeled using data extracted from facial texture images and missing information is inferred by means of a database-driven prior model. Our hairstyle reconstruction technique employs images of the hair to be modeled taken with a thermal camera. The major advantage of our thermal image-based method over conventional image-based techniques lies on the fact that during data capture the hairstyle is "lit from the inside": the thermal camera captures heat irradiated by the head and actively re-emitted by the hair filaments almost isotropically. Following this approach we can avoid several issues of conventional image-based techniques, like shadowing or anisotropy in reflectance. The presented technique requires minimal user interaction and a simple acquisition setup. Several challenging examples demonstrate the potential of the proposed approach