CAREER: Applications of Surface Correspondence in Computer Graphics

最近的三项技术进步--网络的出现、数字媒体的革命和个人电脑性能的显著提高--为一系列新的3D计算机图形应用程序打开了大门。对这项技术的访问，以及非技术人员对图形兴趣的扩大，推动了对新方法的日益增长的需求，以对3D模型进行编目、查看、修改和保护。提供这些工具的几个挑战在于可用数据和操作这些数据的人组的不断增长的大小和异构性。本项目研究了与3D表面有关的四个应用领域：(1)基于内容的3D表面查询方法，以便在大型数据库中找到3D模型--该技术将使人们能够在Web上找到3D模型，并将增强对未来数字图书馆的目录搜索；(2)曲面内插算法，以可视化等值面或等值面动画的时间演化--从低阈值到高阈值--这项技术将有助于理解3D数据集，例如由医学扫描或天体物理模拟产生的数据集；(3)基于手绘手势和与其他模型的交互来重塑3D模型的控件--这些控件允许3D动画师以自然的方式重塑模型，并允许2D动画师将复杂的纹理应用于手绘图形；以及(4)一种在3D表面插入和检测不可见数字水印的方法--水印技术解决了对专有模型的版权保护的担忧，从而将刺激网络上新模型的扩散。这些项目共享一项共同的基础技术--多分辨率分析--这是一种在不同细节水平上表示和处理数据的工具。在更高的层面上，它们共享一个共同的问题--曲面对应问题--它着眼于如何以最佳方式将一个曲面映射到另一个曲面上。这一问题的解决方案直接适用于上述四个项目。

Three recent advances in technology -- the advent of the Web, the revolution of digital media, and the dramatic performance improvement of PCs -- have opened the door for a host of new 3D computer graphics applications. Access to this technology, as well as broadening interest in graphics among non-technical people, drives a growing demand for new ways to catalogue, view, modify, and protect 3D models. Several challenges to providing these tools lie in the growing size and heterogeneity of both the data available and the groups of people manipulating these data.This project investigates four application areas pertinent to 3Dsurfaces: (1) a content-based query method for 3D surfaces in order to find 3D models in a large database -- this technique will enable people to find 3D models on the Web and will enhance catalogue searching for the digital library of the future; (2) algorithms for surface interpolation in order to visualize either the time-evolution of an isosurface or an animation of the isosurface from low to high threshold values -- this technology will aid understanding of 3D data sets such as those resulting from medical scans or astrophysical simulations; (3) controls for reshaping a 3D model based on hand-drawn gestures and interactions with other models -- these controls permit 3D animators to reshape models in a natural way, and they allow 2Danimators to apply complex textures to hand-drawn figures; and (4) a method for insertion and detection of an invisible digital watermark in a 3D surface -- watermarking technology addresses concerns about copyright protection of proprietary models, and will thereby spur the proliferation of new models on the Web.A factor that binds these projects together is that they rely on two common underlying technologies. The projects share a commonfundamental technology -- multiresolution analysis -- a tool forrepresenting and manipulating data at different levels of detail. At a higher level, they share a common problem -- the surface correspondence problem -- which looks at how to map one surface onto another optimally. Solutions to this problem have direct application in the four projects highlighted above.