bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Culturally responsive technology use: developing an on‐line community of learners
Authors: McLoughlin Catherine 
Published: March 2003

In tertiary contexts, Web‐based instruction often appears to be tailored to the needs of a particular cultural group, recognising the specific learning needs, preferences and styles of a single, perhaps homogeneous, group of learners. However, in designing instruction, there is typically a tension between the need to ensure flexibility and access to learners of “multiple cultures”, while at the same time taking into account the need for localisation and a requirement to accommodate a particular set of learners' cognitive styles and preferences (Collis and Remmers, 1997; Damarin, 1998). Considering both the micro‐ and macro‐cultural levels of design is therefore essential if culturally appropriate design is to be achieved in Web‐based instruction.One of the limitations that has been recognised in striving towards culturally appropriate design is that current instructional design models do not fully contextualise the learning experience, and are themselves the product of a particular culture (Henderson, 1996). A proposed solution is the adoption of a multiple cultures model of design, which is not culturally exclusive. This paper traces the development of an on‐line unit for Indigenous Australian learners, and accounts for the cultural issues that impacted on the design of learning tasks and the associated avenues for communication provided to learners. In this context, culturally responsive design was ensured by the adoption of an epistemology and pedagogy based on Lave's (1991) community of practice model. Adapting the model to on‐line delivery required incorporation of culture specific values, styles of learning and cognitive preferences, and tasks that were designed to go beyond surface level comprehension to achieve deep learning. The micro cultural level of the virtual community is considered in relation to participatory structures, task design, goal orientation and development of communicative processes that were intended to support the learning needs of a much wider group of Indigenous Australian students.
Concertational and Free‐Market Paths to Successful Territorial Economic Adjustment: Labour Unions and Adjustment in the 1990s
Authors: Contarino Michael 
Published: March 2003

A growing body of recent research suggests that successful industrial adjustment at the local level today reflects the capacities of unions and management to identify problems and pursue solutions co‐operatively through processes of micro‐concertation which enlist the work‐force substantially in the adjustment process at the firm level. The presence of such capacities to engage in micro‐concertation has in turn been linked by some studies to a variety of local‐level political and social realities which facilitate worker skill formation (including the ability to identify and solve problems), while encouraging communication and the development of trust between workers and management. Strong unions able to legitimize managerial decisions and to enlist the acquiescence and support of the work‐force are seen as key to the success of such micro‐concertational systems. This recent research on micro‐concertation would seem to conflict with the liberal–conservative view that successful industrial adjustment occurs not when unions are strong, but when they are too weak to impede managerial choices.This paper examines successful processes of industrial adjustment in several textile–clothing–footwear centres of northern and central Italy. The paper observes that both strong‐labour ‘micro‐concertational’ and weak‐labour ‘free‐market’ models of successful adjustment exist, and that they prevail, respectively, in different geographical areas. The paper argues that successful micro‐concertational adjustment is most likely where unions are strong, united and encompassing, and that successful free‐market adjustment is most likely where unions are weak, divided and non‐encompassing. This observation parallels the insights of Alvarez et al. (1991) on successful national‐level macroeconomic performance, and suggests that the political‐economic logic observed by Alvarez et al. at the national level obtains also at the local level. The paper observes further that the existence of both models suggests that successful adjustment may be linked to capacity of either micro‐concertation or union weakness to remove impediments to labour market flexibility.
Orthogonal Decomposition of Non‐Uniform Bspline Spaces using Wavelets
Authors: Kazinnik Roman , Elber Gershon 
Published: March 2003

We take advantage of ideas of an orthogonal wavelet complement to produce multiresolution orthogonal decomposition of nonuniform Bspline (NUB) spaces. The editing of NUB curves and surfaces can be handled at different levels of resolutions.Applying Multiresolution decomposition to possibly C1 discontinuous surfaces, one can preserve the general shape on one hand and local features on the other of the free‐form models, including geometric discontinuities. The Multiresolution decomposition of the NUB tensor product surface is computed via the symbolic computation of inner products of Bspline basis functions. To find a closed form representation for the inner product of the Bspline basis functions, an equivalent interpolation problem is solved.As an example for the strength of the Multiresolution decomposition, a tool demonstrating the Multiresolution editing capabilities of NUB surfaces was developed and is presented as part of this work, allowing interactive 3D editing of NUB free‐form surfaces.
Growing and Animating Polygonal Models of Animals
Authors: Walter Marcelo , Fournier Alain 
Published: March 2003

