Fernando Marson

Automatic real-time generation of floor plans based on squarified treemaps algorithm

A novel approach to generate house floor plans with semantic information is presented. The basis of this model is the squarified treemaps algorithm. Previously, this algorithm has been used to create graphical representations based on hierarchical information, such as, directory structures and organization structures. Adapted to floor plans generation, this model allows the creation of internal house structures with information about their features and functionalities. The main contributions are related to the robustness, flexibility, and simplicity of the proposed approach to create floor plans in real-time. Results show that different and realistic floor plans can be created by adjusting a few parameters.

From their environment to their behavior: a procedural approach to model groups of virtual agents

Simulation of everyday situations from real life can be a very useful tool in entertainment applications and training systems. Such applications, as games or computer animated movies usually need to provide virtual environments populated with virtual autonomous agents. Commonly, the agents need to be able to evolve in their environment, avoiding collision with each other and obstacles, besides interacting with other characters in order to provide realistic simulations. We present a model to simulate coherent group behaviors based on procedural modeling and semantic environments. Our main focus is virtual environments and agents, present in the background of games or movies generated with few/without user intervention.

Procedural floor plan generation from building sketches

We present a method for automated reconstruction of building interiors from hand-drawn building sketches. Image processing is used to extract the building’s outline and openings. Then, a procedural generation algorithm creates a floor plan according to user requisites. The proposed method handles a wide variety of input image styles and building shapes, including non-convex polygons. Possible applications include architectural tools and digital content generation.

Procedural Hair Generation

This paper presents a hair generation technique for cartoon and Anime characters. The main goal of this work is to provide a procedural generation technique, robust enough in order to create different types of hairs. We propose a parametric model that can produce diversity of obtained results through parameters variation. The model is organized in three steps: firstly, the strands generation, followed by positioning them in the head of the characters. Finally, the third step is responsible for providing cartoon rendering, including common characteristics in cartoon shading, as the black edges and solid colors. Visual inspection of obtained results indicate that generated hairs are coherent with expected in terms of visual aspects.

Simulation of Autonomous Agents using Terrain Reasoning

The representation of a real scenario through a 3D virtual environment populated by autonomous agents has several applications, such as games or animation movies. Such representation can be a difficult and complex task, since natural scenarios are composed by forms with a lot of details that should be reproduced realistically in the virtual world. Moreover, virtual people should understand and consider the virtual world for navigation similarly to real people. In this paper we describe a model to provide motion of groups of characters based on terrain reasoning in 3D virtual worlds. The model starts with the terrain generation process using height maps in a pseudo-infinite world, followed by the simulation of characters movement generated through an space colonization algorithm. Finally, the visualization of characters motion in the 3D terrain can be produced.

CrowdVis: a framework for real time crowd visualization

Crowd visualization is present mostly in digital games and computer animated movies, but are also observed in simulations and virtual reality applications. In crowd simulations we should represent the behavior of agents given different scenarios, and also, such simulations can be provided by different softwares and tools. This paper presents a framework for real time crowd visualization, that no programming knowledge and modeling skills are required from the users. Our main goal is to be able to visualize previously created crowd simulations in real time, combining rendering techniques and providing easy support for managing the scene and the virtual humans.

Semantic crowds: reusable population for virtual worlds

Recent advances in crowd simulation techniques have led to realistic agent and group behavior through elaborate behavioral models, complex motion planning algorithms and impressive physics systems. As many crowd simulation solutions typically target only specific types of environment and scenario, a variety of special-purpose methods and systems has emerged that are hard to re-configure and re-use in other contexts. Solving this situation demands a higher-level approach that takes re-use and configuration of crowds as a priority, for adequate application in a broad variety of scenarios, virtual environments and inter- action with the entities present in that environment. In this article we propose semantic crowds, a novel approach that allows one to re-use the same crowds for virtually any environment, and have them use the objects available in it in a meaningful manner, without any modification. To have the agents autonomously interact within any virtual world, we minimize in them the information relative to what objects do and how to use them. Instead, that information is stored in the objects themselves, which the agents can then query, based on what they plausibly want to achieve. To facilitate creating such crowds, we devel- oped an interactive crowd editor that provides high-level editing parameters for defining crowd templates. We illustrate the flexibility of semantic crowds by means of two cases, in which we let the same crowd populate quite differently configured airport terminal environments. These examples also highlight that this modular approach easily combines with your custom implementations of agent behavior model and/or motion planner.

Identification and quantification of kaolinite in mixtures with goethite using short-wave infrared (SWIR) reflectance spectroscopy

We investigate here the potential of the spectroscopy in the identification and quantification of mixtures of kaolinite and goethite from the Continuum Removal (CR) of the spectra in the short-wave infrared. For this purpose, spectral measurements of the kaolinite, goethite, and controlled mixtures of these minerals were systematically performed. The continuum of the results were removed, the depth of the kaolinite diagnostic absorption was calculated and compared with a spectral library. It was possible to identify the kaolinite with high determination coefficient (R2>0.95) when its proportion reaches at least 60% in the mixture. For quantification purposes, it was possible to quantify kaolinite using the diagnostic absorption feature depth in the CR with a coefficient of determination of 0.99.

Digital field book for geosciences

In this study we present a mobile application for geoscience. It refers to a digital field book for automating data collection and outcrop/core description, and optimizing the final data processing. Sensors were developed for semi-automatic data collection, real time calculations, measurements of dip angles and dip directions, geographic location, among others. Field tests were performed comparing the traditional method with the proposed digital method. The preliminary results show a good acceptance of the mobile application by geoscientists and an improvement in the time required to perform data collection. Field tests are still going on and the complete results will be used to improve the development of this important tool in geoscience field work.

Living the past: the use of VR to provide a historical experience

In this work we explore the use of games and VR in order to collaborate with History teaching in Brazil. We develop a game and a VR experience based on local technology. In or approach the player is considered as an Indian who lived in the Jesuitical Reductions in the South of Brazil and was requested to practice bow and arrow shooting.