A Comprehensive and Versatile Camera Model for Cameras with Tilt Lenses

We propose camera models for cameras that are equipped with lenses that can be tilted in an arbitrary direction (often called Scheimpflug optics). The proposed models are comprehensive: they can handle all tilt lens types that are in common use for machine vision and consumer cameras and correctly describe the imaging geometry of lenses for which the ray angles in object and image space differ, which is true for many lenses. Furthermore, they are versatile since they can also be used to describe the rectification geometry of a stereo image pair in which one camera is perspective and the other camera is telecentric. We also examine the degeneracies of the models and propose methods to handle the degeneracies. Furthermore, we examine the relation of the proposed camera models to different classes of projective camera matrices and show that all classes of projective cameras can be interpreted as cameras with tilt lenses in a natural manner. In addition, we propose an algorithm that can calibrate an arbitrary combination of perspective and telecentric cameras (no matter whether they are tilted or untilted). The calibration algorithm uses a planar calibration object with circular control points. It is well known that circular control points may lead to biased calibration results. We propose two efficient algorithms to remove the bias and thus obtain accurate calibration results. Finally, we perform an extensive evaluation of the proposed camera models and calibration algorithms that establishes the validity and accuracy of the proposed models.     

Physically Meaningful Rendering using Tristimulus Colours

In photorealistic image synthesis the radiative transfer equation is often not solved by simulating every wavelength of light, but instead by computing tristimulus transport, for instance using sRGB primaries as a basis. This choice is convenient, because input texture data is usually stored in RGB colour spaces. However, there are problems with this approach which are often overlooked or ignored. By comparing to spectral reference renderings, we show how rendering in tristimulus colour spaces introduces colour shifts in indirect light, violation of energy conservation, and unexpected behaviour in participating media. Furthermore, we introduce a fast method to compute spectra from almost any given XYZ input colour. It creates spectra that match the input colour precisely. Additionally, like in natural reflectance spectra, their energy is smoothly distributed over wide wavelength bands. This method is both useful to upsample RGB input data when spectral transport is used and as an intermediate step for corrected tristimulus‐based transport. Finally, we show how energy conservation can be enforced in RGB by mapping colours to valid reflectances.     

Progressive Virtual Beam Lights

A recent technique that forms virtual ray lights (VRLs) from path segments in media, reduces the artifacts common to VPL approaches in participating media, however, distracting singularities still remain. We present Virtual Beam Lights (VBLs), a progressive many‐lights algorithm for rendering complex indirect transport paths in, from, and to media. VBLs are efficient and can handle heterogeneous media, anisotropic scattering, and moderately glossy surfaces, while provably converging to ground truth. We inflate ray lights into beam lights with finite thicknesses to eliminate the remaining singularities. Furthermore, we devise several practical schemes for importance sampling the various transport contributions between camera rays, light rays, and surface points. VBLs produce artifact‐free images faster than VRLs, especially when glossy surfaces and/or anisotropic phase functions are present. Lastly, we employ a progressive thickness reduction scheme for VBLs in order to render results that converge to ground truth.     

LAMMPS framework for dynamic bonding and an application modeling DNA

We have extended the Large-scale Atomic/Molecular Massively Parallel Simulator (LAMMPS) to support directional bonds and dynamic bonding. The framework supports stochastic formation of new bonds, breakage of existing bonds, and conversion between bond types. Bond formation can be controlled to limit the maximal functionality of a bead with respect to various bond types. Concomitant with the bond dynamics, angular and dihedral interactions are dynamically introduced between newly connected triplets and quartets of beads, where the interaction type is determined from the local pattern of bead and bond types. When breaking bonds, all angular and dihedral interactions involving broken bonds are removed. The framework allows chemical reactions to be modeled, and use it to simulate a simplistic, coarse-grained DNA model. The resulting DNA dynamics illustrates the power of the present framework.Program summaryProgram title: LAMMPS Framework for Directional Dynamic BondingCatalogue identifier: AEME_v1_0Program summary URL: http://cpc.cs.qub.ac.uk/summaries/AEME_v1_0.htmlProgram obtainable from: CPC Program Library, Queen?s University, Belfast, N. IrelandLicensing provisions: GNU General Public LicenceNo. of lines in distributed program, including test data, etc.: 2 243 491No. of bytes in distributed program, including test data, etc.: 771Distribution format: tar.gzProgramming language: C++Computer: Single and multiple core serversOperating system: Linux/Unix/WindowsHas the code been vectorized or parallelized?: Yes. The code has been parallelized by the use of MPI directives.RAM: 1 GbClassification: 16.11, 16.12Nature of problem: Simulating coarse-grain models capable of chemistry e.g. DNA hybridization dynamics.Solution method: Extending LAMMPS to handle dynamic bonding and directional bonds.Unusual features: Allows bonds to be created and broken while angular and dihedral interactions are kept consistent.Additional comments: The distribution file for this program is approximately 36 Mbytes and therefore is not delivered directly when download or E-mail is requested. Instead an html file giving details of how the program can be obtained is sent.Running time: Hours to days. The examples provided in the distribution take just seconds to run.     

Re‐Weighting Firefly Samples for Improved Finite‐Sample Monte Carlo Estimates

Samples with high contribution but low probability density, often called fireflies, occur in all practical Monte Carlo estimators and are part of computing unbiased estimates. For finite‐sample estimates, however, they can lead to excessive variance. Rejecting all samples classified as outliers, as suggested in previous work, leads to estimates that are too low and can cause undesirable artefacts. In this paper, we show how samples can be re‐weighted depending on their contribution and sampling frequency such that the finite‐sample estimate gets closer to the correct expected value and the variance can be controlled. For this, we first derive a theory for how samples should ideally be re‐weighted and that this would require the probability density function of the optimal sampling strategy. As this probability density function is generally unknown, we show how the discrepancy between the optimal and the actual sampling strategy can be estimated and used for re‐weighting in practice. We describe an efficient algorithm that allows for the necessary analysis of per‐pixel sample distributions in the context of Monte Carlo rendering without storing any individual samples, with only minimal changes to the rendering algorithm. It causes negligible runtime overhead, works in constant memory and is well suited for parallel and progressive rendering. The re‐weighting runs as a fast post‐process, can be controlled interactively and our approach is non‐destructive in that the unbiased result can be reconstructed at any time.     

Einsatzpotenziale von XML in Business-Intelligence-Systemen

This article describes the actual applications of XML in the context of Business- Intelligence-Systems (BI). The potentials and synergies of XML and BI will be emphasized.

1. XML applications can be found within all levels of BI-systems.
2. The application of core-standards will be introduced as well as the possibilities of BI specific-standards.
3. The discussion of the impact of XML for BI-systems follows along the dimensions: externalisation, integration, standardisation and rationalization.

     

Scalable Realistic Rendering with Many‐Light Methods

Recent years have seen increasing attention and significant progress in many‐light rendering, a class of methods for efficient computation of global illumination. The many‐light formulation offers a unified mathematical framework for the problem reducing the full lighting transport simulation to the calculation of the direct illumination from many virtual light sources. These methods are unrivaled in their scalability: they are able to produce plausible images in a fraction of a second but also converge to the full solution over time. In this state‐of‐the‐art report, we give an easy‐to‐follow, introductory tutorial of the many‐light theory; provide a comprehensive, unified survey of the topic with a comparison of the main algorithms; discuss limitations regarding materials and light transport phenomena and present a vision to motivate and guide future research. We will cover both the fundamental concepts as well as improvements, extensions and applications of many‐light rendering.