206451107
Sensation-Preserving Haptic Rendering
Most human-computer interactive systems focus primarily on the graphical rendering of visual information and, to a lesser extent, on the display of auditory information. Haptic interfaces have the potential to increase the quality of human-computer interaction by accommodating the sense of touch. They provide an attractive augmentation to visual display and enhance the level of understanding of complex data sets. A haptic rendering system generates contact or restoring forces to prevent penetration into the virtual objects and create a sense of touch. The system computes contact forces by first detecting if a collision or penetration has occurred. Then, the system determines the (projected) contact points on the model surface. Finally, it computes restoring forces based on the amount of penetration. Researchers have recently investigated the problem of rendering the contact forces and torques between 3D virtual objects. This problem is known as six-degrees-of-freedom (6-DOF) haptic rendering, as the computed output includes both 3-DOF forces and 3-DOF torques. This article presents an overview of our work in this area. We suggest different approximation methods based on the principle of preserving the dominant perceptual factors in haptic exploration.
15734500
Fast Animation of Lightning Using an Adaptive Mesh
We present a fast method for simulating, animating, and rendering lightning using adaptive grids. The "dielectric breakdown model" is an elegant algorithm for electrical pattern formation that we extend to enable animation of lightning. The simulation can be slow, particularly in 3D, because it involves solving a large Poisson problem. Losasso et al. recently proposed an octree data structure for simulating water and smoke, and we show that this discretization can be applied to the problem of lightning simulation as well. However, implementing the incomplete Cholesky conjugate gradient (ICCG) solver for this problem can be daunting, so we provide an extensive discussion of implementation issues. ICCG solvers can usually be accelerated using "Eisenstat's trick," but the trick cannot be directly applied to the adaptive case. Fortunately, we show that an "almost incomplete Cholesky" factorization can be computed so that Eisenstat's trick can still be used. We then present a fast rendering method based on convolution that is competitive with Monte Carlo ray tracing but orders of magnitude faster, and we also show how to further improve the visual results using jittering
6243696
Geometry-driven physical interaction between avatars and virtual environments
We present an interactive technique on virtual contact handling for avatars in virtual environments using geometry-driven physics. If a contact has occurred between an articulated avatar and a virtual environment, the global penetration depth and contact points are estimated based on a fast local penetration depth computation for decomposed convex pieces. The penetration depth and contact information are then used to resolve overlap between the avatar and the virtual environment. If applicable, joint angles for an articulated body are computed using an inverse kinematics approach based on cyclic coordinate descent. Resulting dynamic response with friction is modeled with impulse-based dynamics under the Coulomb friction law. We demonstrate the algorithm on a modestly complex virtual environment. The resulting system is able to maintain an interactive frame rate of 30–60 Hz. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
919090
Fast penetration depth estimation using rasterization hardware and hierarchical refinement
We present a novel and fast algorithm to estimate penetration depth (PD) between two polyhedral models. Given two overlapping polyhedra, it computes the minimal translational distance to separate them using a combination of discretized computations and hierarchical refinement. The algorithm computes pair-wise Minkowski sums of decomposed convex pieces, performs closest point query using rasterization hardware, and refines the estimated PD by incremental walking. It uses bounding volume hierarchies, model simplification, and culling algorithms to further accelerate the computation and refines the estimated PD in a hierarchical manner. We highlight its performance on complex models.
8273317
A video-based rendering acceleration algorithm for interactive walkthroughs
We present a new approach for faster rendering of large synthetic environments using video-based representations. We decompose the large environment into cells and pre-compute video based impostors using MPEG compression to represent sets of objects that are far from each cell. At runtime, we decode the MPEG streams and use rendering algorithms that provide nearly constant-time random access to any frame. The resulting system has been implemented and used for an interactive walkthrough of a model of a house with 260,000 polygons and realistic lighting and textures. It is able to render this model at 16 frames per second (an eightfold improvement over simpler algorithms) on average on a Pentium II PC with an off-the-shelf graphics card.
7169150
A versatile interactive 3D brush model
We present a flexible modeling approach capable of realistically simulating many varieties of brushes commonly used in painting. Our geometric model of brush heads is a combination of subdivision surfaces and hundreds of individual bristles represented by thin polygonal strips. We exploit bristle-to-bristle coherence, simulating only a fraction of the bristles and using interpolation for the remainder. Our dynamic model incorporates realistic physically-based deformation, including anisotropic friction, brush plasticity, and tip spreading. We use an energy minimization framework with a novel geometric representation of the brush head to generate a wider variety of brushes. Finally, we have developed an improved haptic model that provides realistic force feedback, directly related to the results of the brush dynamic simulation. Using this model, we are able to simulate a wide range of brush styles and create an excellent variety of strokes such as the crisp, curvy strokes of Western decorative painting, or rough scratchy strokes like certain Oriental calligraphy. We have also developed an exporter for a popular free 3D modeling package that makes it easier for non-programmers to create any desired style of brush, real or fanciful.
