Feeling crowded yet?: Crowd simulations for VR

With advances in virtual reality technology and its multiple applications, the need for believable, immersive virtual environments is increasing. Even though current computer graphics methods allow us to develop highly realistic virtual worlds, the main element failing to enhance presence is autonomous groups of human inhabitants. A great number of crowd simulation techniques have emerged in the last decade, but critical details in the crowd's movements and appearance do not meet the standards necessary to convince VR participants that they are present in a real crowd. In this paper, we review recent advances in the creation of immersive virtual crowds and discuss areas that require further work to turn these simulations into more fully immersive and believable experiences.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

A Survey of Ocean Simulation and Rendering Techniques in Computer Graphics

This paper presents a survey of ocean simulation and rendering methods in computer graphics. To model and animate the ocean's surface, these methods mainly rely on two main approaches: on the one hand, those which approximate ocean dynamics with parametric, spectral or hybrid models and use empirical laws from oceanographic research. We will see that this type of methods essentially allows the simulation of ocean scenes in the deep water domain, without breaking waves. On the other hand, physically-based methods use Navier-Stokes Equations (NSE) to represent breaking waves and more generally ocean surface near the shore. We also describe ocean rendering methods in computer graphics, with a special interest in the simulation of phenomena such as foam and spray, and light's interaction with the ocean surface

Acoustic modeling using the digital waveguide mesh

The digital waveguide mesh has been an active area of music acoustics research for over ten years. Although founded in 1-D digital waveguide modeling, the principles on which it is based are not new to researchers grounded in numerical simulation, FDTD methods, electromagnetic simulation, etc. This article has attempted to provide a considerable review of how the DWM has been applied to acoustic modeling and sound synthesis problems, including new 2-D object synthesis and an overview of recent research activities in articulatory vocal tract modeling, RIR synthesis, and reverberation simulation. The extensive, although not by any means exhaustive, list of references indicates that though the DWM may have parallels in other disciplines, it still offers something new in the field of acoustic simulation and sound synth

Can Computers Create Art?

This essay discusses whether computers, using Artificial Intelligence (AI), could create art. First, the history of technologies that automated aspects of art is surveyed, including photography and animation. In each case, there were initial fears and denial of the technology, followed by a blossoming of new creative and professional opportunities for artists. The current hype and reality of Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools for art making is then discussed, together with predictions about how AI tools will be used. It is then speculated about whether it could ever happen that AI systems could be credited with authorship of artwork. It is theorized that art is something created by social agents, and so computers cannot be credited with authorship of art in our current understanding. A few ways that this could change are also hypothesized.Comment: to appear in Arts, special issue on Machine as Artist (21st Century

Conducting a virtual ensemble with a kinect device

This paper presents a gesture-based interaction technique for the implementation of an orchestra conductor and a virtual ensemble, using a 3D camera-based sensor to capture user’s gestures. In particular, a human-computer interface has been developed to recognize conducting gestures using a Microsoft Kinect device. The system allows the conductor to control both the tempo in the piece played as well as the dynamics of each instrument set independently. In order to modify the tempo in the playback, a time-frequency processing-based algorithmis used. Finally, an experiment was conducted to assess user’s opinion of the system as well as experimentally confirm if the features in the system were effectively improving user experience or not.This work has been funded by the Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad of the Spanish Government under Project No. TIN2010-21089-C03-02 and Project No. IPT-2011-0885-430000 and by the Junta de Andalucia under Project No. P11-TIC-7154. The work has been done at Universidad de Malaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucia Tech

Astroserver - Research Services in the Stellar Webshop

A quick look at research and development in astronomy shows that we live in exciting times. Exoplanetary systems, supernovae, and merging binary black holes were far out of reach for observers two decades ago and now such phenomena are recorded routinely. This quick development would not have been possible without the ability for researchers to be connected, to think globally and to be mobile. Classical short-term positions are not always suitable to support these conditions and freelancing may be a viable alternative. We introduce the Astroserver framework, which is a new freelancing platform for scientists, and demonstrate through examples how it contributed to some recent projects related to hot subdwarf stars and binaries. These contributions, which included spectroscopic data mining, computing services and observing services, as well as artwork, allowed a deeper look into the investigated systems. The work on composite spectra binaries provided new details for the hypervelocity wide subdwarf binary PB 3877 and found diverse and rare systems with sub-giant companions in high-resolution spectroscopic surveys. The models for the peculiar abundance pattern of the evolved compact star LP 40-365 showed it to be a bound hypervelocity remnant of a supernova Iax event. Some of these works also included data visualizations to help presenting the new results. Such services may be of interest for many researchers.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in Open Astronomy as part of the conference proceedings for the Eighth Meeting on Hot Subdwarf Stars and Related Objects (sdOB8, Krakow

The Migration Of Forms: Bullet Time As Microgenre

Rehak considers the ways in which the film The Matrix branded bullet time both as technical process and stylistic convention, and discusses bullet time\u27s ancestry in image experimentation of the 1980s and 1990s. In his analysis, Rehak uses the conceptual framework of the microgenre to explore the cultural lifespan of bullet time, treating it less as a singular special effect than a package of photographic and digital techniques whose fortunes were shaped by a complex interplay of technology, narrative and style. Rehak\u27s goal is to shed light not just on bullet time, but on the changing behavior of visual texts in contemporary media. He examines an overview of special effects scholarship to date, most notably the indication that the repetition of special effects dulls their effectiveness, in part due to the changing competencies of audiences. Rehak also looks at the struggle of the filmmakers of The Matrix to craft sequels that simultaneously preserved bullet time\u27s appeal while varying it enough to ensure another breakthrough

"IT LOOKS LIKE SOUND!" : DRAWING A HISTORY OF "ANIMATED MUSIC" IN THE EARLY TWENTIETH CENTURY

In the early 1930s, film sound technicians created completely synthetic sound by drawing or photographing patterns on the soundtrack area of the filmstrip. Several artists in Germany, Russia, England, and Canada used this innovation to write what came to be called "animated music" or "ornamental sound." It was featured in a few commercial and small artistic productions and was enthusiastically received by the public. It was heralded as the future of musical composition that could eliminate performers, scores, and abstract notation by one system of graphic sound notation and mechanized playback. Its popularity among mainstream filmmaking did not last long, however, due to its limited development. The artists drawing animated sound were dependent entirely upon their technological medium, and when the sound-on-film system faded from popularity and production, so did their art. By examining from a musicological perspective, for the first time, specific examples of animated music from the work of Norman McLaren, Oskar Fischinger, Rudolph Pfenninger, and several filmmakers in Russia, this thesis enumerates the techniques used in animated sound. It also explores the process of its creation, adaptation, and decline. In doing so, it reveals an important chapter in the little-known early history of modern synthesized sound alongside the futuristic musical ideas it both answered and inspired