Speeding up rendering of hybrid surface and volume models

Hybrid rendering of volume and polygonal model is an interesting feature of visualization systems, since it helps users to better understand the relationships between internal structures of the volume and fitted surfaces as well as external surfaces. Most of the existing bibliography focuses at the problem of correctly integrating in depth both types of information. The rendering method proposed in this paper is built on these previous results. It is aimed at solving a different problem: how to efficiently access to selected information of a hybrid model. We propose to construct a decision tree (the Rendering Decision Tree), which together with an auxiliary run-length representation of the model avoids visiting unselected surfaces and internal regions during a traversal of the model.Postprint (published version

Frontiers of Adaptive Design, Synthetic Biology and Growing Skins for Ephemeral Hybrid Structures

The history of membranes is one of adaptation, from the development in living organisms to man-made versions, with a great variety of uses in temporary design: clothing, building, packaging, etc. Being versatile and simple to integrate, membranes have a strong sustainability potential, through an essential use of material resources and multifunctional design, representing one of the purest cases where “design follows function.” The introduction of new engineered materials and techniques, combined with a growing interest for Nature-inspired technologies are progressively merging man-made artifacts and biological processes with a high potential for innovation. This chapter introduces, through a number of examples, the broad variety of hybrid membranes in the contest of experimental Design, Art and Architecture, categorized following two different stages of biology-inspired approach with the aim of identifying potential developments. Biomimicry, is founded on the adoption of practices from nature in architecture though imitation: solutions are observed on a morphological, structural or procedural level and copied to design everything from nanoscale materials to building technologies. Synthetic biology relies on hybrid procedures mixing natural and synthetic materials and processes

Environmental aspects of tensile membrane enclosed spaces

Buildings enclosed by fabric membranes are very sensitive to changes in environmental conditions as a result of their low mass and low thermal insulation values. Development in material technology and the understanding of the structural behaviour of tensile membrane structures along with the vast progress in computer formfinding software, has made it possible for structural design of tensile membrane structures to be approached with almost total confidence. On the contrary, understanding of the environmental behaviour in the spaces enclosed by fabric membrane and their thermal performance is still in its infancy, which to some extent has hindered their wide acceptance by the building industry. The environmental behaviour of tensile membrane structures is outlined and the possible use of the fabric’s topology and geometry particularly to enhance ventilation rates and airflow velocities within the enclosed space is discussed. A need for further research in this area is identified in order to fully realise the potential benefits offered by these structures

Environmental aspects of tensile membrane enclosed spaces

Buildings enclosed by fabric membranes are very sensitive to changes in environmental conditions as a result of their low mass and low thermal insulation values. Development in material technology and the understanding of the structural behaviour of tensile membrane structures along with the vast progress in computer formfinding software, has made it possible for structural design of tensile membrane structures to be approached with almost total confidence. On the contrary, understanding of the environmental behaviour in the spaces enclosed by fabric membrane and their thermal performance is still in its infancy, which to some extent has hindered their wide acceptance by the building industry. The environmental behaviour of tensile membrane structures is outlined and the possible use of the fabric’s topology and geometry particularly to enhance ventilation rates and airflow velocities within the enclosed space is discussed. A need for further research in this area is identified in order to fully realise the potential benefits offered by these structures

Surface Curvature Effects on Reflectance from Translucent Materials

Most of the physically based techniques for rendering translucent objects use the diffusion theory of light scattering in turbid media. The widely used dipole diffusion model (Jensen et al. 2001) applies the diffusion-theory formula derived for a planar interface to objects of arbitrary shapes. This paper presents first results of our investigation of how surface curvature affects the diffuse reflectance from translucent materials.Comment: 10 pages, 2 figures. The first version of this paper was published in the Communication Papers Proceedings of 18th International Conference on Computer Graphics, Visualization and Computer Vision 2010 - WSCG201