Volume 39 (2020)

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https://diglib7.eg.org/handle/10.2312/2632879

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Fast Out-of-Core Octree Generation for Massive Point Clouds
(The Eurographics Association and John Wiley & Sons Ltd., 2020) Schütz, Markus; Ohrhallinger, Stefan; Wimmer, Michael; Eisemann, Elmar and Jacobson, Alec and Zhang, Fang-Lue
We propose an efficient out-of-core octree generation method for arbitrarily large point clouds. It utilizes a hierarchical counting sort to quickly split the point cloud into small chunks, which are then processed in parallel. Levels of detail are generated by subsampling the full data set bottom up using one of multiple exchangeable sampling strategies.We introduce a fast hierarchical approximate blue-noise strategy and compare it to a uniform random sampling strategy. The throughput, including out-of-core access to disk, generating the octree, and writing the final result to disk, is about an order of magnitude faster than the state of the art, and reaches up to around 6 million points per second for the blue-noise approach and up to around 9 million points per second for the uniform random approach on modern SSDs.
Visual Analytics in Dental Aesthetics
(The Eurographics Association and John Wiley & Sons Ltd., 2020) Amirkhanov, Aleksandr; Bernhard, Matthias; Karimov, Alexey; Stiller, Sabine; Geier, Andreas; Gröller, Eduard; Mistelbauer, Gabriel; Eisemann, Elmar and Jacobson, Alec and Zhang, Fang-Lue
Dental healthcare increasingly employs computer-aided design software, to provide patients with high-quality dental prosthetic devices. In modern dental reconstruction, dental technicians address the unique anatomy of each patient individually, by capturing the dental impression and measuring the mandibular movements. Subsequently, dental technicians design a custom denture that fits the patient from a functional point of view. The current workflow does not include a systematic analysis of aesthetics, and dental technicians rely only on an aesthetically pleasing mock-up that they discuss with the patient, and on their experience. Therefore, the final denture aesthetics remain unknown until the dental technicians incorporate the denture into the patient. In this work, we present a solution that integrates aesthetics analysis into the functional workflow of dental technicians. Our solution uses a video recording of the patient, to preview the denture design at any stage of the denture design process. We present a teeth pose estimation technique that enables denture preview and a set of linked visualizations that support dental technicians in the aesthetic design of dentures. These visualizations assist dental technicians in choosing the most aesthetically fitting preset from a library of dentures, in identifying the suitable denture size, and in adjusting the denture position. We demonstrate the utility of our system with four use cases, explored by a dental technician. Also, we performed a quantitative evaluation for teeth pose estimation, and an informal usability evaluation, with positive outcomes concerning the integration of aesthetics analysis into the functional workflow.
Memory-Efficient Bijective Parameterizations of Very-Large-Scale Models
(The Eurographics Association and John Wiley & Sons Ltd., 2020) Ye, Chunyang; Su, Jian-Ping; Liu, Ligang; Fu, Xiao-Ming; Eisemann, Elmar and Jacobson, Alec and Zhang, Fang-Lue
As high-precision 3D scanners become more and more widespread, it is easy to obtain very-large-scale meshes containing at least millions of vertices. However, processing these very-large-scale meshes is still a very challenging task due to memory limitations. This paper focuses on a fundamental geometric processing task, i.e., bijective parameterization construction. To this end, we present a spline-enhanced method to compute bijective and low distortion parameterizations for very-large-scale disk topology meshes. Instead of computing descent directions using the mesh vertices as variables, we estimate descent directions for each vertex by optimizing a proxy energy defined in spline spaces. Since the spline functions contain a small set of control points, it significantly decreases memory requirement. Besides, a divide-and-conquer method is proposed to obtain bijective initializations, and a submesh-based optimization strategy is developed to reduce distortion further. The capability and feasibility of our method are demonstrated over various complex models. Compared to the existing methods for bijective parameterizations of very-large-scale meshes, our method exhibits better scalability and requires much less memory.
