Shape Modeling

This article surveys deformable models, a promising and vigorously researched computer-assisted medical image analysis technique. Among model-based techniques, deformable models offer a unique and powerful approach to image analysis that combines geometry, physics, and approximation theory. They have proven to be effective in segmenting, matching, and tracking anatomic structures by exploiting (bottom-up) constraints derived from the image data together with (top-down) a priori knowledge about ...

This paper presents work in progress and continues a project devoted to developing shape modeling system for surface generation and enhancement. A local mesh enhancement based on statistical characteristics of an initial triangle mesh is proposed for mesh simplification. Experimental results are included to demonstrate the functionality of our simplification algorithm.

Advances in digital design and fabrication technologies are leading toward single fabrication systems capable of producing almost any complete functional object. We are proposing a new paradigm for manufacturing, which we call Universal Desktop Fabrication (UDF), and a framework for its development. UDF will be a coherent system of volumetric digital design software able to handle infinite complexity at any spatial resolution and compact, automated, multi-material digital fabrication hardware. This system aims to be inexpensive, simple, safe and intuitive to operate, open to user modification and experimentation, and capable of rapidly manufacturing almost any arbitrary, complete, high-quality, functional object. Through the broad accessibility and generality of digital technology, UDF will enable vastly more individuals to become innovators of technology, and will catalyze a shift from specialized mass production and global transportation of products to personal customization and point-of-use manufacturing. Likewise, the inherent accuracy and speed of digital computation will allow processes that significantly surpass the practical complexity of the current design and manufacturing systems. This transformation of manufacturing will allow for entirely new classes of human-made, peer-produced, micro-engineered objects, resulting in more dynamic and natural interactions with the world. We describe and illustrate our current results in UDF hardware and software, and describe future development directions.

Two design solutions are proposed for the development of an adaptive compliant aircraft wing frame using reconfigurable honeycomb core based on a network of joints with hidden topological surfaces. The first design solution utilizes the lever actuators integrated with the honeycomb structure of the wing frame, the second one uses actuators in the form of mechatronic nodes. In addition, this research outlines the development potential of the ideas on the using of smart materials and artificial muscles. Applied use of the dynamic spatial forms can be extended to many industrial and utility products and, in general, is aimed at filling the object-spatial environment with objects of dynamic functionality and aesthetics. The objective of future studies in this topic is to implement the topological optimization of the reconfigurable honeycomb core and selecting various cell form combinations optimal for each instance.

The ability to adapt is certainly one of the best qualities possessed by life forms on earth, an essential component for the survival of species. Talking about adaptation in architecture means conceiving the building no longer as a closed system, but as an organism that transforms itself to adapt to changing external and internal conditions. The research presented here shows the experiments of scholars who throughout history have supported and fuelled the concepts of transformability, transportability and adaptability. Among the 'pioneers' of the adaptive dimension in architecture, we find the famous architects Richard Buckminster Fuller and Konrad Wachsmann. The first linked its name to the geodesic domes: light, economic and transportable roofs, which can be used in various circumstances. Instead, Wachsmann's thought was oriented towards the innovation of construction procedures through prefabrication and standardization. Taking these two inventors as a starting point, it is possible to outline one of the most flourishing chapters in the history of architecture, where imagination meets the need to create extraordinary works.