Extraction of the Quad Layout of a Triangle Mesh Guided by its Curve-Skeleton.

Abstract: Starting from the triangle mesh of a digital shape, mainly an articulated object, we produce a coarse quad layout that can be used in character modeling and animation. Our quad layout follows the intrinsic object structure described by its curve skeleton; it contains few irregular vertices of low degree; it can be immediately refined into a semi-regular quad mesh; it provides a structured domain for UV-mapping and parametrization. Our method is fast, one-click and it does not require any parameter setting. The user can steer and refine the process through simple interactive tools during the construction of the quad layout.

F. Usai, M. Livesu, E. Puppo, M. Tarini, R. Scateni
Extraction of the Quad Layout of a Triangle Mesh Guided by its Curve-Skeleton.
ACM Transactions on Graphics, 35(1):6:1-6:13, (presented atSiggraph Asia 2015, Kobe, Giappone).
ACM, November 2015.

RiftArt: Bringing Masterpieces in the Classroom through Immersive Virtual Reality.

Abstract: The recent development in consumer hardware lowers the cost barrier for adopting immersive Virtual Reality (VR) solutions, which could be an option for classroom use in the near future. In this paper, we introduce RiftArt, a VR tool for supporting the teaching and studying of Art History. Using riftArt the teachers can configure virtual museum rooms, with artwork models inside, and enhance them with multimodal annotation. The environment supports both the teachers during the lesson and the students during rehearsal. The application, implemented completely using Web technologies, can be visualized on large screens and head mounted displays. Via the user test results we can say that the immersive VR visualization increases the motivation of high-school students towards studying Art History.

Authors: A. Casu, L. D. Spano, F. Sorrentino, R. Scateni.
RiftArt: Bringing Masterpieces in the Classroom through Immersive Virtual Reality.
EuroGraphics Italian Chapter 2015, 77-84.
Verona, Italia, Ottobre 2015.

Skeleton Lab: an Interactive Tool to Create, Edit, and Repair Curve-Skeletons

Abstract: Curve-skeletons are well known shape descriptors, able to encode topological and structural information of a shape. The range of applications in which they are used comprises, to name a few, computer animation, shape matching, modelling and remeshing. Different tools for automatically extracting the curve-skeleton for a given input mesh are currently available, as well as inverse skeletonization tools, where a user-defined skeleton is taken as input in order to build a mesh that reflects the encoded structure. Although their use is broad, an automatically extracted curve-skeleton is usually not well-suited for the next pipeline step in which they will be used. We present a tool for creating, editing and repairing curve-skeletons whose aim is to allow users to obtain, within minutes, curve-skeletons that are tailored for their specific task.

Authors: S. Barbieri, P. Meloni, F. Usai, R. Scateni.
Skeleton Lab: an Interactive Tool to Create, Edit, and Repair Curve-Skeletons.
EuroGraphics Italian Chapter 2015, 121-128, Best paper award.
Verona, Italia, Ottobre 2015.

Practical Medial Axis Filtering for Occlusion-Aware Contours.

Abstract: We propose a filtering system for occlusion-aware contours. Given a point of view, we use the silhouette of a 3D shape from that point of view, its medial axis and a map of the occluded areas. Our filter is able to select the points of the medial axis which are projections of the curve-skeleton of the 3D shape, discarding all the points affected by occlusions. Our algorithm is easy to implement and works in real time. It can be plugged as is into existing methods for curve-skeleton extraction from 2D images; it can be used to robustly rank silhouettes according to how much they are representative of the 3D shape that generated them and can also be used for shape recognition from images or video sequences.

Authors: M. Livesu, R. Scateni.
Practical Medial Axis Filtering for Occlusion-Aware Contours.
EuroGraphics Italian Chapter 2015, 149-154.
Verona, Italia, Ottobre 2015.

Interactive shops: how the customer can deal with them both from inside and outside

Abstract: We present here a proof-of-concept of an integrated system for enhancing the shopping experience in a shoes’ shop. The system uses two modules: (i) one internal to the shop using an interactive totem; (ii) one external to the shop based on the customer’s mobile device and the interactive external shop surface. We describe the technical architecture of the two modules and two different scenarios of the user experience.

Authors: F. Sorrentino, L. D. Spano, R. Scateni.
Interactive shops: how the customer can deal with them both from inside and outside.
ACM SIGCHI Italian Chapter (CHItaly 2015), 78-81.
Roma, Italia, Settembre 2015.