A Space Filling Algorithm for Generating Procedural Geometry and Texture

Here we present an algorithm for procedurallygenerating a range of digital assets including 2 dimensionaltextures and 2.5 dimensional texture roughness. The approachinvolves placing shapes randomly, without overlap and with amonotonically decreasing area, within a region on a plane (the2 dimensional texture). If the process is continued to infinitythen the result is space filling thus providing a variable andpotentially infinite degree of visual detail. It will be proposedand illustrated that the process is independent of the actualshape being used and as such can find application to a range oftexture effects. As a means of generating texture and formprocedurally the result has the other desirable property ofbeing fractal, that is, self similar across scales which ischaracteristic of many packings that occur in nature

Visualising Volumetric Fractals

Fractal images have for many years been a richsource of exploration by those in computer science who also havean interest in graphics. They often served as a way of testing theperformance of new computing hardware and to explore thecapabilities of emerging display technologies. While there havebeen forays by some into 3D geometric fractals, the 3Dequivalents of the Mandelbrot set have been largely ignored. Thisis largely due to the lack of suitable tools for rendering these setsexcept perhaps as isosurfaces, a rather unsatisfactory and limitedrepresentation. The following will illustrate the application ofGPU based raycasting, a now relatively standard approach tovolume rendering, to the representation of volumetric fractals.Leveraging existing software that has been designed for generalvolume visualisation allows the interested 3D fractal explorer tofocus on the mathematical generation of the volume data ratherthan reinventing the entire volume rendering pipeline

Automatic 3D reconstruction: An exploration of the state of the art

Presented here in the form of case study examplesare the results from a number of practical exercises to explorethe state of the art of automatic 3D reconstructions. That is,deriving the underlying geometry of an object or place basedonly upon photographs. There is a wide range of applicationsfor this technology; traditionally it has been used forlandscape/terrain modeling, geology and by the miningindustry. The interest here is in capturing geometric data inarchaeology, providing a new data format suited to a richerexploration compared to the more traditional photography.Examples of the use of this 3D geometric representationinclude the population of virtual worlds and gaming engines.The manual generation of such assets is normally both timeconsuming and can involve an element interpretation on thepart of a human modeler

An Advanced, Three-Dimensional Plotting Library for Astronomy

We present a new, three-dimensional (3D) plotting library with advanced features, and support for standard and enhanced display devices. The library - S2PLOT - is written in C and can be used by C, C++ and FORTRAN programs on GNU/Linux and Apple/OSX systems. S2PLOT draws objects in a 3D (x,y,z) Cartesian space and the user interactively controls how this space is rendered at run time. With a PGPLOT inspired interface, S2PLOT provides astronomers with elegant techniques for displaying and exploring 3D data sets directly from their program code, and the potential to use stereoscopic and dome display devices. The S2PLOT architecture supports dynamic geometry and can be used to plot time-evolving data sets, such as might be produced by simulation codes. In this paper, we introduce S2PLOT to the astronomical community, describe its potential applications, and present some example uses of the library.Comment: 12 pages, 10 eps figures (higher resolution versions available from http://astronomy.swin.edu.au/s2plot/paperfigures). The S2PLOT library is available for download from http://astronomy.swin.edu.au/s2plo

A Co-Design Partnership to Develop Universally Designed ICT Applications for People with Intellectual Disability

Abstract. Co-design has its roots in the Participatory Design techniques developed in Scandinavia in the 1970s. Co-design reflects a fundamental change in the traditional designer-client relationship. A key tenet of co-design is that users, as \u27experts\u27 of their own experience, become central to the design process. This reflects the role of the user at the heart of Universal Design. This paper describes an on-going co-design partnership between undergraduate ICT students and Community Partners who support individuals with Intellectual Disabilities. The aim of this work is to develop assistive technology applications and/or products which meet the requirements of the Community Partners. The core development philosophy is Universal Design. The project work forms part of the academic requirements for undergraduate assessment in computing courses and must fully meet the prescribed learning outcomes. The Community Partners initiate the process by outlining preliminary requirements for the Projects using online accessible videos. In partnership with the students they engage and participate in design, development and testing workshops throughout the lifecycle of the project. Some of the necessary preparations and agreements are described, which are required before these co-design partnerships can work for the mutual benefit of all concerned. The experiences and outcomes of completed projects are reflected upon and the potential benefits of promoting Universal Design through co-design partnerships between the ICT developers of the future and the Community Partners are considered. Examples of projects undertaken include Accessible Login and Shopping Assistant.

Antiinflammatory Effects of Glucocorticoids in Brain Cells, Independent of NF-kB

Glucocorticoids are potent antiinflammatory drugs. They inhibit the expression of proinflammatory cytokines and adhesion molecules. It has recently been proposed that the underlying basis to such inhibition is the induction of the protein IkB, which inhibits the transcription factor NF-kB. The latter is a key activator of the genes encoding cytokines and adhesion molecules. The present study shows that the synthetic glucocorticoid, dexamethasone, inhibits the induction of the proinflammatory cytokine IL-8 and the adhesion molecules VCAM-1 and ICAM-1 in human 1321N1 astrocytoma and SK.N.SH neuroblastoma cells. However, dexamethasone failed to induce IkB or inhibit activation of NF-kB by IL-1 in the two cell types. EMSA confirmed the identity of the activated NF-kB by demonstrating that an oligonucleotide, containing the wild-type NF-kB-binding motif, inhibited formation of the NF-kB-DNA complexes whereas a mutated form of the NF-kB-binding motif was ineffective. In addition, supershift analysis showed that the protein subunits p50 and p65 were prevalent components in the activated NF-kB complexes. The lack of effect of dexamethasone on the capacity of IL-1 to activate NF-kB correlated with its inability to induce IkB and the ability of IL-1 to cause degradation of IkB, even in the presence of dexamethasone. The results presented in this paper strongly suggest that glucocorticoids may exert antiinflammatory effects in cells of neural origin by a mechanism(s) independent of NF-kB

Future Directions in Astronomy Visualisation

Despite the large budgets spent annually on astronomical research equipment such as telescopes, instruments and supercomputers, the general trend is to analyse and view the resulting datasets using small, two-dimensional displays. We report here on alternative advanced image displays, with an emphasis on displays that we have constructed, including stereoscopic projection, multiple projector tiled displays and a digital dome. These displays can provide astronomers with new ways of exploring the terabyte and petabyte datasets that are now regularly being produced from all-sky surveys, high-resolution computer simulations, and Virtual Observatory projects. We also present a summary of the Advanced Image Displays for Astronomy (AIDA) survey which we conducted from March-May 2005, in order to raise some issues pertitent to the current and future level of use of advanced image displays.Comment: 13 pages, 2 figures, accepted for publication in PAS

Immersive Gaming in a Hemispherical Dome Case study: Blender Game Engine

In the following we will discuss a cost effectiveimmersive gaming environment and the implementation inBlender [1], an open source game engine. This extends traditionalapproaches to immersive gaming which tend to concentrateon multiple flat screens, sometimes surrounding the player, orcylindrical [2] displays. In the former there are unnatural gapsbetween each display due to screen framing, in both cases theyrarely cover the 180 horizontal degree field of view and areeven less likely to cover the vertical field of view required tofully engage the field of view of the human visual system. Thesolution introduced here concentrates on seamless hemisphericaldisplays, planetariums in general and the iDome [3] as a specificcase study. The methodology discussed is equally appropriateto other realtime 3D environments that are available in sourcecode form or have a suitably powerful means of modifying therendering pipeline