VA-TRAC: Geospatial Trajectory Analysis for Monitoring, Identification, and Verification in Fishing Vessel Operations
(The Eurographics Association and John Wiley & Sons Ltd., 2020) Storm-Furru, Syver; Bruckner, Stefan; Viola, Ivan and Gleicher, Michael and Landesberger von Antburg, Tatiana
In order to ensure sustainability, fishing operations are governed by many rules and regulations that restrict the use of certain techniques and equipment, specify the species and size of fish that can be harvested, and regulate commercial activities based on licensing schemes. As the world's second largest exporter of fish and seafood products, Norway invests a significant amount of effort into maintaining natural ecosystem dynamics by ensuring compliance with its constantly evolving sciencebased regulatory body. This paper introduces VA-TRAC, a geovisual analytics application developed in collaboration with the Norwegian Directorate of Fisheries in order to address this complex task. Our approach uses automatic methods to identify possible catch operations based on fishing vessel trajectories, embedded in an interactive web-based visual interface used to explore the results, compare them with licensing information, and incorporate the analysts' domain knowledge into the decision making process. We present a data and task analysis based on a close collaboration with domain experts, and the design and implementation of VA-TRAC to address the identified requirements.
Infomages: Embedding Data into Thematic Images
(The Eurographics Association and John Wiley & Sons Ltd., 2020) Coelho, Darius; Mueller, Klaus; Viola, Ivan and Gleicher, Michael and Landesberger von Antburg, Tatiana
Recent studies have indicated that visually embellished charts such as infographics have the ability to engage viewers and positively affect memorability. Fueled by these findings, researchers have proposed a variety of infographic design tools. However, these tools do not cover the entire design space. In this work, we identify a subset of infographics that we call infomages. Infomages are casual visuals of data in which a data chart is embedded into a thematic image such that the content of the image reflects the subject and the designer's interpretation of the data. Creating an effective infomage, however, can require a fair amount of design expertise and is thus out of reach for most people. In order to also afford non-artists with the means to design convincing infomages, we first study the principled design of existing infomages and identify a set of key chart embedding techniques. Informed by these findings we build a design tool that links web-scale image search with a set of interactive image processing tools to empower novice users with the ability to design a wide variety of infomages. As the embedding process might introduce some amount of visual distortion of the data our tool also aids users to gauge the amount of this distortion, if any. We experimentally demonstrate the usability of our tool and conclude with a discussion of infomages and our design tool.
ConceptGraph: A Formal Model for Interpretation and Reasoning During Visual Analysis
(© 2020 Eurographics ‐ The European Association for Computer Graphics and John Wiley & Sons Ltd, 2020) Karer, B.; Scheler, I.; Hagen, H.; Leitte, H.; Benes, Bedrich and Hauser, Helwig
In order to discuss the kinds of reasoning a visualization supports and the conclusions that can be drawn within the analysis context, a theoretical framework is needed that enables a formal treatment of the reasoning process. Such a model needs to encompass three stages of the visualization pipeline: encoding, decoding and interpretation. The encoding details how data are transformed into a visualization and what can be seen in the visualization. The decoding explains how humans construct graphical contexts inside the depicted visualization and how they interpret them assigning meaning to displayed structures according to a formal reasoning strategy. In the presented model, we adapt and combine theories for the different steps into a unified formal framework such that the analysis process is modelled as an assignment of meaning to displayed structures according to a formal reasoning strategy. Additionally, we propose the ConceptGraph, a combined graph‐based representation of the finite‐state transducers resulting from the three stages, that can be used to formalize and understand the reasoning process. We apply the new model to several visualization types and investigate reasoning strategies for various tasks.
