PotteryVR: virtual reality pottery

Handcrafting ceramic pottery in the traditional method or virtual reality (VR) with intricate surface details is still challenging for the ceramic and graphic artist. Free-form pottery modeling can be efficiently geometrically modeled with the right tools with detailed 3D print outputs, yet challenging to be manufactured using traditional art. The new advanced pottery VR simulation is a promising method to recreate the traditional pottery simulation for a better experience with some barriers. The challenges that arise from surface detail in pottery are a tedious task accomplished by mesh blending and retopology. This paper focuses on refining the VP application’s performance by adding unique sound resonance as a more likely infinite geometric phenomenon textures, blending it into the basic shapes. This paper combines creativity and visual computing technologies such as VR, mesh blending, fixing errors, and 3D printing to bring the ceramic artist’s imagination to life. We have used sound resonance with virtual pottery (VP) systems refinements to demonstrate several standard pottery methods from free form deformed pottery, retopology, mesh blended for surface details, and 3D printed pottery with materials including polymer and ceramic resins

An efficient active B-spline/nurbs model for virtual sculpting

This thesis presents an Efficient Active B-Spline/Nurbs Model for Virtual Sculpting. In spite of the on-going rapid development of computer graphics and computer-aided design tools, 3D graphics designers still rely on non-intuitive modelling procedures for the creation and manipulation of freeform virtual content. The ’Virtual Sculpting' paradigm is a well-established mechanism for shielding designers from the complex mathematics that underpin freeform shape design. The premise is to emulate familiar elements of traditional clay sculpting within the virtual design environment. Purely geometric techniques can mimic some physical properties. More exact energy-based approaches struggle to do so at interactive rates. This thesis establishes a unified approach for the representation of physically aware, energy-based, deformable models, across the domains of Computer Graphics, Computer-Aided Design and Computer Vision, and formalises the theoretical relationships between them. A novel reformulation of the computer vision approach of Active Contour Models (ACMs) is proposed for the domain of Virtual Sculpting. The proposed ACM-based model offers novel interaction behaviours and captures a compromise between purely geometric and more exact energy-based approaches, facilitating physically plausible results at interactive rates. Predefined shape primitives provide features of interest, acting like sculpting tools such that the overall deformation of an Active Surface Model is analogous to traditional clay modelling. The thesis develops a custom-approach to provide full support for B-Splines, the de facto standard industry representation of freeform surfaces, which have not previously benefited from the seamless embodiment of a true Virtual Sculpting metaphor. A novel generalised computationally efficient mathematical framework for the energy minimisation of an Active B-Spline Surface is established. The resulting algorithm is shown to significantly reduce computation times and has broader applications across the domains of Computer-Aided Design, Computer Graphics, and Computer Vision. A prototype ’Virtual Sculpting’ environment encapsulating each of the outlined approaches is presented that demonstrates their effectiveness towards addressing the long-standing need for a computationally efficient and intuitive solution to the problem of interactive computer-based freeform shape design

The feasibility of using virtual prototyping technologies for product evaluation

With the continuous development in computer and communications technology the use of computer aided design in design processes is becoming more commonplace. A wide range of virtual prototyping technologies are currently in development, some of which are commercially viable for use within a product design process. These virtual prototyping technologies range from graphics tablets to haptic devices. With the compression of design cycles the feasibility of using these technologies for product evaluation is becoming an ever more important consideration. This thesis begins by presenting the findings of a comprehensive literature review defining product design with a focus on product evaluation and a discussion of current virtual prototyping technologies. From the literature review it was clear that user involvement in the product evaluation process is critical. The literature review was followed by a series of interconnected studies starting with an investigation into design consultancies' access and use of prototyping technologies and their evaluation methods. Although design consultancies are already using photo-realistic renderings, animations and sometimes 3600 view CAD models for their virtual product evaluations, current virtual prototyping hardware and software is often unsatisfactory for their needs. Some emergent technologies such as haptic interfaces are currently not commonly used in industry. This study was followed by an investigation into users' psychological acceptance and physiological discomfort when using a variety of virtual prototyping tools for product evaluation compared with using physical prototypes, ranging from on-screen photo-realistic renderings to 3D 3600 view models developed using a range of design software. The third study then went on to explore the feasibility of using these virtual prototyping tools and the effect on product preference when compared to using physical prototypes. The forth study looked at the designer's requirements for current and future virtual prototyping tools, design tools and evaluation methods. In the final chapters of the thesis the relative strengths and weaknesses of these technologies were re-evaluated and a definitive set of user requirements based on the documentary evidence of the previous studies was produced. This was followed by the development of a speculative series of scenarios for the next generation of virtual prototyping technologies ranging from improvements to existing technologies through to blue sky concepts. These scenarios were then evaluated by designers and consumers to produce documentary evidence and recommendations for preferred and suitable combinations of virtual prototyping technologies. Such hardware and software will require a user interface that is intuitive, simple, easy to use and suitable for both the designers who create the virtual prototypes and the consumers who evaluate them