5909240
The Computational Complexity of the Reliability Problem on Distributed Systems
Abstract The reliability of a distributed program in a distributed computing system is the probability that a program which runs on multiple processing elements and needs to communicate with other processing elements for remote data files will be executed successfully. This reliability varies according to 1. (1) the topology of the distributed computing system 2. (2) the reliability of the communication links 3. (3) the data files and program distribution among processing elements and 4. (4) the data files required to execute a program. This paper shows that solving this reliability problem is NP-hard even when the distributed computing system is restricted to a series-parallel, a 2-tree, a tree, or a star structure.
50312
The distributed program reliability analysis on ring-type topologies
Abstract Distributed computing system (DCS) has become very popular for its high fault-tolerance, potential for parallel processing, and better reliability performance. One of the important issues in the design of the DCS is the reliability performance. Distributed program reliability (DPR) is addressed to obtain this reliability measure. In this paper, we propose a polynomial-time algorithm for computing the DPR of ring topology and show that solving the DPR problem on a ring of trees topology is NP-hard. Scope and purpose The widespread use of distributed computing system is due to the price–performance revolution in microelectronics, the development of cost-effective and efficient communication subsets, the development of resource sharing software, and the increased user demands for communication, economical sharing of resources, and productivity. This article is concerned with the analysis of distributed program reliability on a ring-distributed computing system. The distributed program reliability is a useful measure for reliability evaluation of distributed computing system. The distributed program reliability analyses also give a good index for designing a high-reliability-performance-distributed computing system.
33339608
Almost Optimal Solutions for Bin Coloring Problems
In this paper we study two interesting bin coloring problems: Minimum Bin Coloring Problem (MinBC) and Online Maximum Bin Coloring Problem (OMaxBC), motivated from several applications in networking. For the MinBC problem, we first show that it is NP-complete, and then present two near linear time approximation algorithms to achieve almost optimal solutions, i.e., no more than OPT+2 and OPT+1 respectively, where OPT is the optimal solution. For the OMaxBC problem, we first introduce a deterministic 2-competitive greedy algorithm, and then give lower bounds for any deterministic and randomized (against adaptive offline adversary) online algorithms. The lower bounds show that our deterministic algorithm achieves the best possible competitive ratio.
16198203
On Semantics of Reactive Rule-Based Systems
In this paper we address special issues which arise when the rule-based programming paradigm is emlployed in development of reactive real-time systems. We begin by presenting a rule-based language which has emerged while developing intelligent cruise control systems. We describe a naive operational semantics based on an an implemented inference engine, and explain why the semantics is not appropriate in safety-critical real-time contexts. We then deene a number of correct-ness criteria ensuring termination, consistency and determinism, based on a formal declarative semantics. However, the declarative semantics is non-constructive. In order to be able to build an implementation satisfying the correctness criteria, two alternative approaches are proposed. Both approaches build upon static checks of a rule-based program. In the rst approach some correctness criteria are met by accepting only stratiied programs after the static checks. In the second approach we accept programs which are correct with respect to a constructive semantics. For both approaches we present the analysis methods and soundness results with respect to the desired declarative semantics. Abstract In this paper we address special issues which arise when the rule-based programming paradigm is emlployed in development of reactive real-time systems. We begin by presenting a rule-based language which has emerged while developing intelligent cruise control systems. We describe a naive operational semantics based on an an implemented inference engine, and explain why the semantics is not appropriate in safety-critical real-time contexts. We then deene a number of correct-ness criteria ensuring termination, consistency and determinism, based on a formal declarative semantics. However, the declarative semantics is non-constructive. In order to be able to build an implementation satisfying the correctness criteria, two alternative approaches are proposed. Both approaches build upon static checks of a rule-based program. In the rst approach some correctness criteria are met by accepting only stratiied programs after the static checks. In the second approach we accept programs which are correct with respect to a constructive semantics. For both approaches we present the analysis methods and soundness results with respect to the desired declarative semantics.
986758
The Interaction of Research Methods for System Evaluation and Theory Testing: A New Vision of the Benefits of Multi-Methodological Information Systems Research
A number of multi-methodological Information Systems research frameworks have been proposed to guide research in the IS field. In this paper, we describe a three-year program of research evaluating a computerbased training system for deception detection (Agent99 Trainer) using one such multi-methodological IS framework. The process and results of this research program clearly demonstrate the benefits of combining and triangulating multiple research methods. Moreover, through the experiences in the Agent99 Trainer study, we discover two different types of interactions between the research methods that were applied in this study. One of the interactions is between the results from different methods, while the other is between the results and the methods themselves. Hence, we propose an extended interpretation of multi-methodological IS research frameworks to incorporate these two types of interactions between research methods. We argue that this extended interpretation will provide a more specific explanation for why the triangulation among multiple research methods can provide benefits to IS research.