CAREER: Shape Capture and Modeling for Wrist Dynamics and Ancient Pottery Analysis using Manifold Surfaces and Signed-Distance Volume Images

该项目将对形状建模及其应用进行研究，同时开发一种方法来教授成功的多学科研究项目所需的技能。教育计划与研究工作相结合，其中包括开发用于捕获几何图形的计算工具，在计算机中表示几何图形，并将这些表示用于考古学和生物学建模中的特定应用。该教育计划包括一门课程、跨学科科学可视化和一个研究小组。都欢迎本科生和研究生。这门课模仿研究过程，从选择项目到展示研究结果。项目必须包括来自多个学科的参与者。在本学期中，学生们要写一篇提案，审查其他人的提案，共同完成一个项目，将其写成研究摘要，审查其他人的摘要，并展示他们的结果。随着课程的进展，讲座、阅读和讨论有助于教授这些步骤背后的艺术和工艺。这个研究小组来自于PI在教育期间参与的三个研究小组：布朗大学的一个主要是本科生小组，加州理工学院的一个主要是研究生小组，以及加州理工学院的第二个主要是博士后小组。该小组结合了这三个方面，提供了一个环境，它被认为将有助于学习如何在许多层面上进行多学科研究。这项研究是多学科的，很适合研究小组。将开发用于捕获几何形状、表示几何形状和计算几何形状的计算工具，并将其应用于两个学科的问题：考古学中古代陶器碎片的组装和骨科和生物工程中手腕运动的建模。在这两种情况下，形状都将从采样的体积CT医学成像数据中捕获。它将隐式地使用采样带符号距离体积表示，并显式地使用流形表面表示。这两种表现形式相互补充，共同提供了两者的优势。对于考古应用程序，我们将开发一个软件架构，用于将关于人工制品形状的推理过程与对其几何形状的理解解耦。一个概率接口将把这两个部分分开。对于生物建模应用，我们将开发骨骼，韧带和软骨模型，以预测运动。我们将用我们已经获得的运动来验证这个模型，然后用它来检查到目前为止还没有理解的缺陷患者的运动。这项研究的影响将在应用领域和计算领域。如果我们成功了，陶器组装将实现自动化。据估计，一个挖掘团队在挖掘之外花费的时间超过50%。我们预计这种加速将使重要的新考古结果出现。更好地了解手臂和手腕的生物力学以及可能影响它们的异常情况可能会影响许多美国人。这种理解可能会应用于生物学、生物工程、医学应用、动画和机器人。我们将开发的模拟关节的数值方法可能适用于其他生物系统的模拟。由于几何建模的算法和工具将应用于两个特定的问题，因此它们可能具有更广泛的适用性。也许最重要的影响不在于科学成果，而在于更好地理解是什么让多学科研究项目成功或失败，以及布朗大学将培养出的新科学家。

This project will conduct research into shape modeling and its applications coupled with the development of a methodology for teaching the skills needed for successful multi-disciplinary research projects. The education plan is integrated with the research effort, which includes development of computational tools for capturing geometry, representing it within the computer, and using those representations for specific applications in archaeology and biological modeling.The education plan consists of a course, Interdisciplinary Scientific Visualization, and a research group. Both welcome undergraduate and graduate students alike. The class mimics the research process, from choosing a project to presenting research results. Projects must include participants from multiple disciplines. During the semester students write a proposal, review proposals by others, work together on a project, write it up as a research abstract, review abstracts by others, and present their results. As the course progresses, lectures, readings, and discussion help to teach the art and craft behind each of those steps. The research group is derived from three research groups the PI participated in during during education: a primarily undergraduate group at Brown, a primarily graduate group at Caltech, and a second Caltech group that is primarily postdocs. The group combines aspects of all three to provide an environment that it is believed will be conducive to learning how to do multi-disciplinary research at many levels.The research is multi-disciplinary and fits well into the research group. Computational tools for capturing geometric shapes, representing them, and calculating with them will be developed and applied to problems from two disciplines: assembly of ancient pottery sherds in archaeology and modeling of wrist motion in orthopaedics and bioengineering. In both cases, shape will be captured from sampled volumetric CT medical imaging data. It will be represented implicitly using sampled signed-distance volumes and explicitly using manifold surfaces. The two representations compliment one another, together offering the strengths of both. For the archaeology application, we will develop a software architecture for decoupling the process of reasoning about artifact shapes from the understanding of their geometry. A probabilistic interface will separate the two parts. For the biological modeling application, we will develop models for bones, ligaments, and cartilage that will predict motion. We will validate the model with motion that we have already acquired and then use it to examine motion in patients with deficits that have thus far eluded an understanding.The impact of this research will be in both application areas and the computational domain. If we are successful, pottery assembly, a process that is estimated to take over 50% of the time an excavation team spends outside of excavating, will be automated. We anticipate that this speedup will enable significant new archaeological results to emerge. A better understanding of the biomechanics of the arm and wrist and the abnormal conditions that can affect them could impact many Americans. This understanding will likely have applications in biology, bioengineering, medical applications, animation, and robotics. The numerical methods we will develop for simulating joints are likely to apply to simulations of other biological systems. Because the algorithms and tools for geometric modeling will be applied to two specific problems, they are likely to be more widely applicable.Perhaps the most significant impact will be not in the scientific results, but in a better understanding of what makes multi-disciplinary research projects succeed or fail and in the new scientists that will emerge from Brown.