Designing Personalized Garments with Body Movement

The standardized sizes used in the garment industry do not cover the range of individual differences in body shape for most people, leading to ill-fitting clothes, high return rates and overproduction. Recent research efforts in both industry and academia, therefore, focus on virtual try-on and on-demand fabrication of individually fitting garments. We propose an interactive design tool for creating custom-fit garments based on 3D body scans of the intended wearer. Our method explicitly incorporates transitions between various body poses to ensure a better fit and freedom of movement. The core of our method focuses on tools to create a 3D garment shape directly on an avatar without an underlying sewing pattern, and on the adjustment of that garment's rest shape while interpolating and moving through the different input poses. We alternate between cloth simulation and rest shape adjustment based on stretch to achieve the final shape of the garment. At any step in the real-time process, we allow for interactive changes to the garment. Once the garment shape is finalized for production, established techniques can be used to parameterize it into a 2D sewing pattern or transform it into a knitting pattern.     

Validation of the Climate-SAF surface broadband albedo product: Comparisons with in situ observations over Greenland and the ice-covered Arctic Ocean

This paper describes a validation study performed by comparing the Climate-SAF Surface Albedo Product (SAL) to ground truth observations over Greenland and the ice-covered Arctic Ocean. We compare Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR)-based albedo retrievals to data from the Greenland Climate Network (GCN) weather stations and the floating ice station Tara for polar summer 2007. The AVHRR dataset consists of 2755 overpasses. The overpasses are matched to in situ observations spatially and temporally. The SAL algorithm presented here derives the surface broadband albedo from AVHRR channels 1 and 2 using an atmospheric correction, temporal sampling of an empirical Bidirectional Reflectance Distribution Function (BRDF), and a narrow-to-broadband conversion algorithm. The satellite product contains algorithms for snow, sea ice, vegetation, bare soil, and water albedo. At the Summit and DYE-2 stations on the Greenland ice sheet, instantaneous SAL RMSE is 0.073. The heterogeneous surface conditions at satellite pixel scale over the stations near the Greenland west coast increase RMSE to > 0.12. Over Tara, the instantaneous SAL RMSE is 0.069. The BRDF sampling approach reduces RMSE over the ice sheet to 0.053, and to 0.045 over Tara. Taking into account various sources of uncertainty for both satellite retrievals and in situ observations, we conclude that SAL agrees with in situ observations within their limits of accuracy and spatial representativeness.     

Efficient sparse voxel octrees

In this paper, we examine the possibilities of using voxel representations as a generic way for expressing complex and feature-rich geometry on current and future GPUs. We present in detail a compact data structure for storing voxels and an efficient algorithm for performing ray casts using this structure. We augment the voxel data with novel contour information that increases geometric resolution, allows more compact encoding of smooth surfaces, and accelerates ray casts. We also employ a novel normal compression format for storing high-precision object-space normals. Finally, we present a variable-radius postprocess filtering technique for smoothing out blockiness caused by discrete sampling of shading attributes. Based on benchmark results, we show that our voxel representation is competitive with triangle-based representations in terms of ray casting performance, while allowing tremendously greater geometric detail and unique shading information for every voxel. Our voxel codebase is open sourced and available at http://code.google.com/p/efficient-sparse-voxel-octrees/.     

Virtual worlds as knowledge management platform – a practice‐perspective

Virtual worlds, as electronic environments where individuals can interact in a realistic manner in form of avatars, are increasingly used by gamers, consumers and employees. Therefore, they provide opportunities for reinventing business processes. Especially, effective knowledge management (KM) requires the use of appropriate information and communication technology (ICT) as well as social interaction. Emerging virtual worlds enable new ways to support knowledge and knowing processes because these virtual environments consider social aspects that are necessary for knowledge creating and knowledge sharing processes. Thus, collaboration in virtual worlds resembles real‐life activities. In this paper, we shed light on the use of Second Life (SL) as a KM platform in a real‐life setting. To explore the potential and current usage of virtual worlds for knowledge and knowing activities, we conducted a qualitative study at IBM. We interviewed IBM employees belonging to a special workgroup called ‘Web 2.0/virtual worlds’ in order to gain experience in generating and exchanging knowledge by virtually collaborating and interacting. Our results show that virtual worlds – if they are able to overcome problems like platform stability, user interface or security issues – bear the potential to serve as a KM platform. They facilitate global and simultaneous interaction, create a common context for collaboration, combine different tools for communication and enhance knowledge and knowing processes.     