While there exist many computer models of animal bodies, as polygonal meshes and parametric surfaces, these are difficult to modify to take growth into account, or to animate. Growth data available from the literature usually is expressed as very sparse measurements over the body at various ages of the animal. We present here basic techniques to transfer growth data to computer models (especially polygonal meshes), which allows animation of the growth as well as animation of the body in the traditional sense.The main technique consists of defining local coordinate systems around the growing parts of the body, each one being transformed according to the relevant growth data while maintaining their relationship with the adjoining parts and the continuity of the surface. The local coordinates also permit ordinary animation mainly as relative rotation such as in articulated objects.We present examples with polygonal models of horses and cows, growth data from same, and motion from Muybridge’s classic photographic data.
Building Telepresence Systems: Translating Science Fiction Ideas into Reality
Authors: Fuchs Henry 
Published: March 2003

Many people feel that at some time in the distant future it will be possible to see and interact with remote individuals so realistically that they will appear to be standing next to us, that it will also be possible for physicians to look inside their patients and see organs and tumors, as if they possessed Superman’s X‐ray vision.Although we are far from the realization of such dreams, we are witnessing some encouraging progress toward them. For example, we understand that two aspects common to these systems are a) the acquisition and synthesis of complex 3D information (whether from cameras at a distant scene or medical imaging devices inside a patient), and b) reconstruction and presentation of the 3D information to the observer (whether a distant collaborator or a nearby physician). Early results from several institutions are encouraging.It is now possible to walk around distant scenes, although the visual data still needs to be preprocessed, the scene still needs to be static and the reconstruction still has gaps. It is possible to look inside patients, although with crude ultrasound imaging and with very limited visualization, or not naturally from the physician’s own point of view. It is not yet possible to view any of this kind of information with high degree of immersive 3D realism without wearing cumbersome visualization aids. Truly compelling realization of these long‐held dreams will take careful analysis of the remaining problems, creative thinking about new approaches, and innovative and sustained development of the required acquisition and display technologies.
Modelling the Garden of Perfect Brightness
Authors: Wang LiFeng , Botta David , Ellefson Chris , Fournier Alain 
Published: March 2003

The Yuan Ming Yuan, the Garden of Perfect Brightness, was the culmination of the art of Chinese Imperial gardens. Covering 350 hectares (875 acres) northwest of Beijing, it included 140 distinct sites, 2000 structures, thousands of pieces of furniture and precious objects, countless plants. It was almost totally destroyed in 1860 at the end of the second Opium War by English and French troops in one of the worst acts of cultural vandalism in recorded history.Rebuilding it has proven impossible, but now computer technology, based on 130 years of scholarly documentation makes it possible to build an accurate and detailed model, and will allow us to experience at least virtually the beauty and grandeur that was the Yuan Ming Yuan.This paper describes a project to build such a model, and details the main challenges and difficulties encountered. While commercially available graphics workstations and modelling software can take us most of the way in this task, they fall short with the modelling of natural phenomena such as plants, rocks and bodies of water. In addition the sheer size of the resulting database pushes rendering engines past their limits.
The Open Inventor Toolkit and the PREMO Standard
Authors: Wang D. , Herman I. , Reynolds G. J. 
Published: March 2003

PREMO is an emerging international standard for the presentations of multimedia objects including computer graphics. Open Inventor™ is a commercially available “de facto” standard for interactive computer graphics packaged as a library of objects. In this paper, we consider whether the concepts and objects of PREMO are sufficient to represent a professional quality system, such as Open Inventor.By comparing PREMO with Open Inventor, we hope to show that PREMO's computer graphics environment model and event model can properly describe Open Inventor's rendering action and event model. The scene graph is very important in Open Inventor. Most Open Inventor functions rely on various operations over scene graphs. The construction, edition and traversal of the scene graphs are implemented as a set of newly defined PREMO objects. Graphics rendering, event handling and scene graphs constitute the fundamental parts of Open Inventor, other Open Inventor functionalities can be constructed from these. We conclude that since these three fundamental parts of Open Inventor can be properly modelled and implemented by means of PREMO, that the concepts and objects of PREMO are sufficient to represent Open Inventor.
Modeling of Skylight and Rendering of Outdoor Scenes
Authors: Tadamura Katsumi , Nakamae Eihachiro , Kaneda Kazufumi , Baba Masashi , Yamashita Hideo , Nishita Tomoyuki 
Published: March 2003

AbstractPhotorealistic animated images are extremely effective for pre‐evaluating visual impact of city renewal and construction of tall buildings. In order to generate a photorealistic image not only the direct sunlight but also skylight must be considered.This paper proposes a method of high‐fidelity image generation for photorealistic outdoor scenes based on the following ideas:

