409 research outputs found
Avoiding Chaos in Wonderland
Wonderland, a compact, integrated economic, demographic and environmental
model is investigated using methods developed for studying critical phenomena.
Simulation results show the parameter space separates into two phases, one of
which contains the property of long term, sustainable development. By employing
information contain in the phase diagram, an optimal strategy involving
pollution taxes is developed as a means of moving a system initially in a
unsustainable region of the phase diagram into a region of sustainability while
ensuring minimal regret with respect to long term economic growth.Comment: 22 pages, 9 figures. Submitted to Physica
Slice and Dice: A Physicalization Workflow for Anatomical Edutainment
During the last decades, anatomy has become an interesting topic in
education---even for laymen or schoolchildren. As medical imaging techniques
become increasingly sophisticated, virtual anatomical education applications
have emerged. Still, anatomical models are often preferred, as they facilitate
3D localization of anatomical structures. Recently, data physicalizations
(i.e., physical visualizations) have proven to be effective and
engaging---sometimes, even more than their virtual counterparts. So far,
medical data physicalizations involve mainly 3D printing, which is still
expensive and cumbersome. We investigate alternative forms of physicalizations,
which use readily available technologies (home printers) and inexpensive
materials (paper or semi-transparent films) to generate crafts for anatomical
edutainment. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first computer-generated
crafting approach within an anatomical edutainment context. Our approach
follows a cost-effective, simple, and easy-to-employ workflow, resulting in
assemblable data sculptures (i.e., semi-transparent sliceforms). It primarily
supports volumetric data (such as CT or MRI), but mesh data can also be
imported. An octree slices the imported volume and an optimization step
simplifies the slice configuration, proposing the optimal order for easy
assembly. A packing algorithm places the resulting slices with their labels,
annotations, and assembly instructions on a paper or transparent film of
user-selected size, to be printed, assembled into a sliceform, and explored. We
conducted two user studies to assess our approach, demonstrating that it is an
initial positive step towards the successful creation of interactive and
engaging anatomical physicalizations
ScaleTrotter: Illustrative Visual Travels Across Negative Scales
We present ScaleTrotter, a conceptual framework for an interactive,
multi-scale visualization of biological mesoscale data and, specifically,
genome data. ScaleTrotter allows viewers to smoothly transition from the
nucleus of a cell to the atomistic composition of the DNA, while bridging
several orders of magnitude in scale. The challenges in creating an interactive
visualization of genome data are fundamentally different in several ways from
those in other domains like astronomy that require a multi-scale representation
as well. First, genome data has intertwined scale levels---the DNA is an
extremely long, connected molecule that manifests itself at all scale levels.
Second, elements of the DNA do not disappear as one zooms out---instead the
scale levels at which they are observed group these elements differently.
Third, we have detailed information and thus geometry for the entire dataset
and for all scale levels, posing a challenge for interactive visual
exploration. Finally, the conceptual scale levels for genome data are close in
scale space, requiring us to find ways to visually embed a smaller scale into a
coarser one. We address these challenges by creating a new multi-scale
visualization concept. We use a scale-dependent camera model that controls the
visual embedding of the scales into their respective parents, the rendering of
a subset of the scale hierarchy, and the location, size, and scope of the view.
In traversing the scales, ScaleTrotter is roaming between 2D and 3D visual
representations that are depicted in integrated visuals. We discuss,
specifically, how this form of multi-scale visualization follows from the
specific characteristics of the genome data and describe its implementation.
Finally, we discuss the implications of our work to the general illustrative
depiction of multi-scale data
How can the integration of environmental considerations into construction decisions help?
Buildings around the world (their design, maintenance and disposal) contribute significantly to global warming. It is no coincidence that achieving the sustainable operation of buildings is a priority objective worldwide, not only in terms of the choice of materials but also in terms of achieving the best possible technological solutions. The aim of the project is to deliver the highest possible quality results in a comprehensible way to all audiences in any way connected with the building industry: interested parties, renovators, builders, architects, contractors, etc
Feature-assisted interactive geometry reconstruction in 3D point clouds using incremental region growing
Reconstructing geometric shapes from point clouds is a common task that is
often accomplished by experts manually modeling geometries in CAD-capable
software. State-of-the-art workflows based on fully automatic geometry
extraction are limited by point cloud density and memory constraints, and
require pre- and post-processing by the user. In this work, we present a
framework for interactive, user-driven, feature-assisted geometry
reconstruction from arbitrarily sized point clouds. Based on seeded
region-growing point cloud segmentation, the user interactively extracts planar
pieces of geometry and utilizes contextual suggestions to point out plane
surfaces, normal and tangential directions, and edges and corners. We implement
a set of feature-assisted tools for high-precision modeling tasks in
architecture and urban surveying scenarios, enabling instant-feedback
interactive point cloud manipulation on large-scale data collected from
real-world building interiors and facades. We evaluate our results through
systematic measurement of the reconstruction accuracy, and interviews with
domain experts who deploy our framework in a commercial setting and give both
structured and subjective feedback.Comment: 13 pages, submitted to Computers & Graphics Journa
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