EG1999

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https://diglib.eg.org/handle/10.2312/213

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Active Storytelling
(Eurographics Association, 1999) Glassner, A.
People love to exchange stories. Stories provide a context for the events, feelings, ideas, and relationships that make up the fabric of our daily lives. When we describe an important experience in our life to another person, we often shape it in the form of a story. Stories are a means of communication. We are on the threshold of a revolutionary change in how people will communicate with each other and the environment. A global wireless communications network, coupled with computational devices that know where they are and are in contact with the network, will knit together individuals and groups in ways we have never seen before. These devices will employ speech recognition and synthesis, algorithms for vision understanding and graphic synthesis, and algorithms to extract meaning fromtext, images, and sounds. When these devices mature, they will be small, portable, wireless, and ubiquitous. They will have a deep impact on our cultures, and our stories.
Perceptual Principles and Computer Graphics
(Eurographics Association, 1999) May, J.
Until comparatively recently, the major problems in computer display technology were caused by the difficulty of making anything recognisable at all. Eighty character-width displays, with eight or nine brilliant green lines per character, slow to respond and slow to decay, somehow enabled people to use their vast new computers with their kilobytes of memory. The pace of change should really astonish us, as we contemplate flat, bright and crisp LCD screens that require separate graphics processors and megabytes of video memory chips just to display our favourite desktop images. It now seems possible for our technological artefacts to display almost anything in as much detail as we would like, whether from a high resolution photographic image or, via skilfully implemented algorithms, by photorealistic rendering from data. In the course of this rapid development, the major problems have themselves changed: now we must ask ourselves what it means for our displays to be recognisable, and what is it in the display that needs to be recognised?
The Digital Michelangelo Project
(Eurographics Association, 1999) Levoy, Marc
Recent improvements in laser rangefinder technology, together with algorithms developed at Stanford for combining multiple range and color images, allow us to reliably and accurately digitize the external shape and reflectance of many physical objects. As an application of this technology, I and a team of 30 faculty, staff, and students from Stanford University and the University of Washington spent the 1998-99 academic year digitizing the sculptures and architecture of Michelangelo. During this time, we scanned the David, the Unfinished Slaves, and the St. Matthew, all located in the Galleria dell’Accademia in Florence, the four allegorical statues in the Medici Chapel, also in Florence, and the architectural settings of both museums. In the months ahead we will process the data we have collected to create 3D digital models of these works. The goals of this project are scholarly and educational. Our sponsors are Stanford University, Interval Research Corporation, and the Paul G. Allen Foundation for the Arts. In this extended abstract and invited talk, I will outline the technological underpinings, logistical challenges, and possible outcomes of this project.
Tutorial 6 - Rendering and Visualization in Parallel Environments
(Eurographics Association, 1999) Bartz, Dirk; Schneider, Bengt-Olaf; Silva, Claudio
The continuing commoditization of the computer market has precipitated a qualitative change. Increasingly powerful processors, large memories, big harddisk, high-speed networks, and fast 3D rendering hardware are now affordable without a large capital outlay. A new class of computers, dubbed Personal Workstations, has joined the traditional technical workstation as a platform for 3D modeling and rendering. In this tutorial, attendees will learn how to understand and leverage both technical and personal workstations as components of parallel rendering systems. The goal of the tutorial is twofold: Attendees will thoroughly understand the important characteristics workstations architectures. We will present an overview of different workstation architectures, with special emphasis on current technical and personal workstations, addressing both single-processors as well as SMP architectures. We will also introduce important methods of programming in parallel environment with special attention how such techniques apply to developing parallel renderers. Attendees will learn about different approaches to implement parallel renderers. The tutorial will cover parallel polygon rendering and parallel volume rendering. We will explain the underlying concepts of workload characterization, workload partitioning, and static, dynamic, and adaptive load balancing. We will then apply these concepts to characterize various parallelization strategies reported in the literature for polygon and volume rendering. We abstract from the actual implementation of these strategies and instead focus on a comparison of their benefits and drawbacks. Case studies will provide additional material to explain the use of these techniques. The tutorial will be structured into two main sections: We will first discuss the fundamentals of parallel programming and parallel machine architectures. Topics include message passing vs. shared memory, thread programming, a review of different SMP architectures, clustering techniques, PC architectures for personal workstations, and graphics hardware architectures. The second section builds on this foundation to describe key concepts and particular algorithms for parallel polygon rendering and parallel volume rendering.
