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，并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，包括开发用于捕获几何的计算工具，在计算机中表示几何，并将这些表示用于考古学和生物建模的特定应用。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。两者都欢迎本科生和研究生。课程模拟研究过程，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。在学期中，学生写一个提案，审查其他人的提案，共同完成一个项目，将其写为研究摘要，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。该研究小组来自PI在教育期间参与的三个研究小组：布朗大学的主要本科生小组，加州理工学院的主要研究生小组，以及主要是博士后的第二个加州理工学院小组。该小组结合了所有三个方面，提供了一个环境，相信这将有助于学习如何在多个层次上进行多学科研究。研究是多学科的，非常适合研究小组。用于捕获几何形状，表示它们，并与它们计算的计算工具将被开发和应用于两个学科的问题：在考古学和骨科和生物工程手腕运动建模的古代陶器碎片的组装。在这两种情况下，将从采样的体积CT医学成像数据中捕获形状。它将隐式地使用采样的符号距离体积和显式地使用流形表面来表示。这两种表现形式相互补充，共同提供了两者的优势。对于考古学应用程序，我们将开发一个软件架构，用于将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部分分开。对于生物建模应用程序，我们将开发用于预测运动的骨骼、韧带和软骨模型。我们将用我们已经获得的运动来验证模型，然后用它来检查迄今为止尚未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。如果我们成功的话，陶器的组装，这个过程估计会占用挖掘团队在挖掘之外花费的50%以上的时间，将是自动化的。我们预计，这种加速将使重要的新的考古成果出现。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。这种理解可能会在生物学，生物工程，医学应用，动画和机器人技术中得到应用。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被应用于两个特定的问题，它们可能会有更广泛的适用性。也许最重要的影响将不是科学结果，而是更好地理解是什么使多学科研究项目成功或失败，以及布朗大学将涌现出新的科学家。

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.