Discovery Earth Live :: Discovery Channel

What an awesome visual tool to understand how dynamic our Earth is! Be sure to look at the "Living Planet" section and think where you would most want to live year round?

Have fun exploring!

Visual Thinking

The process of "Visual Thinking" is about taking complex ideas and reducing them down to their core essence. Enjoy a few fabulous presentations by David Armano on the subject.

Thinking Visually

View more documents from David Armano.

More information at VizThink

Biomimicry: Nature and Every Inventor's Source for Inspiration

A great talk I wanted to share with those looking for a little creative inspiration. The design and sophistication that surrounds us in nature is simply amazing! What I don't understand is how anybody who observes the precision, intentionality, and purpose behind each uniquely designed thing can actually believe it is happenstance? Look and see for yourself.

Link to Janine Benyus' website
Link to AskNature.org

GelSight Previewed at Siggraph '09

I can imagine multiple uses for MIT's GelSight technology which was domo'ed at Siggraph '09 in New Orleans.

"GelSight measures the texture and geometry of objects that touch its surface. The sensor is made of clear elastomer (a gel-like material) with a painted skin. Viewed from behind, an object pressed into the sensor appears as a shaded surface with a uniform reflectance. These properties allow for 3D reconstruction of the object's surface."

Airborne Ultrasound Tactile Display & Holography

Another amazing technology developed by Shinoda Lab (The University of Tokyo)

Technology from Siggraph '09:


Technology from Siggraph '08:

Link to Research Paper (PDF)
Link to Supplemental Material (PDF)

3D Video Stabilization Presented at SIGGRAPH 2009

I've been fascinated with the original Steadycam when I had an opportunity to meet the inventor and try on the vest at Siggraph'95. The quality of precision and engineering to achieve such a fluid and balanced mechanical device is simply amazing.

Fast forward nearly 15 years later, and the same effect can be now be achieved without bulky equipment. The stabilization software demo'ed at Siggraph 2009 is pretty incredible. See for yourself.

3D Depth from Flash Photography

Sometimes the simple ideas can be the most effective. Case in point with the method used by researchers at the University of Manchester, UK, to extract the 3D depth of ancient artifacts using flash photography.

The new technique is already being used to add depth and realism to the ancient carvings that will appear in Maya Skies - a full-dome digital projection for planetariums that tells the story of the Mayan people. Maya Skies will be released in 2009.

Link to website
Read research paper (PDF)

The Power of Photography and Story

An inspiring video presentation by David Griffin at a recent TED conference. The the title of the presentation is "Photography connects us with the world".

The New Economy - By Joseph Pine

Joseph Pine is regarded as one of the greatest minds in regards to the direction of the new economy. He coined the term "mass customization" based on his best selling books Mass Customization: The New Frontier in Business Competition, and The Experience Economy. I had the privilege of meeting Joe in 2007 at a the Mass Customization and Personalization Conference (MCPC) at MIT. His ability to track the direction our culture is heading with regards to the shift in our economic offerings is inspiring.

The following is a video of Joe speaking at a recent TED conference I believe is quite valuable.

Beowulf 3D: a case study Rob Engle

I had the privilege of seeing Beowolf3D twice while it played at the theaters some time ago. It was an immersive and engaging experience that left me feeling I was transported into another world - the wild visions of Director Robert Zemeckis.

At any rate, I found this technical talk of Rob Engle, Sony Pictures Imageworks. It was presented 29 January 2008 at the annual Stereoscopic Displays and Applications (SD&A) conference, San Jose, California, USA.

Rob's talk discusses the creative and technical challenges encountered during the production of "Beowulf 3D," director Robert Zemeckis' adaptation of the Old English epic poem and the first film to be simultaneously released in IMAX 3D and digital 3D formats.

3D Desktop + Organizational Tools

I ran across the following research projects demonstrating a new level of engagement with our digital media. Increasing the overall experience, while demonstrating the unique relationships between our data will open up the doors for new possibilities. I am sure we will see this implemented for commerce sometime soon.

Real-Time Gradient-Domain Painting

The following research is done by James McCann and Nancy S. Pollard. Real-time Gradient-domain Painting, ACM Transactions on Graphics (SIGGRAPH 2008), August 2008, Vol 27. No. 3.