Guide Me in Analysis: A Framework for Guidance Designers
(© 2020 Eurographics ‐ The European Association for Computer Graphics and John Wiley & Sons Ltd, 2020) Ceneda, Davide; Andrienko, Natalia; Andrienko, Gennady; Gschwandtner, Theresia; Miksch, Silvia; Piccolotto, Nikolaus; Schreck, Tobias; Streit, Marc; Suschnigg, Josef; Tominski, Christian; Benes, Bedrich and Hauser, Helwig
Guidance is an emerging topic in the field of visual analytics. Guidance can support users in pursuing their analytical goals more efficiently and help in making the analysis successful. However, it is not clear how guidance approaches should be designed and what specific factors should be considered for effective support. In this paper, we approach this problem from the perspective of guidance designers. We present a framework comprising requirements and a set of specific phases designers should go through when designing guidance for visual analytics. We relate this process with a set of quality criteria we aim to support with our framework, that are necessary for obtaining a suitable and effective guidance solution. To demonstrate the practical usability of our methodology, we apply our framework to the design of guidance in three analysis scenarios and a design walk‐through session. Moreover, we list the emerging challenges and report how the framework can be used to design guidance solutions that mitigate these issues.
A Practical Method for Animating Anisotropic Elastoplastic Materials
(The Eurographics Association and John Wiley & Sons Ltd., 2020) Schreck, Camille; Wojtan, Chris; Panozzo, Daniele and Assarsson, Ulf
This paper introduces a simple method for simulating highly anisotropic elastoplastic material behaviors like the dissolution of fibrous phenomena (splintering wood, shredding bales of hay) and materials composed of large numbers of irregularly-shaped bodies (piles of twigs, pencils, or cards). We introduce a simple transformation of the anisotropic problem into an equivalent isotropic one, and we solve this new ''fictitious'' isotropic problem using an existing simulator based on the material point method. Our approach results in minimal changes to existing simulators, and it allows us to re-use popular isotropic plasticity models like the Drucker-Prager yield criterion instead of inventing new anisotropic plasticity models for every phenomenon we wish to simulate.
Mixing Yarns and Triangles in Cloth Simulation
(The Eurographics Association and John Wiley & Sons Ltd., 2020) Casafranca, Juan J.; Cirio, Gabriel; Rodríguez, Alejandro; Miguel, Eder; Otaduy, Miguel A.; Panozzo, Daniele and Assarsson, Ulf
This paper presents a method to combine triangle and yarn models in cloth simulation, and hence leverage their best features. The majority of a garment uses a triangle-based model, which reduces the overall computational and memory cost. Key areas of the garment use a yarn-based model, which elicits rich effects such as structural nonlinearity and plasticity. To combine both models in a seamless and robust manner, we solve two major technical challenges. We propose an enriched kinematic representation that augments triangle-based deformations with yarn-level details. Naïve enrichment suffers from kinematic redundancy, but we devise an optimal kinematic filter that allows a smooth transition between triangle and yarn models. We also introduce a preconditioner that resolves the poor conditioning produced by the extremely different inertia of triangle and yarn nodes. This preconditioner deals effectively with rank deficiency introduced by the kinematic filter. We demonstrate that mixed yarns and triangles succeed to efficiently capture rich effects in garment fit and drape.
Paradigm
(© 2020 Eurographics ‐ The European Association for Computer Graphics and John Wiley & Sons Ltd, 2020) Benes, Bedrich and Hauser, Helwig
Slice and Dice: A Physicalization Workflow for Anatomical Edutainment
(The Eurographics Association and John Wiley & Sons Ltd., 2020) Raidou, Renata Georgia; Gröller, Eduard; Wu, Hsiang-Yun; Eisemann, Elmar and Jacobson, Alec and Zhang, Fang-Lue
During the last decades, anatomy has become an interesting topic in education-even for laymen or schoolchildren. As medical imaging techniques become increasingly sophisticated, virtual anatomical education applications have emerged. Still, anatomical models are often preferred, as they facilitate 3D localization of anatomical structures. Recently, data physicalizations (i.e., physical visualizations) have proven to be effective and engaging-sometimes, even more than their virtual counterparts. So far, medical data physicalizations involve mainly 3D printing, which is still expensive and cumbersome. We investigate alternative forms of physicalizations, which use readily available technologies (home printers) and inexpensive materials (paper or semi-transparent films) to generate crafts for anatomical edutainment. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first computergenerated crafting approach within an anatomical edutainment context. Our approach follows a cost-effective, simple, and easy-to-employ workflow, resulting in assemblable data sculptures (i.e., semi-transparent sliceforms). It primarily supports volumetric data (such as CT or MRI), but mesh data can also be imported. An octree slices the imported volume and an optimization step simplifies the slice configuration, proposing the optimal order for easy assembly. A packing algorithm places the resulting slices with their labels, annotations, and assembly instructions on a paper or transparent film of user-selected size, to be printed, assembled into a sliceform, and explored. We conducted two user studies to assess our approach, demonstrating that it is an initial positive step towards the successful creation of interactive and engaging anatomical physicalizations.
