Search

This poster reports our first approach for automatic music arrangement based on the impression of input images. Given a digital image and keywords of objects shot in the image, the technique selects a rhythm pattern associated from the keywords and color distribution of the image. As a preprocessing, the technique first provides sample colors, images, and keywords to users, and then collects the feedback of selection of rhythm patterns associated from them. The technique then leads equations to calculate the association of rhythm pattern from arbitrary input images. Finally, the technique automatically calculates the association scores of all prepared rhythm patterns from the images, and provides music arranged applying the associated rhythm pattern. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When rendering immersive virtual environments, it is necessary to limit the geometric complexity of the scene in order to retain interactive frame rates. Both reduced frame rendering rates and reduced geometric complexity have been shown to have a negative impact on task performance. We present a perceptually adaptive rendering system which optimizes rendering performance in immersive virtual environments. Our system currently uses three discrete levels of detail for each model, which are created prior to run time. We use head position and orientation in the 3D environment to determine the appropriate geometric level of detail (LOD) of the objects in the scene. Based upon the thresholds used to trigger a change between two LODs, interactivity can be significantly improved without overtly distracting the user. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Animated virtual humans created by skilled artists play a remarkable role in today's public entertainment. However, ordinary users are still treated as audiences due to the lack of appropriate expertise, equipment, and computer skills. We developed a new method and a novel sketching interface, which enable anyone who can draw to "sketch-out" 3D virtual humans and animation. We devised a "Stick Figure→ Fleshing-out→Skin Mapping" graphical pipeline, which decomposes the complexity of figure drawing and considerably boosts the modelling and animation efficiency. We developed a gesture-based method for 3D pose reconstruction from 2D stick figure drawings. We investigated a "Creative Model-based Method", which performs a human perception process to transfer users' 2D freehand sketches into 3D human bodies of various body sizes, shapes and fat distributions. Our current system supports character animation in various forms including articulated figure animation, 3D mesh model animation, and 2D contour/NPR animation with personalised drawing styles. Moreover, this interface also supports sketch-based crowd animation and 2D storyboarding of 3D multiple character interactions. A preliminary user study was conducted to support the overall system design. Our system has been formally tested by various users on Tablet PC. After minimal training, even a beginner can create vivid virtual humans and animate them within minutes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes a real-time system to synthesize a dancing character that is matched with beatboxing sounds. It is easier for humans to make a rhythmical sound with their mouth and vocal like a beatboxing than playing musical instruments. The system extracts rhythm features from dancing motion clips contained in a motion clip database at a preprocessing step. While performing beatboxing in real time, the system extracts rhythm features from those sounds and then finds appropriate a clip in the database whose rhythm features are matched to the sounds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Texture synthesis aims to seamlessly extend a sample texture. This can be achieved by reproducing the texture's recognisable patterns along with minimising the occurrences of undesirable image characteristics such as disjoint image features. Presently, patch-based methods have consistently produced the most impressive results. These methods involve aligning and stitching texture patches together. However, image inconsistencies exist when image features are misaligned; they are either fused together or abruptly cut off. Our method minimises the occurrences of these anomalies by using image edges to align patches and redefine their boundaries to preserve texture features. This implementation requires little to no user-defined variables or iterations and can be practically scalable given some pre-computation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For the generation of freeform 3D models, one of the most intuitive solution is to use sketch-based modeling environments. Unfortunately, since the user interface relies upon the analyse of sketches in order to determine which action is requested by the user, the possible amount of different operations can be limited. In this paper, we present a 3D sketching system based on multiple views. Each view is specialized on a component of the modeling process (like the skeleton, the profile, etc.), and is based on specific sketching interactions. With this approach, an user could improve its understanding of the modeling process and perform a larger range of modeling operations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We developed a system that visualizes how design of interior space affects user's subjective states when they are communicating personal information on a computer. After measuring the subjective reassurance of users while they were communicating information, we used the results to plot and create personal information spaces. Then the subjective aspects of workspace design were visualized based on these personal information spaces. Designers can intuitively understand the subjective aspects of space design visualized