Seamless Montage for Texturing Models

We present an automatic method to recover high‐resolution texture over an object by mapping detailed photographs onto its surface. Such high‐resolution detail often reveals inaccuracies in geometry and registration, as well as lighting variations and surface reflections. Simple image projection results in visible seams on the surface. We minimize such seams using a global optimization that assigns compatible texture to adjacent triangles. The key idea is to search not only combinatorially over the source images, but also over a set of local image transformations that compensate for geometric misalignment. This broad search space is traversed using a discrete labeling algorithm, aided by a coarse‐to‐fine strategy. Our approach significantly improves resilience to acquisition errors, thereby allowing simple and easy creation of textured models for use in computer graphics.     

Globally optimal surface mapping for surfaces with arbitrary topology

Computing smooth and optimal one-to-one maps between surfaces of same topology is a fundamental problem in computer graphics and such a method provides us a ubiquitous tool for geometric modeling and data visualization. Its vast variety of applications includes shape registration/matching, shape blending, material/data transfer, data fusion, information reuse, etc. The mapping quality is typically measured in terms of angular distortions among different shapes. This paper proposes and develops a novel quasi-conformal surface mapping framework to globally minimize the stretching energy inevitably introduced between two different shapes. The existing state-of-the-art inter-surface mapping techniques only afford local optimization either on surface patches via boundary cutting or on the simplified base domain, lacking rigorous mathematical foundation and analysis. We design and articulate an automatic variational algorithm that can reach the global distortion minimum for surface mapping between shapes of arbitrary topology, and our algorithm is sorely founded upon the intrinsic geometry structure of surfaces. To our best knowledge, this is the first attempt towards numerically computing globally optimal maps. Consequently, our mapping framework offers a powerful computational tool for graphics and visualization tasks such as data and texture transfer, shape morphing, and shape matching.     

Grid with a view: optimal texturing for perception of layered surface shape

We present the results of two controlled studies comparing layered surface visualizations under various texture conditions. The task was to estimate surface normals, measured by accuracy of a hand-set surface normal probe. A single surface visualization was compared with the two-surfaces case under conditions of no texture and with projected grid textures. Variations in relative texture spacing on top and bottom surfaces were compared, as well as opacity of the top surface. Significant improvements are found for the textured cases over non-textured surfaces. Either larger or thinner top-surface textures, and lower top surface opacities are shown to give less bottom surface error. Top surface error appears to be highly resilient to changes in texture. Given the results we also present an example of how appropriate textures might be useful in volume visualization.     

A novel algorithm for explicit optimal multi-degree reduction of triangular surfaces

This paper introduces the algebraic property of bivariate orthonormal Jacobi polynomials into geometric approximation. Based on the latest results on the transformation formulae between bivariate Bernstein polynomials and Jacobi polynomials, we naturally deduce a novel algorithm for multi-degree reduction of triangular B~zier surfaces. This algorithm possesses four characteristics： ability of error forecast, explicit expression, less time consumption, and best precision. That is, firstly, whether there exists a multi-degree reduced surface within a prescribed tolerance is judged beforehand; secondly, all the operations of multi-degree reduction are just to multiply the column vector generated by sorting the series of the control points of the original surface in lexicographic order by a matrix; thirdly, this matrix can be computed at one time and stored in an array before processing degree reduction; fourthly, the multi-degree reduced surface achieves an optimal approximation in the norm L2. Some numerical experiments are presented to validate the effectiveness of this algorithm, and to show that the algorithm is applicable to information processing of products in CAD system.     

A study of optimal viewing distance in a parallax barrier 3D display

The optimal viewing distance was proposed as a parameter for designing a parallax barrier 3D display. It can be designed based on simple geometric method and by considering the pitches of image display pixels and parallax barrier, or even including the aperture ratios of the image display pixels and parallax barrier. It can be analyzed by using ray tracing method. By considering the optical refraction index of the cover glass, the angular behavior of the system becomes more realistic; however, the geometric method is difficult to be used. We propose a revised method for estimating the view distance and angular behavior. In this paper, we have demonstrated a designated eye position (DEP) for each view and shown that multiple DEPs make a circular curve around the center of the display. We prove the new concept by comparing the optical ray tracing calculations and optical measurement.     

Human visual sensitivity based optimal local backlight dimming methodologies under different viewing conditions

An adaptive local backlight dimming algorithm is proposed considering human visual sensitivities under various viewing conditions. Local dimming amount is maximized based on contrast sensitivity function and local image characteristics to minimize perceived luminance and contrast losses maintaining image qualities. Average luminance, contrast and spatial frequency are evaluated as local image characteristics. As dimming based on local characteristics has blocking artifacts, a compensation method using edge luminance difference is proposed considering human responses. The proposed algorithms reduce backlight power consumption by 39.69% on average, with an average SSIM of 0.995. It can be increased by 5.66% with varying viewing conditions, resulting in a 45.35% power consumption reduction on average. The outperformances of the proposed algorithm in power consumption reduction and maintaining image quality are verified with various image quality metrics compared to recent dimming algorithms.     