Fast and Robust QEF Minimization using Probabilistic Quadrics
(The Eurographics Association and John Wiley & Sons Ltd., 2020) Trettner, Philip; Kobbelt, Leif; Panozzo, Daniele and Assarsson, Ulf
Error quadrics are a fundamental and powerful building block in many geometry processing algorithms. However, finding the minimizer of a given quadric is in many cases not robust and requires a singular value decomposition or some ad-hoc regularization. While classical error quadrics measure the squared deviation from a set of ground truth planes or polygons, we treat the input data as genuinely uncertain information and embed error quadrics in a probabilistic setting (''probabilistic quadrics'') where the optimal point minimizes the expected squared error. We derive closed form solutions for the popular plane and triangle quadrics subject to (spatially varying, anisotropic) Gaussian noise. Probabilistic quadrics can be minimized robustly by solving a simple linear system-50x faster than SVD. We show that probabilistic quadrics have superior properties in tasks like decimation and isosurface extraction since they favor more uniform triangulations and are more tolerant to noise while still maintaining feature sensitivity. A broad spectrum of applications can directly benefit from our new quadrics as a drop-in replacement which we demonstrate with mesh smoothing via filtered quadrics and non-linear subdivision surfaces.
Curve Skeleton Extraction From 3D Point Clouds Through Hybrid Feature Point Shifting and Clustering
(© 2020 Eurographics ‐ The European Association for Computer Graphics and John Wiley & Sons Ltd, 2020) Hu, Hailong; Li, Zhong; Jin, Xiaogang; Deng, Zhigang; Chen, Minhong; Shen, Yi; Benes, Bedrich and Hauser, Helwig
Curve skeleton is an important shape descriptor with many potential applications in computer graphics, visualization and machine intelligence. We present a curve skeleton expression based on the set of the cross‐section centroids from a point cloud model and propose a corresponding extraction approach. We first provide the substitution of a distance field for a 3D point cloud model, and then combine it with curvatures to capture hybrid feature points. By introducing relevant facets and points, we shift these hybrid feature points along the skeleton‐guided normal directions to approach local centroids, simplify them through a tensor‐based spectral clustering and finally connect them to form a primary connected curve skeleton. Furthermore, we refine the primary skeleton through pruning, trimming and smoothing. We compared our results with several state‐of‐the‐art algorithms including the rotational symmetry axis (ROSA) and ‐medial methods for incomplete point cloud data to evaluate the effectiveness and accuracy of our method.
Designing Robotically-Constructed Metal Frame Structures
(The Eurographics Association and John Wiley & Sons Ltd., 2020) Ma, Zhao; Walzer, Alexander; Schumacher, Christian; Rust, Romana; Gramazio, Fabio; Kohler, Matthias; Bächer, Moritz; Panozzo, Daniele and Assarsson, Ulf
We present a computational technique that aids with the design of structurally-sound metal frames, tailored for robotic fabrication using an existing process that integrate automated bar bending, welding, and cutting. Aligning frames with structurallyfavorable orientations, and decomposing models into fabricable units, we make the fabrication process scale-invariant, and frames globally align in an aesthetically-pleasing and structurally-informed manner. Relying on standard analysis of frames, we then co-optimize the shape and topology of bars at the local unit level. At this level, we minimize combinations of functional and aesthetic objectives under strict fabrication constraints that model the assembly of discrete sets of bent bars. We demonstrate the capabilities of our global-to-local approach on four robotically-constructed examples.
