Japanese
Department of Computer Software

Computer Arts Laboratory

Carl W. Vilbrandt
Carl W. Vilbrandt
Associate Professor
The Computer Arts Laboratory of the University of Aizu is a commons where basic and applied computer research and other diverse disciplines can exist and come together to provide a flexible, collaborative framework of academic study that we call the Digital Arts. Under the Digital Arts' framework, a person is encouraged to create and coordinate their own track of academic study in collaboration with others whenever possible. The Computer Arts Laboratory has been fortunate to be involved in international collaboration with various universities such as West Virginia University, University of California Los Angeles, Warwick University of the UK and the MIT Media Lab's Center for Bits and Atoms.
  At the core of the Computer Arts Laboratory's research, development and implementation is implicit modeling with a focus on the longterm digital preservation of cultural heritage. The work is done in support of digital freedom, human rights and environmental sustain ability, as provided for in the Common Good Public License agreement (http://www.cgpl.org).
  The Computer Arts Laboratory's research recognizes the concept of digital materialism and its implications to our current and future societies. Digital materials are the efferent physical representation of the immaterial binary bits of ones and zeros by the material properties of electrons and photons. The dynamic and ubiquitous nature of electron and photon based digital materials and processes are providing at a low cost an almost unlimited amount of informational space for gathering, processing, generating and disseminating new forms of knowledge. The radically different dimensions of our information technologies continue to profoundly change our culture and indeed mark the beginning of a new civilization.
  The recent development of digital based personal fabrication systems which provide the ability to directly print in three dimensions an actual object from a digital implicit object can be seen as analogous to the development of writing in relation to the printing press. Just as the development of writing and then printing had a profound and dramatic effect on education and society, we should expect no less of a dramatic effect on educational and organizational structures of today in the development and application of implicit digital modeling and personal fabrication systems.
  The new dimensions of digital knowledge determining the development of indexing systems, digital data structures, and personal fabrication systems as knowledge testing portals are the inspiration for our Digital Arts' framework of the just in time system of learning.

Refereed Journal Papers

[vilb-01:2003]C. Vilbrandt, G. Pasko, A. Pasko, P.-A. Fayolle, T. Vilbrandt, J.R. Goodwin, J.M. Goodwin, and T. Kunii. Cultural Heritage Preservation Using Constructive Shape Modeling. Computer Graphics Forum, 23(1):25-41, 2004.

Issues of digital preservation of shapes and internal structures of historical cultural objects are discussed. An overview of existing approaches to digital preservation related to shape modeling is presented and corresponding problems are considered. We propose a new digital preservation paradigm based on both constructive modeling reflecting the logical structure of the objects and open standards and procedures. Constructive Solid Geometry (CSG) and Function Representation (FRep) are examined and practically applied as mathematical representations producing compressed yet precise data structures, thus providing inter-operability between current and future computer platforms crucial to archiving.ExamplesofCSG reconstruction of historical temples and FRepmodeling of traditional lacquer ware are given.We examine the application of fitting of a parameterized FRep model to a cloud of data points as a step towards automation of the modeling process. Virtual venues for public access to cultural heritage objects including real time interactive simulation of cultural heritage sites over the Web are discussed and illustrated.

Refereed Proceeding Papers

[vilb-02:2003]T. Yamamoto and C. Vilbrandt. Parallel HyperFunPolygonizer. In M. Guo and Editors L. Yang, editors, Parallel and Distributed Processing and Applications, International Symposium, ISPA 2003, pages 329-345, Berlin, July 2003. LNCS, Springer-Verlag.

An advanced HyperFun polygonizer which produces high quality visualization from an object represented by the HyperFun geometric modeling language and a parallel HyperFun grid system which distributes the calculations of the HyperFun polygonizer over many computers through a network are presented. We show that distributing the calculation for visualization of HyperFun function represented models via a heterogeneous computer network with our parallel polygonization method can yield HyperFun polygonal models of reduced size in a shorter period of time.
[vilb-03:2003]C. Vilbrandt, G. Pasko, A. Pasko, P.-A. Fayolle, T. Vilbrandt, and T. Kunii. Alternatives to Metadata for Cultural Heritage Objects. In Editors T.G. Bogomazova et al., editor, Comitinternational pour la documentation/Russian Association for documentation and information technologies, CIDOC/ADIT-2003, St Petersburg, Sept. 2003. International Council of Museums (ICOM), Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation and The State Hermitage Museum.

This paper discusses the preservation of cultural heritage objects through the use of digital constructive shapemodeling. By preservation wemean not only the digital capture of existing objects and the reproduction of objects that have already been lost, but also the archiving of digital data describing the 3D geometries, properties and attributes of objects into the foreseeable future. Our approach is based on constructivemodeling that reflects the logical structure of modeled shapes. We demonstrate two methods of modeling culural heritageobjects. Our first method, Constructive SolidGeometry(CSG), whichwe have used tomodel buildings from both archaeological data and onsite measurements, reveals how the actual objects were constructed. We next propose and demonstrate a new mathematically based paradigm - Function Representation (FRep) based modeling using the HyperFun open source language. Some advantages of this approach are: (1) The labor-intensive nature in measuring control points and fitting model parameters for modeling specific shapes can be alleviated with semi-automatic methods based on using3D scanned points and control points and non-linear optimization for automatic fitting of parameters. (2) The representation of three-dimensional surface microstructure (bumps, cracks, roughness) is possible to model with FRep as well as the simulation of the effects of aging or the effects of a particular artist's technique, for example. (3) Perhaps the most important advantage of the FRep geometric protocol is its open and simple textual format, making it highly suitable for long term digital data preservation and for the exchange of models among systems and people.
[vilb-04:2003]C. Vilbrandt, G. Pasko, T. Vilbrandt, P.-A. Fayolle, A. Pasko, M. Kazakov, V. Adzhiev, A. Pasko, and T Kunii. STAR Report: Reverse Construction of Cultural Heritage. In Editor D. Ivanov, editor, 13th International Conference on Computer Graphics and Vision, Graphic on 2003, pages 22-30, Moscow, Sept. 2003. Moscow State University and Eurographics Association, Moscow State University.

