Level-of-Detail Rendering of Large-Scale Irregular Volume Datasets Using Particles

This paper describes a level-of-detail rendering technique for large-scale irregular volume datasets.It is well known that the memory bandwidth consumed by visibility sorting becomes the limiting factor when carrying out volume rendering of such datasets.To develop a sorting-free volume rendering technique,we previously proposed a particle-based technique that generates opaque and emissive particles using a density function constant within an irregular volume cell and projects the particles onto an image plane with sub-pixels.When the density function changes significantly in an irregular volume cell,the cell boundary may become prominent,which can cause blocky noise.When the number of the sub-pixels increases,the required frame buffer tends to be large.To solve this problem,this work proposes a new particle-based volume rendering which generates particles using metropolis sampling and renders the particles using the ensemble average. To confirm the effectiveness of this method,we applied our proposed technique to several irregular volume datasets,with the result that the ensemble average outperforms the sub-pixel average in computational complexity and memory usage. In addition,the ensemble average technique allowed us to implement a level of detail in the interactive rendering of a 71-million-cell hexahedral volume dataset and a 26-million-cell quadratic tetrahedral volume dataset.

Visualization and level-of-detail of metadata for interactive exploration of Sensor Web

There are several issues with Web-based search interfaces on a Sensor Web data infrastructure.It can be difficult to(1)find the proper keywords for the formulation of queries and(2)explore the information if the user does not have previous knowledge about the particular sensor systems providing the informa-tion.We investigate how the visualization of sensor resources on a 3D Web-based Digital Earth globe organized by level-of-detail(LOD)can enhance search and exploration of information by easing the formulation of geospatial queries against the metadata of sensor systems.Our case study provides an approach inspired by geographical mashups in which freely available functionality and data are flexibly combined.We use PostgreSQL,PostGIS,PHP,and X3D-Earth technologies to allow the Web3D standard and its geospatial component to be used for visual exploration and LOD control of a dynamic scene.Our goal is to facilitate the dynamic exploration of the Sensor Web and to allow the user to seamlessly focus in on a particular sensor system from a set of registered sensor networks deployed across the globe.We present a prototype metadata exploration system featuring LOD for a multiscaled Sensor Web as a Digital Earth application.

On Point-Based Haptic Rendering

Haptic rendering is referred to as an approach for complementing graphical model of the virtual object with mechanics- based properties. As a result, when the user interacts with the virtual object through a haptic device, the object can graphically deflect or deform following laws of mechanics. In addition, the user is able to feel the resulting interaction force when interacting with the virtual object. This paper presents a study of defining the levels-of-detail (LOD) in point-based computational mechanics for haptic rendering of objects. The approach uses the description of object as a set of sampled points. In comparison with the finite element method (FEM), point-based approach does not rely on any predefined mesh representation and depends on the point representation of the volume of the object. Different from solving the governing equations of motion representing the entire object based on pre-defined mesh representation which is used in FEM, in point-based modeling approach, the number of points involved in the computation of displacement/deformation can be adaptively defined during the solution cycle. This frame work can offer the implementation of the notion for levels-of-detail techniques for which can be used to tune the haptic rendering environment for in- creased realism and computational efficiency. This paper presents some initial experimental studies in implementing LOD in such environment.

A procedural footprint enhancement of global topographic surface with multiple levels of detail

Virtual globes are technologies for visual navigation through a threedimensional,multi-resolution model of the entire planet.Data representations used in virtual globes,however,lack geometric flexibility at high-resolution levels of the planet-wide terrain surface.This is a problem especially if boundaries between individual geospatial features and the terrain are important.A novel integration of individual polygonal boundaries with a specific multi-resolution representation of the planet-wide terrain is developed in this article.In the preparation stage,the integration relies on an original simplification algorithm applied to the polygonal boundaries between geospatial features and the terrain.Its output is a multiple level-of-detail(LOD)geometry,which can be combined with a known multi-LOD representation of the terrain that uses run-time triangulation.This data representation is suitable for storage in existing database systems,avoids any data redundancy across LODs,and is even independent of the subdivision schema that partitions the planet’s surface for the sake of dealing with LODs.At runtime,a novel reconstruction algorithm stitches geometric parts from different LODs together in a manner that augments the multi-LOD representation of the terrain.Within a certain proximity range from a given position,the method reconstructs a scene that preserves topological relations between the boundaries of geospatial features with the terrain.The method also guarantees that certain nearest proximity to the given position consists of the best geometries that correspond to the original datasets.Such properties of the method close up the gap between a mere exploratory visualization of static,pre-generated models and the models supporting geospatial analysis,which is deemed crucial for applications in Geographic Information Systems,Building Information Modelling and other software industries.A prototype implementation and experiment results that prove this method are also presented.