InstanceFusion: Real-time Instance-level 3D Reconstruction Using a Single RGBD Camera
(The Eurographics Association and John Wiley & Sons Ltd., 2020) Lu, Feixiang; Peng, Haotian; Wu, Hongyu; Yang, Jun; Yang, Xinhang; Cao, Ruizhi; Zhang, Liangjun; Yang, Ruigang; Zhou, Bin; Eisemann, Elmar and Jacobson, Alec and Zhang, Fang-Lue
We present InstanceFusion, a robust real-time system to detect, segment, and reconstruct instance-level 3D objects of indoor scenes with a hand-held RGBD camera. It combines the strengths of deep learning and traditional SLAM techniques to produce visually compelling 3D semantic models. The key success comes from our novel segmentation scheme and the efficient instancelevel data fusion, which are both implemented on GPU. Specifically, for each incoming RGBD frame, we take the advantages of the RGBD features, the 3D point cloud, and the reconstructed model to perform instance-level segmentation. The corresponding RGBD data along with the instance ID are then fused to the surfel-based models. In order to sufficiently store and update these data, we design and implement a new data structure using the OpenGL Shading Language. Experimental results show that our method advances the state-of-the-art (SOTA) methods in instance segmentation and data fusion by a big margin. In addition, our instance segmentation improves the precision of 3D reconstruction, especially in the loop closure. InstanceFusion system runs 20.5Hz on a consumer-level GPU, which supports a number of augmented reality (AR) applications (e.g., 3D model registration, virtual interaction, AR map) and robot applications (e.g., navigation, manipulation, grasping). To facilitate future research and reproduce our system more easily, the source code, data, and the trained model are released on Github: https://github.com/Fancomi2017/InstanceFusion.
Semi-Procedural Textures Using Point Process Texture Basis Functions
(The Eurographics Association and John Wiley & Sons Ltd., 2020) Guehl, Pascal; Allègre, Remi; Dischler, Jean-Michel; Benes, Bedrich; Galin, Eric; Dachsbacher, Carsten and Pharr, Matt
We introduce a novel semi-procedural approach that avoids drawbacks of procedural textures and leverages advantages of datadriven texture synthesis. We split synthesis in two parts: 1) structure synthesis, based on a procedural parametric model and 2) color details synthesis, being data-driven. The procedural model consists of a generic Point Process Texture Basis Function (PPTBF), which extends sparse convolution noises by defining rich convolution kernels. They consist of a window function multiplied with a correlated statistical mixture of Gabor functions, both designed to encapsulate a large span of common spatial stochastic structures, including cells, cracks, grains, scratches, spots, stains, and waves. Parameters can be prescribed automatically by supplying binary structure exemplars. As for noise-based Gaussian textures, the PPTBF is used as stand-alone function, avoiding classification tasks that occur when handling multiple procedural assets. Because the PPTBF is based on a single set of parameters it allows for continuous transitions between different visual structures and an easy control over its visual characteristics. Color is consistently synthesized from the exemplar using a multiscale parallel texture synthesis by numbers, constrained by the PPTBF. The generated textures are parametric, infinite and avoid repetition. The data-driven part is automatic and guarantees strong visual resemblance with inputs.
Optimizing Object Decomposition to Reduce Visual Artifacts in 3D Printing
(The Eurographics Association and John Wiley & Sons Ltd., 2020) Filoscia, Irene; Alderighi, Thomas; Giorgi, Daniela; Malomo, Luigi; Callieri, Marco; Cignoni, Paolo; Panozzo, Daniele and Assarsson, Ulf
We propose a method for the automatic segmentation of 3D objects into parts which can be individually 3D printed and then reassembled by preserving the visual quality of the final object. Our technique focuses on minimizing the surface affected by supports, decomposing the object into multiple parts whose printing orientation is automatically chosen. The segmentation reduces the visual impact on the fabricated model producing non-planar cuts that adapt to the object shape. This is performed by solving an optimization problem that balances the effects of supports and cuts, while trying to place both in occluded regions of the object surface. To assess the practical impact of the solution, we show a number of segmented, 3D printed and reassembled objects.
