Ichiroh Kanaya

The HYPERREAL Design System

This paper presents a novel mixed reality (MR) system for virtually modifying (e.g., denting, engraving, swelling) shape of real objects by using projection of computer-generated shade. Users of this system, which we call HYPERREAL, perceive as if the real object is actually being deformed when they operate the system to modify the shape of the object while only the illumination pattern of the real object is changed. The authors are aiming to apply this technology to product designing field: designers would be able to evaluate and modify form of their product more efficiently and effectively in an intuitive manner using HYPERREAL than conventional design process (typically, computer aided design, or CAD, systems and solid mock-ups) since the system is able to provide users with actuality/presence of real mock-up and flexibility of shape data on a computer system, such as CAD system, all at once.

Hand manipulation of virtual objects in wearable augmented reality

This paper proposes an interface for wearable computers using augmented reality (AR) environment which allows the user to handle virtual objects with his/her own hands intuitively. The proposed system is constructed with a wearable computer and a head mounted display (HMD). A pair of cameras is attached to HMD positioned as a pair of eyes. Using the stereo measurement, the fingers postures are captured and displayed together with virtual objects on a video-see-though HMD. The system tracks the fingertips motion of the index finger and the thumb so as the user can pick up, move and rotate the virtual object as if treating a real object with the hands in the real world. While the stereo measurement, range information is added to the region of the hand Visual occlusion is synthesized between the users hand and the virtual objects including 2D based graphical user interfaces, 3D computer graphics models and so on.

Nursing Business Modeling with UML: From Time and Motion Study to Business Modeling

A nurse is an autonomous, decentralized worker who recognizes goals, his or her environment, the conditions and actions of patients and other staff members, and determines his or her own actions. Put another way, the nurse makes decisions flexibly in the midst of uncertainty. Because of this, nursing work differs from individual nurse to nurse, and understanding this process theoretically is considered to be difficult. Concerning nursing work analysis, research has been done on task load (time required for tasks). However, there has been scant academic research on work processes in nursing compared with research that has accumulated in other industrial fields, including research on structuralizing work, i.e., defining and visualizing work processes. To improve work processes, it is necessary to understand and clarify work as a chain of theoretically related activities. Thus in this study, using time and motion study techniques, a method used to measure jobs, we clarify the structure of the work of transporting patients by nurses. We also attempt to visualize it. We use objected-oriented modeling to express the operation visually.

Free-form Shape Design System using Stereoscopic Projector - HYPERREAL 2.0

This paper presents a novel mixed reality (MR) system for visual shape modification (e.g.: denting, engraving, swelling, etc) of physical objects by using projection of computer-generated shade. Users of this system, which we call HYPERREAL 2.0, perceive as if the real object is actually being deformed when they operate the system to modify the shape of the object while only the illumination pattern of the real object has been changed. The authors are aiming to apply this technology to product designing field: designers would be able to evaluate and modify form of their product more efficiently and effectively in an intuitive manner using HYPERREAL 2.0 than conventional design process (typically, computer aided design, or CAD, systems and solid mock-ups) since the system is able to provide users with actuality/presence of physical mock-up and flexibility of shape data on a computer system, such as CAD system, all at once

Sweet Home

Art is not what you see, but is what you interact with. Good paintings make their viewers imaginative. As every artist has been expressing love in many ways, the authors introduce a novel way to express the shape of love in an interactive way using state-of-the-art computing technology. The viewers of the art will not see the picture, but will interact with the picture literally. The concept of the interactive art that the authors propose in this paper is that the viewer of the art feel as if he/she is inside the painting. You first find yourself moving in the acrylic painting as if it reflects you like a mirror. In the picture you interact with a family of Alpaca, who will present you with a gift. If you stare at yourself in the picture carefully you will see your face is slightly morphed to that of your child age. You are to bring a candle with you to lighten the picture. As you move the candle, the lighting in the picture changes. You can even blow out the candle, and every animated character disappear from the picture, though the gift from Alpaca family remains inside you.

Computer aided drawing system based on prediction of drawing action

Computer Aided Design (CAD) systems are widely used recent years. In general, however, designers sketch product images by their own hands during early stages of designing. The authors aim to aid these freehand design by predicting and guiding designers drawings using computers and a display-tablet. The computer estimates geometrical figures that the designer is drawing in real-time. The experimental results shows that the proposed system is effective for simple designing processes.