based on a user's subjective states using our system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a new feature extraction method on the mesh model with some noise. Firstly, we compute Mesh saliency value of every vertex on the mesh model. Then we set it as the weighted factor and employ the weighted bi-quadratic Bézier surface to fit the vertex and its neighborhood by the least square method. So we obtain the smoothed principal curvature and principal direction of every vertex, which can be used for detecting and extracting the feature point. The advantage of our method is that we can achieve the better feature extraction result from the mesh model with some noise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we introduce concepts in order to enhance the resolution of autostereoscopic displays for performing routine tasks. Our Sim2D3D technique presented earlier allows users to work with any 2D or 3D application in an autostereoscopic desktop environment. We have conducted a user study to investigate the impact of this technique on routine tasks performed using autostereoscopic displays. The problems identified in this user study led us to further improve the design of autostereoscopic user interfaces by increasing the effective resolution for context areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multi-modal capabilities can be added to a simulation system in order to enhance data comprehension. We describe a system for adding sonification capabilities to a real-time computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulator. Our system uses Max/MSP modules to add sonic properties to CFD solutions. The enhancements described in this paper allow users to locate sound sources in a 3-D environment using stereo auditory cues to identify data features. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article gathers and consolidates the issues involved in uncertainty relating to reasoning and analyzes how uncertainty visualizations can support cognitive and meta-cognitive processes. Uncertainty in data is paralleled by uncertainty in reasoning processes, and while uncertainty in data is starting to get some of the visualization research attention it deserves, the uncertainty in the reasoning process is thus far often overlooked. While concurring with the importance of incorporating data uncertainty visualizations, we suggest also developing closely integrated visualizations that provide support for uncertainty in reasoning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Generally, 2D computer graphics are suitable for depicting 2D structures. However, computer games generally depict 3D structures using 2D computer graphics. We are interested in such expression. As the overhead view has no 3D geometry data, a mechanism 3D geometry data from the overhead view is proposed. In addition, a tile-based technique for seamless conversion of a two-dimensional graphical expression into a three-dimensional geometric shape is proposed. In the proposed approach, an overhead 2D view defined by tiles on a canvas is converted into groups of 3D forms automatically and distorted according to an arbitrary viewing angle.The derivation and algorithm of the scheme are presented, and example applications are shown. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Data hiding techniques onto images provide tools for protecting copyright or sending secret messages, and they are currently utilized as a simple input device of a cell phone by detecting a data embedded in an image with an equipped digital camera. This paper presents a method of synthesizing texture images for embedding arbitrary data by utilizing the smart techniques of generating repetitive texture patterns through feature learning of a sample image. We extended the techniques so that a synthesized image can effectively conceal the embedded pattern, and the pattern can be robustly detected from a photographed image. We demonstrate the feasibility of our techniques using texture samples including an image scanned from real material. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article describes a new interaction model for artistic shape generation. Instead of using a metaphor of the classical sculpting tools we propose a new approach based on a two level editing which both uses genetic programming methods: objects are created by means of subjective selection and generative evolution. We develop a new way to define these objects combining algebraic definition of implicit surfaces and CSG-like composition of these shapes. Along with these we propose a software tool that implements a simple way to manage this new approach in three dimensional objects design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper introduces a semantic representation for virtual proto typing in interactive virtual construction applications. The representation reflects semantic information about dynamic constraints to define objects' modification and construction behavior as well as knowledge structures supporting multimodal interaction utilizing speech and gesture. It is conveniently defined using XML-based markup for virtual building parts. The semantic information is processed during runtime in two ways: Constraint graphs are mapped to a generalized data-flow network and scene-graph. Interaction knowledge is accessed and matched during multimodal analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Automatic lighting design aims to provide users with semi-automated approaches, and easy-to-use tools, to configure lighting for 3D scenes. We present LightOpex the first fully automatic example-based local illumination lighting design system. Utilizing a wavelet-based lighting design framework, by which image quality is modeled using a cognitively inspired objective function, this approach to lighting design both: (1) allows the