Abstract: Visual metrics can play an important role in the evaluation of novel lighting, rendering, and imaging algorithms. Unfortunately, current metrics only work well for narrow intensity ranges, and do n...

Abstract: The dawn of old stars: Classic xanthene dyes like eosin Y (gr. eoς=goddess of dawn) and green-light irradiation can replace precious metal complexes for the organocatalytic asymmetric -alkylation of aldehydes rendering the process purely organic.

Abstract: We propose a method to realistically insert synthetic objects into existing photographs without requiring access to the scene or any additional scene measurements. With a single image and a small amount of annotation, our method creates a physical model of the scene that is suitable for realistically rendering synthetic objects with diffuse, specular, and even glowing materials while accounting for lighting interactions between the objects and the scene. We demonstrate in a user study that synthetic images produced by our method are confusable with real scenes, even for people who believe they are good at telling the difference. Further, our study shows that our method is competitive with other insertion methods while requiring less scene information. We also collected new illumination and reflectance datasets; renderings produced by our system compare well to ground truth. Our system has applications in the movie and gaming industry, as well as home decorating and user content creation, among others.

Abstract: A method and system operative to process monochrome image data are disclosed. In one embodiment, the method can comprise the steps of receiving monochrome image data, segmenting the input pixel values into pixel value ranges, assigning pixel positions in the lowest pixel value range an output pixel value of a first binary value, assigning pixel positions in the highest pixel value range an output pixel value of a second binary value, wherein the first and second binary values are different, and assigning pixel positions in intermediate pixel value ranges output pixel values that correspond to a spatial binary pattern. The resulting binary image data can be written to a file for subsequent storage, transmission, processing, or retrieval and rendering. In further embodiments, a system can be made operative to accomplish the same.

Abstract: Devices, methods, and software are disclosed for an adaptive video capture decode system that efficiently manages a stream of image frames between a device display screen and a processor performing decode attempts on decodable features in the image frames. In an illustrative embodiment, a device assigns frames of image data from a stream of frames of image data to either a display subsystem or a decode subsystem. The display subsystem is operative for rendering the frames of image data on a display screen. The decode subsystem is operative for receiving frames of image data and performing an attempted decode of a decodable indicia represented in at least one of the frames of image data. None of the frames of data are assigned to both the display subsystem and the decode subsystem.

Abstract: This paper introduces a proof-of-concept telepresence system that offers fully dynamic, real-time 3D scene capture and continuous-viewpoint, head-tracked stereo 3D display without requiring the user to wear any tracking or viewing apparatus. We present a complete software and hardware framework for implementing the system, which is based on an array of commodity Microsoft Kinect™color-plus-depth cameras. Novel contributions include an algorithm for merging data between multiple depth cameras and techniques for automatic color calibration and preserving stereo quality even with low rendering rates. Also presented is a solution to the problem of interference that occurs between Kinect cameras with overlapping views. Emphasis is placed on a fully GPU-accelerated data processing and rendering pipeline that can apply hole filling, smoothing, data merger, surface generation, and color correction at rates of up to 100 million triangles/sec on a single PC and graphics board. Also presented is a Kinect-based marker-less tracking system that combines 2D eye recognition with depth information to allow head-tracked stereo views to be rendered for a parallax barrier autostereoscopic display. Our system is affordable and reproducible, offering the opportunity to easily deliver 3D telepresence beyond the researcher's lab.

Abstract: Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) and Visual SLAM (V-SLAM) in particular have been an active area of research lately. In V-SLAM the main focus is most often laid on the localization part of the problem allowing for a drift free motion estimate. To this end, a sparse set of landmarks is tracked and their position is estimated. However, this set of landmarks (rendering the map) is often too sparse for tasks in autonomous driving such as navigation, path planning, obstacle avoidance etc. Some methods keep the raw measurements for past robot poses to address the sparsity problem often resulting in a pose only SLAM akin to laser scanner SLAM. For the stereo case, this is however impractical due to the high noise of stereo reconstructed point clouds. In this paper we propose a dense stereo V-SLAM algorithm that estimates a dense 3D map representation which is more accurate than raw stereo measurements. Thereto, we run a sparse V-SLAM system, take the resulting pose estimates to compute a locally dense representation from dense stereo correspondences. This dense representation is expressed in local coordinate systems which are tracked as part of the SLAM estimate. This allows the dense part to be continuously updated. Our system is driven by visual odometry priors to achieve high robustness when tracking landmarks. Moreover, the sparse part of the SLAM system uses recently published sub mapping techniques to achieve constant runtime complexity most of the time. The improved accuracy over raw stereo measurements is shown in a Monte Carlo simulation. Finally, we demonstrate the feasibility of our method by presenting outdoor experiments of a car like robot.

