An adaptive octree textures painting algorithm
Traditional Texturing using a set of two dimensional image maps is an established and widespread practice. However, it is difficult to parameterize a model in texture space, particularly with representations such as implicit surfaces, subdivision surfaces, and very dense or detailed polygonal meshes. Based on an adaptive octree textures definition, this paper proposes a direct reverse-projecting pixel-level painting approach which has less storage requirements to general octree textures maps. In addition, it depends on texture lookup in the GPU, which particularly lookup faster than the non-GPU program.

title: Quality encoding for tetrahedral mesh optimization
abstract: We define quality differential coordinates (QDC) for per-vertex encoding of the quality of a tetrahedral mesh. QDC measures the deviation of a mesh vertex from a position which maximizes the combined quality of the set of tetrahedra incident at that vertex. Our formulation allows the incorporation of different choices of element quality metrics into QDC construction to penalize badly shaped and inverted tetrahedra. We develop an algorithm for tetrahedral mesh optimization through energy minimization driven by QDC. The variational problem is solved efficiently and robustly using gradient flow based on a stable semi-implicit integration scheme. To ensure quality boundary of the resulting tetrahedral mesh, we propose a harmonic-guided optimization scheme which leads to consistent handling of both the interior and boundary tetrahedra.

title: A simple and stable feature-preserving smoothing method for contours-based reconstructed meshes
abstract: In this paper, we develop a new feature preserving smoothing method for the irregular and coarse meshes reconstructed from 2D contours. To make the feature detecting robust, a new detecting algorithm using the continuity among adjacent contours is proposed. Then the original mesh is subdivided adaptively according to the detected geometric features and smoothed with isotropic method. With the help of that, our algorithm obtains not only the feature-preserving result of anisotropic methods but also the simple and stable process of isotropic ones. After smoothing, the resolution of mesh can be resumed by moving the vertices in the original mesh to the positions of their corresponding vertices in the smoothed adaptive mesh. For smoothing of contours-based reconstructed meshes, experimental results show that our method can smooth the meshes satisfactorily and preserve their geometric features much better than other implemented methods.

title: An Error-Resilient Arithmetic Coding Algorithm for Compressed Meshes
abstract: The effort of on-the-fly accessing 3D contents over the Internet has been done in recent years. And 3D streaming has been investigated to represent 3D models in the compact format and progressively transmit them on the limited-bandwidth and lossy channel. In the paper, an error resilient 3D mesh coding algorithm is presented, which employs an extended multiple quantization (EMQ) arithmetic coder method, inspired by the error-resilient JPEG 2000 image coding standards. With periodic arithmetic coder restarting and termination markers, the error resilient EMQ coder divides bit stream into little independent parts and enables basic transmission error containment. Furthermore, the EMQ coder has the intrinsic capacity of handling noise by using the maximum a posteriori (MAP) decoder. Experiments show that the method improves the mesh transmission quality in a simulated network environment.

title: 2D shape deformation based on rigid square matching
abstract: In this paper, we propose a fast and stable method for 2D shape deformation based on rigid square matching. Our method utilizes uniform quadrangular control meshes for 2D shapes and tries to maintain the rigidity of each square in the control mesh during user manipulation. A rigid shape matching method is performed to find an optimal pure rotational transformation for each square in the control mesh. An iterative solver is proposed to compute the final deformation result for the entire control mesh by minimizing the difference between the deformed vertices and their counterparts in the neighboring rigid square. The deformation result on the 2D shape is as rigid as possible and the details of the shape are preserved well. As extensions, we present a shape-aware splitting method to improve the deformation effect for coarse meshes and a simple sketch-based clustering method for skeletal deformation. Experiments with various 2D shapes show that our method is efficient and easy to use, and can provide physically plausible result for shapes of objects in real world. Therefore, our shape deformation method is especially suitable for applications in cartoon character animation.