declarative specification of lighting; and (2) facilitates intuitive and natural specification of scene lighting. LightOpex enables users to select the desired lighting for a scene using exemplar 2D images and uses the spatial distribution of the luminance in these images as the target values of an optimization step. We demonstrate the utility of LightOpex through a range of examples, and conduct a preliminary investigation of the performance of a number of different of optimization schemes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the concept and an evaluation of a novel approach to support students to understand complex spatial relations and to learn unknown terms of a domain-specific terminology with coordinated textual descriptions and illustrations. Our approach transforms user interactions into queries to an information retrieval system. By selecting text segments or by adjusting the view to interesting domain objects, learners can request additional contextual information. Therefore, the system uses pre-computed multi-level representations of the content of explanatory text and of views on 3D models to suggest textual descriptions or views on 3D objects that might support the current learning task. Our experimental application is evaluated by a user study that analyzes (i) similarity measures that are used by the information retrieval system to coordinate the content of descriptive texts and computer-generated illustrations and (ii) the impact of the individual components of these measures. Our study revealed that the retrieved results match the preferences of the users. Furthermore, the statistical analysis suggests a rough value to cut-off retrieval results according to their relevancy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Obesity and lack of physical fitness are increasingly common in adults as well as children and can negatively affect health. Regular physical activity, such as jogging or training in a fitness center, is recommended by physiologists to fight obesity and improve one's fitness, but usually requires considerable motivation. Recently, researchers as well as companies have proposed a few fitness games, i.e. videogames where users play by performing physical exercises, in which game elements (such as graphics and gameplay) are used to encourage people to exercise regularly. This paper proposes a fitness game system which aims at combining arcade-style game graphics, physiological sensors (e.g. heart rate monitor, 3D accelerometer), and an adaptation engine. The adaptation engine considers personal information provided by the user (e.g., age and gender), her current heart rate and movements, and information collected during previous game sessions to adjust the required intensity of physical exercises through context-aware and user-adaptive dynamic adaptations of graphics and gameplay. Besides describing the general system, the paper presents two implemented games and a preliminary user evaluation, which also led us to introduce in the system a 3D virtual human. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research proposes 3D graphical agents in the role of virtual presenters with a new type of functionality - the capability to process and respond to visual attention of users communicated by their eye movements. Eye gaze is an excellent clue to users' attention, visual interest, and visual preference. Using state-of-the-art non-contact eye tracking technology, eye movements can be assessed in a unobtrusive way. By analyzing and interpreting eye behavior in real-time, our proposed system can adapt to the current (visual) interest state of the user, and thus provide a more personalized, context-aware, and ‘attentive' experience of the presentation. The system implements a virtual presentation room, where research content of our institute is presented by a team of two highly realistic 3D agents in a dynamic and interactive way. A small preliminary study was conducted to investigate users' gaze behavior with a non-interactive version of the system. A demo video based on our system was awarded as the best application of life-like agents at the GALA event in 2006. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interactive control of 3D avatar motions has important applications in computer games and animations. Most of the current games directly map the inputs of a user into canned motions of the 3D character under control. However, an ideal user interface should be more like a human moving in the real life where appropriate motions are chosen according to the environment in the front. In this paper, we have developed an intelligent control interface that helps the user to look ahead a few steps and search a motion library organized in a motion graph for the most appropriate motion for execution. The search is conducted incrementally with the best effort in each frame according to a given available time budget. We have developed a best-first strategy to maintain the search tree in a way that the number of useful nodes is kept as large as possible. Experiments on several example scenes have been conducted to illustrate how this mechanism can enhance the usability of 3D avatar control from a third-person view. