Fully Automatic Facial Deformation Transfer

Facial Animation is a serious and ongoing challenge for the Computer Graphic industry. Because diverse and complex emotions need to be expressed by different facial deformation and animation, copying facial deformations from existing character to another is widely needed in both industry and academia, to reduce time-consuming and repetitive manual work of modeling to create the 3D shape sequences for every new character. But transfer of realistic facial animations between two 3D models is limited and inconvenient for general use. Modern deformation transfer methods require correspondences mapping, in most cases, which are tedious to get. In this paper, we present a fast and automatic approach to transfer the deformations of the facial mesh models by obtaining the 3D point-wise correspondences in the automatic manner. The key idea is that we could estimate the correspondences with different facial meshes using the robust facial landmark detection method by projecting the 3D model to the 2D image. Experiments show that without any manual labelling efforts, our method detects reliable correspondences faster and simpler compared with the state-of-the-art automatic deformation transfer method on the facial models

On the origin of terpenes in symbiotic associations between marine invertebrates and algae (zooxanthellae). Culture studies and an application of ^(13)C/^(12)C isotope ratio mass spectrometry.

^(13)C/^(12)C ratios of sets of compounds, algal sterols and terpenes, isolated from dinoflagellate symbiont (zooxanthellae)-bearing soft corals and gorgonians were determined. In most cases, a significant difference was found between the δ^(13)C values of the terpenes and of the algal sterols from the same set, the algal sterols containing less ^(13)C than the terpenes. These results can only be explained if terpenes are synthesized by the host. Cultured zooxanthellae, isolated from symbiotic associations, do not make terpenes. Algal sterols of the various sets do not all have the same δ^(13)C value: average values range from -18.2 to -24.3‰. A consistent difference of about 7‰ in the δ^(13)C values of sterols of cultured symbionts isolated from two of the gorgonians was found. This has potential applications for the taxonomy of zooxanthellae, most of which are believed by some specialists to be one discrete species

Deep Spectral Meshes: Multi-Frequency Facial Mesh Processing with Graph Neural Networks

With the rising popularity of virtual worlds, the importance of data-driven parametric models of 3D meshes has grown rapidly. Numerous applications, such as computer vision, procedural generation, and mesh editing, vastly rely on these models. However, current approaches do not allow for independent editing of deformations at different frequency levels. They also do not benefit from representing deformations at different frequencies with dedicated representations, which would better expose their properties and improve the generated meshes’ geometric and perceptual quality. In this work, spectral meshes are introduced as a method to decompose mesh deformations into low-frequency and high-frequency deformations. These features of low- and high-frequency deformations are used for representation learning with graph convolutional networks. A parametric model for 3D facial mesh synthesis is built upon the proposed framework, exposing user parameters that control disentangled high- and low-frequency deformations. Independent control of deformations at different frequencies and generation of plausible synthetic examples are mutually exclusive objectives. A Conditioning Factor is introduced to leverage these objectives. Our model takes further advantage of spectral partitioning by representing different frequency levels with disparate, more suitable representations. Low frequencies are represented with standardised Euclidean coordinates, and high frequencies with a normalised deformation representation (DR). This paper investigates applications of our proposed approach in mesh reconstruction, mesh interpolation, and multi-frequency editing. It is demonstrated that our method improves the overall quality of generated meshes on most datasets when considering both the  (Formula presented.)  norm and perceptual Dihedral Angle Mesh Error (DAME) metrics

Best packing of rods into boxes

AbstractWe determine the maximum number of 1 × 1 x … × 1 × n rods which will fit inside an arbitrary d-dimensional rectangular box, on condition that they be packed parallel to the edges of the box

Brownfield redevelopment:A business approach for regional collaboration

Several problems can be distinguished when studying the general process of redevelopment of industrial areas in The Netherlands. Due to these problems - and combinations of these problems - redevelopment process fails or is severely delayed. In this article, an entrepreneurial approach for reconstruction of industrial areas in The Netherlands is advocated. The approach is based upon an explorative research project, examining relevant urban district development cases in The Netherlands and Sweden. Within this integral approach, all the aspects of the whole site are completely taken into account. This means that both the problems in public and private areas are addressed. The solutions need to be geared to one another and address the interests of all involved stakeholders. Thereby, we distinguish six major stakeholder groups: National Government, Province, Municipalities, Local Entrepreneurs, Investors and Development Companies. It is interesting to notify that there are three different governmental agencies involved, each having its own policy targets and rule-sets. An ideal typical public-private 'regional development company' (RDC) is proposed and outlined for a specific region, located in the Province of Noord-Brabant in The Netherlands. A major feature in this approach is the involvement of a number of different municipalities, each of them characterized as shareholder, similar to the local entrepreneurs. This research result was brought into a simulation experiment, testing the lay-out of the business organization. The outcomes of the experiment - showing an ideal design of a development company which can create an integral approach for restructuring industrial areas - are interesting and contribute to ongoing discussions concerning stagnating redevelopment of brownfields and industrial areas in The Netherlands.</p