title: 2.5D Visualisation of Overlapping Biological Networks
abstract: Biological data is often structured in the form of complex interconnected networks such as protein interaction and metabolic networks. In this paper, we investigate a new problem of visualising such overlapping biological networks. Two networks overlap if they share some nodes and edges. We present an approach for constructing visualisations of two overlapping networks, based on a restricted three dimensional representation. More specifically, we use three parallel two dimensional planes placed in three dimensions to represent overlapping networks: one for each network (the top and the bottom planes) and one for the overlapping part (in the middle plane). Our method aims to achieve both drawing aesthetics (or conventions) for each individual network, and highlighting the intersection part by them. Using three biological datasets, we evaluate our visualisation design with the aim to test whether overlapping networks can support the visual analysis of heterogeneous and yet interconnected networks.

title: A Multiresolution Terrain Model for Efficient Visualization Query Processing
abstract: Multiresolution triangular mesh (MTM) models are widely used to improve the performance of large terrain visualization by replacing the original model with a simplified one. MTM models, which consist of both original and simplified data, are commonly stored in spatial database systems due to their size. The relatively slow access speed of disks makes data retrieval the bottleneck of such terrain visualization systems. Existing spatial access methods proposed to address this problem rely on main-memory MTM models, which leads to significant overhead during query processing. In this paper, we approach the problem from a new perspective and propose a novel MTM called direct mesh that is designed specifically for secondary storage. It supports available indexing methods natively and requires no modification to MTM structure. Experiment results, which are based on two real-world data sets, show an average performance improvement of 5-10 times over the existing methods

title: Testing Scenario Implementation with Behavior Contracts
abstract: This paper presents behavior contracts as a new assertion mechanism and a tool that uses such contracts to support the testing of object-oriented (OO) systems. A behavior contract models how the scenarios for performing a designated task are expected to be implemented. Based on this contract, our tool can automatically monitor the program execution for checking important properties related to these scenarios. This capability can help testers to determine whether the scenarios have been implemented correctly. Our tool can also collect test coverage information w.r.t. the scenarios modeled by a behavior contract. Such information can be used to direct the testing efforts towards the less-covered scenarios, and to determine whether the implementation of these scenarios has been adequately tested. Therefore, using this tool should improve both the efficiency and effectiveness of testing OO systems

title: Intrinsic Wrench Estimation and Its Performance Index for Multisegment Continuum Robots
abstract: This paper presents the intrinsic capability of full-wrench estimation of multisegment continuum robots with multiple flexible backbones. Intrinsic-full-wrench estimation refers to the ability of continuum robots to also serve as force and moment sensors by using measurements of axial loads on their backbones. This end-effector-as-sensor approach fulfills the rapidly increasing needs for miniature-robotic-surgical tools with haptic sensing ability subject to various limitations, such as size, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) compatibility, sterilizability, etc. A performance index for the intrinsic wrench-sensing capability is introduced and evaluated to show how this index can serve as a design guide for continuum robots that provide force sensing.

title: Visual analysis of network centralities
abstract: Centrality analysis determines the importance of vertices in a network based on their connectivity within the network structure. It is a widely used technique to analyse network-structured data. A particularly important task is the comparison of different centrality measures within one network. We present three methods for the exploration and comparison of centrality measures within a network: 3D parallel coordinates orbit-based comparison and hierarchy-based comparison. There is a common underlying idea to all three methods: for each centrality measure the graph is copied and drawn in a separate 2D plane with vertex position dependent on centrality. These planes are then stacked into the third dimension so that the different centrality measures may be easily compared. Only the details of how centrality is mapped to vertex position are dierent in each method. For 3D parallel coordinates vertices are placed on vertical lines; for orbit-based comparison vertices are placed on concentric circles and for hierarchy-based comparison vertices are placed on horizontal lines. The second and third solutions make it particularly easy to track changing vertex-centrality values in the context of the underlying network structure. The usability of these methods is demonstrated on biological and social networks.