Three-dimensional modelling of Shofukuji burial chamber

The Shofukuji Tomb, located in Kawanishi, Hyogo, Japan, is a well known ancient tomb built around in the early 6th century AD. The tomb is one of the important tombs for archaeologists in terms of Japanese history. The main part of the tomb is a chamber made by stones and covered with earth. The chamber is sized at 2 m (width)/spl times/3 m (depth)/spl times/2 m (height) approximately. To digitize the whole shape and texture of Shofukuji Chamber from its real shape and texture, we developed a new multi-sensory 3D scanning method. With this new method, we achieved a fully integrated 3D model that has a roughly 2 mm mesh density.

3D reconstruction of the “cave” of the great pyramid from video footage

Studies on the great pyramid of King Khufu (25092483 BCE ±25) in Egypt are numerous, but only a few surveys, which are the basis of any hypotheses on the construction of a pyramid, have been conducted. In particular, since no observation of the core of the pyramid has been made, theories about the structure are still hypothetical. In 2013, a Japanese TV production company had the opportunity to climb the northeast corner of the pyramid to shoot a crevice that led to an open space (named “cave”) inside the pyramid, located about 80m from the ground. The authors are fortunate to be allowed to use this video footage for academic research. We employed a “structure from motion” (SfM) technique using Microsoft Photosynth to reconstruct the 3D point cloud of the surface of the cave. Twenty minutes of footage was split into thirty thousand image frames, out of which we selected three hundred images shot using several smooth motions of the camera and used these for the SfM process. SfM tracks the “feature points” in the image sequence to estimate the camera motion and then triangulates these feature points to produce the point clouds. As a result, the static feature points from the overall surface of the cave were effectively collected and reconstructed as point clouds, whereas inconsistent points from a moving person are automatically eliminated through the SfM process. Thus we have produced, albeit in a small area, the first record of the actual structure of the great pyramids core. The production of a 3D model from existing video footage is a rather new methodology in the field of archaeology. This set of techniques can be applied to not only academic investigation but also to the restoration and conservation of damaged heritage and artifacts.

Germination of the Active Lighting : An Introduction and Brief History of Our Research

We have been engaged in the researches on the active lighting techniques for twenty years. At first, we proposed a method to measure the 3-D shape of the object by projecting multiple patterns of structured light, because it is much faster than the method with scanning slit of light, and dense range image can be measured. For this purpose, we made a projector which consists of mechanicallychangeable masks, but it was soon replaced by a speciallymade liquid crystal panel with many slit segments. From the fact, we can proudly declare that the projector is not a diverted device but exclusively developed as a part of projector-camera systems, and the projection target is originally not a planar screen but a real scene with varied depth. Actually, this infant device was successful and commercially enough practical for 3-D shape measurement, but unfortunately we had to wait for the evolution of panel display technology more than a decade, to make a step to the studies which utilizes full duality between cameras and projectors. In the middle of 1990s, many researchers started using video projectors. Since we were computer vision researchers, we used the flexibility of video projector not for a interaction technique but improving performance of 3-D measurement such as motion tracking. But we were also aware of its advantage as a visualization tool in a real scene. Alike to the other research activities, we have confirmed that the projector can change the seen color, texture and specular of the real object. In addition, faked shade projected on the object make it possible to change our interpretation of its shape. Furthermore, the traditional shape measurement method we had developed is seamlessly combined with the visualization technique. Therefore, we have a common view to the possibility of intuitive interface systems with realistic visualization for communicating, training and designing works, so now is a good time to look-ing back on the history of projector-camera systems for our community. Of course you are already familiar with most researches in this field, but we regret our less presence if you are not aware of our research activities. Therefore, in this paper, we summarize the history and progress on light projection methodologies in our laboratory.

The HYPERREAL design system

This paper presents a novel mixed reality (MR) system for virtually modifying (e.g., denting, engraving, swelling) shape of real objects by using projection of computer-generated shade. Users of this system, which we call HYPERREAL, perceive as if the real object is actually being deformed when they operate the system to modify the shape of the object while only the illumination pattern of the real object is changed. The authors are aiming to apply this technology to product designing field: designers would be able to evaluate and modify form of their product more efficiently and effectively in an intuitive manner using HYPERREAL than conventional design process (typically, computer aided design, or CAD, systems and solid mock-ups) since the system is able to provide users with actuality/presence of real mock-up and flexibility of shape data on a computer system, such as CAD system, all at once.