Turn Sketches into 3D

A novel graphics system that can infer complex 3D shapes from single professional sketches was unveiled by UBC computer scientists. The solution has the potential to dramatically simplify how designers and artists develop new product ideas. Converting an idea into a 3D model using current commercial tools is a complicated and painstaking process. So UBC researchers developed True2Form, a software algorithm inspired by the work of professional designers, who effectively communicate ideas through simple drawings.

In line-drawings, designers and artists use descriptive curves and informative viewpoints to help viewers infer the complete shape of an object. The system mimics the results of human 3D shape inference to turn a sketch curve network into 3D, while preserving fidelity to the original sketch. True2Form uses mathematics to interpret the strokes that artists use in these drawings, automatically lifting drawings off the page. It produces convincing, complex 3D shapes computed from individual sketches, automatically corrected to account for inherent drawing inaccuracy.

More information:

http://science.ubc.ca/news/796

Sound for Indoor Localization

The global positioning system, or GPS, has its limitation (i.e. it cannot work indoors). Potential solutions for indoor positioning continue to fire up the imaginations of scientists. The latest news involves a form of echolocation. MIT Technology Review reported on the approach for indoor localization based on sound. Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley developed a simple, cheap mechanism that can identify rooms based on a relatively small dataset. Their method is based on the extraction of acoustic features of rooms. The team said they can acquire RIRs (room impulse responses) by using built-in speakers and microphones on laptops.

Also, a noise adaptive reverberation extraction algorithm was developed for feature extraction from the noisy RIRs. The researchers tested their system in ten rooms on the Berkeley campus. Data was taken using the built-in microphone and speakers on an ordinary laptop. The laptop produces a set of sound waves and then listens for the echo. They took 50 samples at each location, which included background noise such as footsteps, talking and heating and ventilation sounds. They processed this data to find the echo fingerprint for each room. The team said there was a 97.8 percent accuracy in identifying the individual rooms.

More information:

http://phys.org/news/2014-08-berkeley-team-explores-indoor-localization.html

Collaborative 3D Sketching System

Collaborative 3D sketching is now possible thanks to a system known as Hyve-3D that University of Montreal researchers are presenting today at the SIGGRAPH 2014 conference in Vancouver. Hyve-3D is a new interface for 3D content creation via embodied and collaborative 3D sketching. The system is a full scale immersive 3D environment. Users create drawings on hand-held tables. They can then use the tablets to manipulate the sketches to create a 3D design within the space. For example, as the designers are immersed in their work, this could mean designing the outside of a car, and then actually getting into it to work on the interior detailing. Hyve-3D stands for ‘Hybrid Virtual Environment 3D’. The university's technology commercialization unit, is supporting the market launch of the system.

The 3D images are the result of an optical illusion created by a widescreen high-resolution projector, a specially designed 5m-diameter spherically concave fabric screen and a 16-inch dome mirror projecting the image onto the screen. The system is driven by a MacBook Pro laptop, a tracking system with two 3D sensors, and two iPad mini tablets. Each iPad is attached to a tracker. The software takes care of all the networking, scene management, 3D graphics and projection, and also couples the sensors input and iPad devices. The iPads run a Satellite application, which serves as the user interaction front-end of the system. Specialized techniques render the 3D scene onto a spherical projection in real-time. The Hyve-3D software also works on conventional 2D displays.

More information:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/08/140810213652.htm

Mobile Devices Connect to Wi-Fi without Power

A new breed of mobile wireless device lacks a battery or other energy storage, but it can still send data over Wi-Fi. These devices, developed by researchers at the University of Washington, get all the power they need by making use of the Wi-Fi, TV, radio, and cellular signals that are already in the air.

The technology could free engineers to extend the tendrils of the Internet and computers into corners of the world they don’t currently reach. Battery-free devices that can communicate could make it much cheaper and easier to widely deploy sensors inside homes to take control of heating and other services.

More information:

http://www.technologyreview.com/news/529576/mobile-gadgets-that-connect-to-wi-fi-without-a-battery/

Robot Folds Itself up and Walks Away

A team of engineers used little more than paper and Shrinky dinks™ to build a robot that assembles itself into a complex shape in four minutes flat, and crawls away without any human intervention. The advance, described in Science, demonstrates the potential to quickly and cheaply build sophisticated machines that interact with the environment, and to automate much of the design and assembly process. The method draws inspiration from self-assembly in nature, such as the way linear sequences of amino acids fold into complex proteins with sophisticated functions.

In addition to expanding the scope of ways one can manufacture robots in general, the advance harbors potential for rather exotic applications as well. The robots are the culmination of a series of advances made by the team over the last few years, including development of a printed robotic inchworm (which still required human involvement while folding itself) and a self-folding lamp that had to be turned on by a person after it self-assembled. The new robot is the first that builds itself and performs a function without human intervention.

More information:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/08/140807145900.htm