The intensity distribution of skylight taking account of scattering and absorption due to particles in the atmosphere which coincides with CIE standard skylight luminance functions is sought, and realistic images considering about spectrum distribution of skylight for any altitude of the sun can be easily and accurately displayed.
A rectangular parallelepiped with a specialized distribution of intensity simulating the skylight is introduced for efficient calculation of illumination due to skylight, and by employing a graphics hardware calculation of the skylight illuminance taking into account shadow effects is obtained with high efficiency; these techniques can be used to generate sequences of images, making animations possible at far lower calculation cost than previous methods.
Strands, Gravity and Botanical Tree Imagery
Authors: Holton Matthew 
Published: March 2003

AbstractThis paper presents a technique for the modelling and rendering of realistic botanical tree images. A strand model is used that is analogous to the internal vascular structure of a tree. The model is “grown” under the simulated influence of gravity and light. The strand densities at each branching point are used to determine branching angles, branch lengths and branch thicknesses, taking into account stored, user definable parameters that characterize the species of tree being modelled. These parameters address such factors as gravimorphism, phototropism, orthotropism, plagiotropism, planartropism and phyllotaxis, and are distributed according to a branch ordering system.Branch segments and joints are modelled by Bézier splines, with an assumed circular cross‐section. Leaves are made up from numbers of sample ranges from vector plane equations. The trees are rendered using a surface sampling algorithm with a light Z buffer for shadows and autoregression textures for tree bark and grass.
Spectral Data Modeling for a Lighting Application
Authors: Deville Pascal M. , Merzouk Slimane , Cazier Dorothée , Paul Jean C. 
Published: March 2003

AbstractIn computer graphics, image generation uses the RGB colorimetric system. However, this system does not produce an accurate simulation of the spectral characteristics of both light and material, due to the fact that it is device dependent. Indeed, to get realistic images, the image calculation process must deal with spectral characteristics of lights and materials and with the problem of sampling the wavelength domain. Methods have been shown that are a good way to solve the two problems mentioned above, however, these approaches do not take into account complex spectrums (discontinuous). In this paper, we propose a method which removes the constraints imposed by the current methods. Our method is based upon an algorithm of spectrum analysis.
Pertinent Data for Modelling Pigmented Materials in Realistic Rendering
Authors: Callet Patrick 
Published: March 2003

AbstractThis article discusses the important problem of determining pertinent data to describe a pigmented medium. The first part deals with optical characteristics of pigments and the general properties of binders and fillers. It also exposes the limits and conditions of applicability of single scattering. In the second part the connection between individual optical properties, size, and form of particles is made with phenomenological theories of multiple scattering in absorbing media, Progressively, it appears that pertinent data in realistic modelling are always in relation with true or effective complex refractive indices and size parameters.
Energy Duality Methods for Piecewise Bézier Curve Construction
Authors: Bercovier M. , Volpin O. 
Published: March 2003

AbstractPiecewise Bézier Curves are constructed using a minimization principle. Ck and GCk continuity is imposed by linear constraints. The corresponding quadratic programming with linear constraints problem is introduced and solved by duality methods. Bordering matrices methods are implemented to deal with local refinement (subdivision). The result is a versatile tool for defining/editing contours made of piecewise Bézier curves.
Incremental Line Labelling for Sketch Input of Solid Models
Authors: Grimstead I. J. , Martin R. R. 
Published: March 2003

AbstractDesigners need to transfer three‐dimensional objects from their minds via a two‐dimensional interface into a solid modelling system. We propose a system where objects are sketched interactively in two‐dimensions and incrementally line‐labelled as the drawing progresses, as the preliminary stage in constructing a solid model. Once the sketch is complete, the line‐labels are coupled with various inferred constraints to enable us to generate a solid model. In this paper we describe and evaluate a modification to existing line labelling methods to allow them to work incrementally. In this way, the labelling and region information can be built up as the user sketches, rather than all at once at the end of the sketching process, which reduces the delay before the final solid model is built.
3D Interactive Topological Modeling using Visible Human Dataset
Authors: Beylot P , Gingins P , Kalra P , Thalmann N Magnenat , Maurel W , Thalmann D , Fasel J 
Published: March 2003

AbstractAvailability of Visible Human Dataset (VHD)has provided numerous possibilities for its exploitation in both medical applications and 3D animation. In this paper, we present our interactive tools which enable extraction of surfaces for different organs, including bones, muscles, fascia, and skin, from the VHD. The reconstructed surfaces then are used for defining the inter‐relationship of organs, a process we refer to as topological modeling. A data base is constructed, which encapsulates structural, topological, mechanical and other relevant information about organs. A 3D interactive tool enables the building and editing of this data base. Such a data base can later be used for different applications in fields such as medicine, sports, education, and entertainment.
Incremental Volume Rendering Using Hierarchical Compression
Authors: Haley Michael B. , Blake Edwin H. 
Published: March 2003