How To Visit Dunhuang Without Travelling To Central Asia
(Eurographics Association, 1999) Hambach, Sybille
The Mogao Grottoes are situated near the oasis town of Dunhuang in the Northwest of China. They are an important place at the ancient silkroad, object of research for scientists around the world and a fascinating destination for visitors. This paper discusses the aim and creation process of Dunhuang InfoWeb. It explains the preconditions to be settled and the steps to be taken in order to develop an integrated multimedia application for the World Wide Web
Virtual Reality and Cultural Heritage Examples: the Mysterious City Fresco, the Domus Aurea
(Eurographics Association, 1999) Cuomo, Massimo; Funto, Fabrizio; Levner, Geoff
Cultural heritage can benefit greatly from the use of virtual reality. Among the demands of cultural heritage that this technology can help to satisfy are the following: Giving laymen the opportunity to appreciate works from the past of which only fragments remain, or which contain cultural references that have been lost over time. Providing researchers with powerful tools. Ensuring the preservation of cultural heritage over risky restoring and degradation due to excessive number of visitor. Making virtual replicas that can be transported without risk to the original, increasing enormously the number of potential visitors. Two examples are presented: The Mysterious City Fresco and The Domus Aurea.
Fast Distance Field Interpolation for Reconstruction of Surfaces from Contours
(Eurographics Association, 1999) Klein, Reinhard; Schilling, Andreas
One simple and robust way to get a reconstruction of surfaces from a given contour stack dealing well with branching and other problems which are generally difficult to solve is based on the well known MC-algorithm. To overcome the staircase artefacts produced by the MC-algorithm Jones et. al. 3 proposed to use a distance field interpolation between the slices and to run the MC-algorithm on this distance field. The main problem of this approach is the distance field computation as it is very time consuming especially if high resolution grids (e.g. 10241024 are used. Therefore, in the original algorithm the resolution of the chosen grid is much less than the resolution of the given contour sacrificing accuracy of the resulting surface. Especially in medical applications this is not accepted by the doctors. In this paper we introduce a new method for the computation of the discrete distance field, which is a breaktrough in terms of speed and accuracy. This new method allows us to reconstruct surfaces from contour stacks with guaranteed accuracy in reasonable time. Several examples show the power of this approach.
Virtual lights: a method for expressive visualization
(Eurographics Association, 1999) Martin, Domingo; Torres, Juan Carlos
There has been great interest in expressive visualization over the last few years. This kind of visualization is used in 2D animation, illustration, and schematic drawing. The flat shading and shape lines, which we call external and internal sketches, are all visual charasteristics of this type of visualization. We present an algorithm for obtaining the sketches from a polygonal model. The algorithm is based on the concept of virtual lights, which allows us to control the visualization of internal sketches in a flexible way.
Scanning Michelangelos Florentine Pieta: Making the Results Usable
(Eurographics Association, 1999) Bernardini, F.; Mittleman, J.; Rushmeier, H.; Taubin, G.
We describe a project to create a three dimensional digital model ofMichelangelo’s Florentine Pietà. In particular, we examine how to edit and interactively view the model that consists of millions of triangles and hundreds of color and normal maps.
3D laser scanning numerical surface definition and fast prototyping of the Basel Bronze Head
(Eurographics Association, 1999) Accardo, Giorgio; Scarpetta, Massimiliano
Starting from the experiences and results deriving from the cooperation between the Istituto Centrale del Restauro, Fox Bit srl and certain academic institutions, a study is presented which is aimed at using and adapting reverse engineering (RE) and fast prototyping (FR) industrial techniques to cultural property conservation.
3-D Spatial Skills--A Key to the Effective Use of Computer Graphics Software?
(Eurographics Association, 1999) Sorby, S.A.
Development and evaluation of 3-D spatial visualization skills is discussed. Correlations between measured spatial skills and ability to effectively use computer graphics software are analyzed and strategies to improve 3-D spatial skills are presented.
Filtering mechanisms for the visualization of non-geometrical and geometrical data
(Eurographics Association, 1999) Carmo, Maria Beatriz; Cunha, Joao Duarte; Claudio, Ana Paula
The paper describes a fundamental feature in a prototype for the visualization of both geometrical and non-geometrical data: filtering mechanisms. The information class is a basic concept of this prototype. Each class combines a set of attributes associated to the same spatial reference with a list of graphical representations. Information filtering can be accomplished using the following mechanisms: limiting the variation domain of information class attributes, suppressing the visualization of one or more information classes, using the degree of interest function, selecting specific graphical representations accordingly both to the scale of representation and to the degree of interest function, displaying the data by levels of interest.
Graph Visualisation and Navigation in Information Visualisation
(Eurographics Association, 1999) Herman, I.; Melancon, G.; Marshall, M.S.
This is a survey on graph visualisation and navigation techniques, as used in information visualisation. Graphs appear in numerous applications, like web browsing, state–transition diagrams, computer data structures, etc. The ability to visualise and to navigate in these potentially very large, abstract graphs is often a crucial part of an application. Information visualisation has specific requirements, which means that this survey approaches the results of traditional graph drawing from a different perspective than the traditional surveys; as such it is a useful complementary survey to those
Towards Spatial Specification of Interactive System
(Eurographics Association, 1999) Rodriguez, M. L.; Gea, M.; Gutiérrez, F. L.
Modern interactive systems are oriented towards information management in a graphical environment. Formal specification techniques [1] help designers to describe systems, focusing on the relevant aspects of the interaction model. We analyse here a new way of describing the specifications of a directmanipulation system and we propose an extension of this concept to cover the specifications of a system based on spatial relationships.