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We propose a novel Human Computer Interaction (HCI) paradigm for volume visualization in projection-based immersive virtual environments (VEs). This paradigm is intuitive, highly efficient and allows accurate control over the virtual objects. A fine control mode for direct manipulation is proposed to address the low accuracy problem of virtual object manipulation in VEs. An agent object interaction method is proposed to provide more flexibility in manipulating the volume objects. A two-handed scaling method is proposed to conveniently scale the volume object along one, two, or three axes. Finally, a ghost object paradigm is proposed to address the motion constraint problem for virtual objects. An implementation using a 3-state tracked glove setup as the input interface is discussed. How basic functionality for volume visualization can be transferred from the 2D WIMP (Window, Icon, Menu, and Pointer) interface to a 3D VR interface is also systematically discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we present a fast and intuitive interface for sketching out 3D virtual humans and animation. The user draws stick figure key frames first and chooses one for "fleshing-out" with freehand body contours. The system automatically constructs a plausible 3D skin surface from the rendered figure, and maps it onto the posed stick figures to produce the 3D character animation. A "creative model-based method" is developed, which performs a human perception process to generate 3D human bodies of various body sizes, shapes and fat distributions. In this approach, an anatomical 3D generic model has been created with three distinct layers: skeleton, fat tissue, and skin. It can be transformed sequentially through rigid morphing, fatness morphing, and surface fitting to match the original 2D sketch. An auto-beautification function is also offered to regularise the 3D asymmetrical bodies from users' imperfect figure sketches. Our current system delivers character animation in various forms, including articulated figure animation, 3D mesh model animation, 2D contour figure animation, and even 2D NPR animation with personalised drawing styles. The system has been formally tested by various users on Tablet PC. After minimal training, even a beginner can create vivid virtual humans and animate them within minutes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We introduce in this paper an interface for modeling botanical trees that we term a sketch-and-spray interface. In using the interface, a user would sketch out various types of strokes to construct the main structures of a tree. A user could use a branch stroke to draw a single branch, a leaf stroke to draw a single leaf or a stem of leaves, or a copy stroke to draw a whole branch together with all its sub-branches and leaves. A user could also use various editing strokes to modify the tree structure. Finally, a user could spray particles upon it to ‘grow' the overall shape of the tree. We illustrate the utility of our interface using a number of examples throughout this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

NPR Lenses is an interactive technique for producing expressive non-photorealistic renderings. It provides an intuitive visual interaction tool for illustrators, allowing them to seamlessly apply a large variety of emphasis techniques. Advantages of 3D scene manipulation are combined with the capabilities of viewer-aligned lenses by inserting 2D lens controls into the 3D rendering pipeline. By using lenses that are spatially explicit and constrained we enable object-independent adjustments in 3D. Regions of emphasis can be easily created by adjusting lens parameters and any combination of line style, type, shape, and position of computer-generated lines. NPR Lenses support the creation of effects similar to those found in many existing hand-drawn illustrations and allow creative freedom through interactive control at the same time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article proposes a sketch-based interface for modeling muscle fiber orientation of a 3D virtual heart model. Our target was electrophysiological simulation of the heart and fiber orientation is one of the key elements to obtaining reliable simulation results. We designed the interface and algorithm based on the observation that fiber orientation is always parallel to the surface of the heart. The user specifies the fiber orientation by drawing a freeform stroke on the object surface. The system first builds a vector field on the surface by applying Laplacian smoothing to the mesh vertices and then builds a volumetric vector field by applying Laplacian smoothing to the voxels. We demonstrate the usefulness of the proposed method through a user study with a cardiologist. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we describe a new interface for browsing and sorting of digital pictures. Our approach is two-fold. First we present a new method to automatically identify similar images and rate them based on sharpness and exposure quality of the images. Second we present a zoomable user interface based on the details-on-demand paradigm enabling users to browse large collections of digital images and select only the best images for further processing or sharing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Large displays are becoming commonplace for home and office computers. Although researchers have quantified the benefits of working on large displays, there has been little investigation of how large displays physiologically and emotionally impact the user. Using subjective and physiological measures, we compared the user's experience when game playing on a large display versus a small display. We found that the large display caused greater physiological responses and higher subjective ratings of excitement. These physiological results were mirrored in the participants' subjective reports. The study contributes to understanding of interaction with large displays and refining the requirements for what constitutes effective and desirable humancomputer interaction (HCI). Keywords: Large display, User experience, Physiological measure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The NEAR (Navigating Exhibitions, Annotations and Resources) is a compact panel designed to help people navigating, searching and interacting in an information repository by visualizing implicit data relations such as sharing, reference and