Abstract

We present an image editing program which allows artists to paint in the gradient domain with real-time feedback on megapixel-sized images. Along with a pedestrian, though powerful, gradient-painting brush and gradient-clone tool, we introduce an edge brush designed for edge selection and replay. These brushes, coupled with special blending modes, allow users to accomplish global lighting and contrast adjustments using only local image manipulations -- e.g. strengthening a given edge or removing a shadow boundary. Such operations would be tedious in a conventional intensity-based paint program and hard for users to get right in the gradient domain without real-time feedback. The core of our paint program is a simple-to-implement GPU multigrid method which allows integration of megapixel-sized full-color gradient fields at over 20 frames per second on modest hardware. By way of evaluation, we present example images produced with our program and characterize the iteration time and convergence rate of our integration method.



Portraits sketched by M. Mahler using Gradient-Domain Painting Program

Link to website
Link to PDF research paper
Link to video

Shading Based Surface Editing

The following research is by Yotam Gingold and Denis Zorin In Proceedings of SIGGRAPH 2008, Los Angeles, USA, Aug.'08

Abstract

We present a system for free-form surface modeling that allows a user to modify a shape by changing its rendered, shaded image using stroke-based drawing tools. User input is translated into a set of tangent and positional constraints on the surface. A new shape, whose rendered image closely approximates user input, is computed using an efficient and stable surface optimization procedure. We demonstrate how several types of free-form surface edits which may be difficult to cast in terms of standard deformation approaches can be easily performed using our system.

Link to website
Link to PDF research paper (14MB)

Freeform surfaces from single curved panels

The following research is by H. Pottmann, A. Schiftner, P. Bo, H. Schmiedhofer, W. Wang, N. Baldassini, and J. Wallner. - (ACM Trans. Graphics, Vol. 27/3 (2008).Proc. SIGGRAPH 2008)

Abstract:

Motivated by applications in architecture and manufacturing, we discuss the problem of covering a freeform surface by single curved panels. This leads to the new concept of semi-discrete surface representation, which constitutes a link between smooth and discrete surfaces. The basic entity we are working with is the developable strip model. It is the semi-discrete equivalent of a quad mesh with planar faces, or a conjugate parametrization of a smooth surface. We present a B-spline based optimization framework for efficient computing with D-strip models. In particular we study conical and circular models, which semi-discretize the network of principal curvature lines, and which enjoy elegant geometric properties. Together with geodesic models and cylindrical models they offer a rich source of solutions for surface panelization problems.

Link to PDF research paper

Developable Surfaces - Curved Folding

Curved Folding by Martin Kilian, Simon Floery, Zhonggui Chen, Niloy J. Mitra, Alla Sheffer, Helmut PottmannACM SIGGRAPH 2008

Abstract:
Fascinating and elegant shapes may be folded from a single planar sheet of material without stretching, tearing or cutting, if one incorporates curved folds into the design. We present an optimizationbased computational framework for design and digital reconstruction of surfaces which can be produced by curved folding. Our work not only contributes to applications in architecture and industrial design, but it also provides a new way to study the complex and largely unexplored phenomena arising in curved folding.

Link to website

Link to PDF research paper (Siggraph 2008)

Link to 22MB slide presentation

Free-Form Sketch

Another unique approach for 3D sketch modeling byHaixiong Wang and Lee Markosian can be found here



Link to website
Link to PDF research paper

Real-Time Shape Deformation

The following video showcases new development of shape deformation. I can see this technology make real-time computer animation interaction fun and entertaining.

T. Igarashi, T. Moscovich, J.F. Hughes, "As-Rigid-As-Possible Shape Manipulation",
ACM Transactions on Computer Graphics, Vol.24, No.3, 2005

Link to website

Link to PDF

Link to MovingSketch software

Sketch Based Rapid Interaction Prototyping

3D Sculpting/Sketching using ILoveSketch

.

Free-Form 3D Creation using FiberMesh

This is a great example of software that allows the user to generate free-form objects using very intuitive methods. Watch the video and see for yourself.