Abstract: This article presents a new, unified technique to perform general edge-sensitive editing operations on n-dimensional images and videos efficiently.The first contribution of the article is the introduction of a Generalized Geodesic Distance Transform (GGDT), based on soft masks. This provides a unified framework to address several edge-aware editing operations. Diverse tasks such as denoising and nonphotorealistic rendering are all dealt with fundamentally the same, fast algorithm. Second, a new Geodesic Symmetric Filter (GSF) is presented which imposes contrast-sensitive spatial smoothness into segmentation and segmentation-based editing tasks (cutout, object highlighting, colorization, panorama stitching). The effect of the filter is controlled by two intuitive, geometric parameters. In contrast to existing techniques, the GSF filter is applied to real-valued pixel likelihoods (soft masks), thanks to GGDTs and it can be used for both interactive and automatic editing. Complex object topologies are dealt with effortlessly. Finally, the parallelism of GGDTs enables us to exploit modern multicore CPU architectures as well as powerful new GPUs, thus providing great flexibility of implementation and deployment. Our technique operates on both images and videos, and generalizes naturally to n-dimensional data.The proposed algorithm is validated via quantitative and qualitative comparisons with existing, state-of-the-art approaches. Numerous results on a variety of image and video editing tasks further demonstrate the effectiveness of our method.

Abstract: We propose a method to realistically insert synthetic objects into existing photographs without requiring access to the scene or any additional scene measurements. With a single image and a small a...

Abstract: Window integrated photovoltaics for automotive and building applications are a promising market segment for organic solar modules. Besides semi-transparency, window integrated applications require a reasonable transparency perception and good color rendering properties in order to be suitable for realistic scene illumination. Here, the transmitted light through semi-transparent organic solar cells comprising the polymer/fullerene blend poly[(4,4'-bis(2-ethylhexyl)dithieno[3,2-b:2',3'-d]silole)-2,6-diyl-alt-(2,1,3-benzothiadiazole)-4,7-diyl]: [6,6]-phenyl C71-butric acid methyl ester (PSBTBT:PC70BM) as active layer and a sputtered aluminum doped zinc oxide cathode were found to exhibit a color neutral perception for the human eye and very good color rendering properties. Moreover, the electrical cell properties allow for efficient energy harvesting with an overall power conversion efficiency η ≈ 3%.

Abstract: We propose a new approach to modelling heterogeneous objects containing internal volumetric structures with size of details orders of magnitude smaller than the overall size of the object. The proposed function-based procedural representation provides compact, precise, and arbitrarily parametrized models of coherent microstructures, which can undergo blending, deformations, and other geometric operations, and can be directly rendered and fabricated without generating any auxiliary representations (such as polygonal meshes and voxel arrays). In particular, modelling of regular lattices and cellular microstructures as well as irregular porous media is discussed and illustrated. We also present a method to estimate parameters of the given model by fitting it to microstructure data obtained with magnetic resonance imaging and other measurements of natural and artificial objects. Examples of rendering and digital fabrication of microstructure models are presented.

Abstract: Holographic rendering of off-axis intensity digital holograms is discussed. A review of some of the main numerical processing methods, based either on the Fourier transform interpretation of the propagation integral or on its linear system counterpart, is reported. Less common methods such as adjustable magnification reconstruction schemes and Fresnelet decomposition are presented and applied to the digital treatment of off-axis holograms. The influence of experimental parameters on the classical hologram reconstruction methods is assessed, offering guidelines for optimal image rendering regarding the hologram recording conditions.