similarity. It is implemented on A∙VI∙RE, an online multimedia repository. A∙VI∙RE supports semi-structured collections (exhibitions) containing various resources and annotations. Its users are encouraged to contribute, share, annotate and interpret resources. Similar to the act of adding items into shopping carts in the e-commence applications, a user's acts of searching and organizing and interpreting data in A∙VI∙RE are considered as evidence of the user's preferences. The design process of NEAR was guided by several design moves analyzed from literatures. It implements new navigation and communication approaches that support discovery of relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Numerical information is often presented in graphs. However, this medium is problematic for certain audiences such as inexperienced graph readers, people with visual impairments and users of mobile technologies featuring small screens. We have developed a system called iGraph which provides short verbal descriptions with the information depicted in graphs and a way of interacting with it by means of dialogue in natural language. In this paper, we present the general architecture of the system and its representational and querying mechanisms, together with a glimpse of the natural language interface. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The interaction model supported by web search engines has changed very little since the early days of web search. Users are required to formulate their queries with very little support from the system, and are provided with a list-based representation of the web search results that promotes a sequential evaluation of the document surrogates. The short queries used by web searchers, and the few pages viewed as a result of a web search are indications of the inadequate support provided for the users' information retrieval tasks. We propose a model for web information retrieval that uses visualization and interactive visual manipulation to support the users as they take an active role in satisfying their information needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Technological and scientific images, and other images with epistemic uses, have varied appearances and functions. They seem to be analog or symbolic representations available to researchers for a variety of epistemic purposes such as summarizing data, or presenting, discussing and verifying hypothetic propositions about the world. This article studies the perception and understanding of scientific/epistemic images within a conceptual framework grounded in the notion of reference. It introduces the hypothesis stating that the performance of the perceptual understanding of a particular scientific image depends on the epistemic uses of attention. The hypothesis suggests that understanding a scientific picture requires making an epistemic use of the attentional control of visual routines in order to obtain knowledge on the spatial structure and the referents of a particular image or graphic representation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Parametric CAD applications enable designers to model and maintain both objects and relationships. Selection is the first step in the process of establishing relationships in a CAD model. Because designing is characterized by a process of change and development, establishing and maintaining relationships can contribute significant overhead to a parametric design process. Selection rules can be used to reduce the overhead involved in maintaining relationships and increase the portability of model objects by pushing responsibility for maintaining relations to the computer. We report on two implemented concepts for rule based selection and discuss directions for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Computational creativity is certainly interesting and potentially important. ArTVox, a Java programmed evolutionary environment, arose from the attempt to emulate computational creativity applied to artistic production, in visual and sound domains, by using interactive genetic algorithms. Objects inspired in Kandinsky's artworks are being programmed in Shape, an auxiliary Java environment, to be inserted in ArTVox. Today, ArTVox creates and evolves visual compositions of geometric primitives that, by their turn, guide the sound production in another evolutionary environment, JaVox, integrated to ArTVox. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we discuss some interface design concepts for supporting and enhancing collaborative creativity in multi-user interactive environments. We focus on the design of affordances for direct manipulation and collaboration on table-top displays. As an application of our concepts, we introduce the EnLighTable, an appliance for creative teamwork in the selection of pictures and layout design based on a table-top touch-sensitive display. We present our rationale for the design of affordances which metaphorically relate to artifacts - and map to gestures - of the physical world. Finally we discuss the results of our first design iteration and introduce a possible future extension of the table-top appliance to other devices of an instrumented environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multi-monitor systems are becoming increasingly popular as a way for users to expand their display surface to facilitate multitasking. However, users may have difficulty accessing user interface elements on the borders of the displays, accidentally crossing over to neighbouring displays. We present a smart pseudo-haptic technique to enhance boundary widgets in multi-monitor systems. Our technique was compared to current desktop behaviour as well as to two other pseudo-haptic approaches. All three techniques significantly reduced crossover errors; however, our smart sticky technique also significantly reduced the time to acquire targets on the secondary monitor over the other sticky techniques and was strongly preferred by users. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We propose a new copy-paste user interface for 3D geometry based on repetitive patterns. The system, guided by the user, analyzes patterns of repetition in the source geometry and then pastes the geometry while increasing or decreasing the number of repetitions using scaling and deformation, which is controlled by two freehand strokes called handles. The system has two main advantages over existing methods: the entire copy-paste operation is controlled by the user's stroke input and thus can be specified easily without explicitly adjusting the parameters, and splitting the shape information into source geometry and handles can not only significantly reduce the amount of data required but also quickly change a scene's appearance while keeping its structure consistent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A human photographer can frame an image and enhance its composition by visualizing how elements in the frame could be better sized or positioned. The photographer resizes elements in the frame by changing the zoom lens or by varying his or her distance to the subject. The photographer moves elements by panning. An intelligent virtual photographer can apply a similar process. Given an initial 3D camera view, a user or application specifies high-level composition goals such as Rule of Thirds or balance. Each objective defines either a One-D interval for image scaling or a Two-D interval for translation. Two-D projections of objects are translated and scaled in the frame according to computed optima. These Two-D scales and translates are mapped to matching changes in the 3D field of view (zoom), dolly-in or out varying subject distance, and rotating the aim direction to improve the composition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Declarative approaches to lighting design model image quality using an objective function that captures the desired visual properties of an object or scene. The value of the objective function is optimized for a particular camera configuration through the manipulation of the lighting parameters of a scene. We review the notion of declarative lighting design, and introduce LightOp, a tool by which the design of objective functions (the components and settings) and the application of different optimization techniques can be explored. We show how LightOp can be used to explore declarative lighting design through the realization of a number of extensions to existing approaches, including the application and evaluation of stochastic optimization; the use of backlighting to maximize edge enhancement; contrast modeling; and the use of a perceptually uniform color space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents an extension of the Through-the-Lens Camera Control approach proposed by Gleicher and Witkin. It first provides a higher means of control on the camera by using virtual composition primitives and second offers a means for through-the-lens interaction with both the location of the objects in the scene and the lighting. By setting properties on the composition primitives, users convey constraints to enforce the positioning of the camera, the objects and the lights directly through the lens. The paper presents how to express all three problems of indirect camera, object and light interaction in a consistent way and provides some first results. The solving techniques rely on the expression of the image Jacobian coupled with a constrained optimizer based on Quadratic Programming. The Jacobian expresses the relation between the user input and the possible degrees of freedom on the entity to manipulate; in order to avoid solving failures that are delicate to manage in user interfaces, we propose a mass-spring interaction model. As a result, the user should be able concentrate on higher level properties such as composition, balance and unity through a natural and effective interaction process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

L-system is a tool commonly used for modeling and simulating the growth of plants. In this paper, we propose a new tree modeling system based on L-system that allows the user to control the overall appearance and the depth of recursion, which represents the level of growth, easily and directly, by drawing a single stroke. We introduce a new module into L-system whose growth direction is determined by a user-drawn stroke. As the user draws the stroke, the system gradually advances the growth simulation and creates a tree model along the stroke. Our technique is the first attempt to control the growth of a simulation in L-system using stroke input. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we present a method to generate compact and accuracy-controllable free-form surfaces for web-based surgical simulations. Users can input an important area where high accuracy is required, such as an affected area. The input area can be reflected as meshes with high level of details. By utilizing display tablet interfaces, surgeons are able to draw incision lines or boundaries between organs on an on-screen 3D model, just like they draw lines on paper in surgical planning procedures. Input lines can be reflected as boundaries between patches on free-form surfaces. Practical surgical simulators are also presented to evaluate the efficiency of our framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, 3D sketching has gained popularity as an efficient alternative to conventional 3D geometric modeling for rapid prototyping, as it allows the user to intuitively generate a large range of different shapes. In this paper, we present some sketching interactions for 3D modeling, based on a set of two different bidimensional