The effect of stereoscopic viewing in a word‐search task with a layered background

Abstract— The benefits of stereoscopic viewing were explored in searching in words superimposed over a background. In the first experiment, eight participants searched for text in a normal 2‐D display, a 3‐D display using a parallax barrier, and a darkened 2‐D display of equivalent brightness to the 3‐D display. Word‐search performance was significantly faster for the bright 2‐D display vs. the 3‐D display, but when brightness was controlled, performance on the 3‐D display was better relative to the 2‐D (dim) display. In a second experiment, the effect of floating text vs. sinking background disparity was assessed across four background conditions. Twenty participants saw only the floating‐text (FT) condition and 20 participants saw only the sinking‐background (SB) condition. Performance of the SB group was significantly better than that of FT group, and the advantage of SB disparity was greater with the more‐complex backgrounds. Thus, when a parallax‐barrier 3‐D display is used to view text or other figural information overlaid on a background, it is proposed that the layer of primary interest (foreground) should be displayed with zero disparity (on the physical display surface) with the secondary layer (background) appearing to be sunk beneath that surface.     

冠脉树中感兴趣血管段最佳造影角度下的定量分析

冠心病是目前危害人类健康的首要疾病.冠脉造影图像是临床诊治冠心病的主要依据之一,被称为诊断冠心病的"金标准".X射线造影成像的最大缺陷在于把三维空间结构重叠到二维的图像上,即投影成像.在造影图像中,由于透视投影成像导致的血管缩短会引起血管狭窄估计及支架选择和放置错误,而血管缩短与造影角度的选择有关.本文在冠状动脉树三维重建的基础上,研究了冠状动脉树感兴趣血管段最佳造影角度的计算方法,即通过使血管投影缩短百分比最小化来获得最佳造影角度,并通过冠状动脉树实物模型进行实验,证明了本文方法的正确性.     

Fast Hybrid Approach for Texturing Point Models

We present three methods for texturing point models from sample textures. The first method, the point parameterization method, uses a fast distortion‐bounded parameterization algorithm to flatten the point model's surface into one or more 2D patches. The sample texture is mapped onto these patches and alpha blending is used to minimize the discontinuity in the gaps between the patches. The second method is based on neighborhood matching where a color is assigned to each point by searching the best match within an irregular neighborhood. The hybrid method combines the former two methods, capitalizing on the advantages of both. The point parameterization method is used first to color most of the points, and the point neighborhood‐matching method is then applied to the points belonging to the gaps between the parameterized patches to minimize the discontinuity. We opt for fast texture generation, while some discontinuities may appear in the gaps of anisotropic textures.     

Analysis and optimal design of layered structures subjected to impulsive loading

The attenuation of elastic stress waves propagating through layered structures situated between free and fixed surfaces is investigated. A stress transfer function, which relates the stress response at the fixed support to the applied stress pulse, is derived for several specific layered structures. An analysis of these responses indicate that when an incident stress pulse passes through a layered structure, a reduced stress amplitude and elongated pulse duration could be obtained with proper selection of materials and layer dimensions. Consequently, a design procedure is proposed to obtain the optimal layered structure, and several specific cases of layered structures are investigated.     

An optimal path-generation algorithm for manufacturing of arbitrarily curved surfaces using uncalibrated vision

Multiple industrial manufacturing tasks require a complex path to be followed precisely over an arbitrary surface which has a geometry that is not known with precision. Examples of such tasks include welding, glue-application, cutting, plasma-spraying, etc., over commercial plates whose geometry cannot be known in advance. Such processes are in general referred to as surface manufacturing. In this work, a path is traced over the surface in an optimal fashion, using the concept of geodesic mapping. By definition, a geodesic line is the shortest line that joins two points over a surface whose algebraic representation is known. Such an optimal solution of a problem, associated with variational calculus, is the approach employed for mapping complex paths, defined in a data base, over a surface of arbitrary geometry. The straight-line segments in which a complex path can be divided are mapped onto an arbitrary surface as geodesic lines. The presented algorithm enables a user to interact with the system in a simple and efficient manner using a commercial computer pointing device. The algorithm was tested experimentally in an industrial maneuver involving arc welding, using an industrial robot and a method of vision-based, robot guidance known as camera-space manipulation. This method has the advantage of not requiring calibration of optical or mechanical components.     

