INVITED SPEAKERS

Bruno Levy

Bio:

Bruno Levy is a Researcher with INRIA. He is the head of the ALICE research group. He develops the "Numerical Geometry" approach, i.e. new formalisms to define geometrical operators acting on discretized objects. His main contributions concern texture mapping and parameterization methods for triangulated surfaces.
He obtained his Ph.D in 1999, from the INPL (Institut National Polytechnique de Lorraine). His work, entitled "Computational Topology: Combinatorics and Embedding", was awarded the SPECIF price in 2000 (best French Ph.D. thesis in Computer Sciences). After his Ph.D., he did a Post-Doc in Stanford, in the SCCM Dept. headed by G. Golub (applied math. and numerical analysis), and in the Earh Sciences Dept. (with K. Aziz and A. Journel).
His main results have been transferred to the industry: His parameterization method is the kernel of the gridding tools available in the Gocad modeler, commercialized by the Earth Decision Sciences company, and used by major oil companies. His texture mapping algorithms are implemented in several 3D modelers, including Maya, Silo and Blender.
For more details: http://www.loria.fr/~levy/

Invited Talk: Laplace-Beltrami Eigenfunctions: Towards an algorithm that "understands" geometry

One of the challenges in geometry processing is to automatically reconstruct a higher-level representation from raw geometric data. For instance, computing a parameterization of an object helps attaching information to it and converting between various representations. More generally, this family of problems may be thought of in terms of constructing structured function bases attached to surfaces.
In this paper, we study a specific type of hierarchical function bases, defined by the eigenfunctions of the Laplace-Beltrami operator. When applied to a sphere, this function basis corresponds to the classical spherical harmonics. On more general objects, this defines a function basis well adapted to the geometry and the topology of the object.
Based on physical analogies (vibration modes), we first give an intuitive view before explaining the underlying theory. We then explain in practice how to compute an approximation of the eigenfunctions of a differential operator, and show possible applications in geometry processing.

Fujio Yamaguchi

Bio:

Fujio Yamaguchi is a Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Waseda University. He received his Doctorate in Engineering in 1978. He was an Associate Professor at the Kyushu Institute of Design from 1977 to 1986. As a visiting Associate Professor, he taught computer graphics and computer-aided geometric design in the Department of Computer Science, University of Utah, in 1978 and 1979. His research interests include computer-aided geometric design and computational geometry. He is an author of many books in his area including "Curves and Surfaces in Computer Aided Geometric Design" (1988, Springer) and "Computer-Aided Geometric Design--A Four-Dimensional Approach" (2002,Springer).
For more details: http://www.yamaguchi.mech.waseda.ac.jp/lab/prof_e.html

Invited Talk: Shape Modeling in a Homogenized Geometric Paradigm

The author proposes replacing conventional Euclidean processing with homogeneous processing, which is free from the ill effects of division and has the desirable properties of duality and projective invariance. The division operation negatively affects such properties as exactness, robustness, and simpleness in computer-aided design systems. He mainly discusses two types of geometric processing in the homogenized geometric paradigm, i.e. subdivision method in surface design and set operations in solid modeling.

Alla Sheffer

Bio:

Alla Sheffer is an assistant professor in the Computer Science department at the University of British Columbia (Canada). She conducts research in the areas of computer graphics and computer aided engineering. Dr. Sheffer is predominantly interested in the algorithmic aspects of digital geometry processing, focusing on several fundamental problems of mesh manipulation and editing. Her recent research addresses algorithms for mesh parameterization, processing of developable surfaces, mesh editing and segmentation. In her earlier work she investigated generation and editing of finite element meshes for engineering applications.
Alla Sheffer received her PhD from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 1999. From 1999 till 2001 she was a postdoctoral associate in the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Between 2001 and 2003 Dr. Sheffer was an assistant professor at Technion, Israel.
Dr Sheffer is a program co-chair of the Symposium on Geometry Processing 2006. Her current and past committee duties included chairing the 10th International Meshing Roundtable and serving on the program committees of SIGGRAPH, Eurographics, Shape Modeling International, Solid Modeling, Symposium on Geometry Processing, Graphics Interface, International Meshing Roundtable, Computer Graphics International, and WSCG.
For more details see http://www.cs.ubc.ca/~sheffa

Invited Talk: Shape Modeling for Dummies

The creation of novel 3D content is one of the major bottlenecks of modern computer graphics. Commercial modeling systems are targeted toward expert users and require significant time, expertise and artistic talent to generate 3D shapes. Hence, much of the emphasis in recent research is on simplifying model creation. One approach is to provide simpler interfaces, such as sketching tools. Another recent trend focuses on reuse of existing models by providing robust editing tools. Most of those tools still require the user to have modeling expertise and non-negligible artistic ability.
In this talk I will review some recent trends in providing simple modeling interfaces. I will then demonstrate that by narrowing the scope of the problem, and focusing on modeling within a specific set of models, it is possible to develop a true "modeling for dummies" interface which does not require any modeling expertise or talent. Despite its simplicity the interface allows for creation of rich geometric content within a matter of minutes. The proposed modeling system, Shuffler, operates on sets of models that have a similar part-based structure. Example sets include quadrupeds, humans, chairs, and airplanes. Shuffler automates the process of creating new models by composing interchangeable parts from different existing models within each set. As noted, it does not require the users to perform any geometric operations; they simply select which parts should come from which input model, and the system composes the parts together. To enable this modeling paradigm, Shuffler precomputes the part structure within each model and establishes the correspondences between the interchangeable parts on different models.
The talk is based on joint work with Vladislav Kraevoy and Dan Julius.

Last Update: 7 April, 2006