Abstract: Direct volume rendering is an important tool for visualizing complex data sets. However, in the process of generating 2D images from 3D data, information is lost in the form of attenuation and occlusion. The lack of a feedback mechanism to quantify the loss of information in the rendering process makes the design of good transfer functions a difficult and time consuming task. In this paper, we present the general notion of visibility histograms, which are multidimensional graphical representations of the distribution of visibility in a volume-rendered image. In this paper, we explore the 1D and 2D transfer functions that result from intensity values and gradient magnitude. With the help of these histograms, users can manage a complex set of transfer function parameters that maximize the visibility of the intervals of interest and provide high quality images of volume data. We present a semiautomated method for generating transfer functions, which progressively explores the transfer function space toward the goal of maximizing visibility of important structures. Our methodology can be easily deployed in most visualization systems and can be used together with traditional 1D and 2D opacity transfer functions based on scalar values, as well as with other more sophisticated rendering algorithms.

Abstract: The content protection for image-based 3D data is getting more importance with the advance of low cost 3D display devices. The depth-image-based rendering (DIBR) 3D image is one of the image-based 3D data which consists of the center image and the depth image generated by the content provider. The left-eye image and the right-eye image are rendered from the center image and the depth image at the content consumer side. The blind watermarking for DIBR 3D image is rarely studied in the literature. In this paper, a novel blind multiple watermarking scheme is proposed to deal with the content protection problem of DIBR 3D images. Besides the usual requirement of mutual orthogonality among reference patterns for multiple watermark embedding, we found that proper embedding order plays an even more important role in watermarking the DIBR 3D images. Experimental results show that the proposed scheme is robust against the JPEG compression and noise adding attacks. More interestingly, it is found that the proposed watermarking can also tolerate large range variations of the depth image during rendering.

Abstract: We introduce GPUMiner, a novel parallel data mining system that utilizes new-generation graphics processing units (GPUs). Our system relies on the massively multi-threaded SIMD (Single Instruction, Multiple-Data) architecture provided by GPUs. As specialpurpose co-processors, these processors are highly optimized for graphics rendering and rely on the CPU for data input/output as well as complex program control. Therefore, we design GPUMiner to consist of the following three components: (1) a CPU-based storage and buffer manager to handle I/O and data transfer between the CPU and the GPU, (2) a GPU-CPU co-processing parallel mining module, and (3) a GPU-based mining visualization module. We design the GPU-CPU co-processing scheme in mining depending on the complexity and inherent parallelism of individual mining algorithms. We provide the visualization module to facilitate users to observe and interact with the mining process online. We have implemented the k-means clustering and the Apriori frequent pattern mining algorithms in GPUMiner. Our preliminary results have shown significant speedups over state-of-the-art CPU implementations on a PC with a G80 GPU and a quad-core CPU. We will demonstrate the mining process through our visualization module. Code and documentation of GPUMiner are available at http://code.google.com/p/gpuminer/.

Abstract: Techniques and tools for high dynamic range (HDR) image rendering and generation. An HDR image generating system performs motion analysis on a set of lower dynamic range (LDR) images and derives relative exposure levels for the images based on information obtained in the motion analysis. These relative exposure levels are used when integrating the LDR images to form an HDR image. An HDR image rendering system tone maps sample values in an HDR image to a respective lower dynamic range value, and calculates local contrast values. Residual signals are derived based on local contrast, and sample values for an LDR image are calculated based on the tone-mapped sample values and the residual signals. User preference information can be used during various stages of HDR image generation or rendering.

Abstract: There is provided a method of changing a theme for a user interface of a computer system comprising receiving an identification of an image with which to define a color palette of a theme for rendering elements of a user interface on a color display of the computer system; analysing the image to determine at least one predominant color; and defining the color palette in response to the analysis. The image may comprise a background image selected by a user for display by the computer system. Dynamic generation of the color palette matches the user interface to colors to provide flexible and appealing themes. A computer readable memory having recorded thereon instructions to carry out this method is also provided, as well as a device comprising such memory.

