In AY 2001, the research in the shape modeling laboratory was focused on the following directions:

• Biomedical modeling and computer simulation
• Geometric modeling and processing
• Application of computer and information technology

3D visualization functions including 3D animation of propagation of excitation, heartbeat, and 3D model-editor facility are added to the state-of-the-art heart model and computer simulation system. This is a three-year project supported JapanSharyou ZaidanFoundation. Thedevelopment of a homecare service support system is another project of Prof. Wei, funded by the university competitive budget and the Japan Science and Technology Corporation (JST) Regional Science Program. The project is expected to make a direct contribution to the domestic society. Prof. Wei has a Japanese patent filed this year, relating to a technique that effectively removing the Muscle noise in recording the 12-lead electrocardiogram (ECG) with little distortion in signal components.

Prof. Belyaev has conduced fruitful results in his study on geometric modeling that includes:

• Developing new methods for accurate polygonization of isosurfaces with sharp features;
• Developing an image processing approach to stable detection of perceptually salient curvature extrema on triangulated surfaces;
• Discovering and studying new methods for shape and image denoising coupled with feature enhancement and mesh regularization;
• Developing new approaches for shape simplification with simultaneous preservation of perceptually salient shape features.

A Ph.D student studied at the Shape Modeling Lab, Mr. Yutaka Ohtake, was graduated in this academic year. He won his Ph.D from you University of Aizu with highest achievements. His dissertation is entitled "Mesh Optimization and Feature Extraction".