Current cloth simulation systems have become powerful enough to be used interactively, and applications relevant to textile industries like virtually tailoring real garments seem to be possible in the near future. We show that interactive cloth simulation can be improved by virtual reality techniques. We present the Virtual Dressmaker, an application for interactive assembly and physically based interactive simulation of cloth. In particular, the system allows us to select and drag parts of the clothes during the simulation. The proposed application consists of a VR-interface client that provides nearly live-size stereo projection combined with 6DOF interaction and a server for physically based cloth simulation. In order to verify the usability of our approach, we elaborate on usability studies, which show that our application allows fast, easy, and precise interaction compared to interaction with a traditional 3D-desktop application based on 2D input devices.

We report on a user study, investigating the efficiency of user interaction in a Virtual Reality application compared to 3D desktop applications.The Virtual Dressmaker is a Virtual Reality application for virtual cloth design, assembly, and simulation that supports advanced 6DoF interaction techniques. We conjecture that these interaction techniques are more natural for the users and lead to faster and more precise results than common desktop applications.In our user study we investigate interaction tools for positioning garment patterns in VR and compare the results to interaction with common 3D desktop applications. We measure completion time and precision of the positioned patterns and evaluate the subjective impressions of the users.The results show that Virtual Environments, and the presented interaction tools in particular, provide a valuable method for cloth design and assembly. Moreover, certain features of current 3D desktop design tools can be exploited for further improvements of VR interaction.

In this paper, we address the problem of automatic camera positioning and automatic camera path generation in the context of historical data visualization. After short description of the given data, we elaborate on the constraints for the positioning of a virtual camera in such a way that not only the projected area is maximized, but also the depth of the displayed scene. This is especially important when displaying terrain models, which do not provide good 3D impression when only the projected area is maximized. Based on this concept, we present a method for computing an optimal camera position for each instant of time. Since the explored data are not static, but change depending on the explored scene time, we also discuss a method for animation generation. In order to avoid sudden changes of the camera position, when the previous method is applied for each frame (point in time), we introduce pseudo-events in time, which expand the bounding box defined by the currently active events of interest. In particular, this technique allows events happening in a future point in time to be taken into account such that when this time becomes current, all events of interest are already within the current viewing frustum of the camera.

We present a set of tools based on the through-the-lens metaphor. This metaphor enables simultaneous exploration of a virtual world from two different viewpoints. The one is used to display the surrounding environment and represents the user, the other is interactively adjusted and the resulting images are displayed in a dedicated window.

In this work, we present a set of tools based on the through-the-lens metaphor. This metaphor enables simultaneous exploration of a virtual world from two different viewpoints. The one is used to display the surrounding environment and represents the user, the other is interactively manipulated and the resulting images are displayed in a dedicated window. We discuss in detail the various different states of the two viewpoints and the two synthetic worlds, introducing taxonomy for their relationship to each other. We also elaborate on navigation with the through-the-lens concept extending the ideas behind known tools. Furthermore, we also present a new remote object manipulation technique based on the through-the-lens concept.

In this paper, we address the problem of historical data visualization. We describe the data acquisition, preparation, and visualization. Since the data contain four dimensions, the standard 3D exploration techniques have to be extended or appropriately adapted in order to enable interactive exploration. We discuss in detail two interaction concepts: (1) navigation with one fixed dimension, and (2) quasi 4D navigation allowing to simultaneously explore the four-dimensional space. In addition, we also present a picture-in-picture display mode, enabling the user to interactively view the data, while "flying with" a particular event, tracking its motion in time and space. Finally, we present a technique for guided exploration and animation generation, allowing for a vivid gain of insight into the historical data.

Present an image-based technique for accelerated rendering of world-in-miniature (WIM)-based and multiple-viewpoint-based props. The WIM technique offers an intuitive and useful tool for navigation and manipulation within virtual environments. The multiple-viewpoint technique is often applied for enhancing visualization and navigation. Unfortunately, both approaches require multiple rendering of the viewed data. This can significantly deteriorate the frame rate and negatively influence the interaction. The proposed approach circumvents this drawback, while still providing the features of these tools.

In this paper, we present a set of tools and techniques for visualization of and interaction with historical data. First, we briefly describe the data acquisition and preparation. Afterwards, we discuss in detail the interaction approaches for exploration of historical data, containing a time dimension. In particular, we propose (1) a continuous time increment approach for visualizing 3D slices continuously moving in the 4D space; (2) a fly-with mode for viewing the scene from the perspective of the participants in the migration, we are visualizing; (3) a time lens, as an extension of the traditional magic lens for viewing arbitrary event times; (4) a time-space exploration tool for simultaneous viewing more than one event time and location of interest; (5) a guided exploration tool, which allows for viewing events on an interactively defined or pre-defined path in space. Finally, we conclude the paper with a discussion and comparison of the proposed tools.

We present a new technique for extracting regions of interest (ROI) applying a local watershed transformation. The proposed strategy for computing catchment basins in a given region of interest is based on a rain-falling simulation. Unlike the standard watershed algorithms, which flood the complete (gradient magnitude of an) image, the proposed approach allows us to perform this task locally. Thus, a controlled region growth is performed, saving time and reducing the memory requirement especially when applied on volume data. A second problem arising from the standard watershed transformation is the over-segmented result and the lack of sound criteria for merging the computed basins. For overcoming this drawback, we present a basin-merging strategy introducing four criteria for merging adjacent basins. The threshold values applied in this strategy are derived from the user input and match rather the attributes of the selected object than of all objects in the image. In doing so, the user is not required to adjust abstract numbers, but to simply select a coarse region of interest. Moreover, the proposed algorithm is not limited to the 2D case. As we show in this work, it is suitable for volume data processing as well. Finally, we present the results of applying the proposed approach on several example images and volume data sets.