3D digital relief generation.

This thesis investigates a framework for generating reliefs. Relief is a special kind of sculptured artwork consisting of shapes carved on a surface so as to stand out from the surrounding background. Traditional relief creation is done by hand and is therefore a laborious process. In addition, hand-made reliefs are hard to modify. Contrasted with this, digital relief can offer more flexibility as well as a less laborious alternative and can be easily adjusted. This thesis reviews existing work and offers a framework to tackle the problem of generating three types of reliefs: bas reliefs, high reliefs and sunken reliefs. Considerably enhanced by incorporating gradient operations, an efficient bas relief generation method has been proposed, based on 2D images. An improvement of bas relief and high relief generation method based on 3D models has been provided as well, that employs mesh representation to process the model. This thesis is innovative in describing and evaluating sunken relief generation techniques. Two types of sunken reliefs have been generated: one is created with pure engraved lines, and the other is generated with smooth height transition between lines. The latter one is more complex to implement, and includes three elements: a line drawing image provides a input for contour lines; a rendered Lambertian image shares the same light direction of the relief and sets the visual cues and a depth image conveys the height information. These three elements have been combined to generate final sunken reliefs. It is the first time in computer graphics that a method for digital sunken relief generation has been proposed. The main contribution of this thesis is to have proposed a systematic framework to generate all three types of reliefs. Results of this work can potentially provide references for craftsman, and this work could be beneficial for relief creation in the fields of both entertainment and manufacturing

Texture and Colour in Image Analysis

Research in colour and texture has experienced major changes in the last few years. This book presents some recent advances in the field, specifically in the theory and applications of colour texture analysis. This volume also features benchmarks, comparative evaluations and reviews

Task-based Adaptation of Graphical Content in Smart Visual Interfaces

To be effective visual representations must be adapted to their respective context of use, especially in so-called Smart Visual Interfaces striving to present specifically those information required for the task at hand. This thesis proposes a generic approach that facilitate the automatic generation of task-specific visual representations from suitable task descriptions. It is discussed how the approach is applied to four principal content types raster images, 2D vector and 3D graphics as well as data visualizations, and how existing display techniques can be integrated into the approach.Effektive visuelle Repräsentationen müssen an den jeweiligen Nutzungskontext angepasst sein, insbesondere in sog. Smart Visual Interfaces, welche anstreben, möglichst genau für die aktuelle Aufgabe benötigte Informationen anzubieten. Diese Arbeit entwirft einen generischen Ansatz zur automatischen Erzeugung aufgabenspezifischer Darstellungen anhand geeigneter Aufgabenbeschreibungen. Es wird gezeigt, wie dieser Ansatz auf vier grundlegende Inhaltstypen Rasterbilder, 2D-Vektor- und 3D-Grafik sowie Datenvisualisierungen anwendbar ist, und wie existierende Darstellungstechniken integrierbar sind

"CRAFTING" HONGSHAN COMMUNITIES?HOUSEHOLD ARCHAEOLOGY IN THE CHIFENG REGION OF EASTERN INNER MONGOLIA, PRC

The focus of this research is the Hongshan period (ca. 4500-3000 BCE) chiefly community of Fushanzhuang, centered on a group of elite burial mounds and other monuments, located in the Chifeng region of eastern Inner Mongolia. Our purpose was to determine to what degree, if any, inter-household economic specialization (as opposed to ritual specialization) underwrote the emergence of social hierarchy at Fushanzhuang, and perhaps more generally during the Hongshan period. Fieldwork began with an intensive systematic survey for, and the intensive surface artifact collection of, a large sample of the core community's constituent households. These data, along with those collected during subsequent "micro-regional" surface survey for additional outlying settlement, were used to estimate Fushanzhuang's duration of occupation, and its areal and demographic parameters.From analysis of surface-collected lithic artifacts we identified five distinct economic emphases—or "specializations"—among households at Fushanzhuang. These emphases include initial tool production, tool finishing, tertiary tool production/maintenance, agricultural production, and "generalism". Additional analyses of lithic reduction provided corroboration for these different activities. From analyses of ceramic decoration, paste, and vessel type, as well as information on personal ornaments, we inferred the presence of differences in both status and wealth accumulation between households, two dimensions of social ranking that did not correlate with one another. We also found that economic specialization did not co-vary with higher status at Fushanzhuang. Most of Fushanzhuang's higher status households were among its least specialized in terms of their activities. Nearly all higher status households were also among its least wealthy. In contrast, its most specialized households—especially those engaged in stone tool production—tended to be among the community's wealthiest. Only a very few of these, however, also appear to have enjoyed higher than average social standing.These findings suggest two separate but co-extant social hierarchies in Hongshan society: one based on the accumulation of wealth via economic specialization, the other based on something else—perhaps ritual authority. Thus, although economic specialization contributed to community coalescence, and to the creation of wealth differentials at Fushanzhuang, it cannot be said to have exclusively underwritten the development of social hierarchy there

Design Transactions

Design Transactions presents the outcome of new research to emerge from ‘Innochain’, a consortium of six leading European architectural and engineering-focused institutions and their industry partners. The book presents new advances in digital design tooling that challenge established building cultures and systems. It offers new sustainable and materially smart design solutions with a strong focus on changing the way the industry thinks, designs, and builds our physical environment. Divided into sections exploring communication, simulation and materialisation, Design Transactions explores digital and physical prototyping and testing that challenges the traditional linear construction methods of incremental refinement. This novel research investigates ‘the digital chain’ between phases as an opportunity for extended interdisciplinary design collaboration. The highly illustrated book features work from 15 early-stage researchers alongside chapters from world-leading industry collaborators and academics