Real-time hybrid cutting with dynamic fluid visualization for virtual surgery

It is widely accepted that a reform in medical teaching must be made to meet today's high volume training requirements. Virtual simulation offers a potential method of providing such trainings and some current medical training simulations integrate haptic and visual feedback to enhance procedure learning. The purpose of this project is to explore the capability of Virtual Reality (VR) technology to develop a training simulator for surgical cutting and bleeding in a general surgery

Fabricate

Bringing together pioneers in design and making within architecture, construction, engineering, manufacturing, materials technology and computation, Fabricate is a triennial international conference, now in its third year (ICD, University of Stuttgart, April 2017). Each year it produces a supporting publication, to date the only one of its kind specialising in Digital Fabrication. The 2017 edition features 32 illustrated articles on built projects and works in progress from academia and practice, including contributions from leading practices such as Foster + Partners, Zaha Hadid Architects, Arup, and Ron Arad, and from world-renowned institutions including ICD Stuttgart, Harvard, Yale, MIT, Princeton University, The Bartlett School of Architecture (UCL) and the Architectural Association

Freeform 3D interactions in everyday environments

PhD ThesisPersonal computing is continuously moving away from traditional input using mouse and keyboard, as new input technologies emerge. Recently, natural user interfaces (NUI) have led to interactive systems that are inspired by our physical interactions in the real-world, and focus on enabling dexterous freehand input in 2D or 3D. Another recent trend is Augmented Reality (AR), which follows a similar goal to further reduce the gap between the real and the virtual, but predominately focuses on output, by overlaying virtual information onto a tracked real-world 3D scene. Whilst AR and NUI technologies have been developed for both immersive 3D output as well as seamless 3D input, these have mostly been looked at separately. NUI focuses on sensing the user and enabling new forms of input; AR traditionally focuses on capturing the environment around us and enabling new forms of output that are registered to the real world. The output of NUI systems is mainly presented on a 2D display, while the input technologies for AR experiences, such as data gloves and body-worn motion trackers are often uncomfortable and restricting when interacting in the real world. NUI and AR can be seen as very complimentary, and bringing these two fields together can lead to new user experiences that radically change the way we interact with our everyday environments. The aim of this thesis is to enable real-time, low latency, dexterous input and immersive output without heavily instrumenting the user. The main challenge is to retain and to meaningfully combine the positive qualities that are attributed to both NUI and AR systems. I review work in the intersecting research fields of AR and NUI, and explore freehand 3D interactions with varying degrees of expressiveness, directness and mobility in various physical settings. There a number of technical challenges that arise when designing a mixed NUI/AR system, which I will address is this work: What can we capture, and how? How do we represent the real in the virtual? And how do we physically couple input and output? This is achieved by designing new systems, algorithms, and user experiences that explore the combination of AR and NUI

A new 3D modelling paradigm for discrete model

Until few years ago, 3D modelling was a topic confined into a professional environment. Nowadays technological innovations, the 3D printer among all, have attracted novice users to this application field. This sudden breakthrough was not supported by adequate software solutions. The 3D editing tools currently available do not assist the non-expert user during the various stages of generation, interaction and manipulation of 3D virtual models. This is mainly due to the current paradigm that is largely supported by two-dimensional input/output devices and strongly affected by obvious geometrical constraints. We have identified three main phases that characterize the creation and management of 3D virtual models. We investigated these directions evaluating and simplifying the classic editing techniques in order to propose more natural and intuitive tools in a pure 3D modelling environment. In particular, we focused on freehand sketch-based modelling to create 3D virtual models, interaction and navigation in a 3D modelling environment and advanced editing tools for free-form deformation and objects composition. To pursuing these goals we wondered how new gesture-based interaction technologies can be successfully employed in a 3D modelling environments, how we could improve the depth perception and the interaction in 3D environments and which operations could be developed to simplify the classical virtual models editing paradigm. Our main aims were to propose a set of solutions with which a common user can realize an idea in a 3D virtual model, drawing in the air just as he would on paper. Moreover, we tried to use gestures and mid-air movements to explore and interact in 3D virtual environment, and we studied simple and effective 3D form transformations. The work was carried out adopting the discrete representation of the models, thanks to its intuitiveness, but especially because it is full of open challenges