Abstract: Image-based rendering (IBR) techniques allow capture and display of 3D environments using photographs Modern IBR pipelines reconstruct proxy geometry using multi-view stereo, reproject the photographs onto the proxy and blend them to create novel views The success of these methods depends on accurate 3D proxies, which are difficult to obtain for complex objects such as trees and cars Large number of input images do not improve reconstruction proportionally; surface extraction is challenging even from dense range scans for scenes containing such objects Our approach does not depend on dense accurate geometric reconstruction; instead we compensate for sparse 3D information by variational image warping In particular, we formulate silhouette-aware warps that preserve salient depth discontinuities This improves the rendering of difficult foreground objects, even when deviating from view interpolation We use a semi-automatic step to identify depth discontinuities and extract a sparse set of depth constraints used to guide the warp Our framework is lightweight and results in good quality IBR for previously challenging environments

Abstract: With the increasing availability of high-resolution isotropic three- or four-dimensional medical datasets from sources such as magnetic resonance imaging, computed tomography, and ultrasound, volumetric image visualization techniques have increased in importance. Over the past two decades, a number of new algorithms and improvements have been developed for practical clinical image display. More recently, further efficiencies have been attained by designing and implementing volume-rendering algorithms on graphics processing units (GPUs). In this paper, we review volumetric image visualization pipelines, algorithms, and medical applications. We also illustrate our algorithm implementation and evaluation results, and address the advantages and drawbacks of each algorithm in terms of image quality and efficiency. Within the outlined literature review, we have integrated our research results relating to new visualization, classification, enhancement, and multimodal data dynamic rendering. Finally, we illustrate issues related to modern GPU working pipelines, and their applications in volume visualization domain.

Abstract: In this work, we present a non-photorealistic rendering technique to create stylized abstractions from color images and videos. Our approach is based on adaptive line integral convolution in combination with directional shock filtering. The smoothing process regularizes directional image features while the shock filter provides a sharpening effect. Both operations are guided by a flow field derived from the structure tensor. To obtain a high-quality flow field, we present a novel smoothing scheme for the structure tensor based on Poisson's equation. Our approach effectively regularizes anisotropic image regions while preserving the overall image structure and achieving a consistent level of abstraction. Moreover, it is suitable for per-frame filtering of video and can be efficiently implemented to process content in real-time.

Abstract: Holographic rendering of off-axis intensity digital holograms is discussed. A review of some of the main numerical processing methods, based either on the Fourier transform interpretation of the propagation integral or on its linear system counterpart, is reported. Less common methods such as adjustable magnification reconstruction schemes and Fresnelet decomposition are presented and applied to the digital treatment of off-axis holograms. The influence of experimental parameters on the classical hologram reconstruction methods is assessed, offering guidelines for optimal image rendering regarding the hologram recording conditions.

Abstract: For a media-editing application that creates a composite media presentation, some embodiments of the invention provide a method for reducing rendering operations by dividing the composite presentation into several segments and rendering the segments in a manner that allows for these segments to move with respect to each other without losing the rendered results. The media-editing application defines portions of a media presentation as segments. When the media-editing application renders a segment of the media presentation, the application computes an identifier that uniquely identifies the segment and then uses this identifier to store and later retrieve the rendered result for the segment. The application in some embodiments computes the identifier based on a set of attributes of the segment, and stores the results of rendering the segment at a location that is uniquely identifiable in a storage structure by the identifier.

Abstract: The encoding of both texture and depth maps of multiview images, captured by a set of spatially correlated cameras, is important for any 3-D visual communication system based on depth-image-based rendering (DIBR). In this paper, we address the problem of efficient bit allocation among texture and depth maps of multiview images. More specifically, suppose we are given a coding tool to encode texture and depth maps at the encoder and a view-synthesis tool to construct intermediate views at the decoder using neighboring encoded texture and depth maps. Our goal is to determine how to best select captured views for encoding and distribute available bits among texture and depth maps of selected coded views, such that the visual distortion of desired constructed views is minimized. First, in order to obtain at the encoder a low complexity estimate of the visual quality of a large number of desired synthesized views, we derive a cubic distortion model based on basic DIBR properties, whose parameters are obtained using only a small number of viewpoint samples. Then, we demonstrate that the optimal selection of coded views and quantization levels for corresponding texture and depth maps is equivalent to the shortest path in a specially constructed 3-D trellis. Finally, we show that, using the assumptions of monotonicity in the predictor's quantization level and distance, suboptimal solutions can be efficiently pruned from the feasible space during solution search. Experiments show that our proposed efficient selection of coded views and quantization levels for corresponding texture and depth maps outperforms an alternative scheme using constant quantization levels for all maps (commonly used in video standard implementations) by up to 1.5 dB. Moreover, the complexity of our scheme can be reduced by at least 80% over the full solution search.