AbstractWe present a new algorithm here for efficient incremental rendering of volumetric datasets. The primary goal of this algorithm is to give average workstations the ability to efficiently render volume data received over relatively low bandwidth network links in such a way that rapid user feedback is maintained. Common limitations of workstation rendering of volume data include: large memory overheads, the requirement of expensive rendering hardware, and high speed processing ability. The rendering algorithm presented here overcomes these problems by making use of the efficient Shear‐Warp Factorisation method which does not require specialised graphics hardware. However the original Shear‐Warp algorithm suffers from a high memory overhead and does not provide for incremental rendering which is required should rapid user feedback be maintained. Our algorithm represents the volumetric data using a hierarchical data structure which provides for the incremental classification and rendering of volume data. This exploits the multiscale nature of the octree data structure. The algorithm reduces the memory footprint of the original Shear‐Warp Factorisation algorithm by a factor of more than two, while maintaining good rendering performance. These factors make our octree algorithm more suitable for implementation on average desktop workstations for the purposes of interactive exploration of volume models over a network. Results from tests using typical volume datasets will be presented which demonstrate the ability of the algorithm to achieve high rendering rates for both incremental rendering and standard rendering while reducing the runtime memory requirements.
Method for Calculation of Sky Light Luminance Aiming at an Interactive Architectural Design
Authors: Dobashi Yoshinori , Kaneda Kazufumi , Yamashita Hideo , Nishita Tomoyuki 
Published: March 2003

AbstractRecently, computer graphics are frequently used for both architectural design and visual environmental assessment. Using computer graphics, designers can easily compare the effect of the natural light on their architectural designs under various conditions, such as different times of day, seasons, atmospheric conditions (clear or overcast sky) or building wall materials. In traditional methods of calculating the luminance due to sky light, however, all calculation must be performed from scratch if such conditions undergo change. Therefore, to compare the architectural designs under different conditions, a great deal of time has to be spent on generating the images.This paper proposes a new method of quickly generating images of an outdoor scene, taking into account glossy specular reflection, even if such conditions change. In this method, luminance due to sky light is expressed by a series of basis functions, and basis luminances corresponding to each basis function are precalculated and stored in a compressed form in the preprocess. Once the basis luminances are calculated, the luminance due to sky light can be quickly calculated by the weighted sum of the basis luminances. Several examples of an architectural design demonstrate the usefulness of the proposed method.
Data Dependent Thin Plate Energy and its use in Interactive Surface Modeling
Authors: Greiner Günther , Loos Joachim , Wesselink Wieger 
Published: March 2003

AbstractWhen modeling spline surfaces of complex shape, one has to deal with an overwhelming number of control points. Modeling by direct manipulation of the control points is a tedious task. In particular, it is very difficult to maintain a generally pleasant looking surface shape. It becomes therefore increasingly important to build tools that allow the designer to specify only a few geometric constraints while automatically determining the explicit representation of the surface. The basic concept of such a tool is simple. In a first step one has to somehow measure the “fairness” (=quality) of a surface. Once this is achieved, an optimization process selects the one surface with optimal fairness from all surfaces satisfying the user specified geometric constraints.To measure the fairness, thin plate energy functionals are a good choice. However, for interactive use these functionals are far too complex. W e will present appropriate approximations to these functionals that allow an optimization nearly in real time. Thefunctionals are obtained by introducing reference surfaces thus leading to data dependent, quadratic approximations to the exact thin plate energy functionals. We apply the method to interactive surface manipulations based on energy constraints.
Intelligent Control for Haptic Displays
Authors: Munch Stefan , Stangenberg Martin 
Published: March 2003

AbstractUsually, a mouse is used for input activities only, whereas output from the computer is sent via the monitor and one or two loudspeakers. But why not use the mouse for output, too? For instance, if it would be possible to predict the next interaction object the user wants to click on, a mouse with a mechanical brake could stop the cursor movement at the desired position. This kind of aid is especially attractive for small targets like resize handles of windows or small buttons.In this paper, we present an approach for the integration of haptic feedback in everyday graphical user interfaces. We use a specialized mouse which, is able to apply simple haptic information, to the user's hand and index finger. A multi‐agent system has been designed which ‘observes’ the ‘user in order to predict the next interaction object and launch haptic feedback, thus supporting positioning actions with the mouse. Although primarily designed in order to provide intelligent’ haptic feedback, the system can be combined with other output modalities as well, due to its modular and flexible architecture.