Knowledge based quality-driven architecture design and evaluation

Modelling and evaluating quality properties of software is of high importance, especially when our every day life depends on the quality of services produced by systems and devices embedded into our surroundings. This paper contributes to the body of research in quality and model driven software engineering. It does so by introducing; (1) a quality aware software architecting approach and (2) a supporting tool chain. The novel approach with supporting tools enables the systematic development of high quality software by merging benefits of knowledge modelling and management, and model driven architecture design enhanced with domain-specific quality attributes. The whole design flow of software engineering is semi-automatic; specifying quality requirements, transforming quality requirements to architecture design, representing quality properties in architectural models, predicting quality fulfilment from architectural models, and finally, measuring quality aspects from implemented source code. The semi-automatic design flow is exemplified by the ongoing development of a secure middleware for peer-to-peer embedded systems.     

Stream engines meet wireless sensor networks: cost-based planning and processing of complex queries in AnduIN

Wireless sensor networks are powerful, distributed, self-organizing systems used for event and environmental monitoring. In-network query processors like TinyDB offer a user friendly SQL-like application development. Due to the sensor nodes?? resource limitations, monolithic approaches often support only a restricted number of operators. For this reason, complex processing is typically outsourced to the base station. Nevertheless, previous work has shown that complete or partial in-network processing can be more efficient than the base station approach. In this paper, we introduce AnduIN, a system for developing, deploying, and running complex in-network processing tasks. In particular, we present the query planning and execution strategies used in AnduIN, a system combining sensor-local in-network processing and a data stream engine. Query planning employs a multi-dimensional cost model taking energy consumption into account and decides autonomously which query parts will be processed within the sensor network and which parts will be processed at the central instance.     

Effects of road surface appearance and low friction warning systems on driver behaviour and confidence in the warning system

Warning systems for slippery road conditions are a potential newcomer among driver support systems. A total of 75 participants drove in a high-fidelity driving simulator on roads with both visible and invisible ice, to investigate to which extent drivers rely on a low friction warning system. Three experimental groups with different versions of a low friction warning system and a control group without warning system were compared. All drivers ranked the systems according to trust. A system displaying recommended speed received the best ratings. Driving speed was analysed for three particular segments of the route. Generally, lowest speeds were achieved with the recommended speed system. The participants drove more slowly on a slippery segment that looked icy than on the segments that looked dry when they did not receive a low friction warning. When they received a warning for low friction they also lowered their speed for the segment looking like asphalt. The results provide guidelines for how to present low friction warnings to drivers. The design has substantial effects on the resulting behaviour and therefore it can have a high impact on traffic safety. So far, not much research on low friction warning systems has been reported.     

Selecting and conserving lands for biodiversity: The role of remote sensing

A major focus of conservation is on protecting areas to ensure the persistence of biological diversity. Because such areas may be large, not easily accessible, subject to change, and sensitive to the surrounding landscape, remote sensing can be a valuable tool in establishing and managing protected areas. We describe three case studies to illustrate how remote sensing can contribute to setting priorities for conservation actions, monitoring the status of conservation targets, and evaluating the effectiveness of conservation strategies. In the Connecticut River watershed, remote sensing has been used to assess flood regimes and identify key areas of floodplain forests and their context for conservation planning. At Eglin Air Force Base in Florida, remote sensing has provided information to assess the effectiveness of management strategies to restore fire to the longleaf pine sandhills ecosystem, control invasive species, and prioritize annual prescribed burns. In eastern US forests, remote sensing is being used to evaluate the ecological condition and changes at properties where direct access would be difficult.As the resolution and capacities of remote-sensing technology continue to develop, however, several issues are becoming increasingly important. It is essential that the spatial and temporal resolution of remote-sensing data be matched to the relevant scales of biodiversity, major threats, and management actions. Data layers must be compatible, both in scale and in measurement properties, and key patterns must be distinguished from irrelevant detail, especially at the finer scales of application in local management. Combining remote sensing with ground surveys can expand the array of information used in management and contribute to the ecological interpretation of remote-sensing data. Because conservation funds are always limited, remote sensing also must be cost effective. This requires balancing the wealth of detail afforded by ever-finer resolution of remote-sensing data with what is actually needed to implement sound conservation and management. Remote sensing is a valuable tool, but it is not a panacea for all of the challenges of conservation monitoring and management.     

Consumers' Creative Talent: Which Characteristics Qualify Consumers for Open Innovation Projects? An Exploration of Asymmetrical Effects

Virtual customer integration and open innovation are considered as appropriate means to improve the success of new product development. However, only when consumers are qualified and motivated to contribute promising ideas and relevant know‐how they are able to add value to a producer's innovation process. In this study, we explore the symmetric and asymmetric impact of various creativity components on consumers' idea generation, concept development, or prototype building abilities as well as interest in co‐creation projects. Our results show that creativity components are of different importance. While some characteristics are needed above certain thresholds to successfully accomplish a certain development task, exceeding those does not necessarily lead to better outputs. Other characteristics improve the creative output only if they exceed specific levels.