SeqDynamics: Visual Analytics for Evaluating Online Problem-solving Dynamics
(The Eurographics Association and John Wiley & Sons Ltd., 2020) Xia, Meng; Xu, Min; Lin, Chuan-en; Cheng, Ta Ying; Qu, Huamin; Ma, Xiaojuan; Viola, Ivan and Gleicher, Michael and Landesberger von Antburg, Tatiana
Problem-solving dynamics refers to the process of solving a series of problems over time, from which a student's cognitive skills and non-cognitive traits and behaviors can be inferred. For example, we can derive a student's learning curve (an indicator of cognitive skill) from the changes in the difficulty level of problems solved, or derive a student's self-regulation patterns (an example of non-cognitive traits and behaviors) based on the problem-solving frequency over time. Few studies provide an integrated overview of both aspects by unfolding the problem-solving process. In this paper, we present a visual analytics system named SeqDynamics that evaluates students' problem-solving dynamics from both cognitive and non-cognitive perspectives. The system visualizes the chronological sequence of learners' problem-solving behavior through a set of novel visual designs and coordinated contextual views, enabling users to compare and evaluate problem-solving dynamics on multiple scales. We present three scenarios to demonstrate the usefulness of SeqDynamics on a real-world dataset which consists of thousands of problem-solving traces. We also conduct five expert interviews to show that SeqDynamics enhances domain experts' understanding of learning behavior sequences and assists them in completing evaluation tasks efficiently.
Displacement-Correlated XFEM for Simulating Brittle Fracture
(The Eurographics Association and John Wiley & Sons Ltd., 2020) Chitalu, Floyd M.; Miao, Qinghai; Subr, Kartic; Komura, Taku; Panozzo, Daniele and Assarsson, Ulf
We present a remeshing-free brittle fracture simulation method under the assumption of quasi-static linear elastic fracture mechanics (LEFM). To achieve this, we devise two algorithms. First, we develop an approximate volumetric simulation, based on the extended Finite Element Method (XFEM), to initialize and propagate Lagrangian crack-fronts. We model the geometry of fracture explicitly as a surface mesh, which allows us to generate high-resolution crack surfaces that are decoupled from the resolution of the deformation mesh. Our second contribution is a mesh cutting algorithm, which produces fragments of the input mesh using the fracture surface. We do this by directly operating on the half-edge data structures of two surface meshes, which enables us to cut general surface meshes including those of concave polyhedra and meshes with abutting concave polygons. Since we avoid triangulation for cutting, the connectivity of the resulting fragments is identical to the (uncut) input mesh except at edges introduced by the cut. We evaluate our simulation and cutting algorithms and show that they outperform state-of-the-art approaches both qualitatively and quantitatively.
Not All Areas Are Equal: A Novel Separation-Restoration-Fusion Network for Image Raindrop Removal
(The Eurographics Association and John Wiley & Sons Ltd., 2020) Ren, Dongdong; Li, Jinbao; Han, Meng; Shu, Minglei; Eisemann, Elmar and Jacobson, Alec and Zhang, Fang-Lue
Detecting and removing raindrops from an image while keeping the high quality of image details has attracted tremendous studies, but remains a challenging task due to the inhomogeneity of the degraded region and the complexity of the degraded intensity. In this paper, we get rid of the dependence of deep learning on image-to-image translation and propose a separationrestoration- fusion network for raindrops removal. Our key idea is to recover regions of different damage levels individually, so that each region achieves the optimal recovery result, and finally fuse the recovered areas. In the region restoration module, to complete the restoration of a specific area, we propose a multi-scale feature fusion global information aggregation attention network to achieve global to local information aggregation. Besides, we also design an inside and outside dense connection dilated network, to ensure the fusion of the separated regions and the fine restoration of the image. The qualitatively and quantitatively evaluations are conducted to evaluate our method with the latest existing methods. The result demonstrates that our method outperforms state-of-the-art methods by a large margin on the benchmark datasets in extensive experiments.

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