We givean overview of existing digital data structures, the mathematical representation of objects, and the approaches to computer modeling of historical objects of cultural significance. Corresponding problems and solutions with long term archiving of digital data structures, constructive modeling, and a real time interactive display of the cultural heritage objects are discussed, various examples and applications are given.
[vilb-05:2003]T.Vilbrandt,C.Vilbrandt, J.R.Goodwin,andJ.M.Goodwin.Making It Realtime: Optimized Realtime Frameworks for Education and the Web. In Editor J.J. Villanueva, editor, 3rd IASTED International Conference on Visualization, Imaging, and Image Processing - VIIP 2003, Calgary, Sept. 2003. IASTED, ACTA Press.

The utility of 3Dgame engines for delivery of educational content is explored anddeveloped.Emphasisis placedonthe difference betweenpolygonalsurface representation and actual 3D simulation, taking into account object properties and physical characteristics using function representation (Frep) and the HyperFun modeling language. Through a combination of the open source Quake engine and POV-Ray raytracing engine, a Japanese temple is simulated in two levels of detail and made available both through an interactive realtime simulation and a more detailed but slower raytraced environment. Tools are presented for Web based access to a simulation database, which can be used to design and modify 3D environments.

Chapters in Book

[vilb-06:2003]Carl Vilbrandt et al. Computer Art, page 12. IT Text: Computer Graphics. Ohmsha, Tokyo, 2003.

Grants

[vilb-07:2003]C. Vilbrandt. The Aizu Japan Project : Laser Scanning the 33 Kannon-sama of the Aizu Pilgrimage, a West Virginia University REU National Science Foundation grant in collaboration with the Aizu Digital Valley Promotion Association (ADVPA), 2003-2004.
[vilb-08:2003]C. Vilbrandt. HAVEN - Heritage Aizu Virtual Education Network.html : University of Aizu Competitive Research Funding (UBIC), 2003-2004.

Academic Activities

[vilb-09:2003]C. Vilbrandt, April 2003.

Program Chair, University of Aizu International Academic Exchange Program: 3rd International Workshop on Digital and Academic Liberty of Information DALI 2003
[vilb-10:2003]C. Vilbrandt, Nov. 2003.

Poster artist for the Asia Regional Contest - University of Aizu, ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest (ACM/ICPC)
[vilb-11:2003]C. Vilbrandt, Feb. 2004.

Referee,WSCG2004- 12th International Conferencein Central Europeon Computer Graphics, Visualization and Computer Vision'2004 (Eurographics/IFIP)

Ph.D and Other Theses

[vilb-12:2003]Tomoe Abe. Graduation Thesis: Creating a Japanese Style Garden with an Automatic Layout System, University of Aizu, 2003.

Thesis Advisor: Vilbrandt, C.

[vilb-13:2003]Atsuko Hirose. Graduation Thesis: Music-Driven Modification of Motion-Capture-Based Animation, University of Aizu, 2003.

Thesis Advisor: Vilbrandt, C.

[vilb-14:2003]Masato Ikeda. Graduation Thesis: Particle-Based Modeling of Water Movement, University of Aizu, 2003.

Thesis Advisor: Vilbrandt, C.

[vilb-15:2003]Takeshi Imase. Graduation Thesis: Automatic Generation of Chigiri-e, University of Aizu, 2003.

Thesis Advisor: Vilbrandt, C.

[vilb-16:2003]Hiroyuki Nishimoto. Graduation Thesis: Virtual Clay Modeling with Implicit Surfaces, University of Aizu, 2003.

Thesis Advisor: Vilbrandt, C.

[vilb-17:2003]Kazuhiro Mochizuki. Master Thesis: Robust and Adaptive Polygonization of Implicit Curves and Surfaces, University of Aizu, 2003.

Thesis Advisor: Vilbrandt, C.

[vilb-18:2003]Katsuya Kimura. Master Thesis: Lightweight Independent 3D Graphics with Java for Mobile Phone, University of Aizu, 2003.

Thesis Advisor: Vilbrandt, C.

Others

[vilb-19:2003]C. Vilbrandt.

Formal invitation to discuss collaborative researchon digital preservation andcomputer modeling of cultural artifacts with the Kizhi State Museum,UNESCO World Heritage Site, Karelia, Russia, September 2003.
[vilb-20:2003]C. Vilbrandt.

SCCP: Sparklegate IT Community - JAVA and WEB based technology development.
[vilb-21:2003]C. Vilbrandt.

SCCP: Geometric Modeling and Animation.
[vilb-22:2003]C. Vilbrandt.

UAizu Computer Science Summer Camp-August2003: HyperFunShapeModeling and CG Animation.
[vilb-23:2003]C. Vilbrandt.

Super Science High School - Fall 2003: Math with HyperFun.
[vilb-24:2003]C. Vilbrandt.

Managing member, Aizu Compufarm - Yama no IT School, Higashi Omata, Aizu Takada, non-profit community-based IT literacy school.
[vilb-25:2003]C. Vilbrandt.

Managing member, Support Association for International Students of the University of Aizu (SAISUA).
[vilb-26:2003]C. Vilbrandt.

Adviser, Designium Art Circle.