Abstract: Exemplary techniques for balancing 3D graphical processor unit use among virtual machines are herein disclosed. In an exemplary embodiment, a virtualization platform can load an instance of a graphics rendering module for a virtual machine; select a GPU for the graphics rendering module to run on; and configure the virtual machine to render to the selected GPU. In addition to the foregoing, other aspects are described in the detailed description, claims, and figures.

Abstract: An approach is provided for rendering content associated with a location-based service. Content is retrieved that is associated with a point on an object identified in the location-based service. The object can be represented by, but is not limited to, a three- dimensional or two-dimensional model or models or by an augmented reality view. A model of the object is retrieved. Rendering of the content is caused, at least in part, on one or more surfaces of the object model in a user interface of the location-based service.

Abstract: This paper describes a depth-based inpainting algorithm which efficiently handles disocclusion occurring on virtual viewpoint rendering. A single reference view and a set of depth maps are used in the proposed approach. The method not only deals with small disocclusion filling related to small camera baseline, but also manages to fill in larger disocclusions in distant synthesized views. This relies on a coherent tensor-based color and geometry structure propagation. The depth is used to drive the filling order, while enforcing the structure diffusion from similar candidate-patches. By acting on patch prioritization, selection and combination, the completion of distant synthesized views allows a consistent and realistic rendering of virtual viewpoints.

Abstract: Depth image-based rendering (DIBR) is a process that uses one 2-D color image and its associated depth map to render virtual view 3-D images. One of the main problems in DIBR is how to reduce holes that occur on the generated virtual view images. In general, preprocessing the whole depth image by smoothing filter before image warping can reduce the hole occurrence. However, smoothing the whole depth image not only produces some geometric distortions on the generated virtual directional images, but also increases computation time. This paper proposes an adaptive edge-oriented smoothing process to solve the above problem, in which the adaptive smoothing filter for the depth map is determined by the characteristics of the hole region with or without vertical lines in the color image. The adaptive smoothing filter contains two types: the asymmetric smoothing filter is used to reduce the geometric distortions by smoothing the hole regions with vertical lines that belong to the background; and the horizontal smoothing filter is used to reduce hole occurrence and computation time by smoothing the hole regions without vertical lines. The experiment results show that the proposed method turns out to be a good tradeoff between time saving, hole reduction rate, and virtual view quality.

Abstract: The present embodiments provide systems, methods and apparatuses for use in providing the playback of content. Some of these embodiments provide methods of playing back multimedia content, comprising: implementing, on a multimedia rendering client device coupled with a LAN, a simplified Internet browser that establishes a browser environment; establishing a network connection over the LAN between the client device and a remote server; operating, within the browser environment, a lightweight remote user interface (RUI) protocol client application that is operated with a JavaScript based graphics application program interface to a graphics protocol stack of the client device; receiving graphics commands; implementing, through the RUI protocol client application in cooperation with the JavaScript based graphics application program interface, the graphics commands and generating graphics in accordance with the graphics commands; and displaying on the client device the graphics consistent with the graphics commands.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for performing a blur rendering process on an image is disclosed. In one embodiment, the method of performing a blur rendering process includes accessing a filtered image and depth map information, determining a plurality of blending coefficients for computing a weighted sum for the image and filtered image, wherein the plurality of blending coefficients define a substantially smooth transition from at least one first depth class to at least one second depth class and a substantially sharp transition from the at least one second depth class and the at least one first depth class, wherein the at least one first depth class and the at least one second depth class form at least a portion of a plurality of depth classes and combining the image and the filtered image into a resulting image using the plurality of coefficients.