sketches (profile curve and silhouette curve). By using these two sketches and combining them with a gesture grammar, a very large variety of shapes (including shapes with topological holes) can be easily produced by our interactive modeling environment. Keywords: Sketch-based 3D Modeling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A good saliency map captures the locally sharp features effectively. So a number of tasks in graphics can benefit from a computational model of mesh saliency. Motivated by the conception of Lee's mesh saliency [12] and its successful application to mesh simplification and viewpoint selection, we modified Laplacian smoothing operator with mesh saliency. Unlike the classical Laplacian smoothing, where every new vertex of the mesh is moved to the barycenter of its neighbors, we set every new vertex position to be the linear interpolation between its primary position and the barycenter of its neighbors. We have shown how incorporating mesh saliency with Laplacian operator can effectively preserve most sharp features while denoising the noisy model. Details of our modified Laplacian smoothing algorithm are discussed along with the test results in this paper. Keywords: Mesh Fairing; Lapalacian Smoothing Operator; Perceptually Salient; Shape Features; Mesh Saliency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we propose interactive visualization techniques which support the spatial comprehension of angiogram images by emphasizing depth information and introducing combined depth cues. In particular, we propose a depth based color encoding, two variations of edge enhancement and the application of a modified depth of field effect in order to enhance depth perception of complex blood vessel systems. All proposed techniques have been developed to improve the human depth perception and have been adapted with special consideration of the spatial comprehension of blood vessel structures. To evaluate the presented techniques, we have conducted a user study, in which users had to accomplish certain depth perception tasks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Collections of electronic music are mostly organized according to playlists based on artist names and song titles. Music genres are inherently ambiguous and, to make matters worse, assigned manually by a diverse user community. People tend to organize music based on similarity to other music and based on the music's emotional qualities. Taking this into account, we have designed a music player which derives a set of criteria from the actual music data and then provides a coherent visual metaphor for a similarity-based navigation of the music collection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes a novel and efficient visualization technique intended for hierarchical-temporal data using a tree-ring like layout. Temporal hierarchies appear in numerous fields such as genealogy, evolution taxonomies or time lines. In many cases, state-of-the-art static diagrams are produced in these fields. By using several information visualization strategies, such as focus + context, the tree-ring approach has the ability to visualize and navigate these, potentially complex, hierarchies trough time. Thus, a deeper insight into the problem at hand can be gained. Keywords: tree-ring layout, information visualization, focus + context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we describe our responsive video performance, Deep Surrender, created using Cycling '74's Max/MSP and Jitter packages. Video parameters are manipulated in real-time, using chroma-keying and colour balance modification techniques to visualize the keyboard playing and vocal timbre of a live performer. We present the musical feature extraction process used to create a control system for the production, describe the mapping between audio and visual parameters, and discuss the artistic motivations behind the piece. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Causal perception is an important cognitive phenomenon, which plays a central role in our understanding of the world. As such, its study is also relevant to interactive graphics systems. In this paper, we introduce a virtual reality system which can elicit causal perception. The system operates by intercepting the consequences of subjects' actions and modifying them to generate new event co-occurrence. This process is based on an explicit representation of action structure, which supports the generation of event co-occurrences on a principled basis. We present results from a user experiment, which confirm a high level of causal perception in subjects having used the system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Michotte argued that humans almost immediately perceive causality in simple animations as a consequence of spatial and temporal localities. To explore the usefulness of these ideas in animation, Ware et al. introduced a semiotic method called a visual causal vector. This work studies their wave metaphor, shows a method for calibrating timings to produce a causal impression, and explores the effect of animations timed in this way. Keywords: Perception, Causality, Data Visualization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a novel real-time algorithm to integrate internal and external labels of arbitrary size into 3D visualizations. Moreover, comprehensive dynamic content can be displayed in annotation boxes. Our system employs multiple metrics in order to achieve an effective and aesthetic label layout with adjustable weights. The layout algorithm employs several heuristics to reduce the search space of a complex layout task. Initial layouts are refined by label agents, i.e., local strategies to optimize the layout and to minimize the flow of layout elements in subsequent frames. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]