High-quality, real-time dynamic scene reconstruction and rendering are essential for immersive applications. While techniques like 3D Gaussian Splatting (3DGS) succeed in static scenes, dynamic monocular scenarios still suffer from deformation, surface noise, and inconsistent view-dependent effects due to insufficient geometric constraints and inadequate multi-view consistency enforcement for monocular input. To address these challenges, we present Normal-Regularized and Multi-View-Consistent Gaussian Splatting (NVC-GS), a novel approach combining geometry-aware normal regularization with diffusion-based multi-view consistency. Our method explicitly preserves geometric consistency in dynamic objects through tailored normal constraints, while leveraging diffusion-driven latent space regularization to ensure cross-view rendering consistency, particularly for complex materials such as reflective surfaces. Experimental results demonstrate that our approach effectively improves geometric accuracy and visual quality in dynamic scenes while maintaining real-time capabilities, outperforming existing methods in terms of deformation handling, surface noise reduction, and rendering of reflective materials.

We extend grasp models to encompass one-handed interaction with arbitrary shaped touchscreen devices. Current models focus on how objects are stably held by external forces. However, with touchscreen devices, we postulate that users do a trade-off between holding securely and exploring interactively. To verify this, we first conducted a qualitative study which asked participants to grasp 3D printed objects while considering its different interactivity. Results of the study confirm our hypothesis and reveal obvious change in postures. To further verify this trade-off and design interactions, we developed a simulation software capable of computing the stability of a grasp and its reachability. We conducted the second study based on the observed predominant grasps to validate our software with a glove. Results also confirm a consistent trade-off between stability and reachability. We conclude by discussing how this research can help designing computational tools focusing on hand-held interactions with arbitrary shaped touchscreen devices.

In the realm of the Internet of Things, a multitude of interconnected and intelligent devices enable profound interaction with the physical world. Within this context, a combination of aerial and ground robots for active target tracking aims to leverage their complementary capabilities to improve task efficiency in practice. However, most previous works rely on homogeneous and centralized methods among heterogeneous robots, which often leads to serious communication challenges that may undermine multirobot collaboration. At the same time, in nature, crows and wolves effectively collaborate in predation by utilizing their complementary abilities and communication mechanisms. Inspired by this phenomenon, we propose aerial-ground collaborative tracking (AGCoTrack), an independent reinforcement learning framework integrated with an efficient communication module for AGCoTrack. Empowered by this module, aerial and ground robots can dynamically determine the timing and content of communication. We conduct experiments in various environments, and the results demonstrate the ability of our method to reduce both communication frequency and bandwidth in comparison with baselines.

The lockdown period related to the COVID-19 pandemic has had a strong impact on the educational system in general, but more particularly on the special education system. Indeed, in the case of people with visual impairments, the regular tools relying heavily on images and videos were no longer usable. This specific situation highlighted an urgent need to develop tools that are accessible and that can provide solutions for remote teaching with people with VI. However, there is little work on the difficulties that this population encounters when they learn remotely as well as on the current practices of special education teachers. Such a lack of understanding limits the development of remote teaching systems that are adapted. In this paper, we conducted an online survey regarding the practices of 59 professionals giving lessons to pupils with VI, followed by a series of focus groups with special education workers facing teaching issues during the lockdown period. We followed an iterative design process where we designed successive low-fidelity prototypes to drive successive focus groups. We contribute with an analysis of the issues faced by special education teachers in this situation, and a concept to drive the future development of a tool for remote graphic-based teaching with pupils with VI.

Raised-line graphics are tactile documents made for people with visual impairments (VI). Their exploration relies on a complex two-handed behavior. To better understand the cognitive processes underlying this exploration, we proposed a new method based on “tactile fixations”. A tactile fixation occurs when a finger is stationary within a specific spatial and temporal window. It is known that stationary fingers play an active role when exploring tactile graphics, but they have never been defined or studied before. In this study, we first defined the concept of tactile fixation, then we conducted a behavioral study with ten participants with VI in order to assess the role of tactile fixations under different conditions. The results show that tactile fixations vary according to different factors such as the graphic type as well as the involved hand and the aim of the exploration.

Visual graphics are widely spread in digital media and are useful in many contexts of daily life. However, access to this type of graphical information remains a challenging task for people with visual impairments (VI). In this study, we designed and evaluated an on-hand vibrotactile interface that enables users with VI to explore digital graphics presented on tablets. We first conducted a set of exploratory tests with both people with VI and blindfolded (BF) people to investigate several design factors. We then conducted a comparative experiment to verify that on-hand vibrotactile cues (indicating direction and progression) can enhance the non-visual exploration of digital graphics. The results based on 12 participants with VI and 12 BF participants confirmed the usability of the technique and revealed that the visual status of the users does not impact graphics identification and comparison tasks.