Information Technologies for Set-designers
(Eurographics Association, 1999) Silva, C.
The project The set-designer and the instruments of his days–New information technologies for the theatre was proposed in the second edition of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation competition, Impresa & Cultura, Intrapresae Collezione Guggenheim enterprise, being awarded a mention by the jury for the originality of the application in a typical Italian field, the opera theatre, in need of deep innovations. The complete system used for the project consisted of a powerful computer along with specialized software for solid modelling, ALIAS, and a sophisticated program for modifying photographs and image processing used to apply materials to the graphic structure. The author, graduated from the Art Academy of Brera in Milan, was hired to lead the technical part of the project. He had used information technology preparing his exams at the Academy, where he had already realized virtual set-design. On the occasion of the introduced project was trained in the Alias software secrets and he could work closely with the professionals of the Stage setting departments of the theatres involved in the experimental project. At the same time he could finished his studies with a thesis on the use of computer technologies in the theatre.
WebTalk: a 3D collaborative environment to access the Web
(Eurographics Association, 1999) Paolini, P.; Barbieri, T.; Loiudice, P.; Alonzo, F.; Arru, M.; Zanti, M.; Gaia, G.
The notion of cooperative visit and interaction within a web site, both at 2D and 3D level, could add decisive motivation to pursue exploitation of the third dimension in networked environments. A prototype developed at the HOC laboratory in Politecnico of Milan, WEBTALK, allows development of custom 3D environments in which actions and situations can be shared throughout a network. The current prototype makes use of standard web-based Internet/Intranet technology: it is composed of a VRML (Virtual Reality Modeling Language) graphical engine and a Java-based TCP/IP (the Internet Protocol) communication layer. The technique has proven itself successful and has given rise to several interesting applications, such as the creation of Virtual 3D Museum Spaces at the National Science Museum (www.museoscienza.org), in which visitors can visit the museum interacting with the exhibits themselves and sharing their experiences with other visitors - even joining a guided tour with the virtual museum guide. A new prototype will make use of a completely Java-based environment, using Sun’s Java 2 and Java 3D. The new WEBTALK will stress even further the issues of third party external authoring of virtual worlds and of cooperation patterns within the shared environments, with a distinction between shared object geometries, shared object behaviors, shared object data (stored in an on-line DBMS), and cooperation metaphors within the virtual world. Linking to 2D-based web sites resources will lead cooperation patterns to be extended also to regular web-space.
Modelling and Haptic Interaction with non-rigid materials
(Eurographics Association, 1999) Cugini, U.; Bordegoni, M.; Rizzi, C.; De Angelis, F.; Prati, M.
This report presents an overview of main modelling and simulation techniques for non–rigid objects discussing advantages and disadvantages. Related techniques to face several problems rising when dealing with deformable objects simulation are also discussed. They concern numerical solvers, constraints management and collision detection. In the simulation of non-rigid objects another relevant issue is the provision of operational modality at higher and higher level and more and more useroriented. The paradigm of haptic interaction recently developed seems promising to achieve this goal. Haptic interaction allows the users to feel several physical properties of the modelled objects through the manipulation of their virtual representation. Thus, second part of the report focuses on the state-of-theart of haptic devices, technologies and applications concerning interaction with non-rigid models. A classification from different point of views is proposed. The specific work our group is performing in the area of non-rigid objects modelling and simulation and haptic interaction with non-rigid models is also illustrated.
Interactive Information System for the Camposanto Monumentale of Pisa
(Eurographics Association, 1999) Baracchini, C.; Brogi, A.; Merlitti, D.
Multimedia Database gathering the historical-preservative documentation of the monumental complex, including a digital reconstruction achieved through a solid modelling of the building and its fittings.
Virtual Environments as Multimedia Contents Integrators
(Eurographics Association, 1999) Biancardi, A.; Moccia, V.
Broadband networks, the digital nature of current multimedia contents and the increasing crossover between Internet and television are marking the beginning of a cultural revolution. As a tool for the integration of multiple media technologies in three-dimensional virtual spaces, Siru is the ideal environment for the convergence of different sources of information in a unified context. Streaming video and audio, 3D objects, and hypertexts can all be integrated with Siru to build homogeneous compelling digital experiences
Tutorial 1 -Advanced Radiosity:Complex Scenes and Glossy Reflections
(Eurographics Association, 1999) Stamminger, Marc; Wexler, Daniel; Kresse, Wolfram; Holzschuch, Nicolas; Christensen, Per H.
A lot of research towards global illumination has been focussed on the radiosity method. Nevertheless, it is still a rather academic topic which finds very slowly its way into commercial products. The scope of this tutorial is to describe recent developments in radiosity research that might narrow the gap with commercial applications. The first part of the tutorial course will be given by a pioneer in commercial computer graphics, who will set the stage for the demands of commercial rendering products and assess why radiosity has not been used until now.

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