Over the past two decades, technologies for visual and geometric data have significantly advanced and matured. Techniques once confined to research labs are now standard industry practices. Consider Google Earth, Google Street View, Microsoft Kinect, and 3D animations in the movie industry. These innovations are part of geometric and visual computing, which merges computer science with mathematical modeling to process and analyze visual and geometric information.
Area leaders:
Geometric and Visual Computing - IDSIA NEW
Scientific area
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Computational Geometry
Computational geometry is a branch of computer science devoted to the design and analysis of efficient algorithms and data structures for computational problems involving discrete geometric objects in 2-, 3-, and even higher-dimensional space. The most common geometric objects are simple, such as points, lines, polygons, planes, and polyhedra, which lie in low dimensional spaces. Computational geometry finds applications in numerous areas of science and engineering while dealing with foundational geometric and algorithmic problems that arise in these areas. These include computer graphics, computer vision and image processing, robotics, computer-aided design and manufacturing, computational fluid-dynamics, and geographic information systems. Triangulations, spatial subdivisions, nearest-neighbours, Voronoi diagrams and their broad applications are focus points of the computational geometry group at IDSIA
Foster, Erich L., Kai Hormann, and Romeo T. Popa. Clipping simple polygons with degenerate intersections. Computers & Graphics: X, 2, 2019
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Computer graphics
Over several decades computer graphics has evolved from simple line drawing to algorithms, systems, and hardware which enable generating high-quality images and animations that are often indistinguishable from real-world images. The field contributes efficient algorithms and hardware solutions for modelling, representing, simulating, manipulating, and visualizing objects in digital environments. The applications of these techniques include but are not limited to entertainment, visualizations, and physics-based simulations. Our main research topic in this area is efficient image synthesis for novel display devices, such as virtual and augmented reality headsets, as well as novel display design. We combined our expertise in visual perception, computer graphics, and display design to develop new algorithms and hardware that enable efficient reproduction of all visual cues a human observer can experience in the real world.
- Gotsman, Craig and Kai Hormann. A linear method to consistently orient normals of a 3D point cloud. ACM SIGGRAPH Conference Proceedings, 2024.
- Tariq, Taimoor, Cara Tursun, and Piotr Didyk. Noise-based enhancement for foveated rendering."ACM Transactions on Graphics (TOG) 41.4, 2022.
- Tursun, Cara, and Piotr Didyk. Perceptual Visibility Model for Temporal Contrast Changes in Periphery. ACM Transactions on Graphics (TOG) 42.2 2022.
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Computational Fabrication
Computational fabrication can be thought of as an extension of computer graphics that goes beyond the creation of visual stimuli and deals with fabricating physical objects exhibiting specific properties using novel digital fabrication tools, such as multi-material 3D printers. Novel techniques deal with the enormous complexity of the object design space as well as the limitations of available hardware and materials. Developed algorithms and hardware find numerous applications in areas such as rapid prototyping, prosthetics, robotics, heritage preservation, metamaterials design, visualization, and education. Our research focuses on developing new methods for fabricating physical objects that exhibit specific appearance, mechanical, and haptic properties.
The research activities in computer graphics and computational fabrication are currently supported by ERC- Starting and SNF grants. The results are regularly published at the top computer graphics venues and journals, e.g., ACM SIGGRAPH and ACM Transactions on Graphics.
The research activities in computer graphics and computational fabrication are currently supported by ERC- Starting and SNF grants. The results are regularly published at the top computer graphics venues and journals, e.g., ACM SIGGRAPH and ACM Transactions on Graphics.
- Condor, Jorge, et al. Gloss-Aware Color Correction for 3D Printing. ACM SIGGRAPH 2023 Conference Proceedings. 2023.
- Piovarci, Michal, et al. Closed-loop control of direct ink writing via reinforcement learning. ACM Transactions on Graphics (TOG) 41.4, 2022.
- Piovarči, Michal, et al. Fabrication-in-the-loop co-optimization of surfaces and styli for drawing haptics. ACM Transactions on Graphics (TOG) 39.4, 2020
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Computer vision
The research area is concerned with recognizing patterns in images and videos to extract useful high-level information, such as the presence, position, or shape of specific objects. Human and animal visual systems excel at this task, which has eluded artificial systems for a long time. Recent advances in deep learning unlocked applications previously thought to be impossible and demonstrated superhuman image interpretation ability for many challenging tasks. Nowadays, computer vision is a key technology for many fields, including robotics, industrial automation, autonomous driving, biomedicine, digital media, document processing, biometrics, movie production, and remote sensing. IDSIA pioneered computer vision systems based on deep neural networks in most of these fields, winning multiple international competitions, and continues to advance the state of the art with high-profile publications and applied projects.
Dyke, Roberto M. and Kai Hormann. Histogram equalization using a selective filter. The Visual Computer, 39.12, 2023.
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Geometry Processing
The interdisciplinary research area of geometry processing combines concepts from computer science, applied mathematics, and engineering for the efficient acquisition, reconstruction, optimization, editing, simulation, and fabrication of geometric objects. Applications of geometry processing algorithms can be found in a wide range of areas, including computer graphics, computer aided design, geography, and scientific computing. Moreover, this research field enjoys a significant economic impact as it delivers essential ingredients to produce, for examples, cars, airplanes, movies, and computer games. IDSIA’s main expertise in this field, with a strong record of publications and projects, covers surface reconstruction and parameterization, interactive modelling and compression of dynamic triangle meshes, subdivision methods for curves and surfaces, generalized barycentric coordinates for computer graphics and computational mechanics, as well as additive manufacturing.
- Chang, Qingjun, Chongyang Deng and Kai Hormann. Maximum likelihood coordinates. Computer Graphics Forum, 42.5, 2023.
- Ramanantoanina, Andriamahenina and Kai Hormann. Shape control tools for periodic Bézier curves. Computer Aided Geometric Design, 103, 2023.
- Gotsman, Craig and Kai Hormann. Compressing geodesic information for fast point-to-point geodesic distance queries. ACM SIGGRAPH Asia Conference Proceedings, 2022.
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