It has been known for some time that understanding the content of spreadsheet software used by many enterprises and organizations and discovering errors in that content is a difficult task. In particular, it is known that it takes time to create a spreadsheet, and many errors are included in the spreadsheet due to mistakes of the creator. In response to this problem, we have developed a financial information description language and associated visualization and analysis tools to facilitate the understanding of inter-element structure and simplify various types of analyses. A key feature of this development is clear separation between the input of formulas and numerical values and the output of calculation results and between operators and operands in formulas. The financial information description language describes input information such as item values and relationships in a simple format that enumerates the name, operators, and operands of each item. The visualization and analysis tools, meanwhile, perform calculations and output results in table or graph form. In a comparison experiment performed with conventional spreadsheet software, the proposed method can efficiently create a calculation sheet in a short time and has the effect of reducing errors.

We have developed an interface for browsing content that uses the metaphor of turning the pages of a book. Using our "Bookisheet" interface, which consists of two thin plastic sheets and bend sensors, a user can easily scroll digital content such as photos by bending one side of the sheet or the other. This action provides the tangible and pleasant sense of turning pages in a book. Bookisheet can be used not only as an interface for conventional information terminals but also as one for flexible displays.

Three-dimensional (3-D) displays are drawing attention as next-generation devices. Some techniques which can reproduce 3-D images prepared in advance have already been developed. However, technology for the transmission of 3-D moving pictures in real time is yet to be achieved. In this paper, we present a novel method for 360/spl deg/ viewable 3-D displays and the Transpost system in which we implement the method. The basic concept of our system is to project multiple images of the object, taken from different angles, onto a spinning screen. The key to the method is projection of the images onto a directionally reflective screen with a limited viewing angle. The images are reconstructed to give the viewer a 3-D image of the object displayed on the screen. The display system can present images of computer-graphics pictures, live pictures, and movies. Furthermore, the reverse optical process of that in the display system can be used to record images of the subject from multiple directions; the images can then be transmitted to the display in real-time. We have developed prototypes of a 3-D display and a 3-D human-image transmission system. Our preliminary working prototypes demonstrate new possibilities of expression and forms of communication.

Three-dimensional displays are drawing attention as next-generation devices. Some techniques which can reproduce three-dimensional images prepared in advance have already been developed. However, technology for the transmission of 3D moving pictures in real-time is yet to be achieved. In this paper, we present a novel method for 360-degrees viewable 3D displays and the Transpost system in which we implement the method. The basic concept of our system is to project multiple images of the object, taken from different angles, onto a spinning screen. The key to the method is projection of the images onto a directionally reflective screen with a limited viewing angle. The images are reconstructed to give the viewer a three-dimensional image of the object displayed on the screen. The display system can present images of computer-graphics pictures, live pictures, and movies. Furthermore, the reverse optical process of that in the display system can be used to record images of the subject from multiple directions. The images can then be transmitted to the display in real-time. We have developed prototypes of a 3D display and a 3D human-image transmission system. Our preliminary working prototypes demonstrate new possibilities of expression and forms of communication.

A novel method for an all-around display system that shows three-dimensional stereo images without the need for special goggles has been developed. This system simply needs a directional-reflection screen, mirrors, and a standard projector. The basic concept behind this system is to make use of the phenomenon called "afterimage" that occurs when screen is spinning. The key to this approach is to make a directional reflection screen with a limited viewing angle and project images onto it. The projected image is made up of 24 images of an object, taken from 24 different angles. By reconstructing this image, a three-dimensional object can be displayed on the screen. The display system can present images of computer-graphics and photographs, full-length movies, and so on.Our aim is to make a system for not only displaying images but also for interacting with them. Several display examples demonstrated that the system will be useful in applications such as guide displays in public places and facilities.

A new method called TIP (Tour Into the Picture) is presented for easily making animations from one 2D picture or photograph of a scene.In TIP, animation is created from the viewpoint of a camera which can be three-dimensionally "walked or flownthrough" the 2D picture or photograph.To make such animation, conventional computer vision techniques cannot be applied in the 3D modeling process for the scene, using only a single 2D image.Instead a spidery mesh is employed in our method to obtain a simple scene model from the 2D image of the scene using a graphical user interface.Animation is thus easily generated without the need of multiple 2D images.Unlike existing methods, our method is not intended to construct a precise 3D scene model.The scene model is rather simple, and not fully 3D-structured.The modeling process starts by specifying the vanishing point in the 2D image.The background in the scene model then consists of at most five rectangles, whereas hierarchical polygons are used as a model for each foreground object.Furthermore a virtual camera is moved around the 3D scene model, with the viewing angle being freely controlled.This process is easily and effectively performed using the spidery mesh interface.We have obtained a wide variety of animated scenes which demonstrate the efficiency of TIP.CR Cat e g o ri e s an d S ub j e c t De s c ri p t o rs : I.3.3 [Computer Graphics]: Picture/Image Generation -viewing algorithms; I.3.7 [Computer Graphics] Three-dimensional Graphics and Realism, Animation Addi ti o nal Key wo rds : graphical user interface, imagebased modeling/rendering, vanishing point, field-of-view angle