Multi‐scale Assemblage for Procedural Texturing

A procedural pattern generation process, called multi‐scale “assemblage” is introduced. An assemblage is defined as a multi‐scale composition of “multi‐variate” statistical figures, that can be kernel functions for defining noise‐like texture basis functions, or that can be patterns for defining structured procedural textures. This paper presents two main contributions: 1) a new procedural random point distribution function, that, unlike point jittering, allow us to take into account some spatial dependencies among figures and 2) a “multi‐variate” approach that, instead of defining finite sets of constant figures, allows us to generate nearly infinite variations of figures on‐the‐fly. For both, we use a “statistical shape model”, which is a representation of shape variations. Thanks to a direct GPU implementation, assemblage textures can be used to generate new classes of procedural textures for real‐time rendering by preserving all characteristics of usual procedural textures, namely: infinity, definition independency (provided the figures are also definition independent) and extreme compactness.     

One-machine n-part-type optimal setup scheduling: analyticalcharacterization of switching surfaces

The authors consider optimal setup scheduling of a single reliable machine. Production flow of n different part types and the setup process are described by differential equations. Setup change rates are control variables. Necessary conditions on optimal setup changes are characterized analytically, and optimal setup change times are derived for a given setup change sequence. The linearization of optimal setup switching surfaces is derived, indicating the existence of attractors observed in numerical optimal solutions. The approach developed in this paper establishes a strong basis for studying multimachine production systems and for constructing tractable near-optimal numerical solution techniques     

Selection of optimal set of weights in a layered network using genetic algorithms

Genetic algorithms represent a class of highly parallel robust adaptive search processes for solving a wide range of optimization and machine learning problems. The present work is an attempt to demonstrate their effectiveness to search a global optimal solution to select a decision boundary for a pattern recognition problem using a multilayer perceptron. The proposed method incorporates a new concept of nonlinear selection for creating mating pools and a weighted error as a fitness function. Since there is no need for the backpropagation technique, the algorithm is computationally efficient and avoids all the drawbacks of the backpropagation algorithm. Moreover, it does not depend on the sequence of the training data. The performance of the method along with the convergence has been experimentally demonstrated for both linearly separable and nonseparable pattern classes.     

Solid Texturing of Soft Objects

Since the shape of a soft object changes in response to its surroundings, it is difficult to give a single position in space as the location of the object. Indeed objects can and do break dynamically into subobjects. This means that you cannot map a solid texture onto such an object simply by using a function of the space coordinates. We have taken a different approach. Our soft objects are modeled as the volume enclosed by an isosurf ace of a field calculated from a set of key points. For each key point, we describe an abstract texture space. Any point on the surface of an object has, associated with each key point, a position in this space and a field contribution. A vector sum of these positions, weighted by the field contributions, is used to select a surface specification from the texture space. Textures mapped with this process retain their consistency during distortion and metamorphoses of objects, permitting a great variety of animation effects.     

Multiform frequency selective surfaces optimal design based on topology optimization

This article proposes an optimization design method for various frequency selective surfaces (FSSs) based on topology optimization algorithm incorporated with the genetic algorithm. The present method takes the connectivity condition both in simulation and fabrication of the elements into consideration. For the filling elements structural design methodology, the novel hexagonal‐pixel filling element structural design is employed for improving the patch connection. As examples, various FSSs, such as a large‐angle‐stability band‐pass FSS, wideband band‐pass FSS, and multiple band‐pass FSS, are designed. Furthermore, the validity of the present method is proved by the agreement between the simulation and the measurement.     

Transient analysis of sliding contact of layered elastic/plastic solids with rough surfaces

 Based on the boundary element method (BEM) and a variational principle, a numerical model is developed to analyze the time – transient sliding contact of two layered elastic/plastic solids. Two cases are considered: one is the loading/sliding/unloading of a rough surface on a smooth surface, and the other is of two rough surfaces. Contact statistics, contact pressure profile and stress distribution are predicted at each time step with updated surface roughness. The results are used to study the effect of surface roughness, physical properties of the layer and the substrate, and lubricant film thickness on friction, stiction, and wear. Discussion on the integration of this contact model into advanced tribological models, e.g., wear model, is also presented. Received: 28 June 2002/Accepted: 23 October 2002 Currently at: Seagate Technology, Pittsburgh, PA Paper presented at the 13th Annual Symposium on Information Storage and Processing Systems, Santa Clara, CA, USA, 17–18 June, 2002     

A Graphical Navigator for viewing Databases

This paper describes the architecture and implementation of Graphical Navigator, a system for visualizing and querying databases. The schema of a database is represented by classes and associations between the classes. Thus, a database is viewed as a labeled graph. A graphical query notation was developed to query databases. The query notation allows formulation of recursive and predicated queries. The system facilitates incremental querying by way of workspaces. The formulation, execution and incremental querying are all done in a highly interactive and visual environment.