Date: Thu, 21 Nov 1996 21:20:32 GMT Server: Apache/1.1.1+ Content-type: text/html Content-length: 6089 Last-modified: Thu, 01 Aug 1996 16:38:21 GMT
William B. Thompson
Building on Utah's experience in CAGD (computer aided geometric design) for manufacturing, we are investigating novel sensing strategies specifically suited to man-made objects. Current work is addressing the reverse engineering of machined parts based on an approach centering around high-level manufacturing features rather than low-level geometry.
We are developing a novel approach to providing test data for image understanding. All of the objects making up the test set will be designed and fabricated in-house. This gives us "ground truth" (from the original design data), control over variablility, and the ability to distribute actual parts with sensed data.
Immersive interfaces to CAD systems can allow a designer to experiment with assemblies of parts without the need to construct and modify physical prototypes. In this effort, we are constructing a haptic interface so that a designer will be able to touch, hold, and move models of parts and assemblies as well as see them in rendered views. The result will be an environment in which part interactions can be considered in a more natural manner than is possible with current technology.
We are developing a model of the process by which current location can be determined from views of outdoor environments and maps representing topographic information. An interdisciplinary approach is used, involving laboratory and field studies of highly expert map readers, computational analysis, and computer simulations.
This project focuses on the analysis of visual motion, including optical flow estimation in the presence of discontinuities, extracting shape properties in a qualitative manner that avoids much of the complexity and noise sensitivity of tranditional structure-from-motion methods, and detecting moving objects in the environment when the sensor might also be moving.
K.T. Sutherland and W.B. Thompson, ``Localizing in Unstructured Environments: Dealing with the Errors,'' IEEE Transactions on Robotics and Automation, December 1994.
H.L. Pick, Jr., M.R. Heinrichs, D.R. Montello, K. Smith, C.N. Sullivan, and W.B. Thompson, ``Topographic Map Reading,'' in Ecology of Human-Machine Systems , J. Flach, P. Hancock, J. Caird, and K. Vicente, eds., in press.
J.C. Owen, P.-P.J. Sloan, and W.B. Thompson, ``Interactive Feature-Based Reverse Engineering of Mechanical Parts,'' Proceedings of the ARPA Image Understanding Workshop, November 1994.
K.T. Sutherland and W.B. Thompson, ``Pursuing Projections, Keeping a Robot on Path,'' Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, May 1994.
W.B. Thompson, P. Lechleider, and E.R. Stuck, ``Detecting Moving Objects Using The Rigidity Constraint,'' IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence, February, 1993.
W.B. Thompson and J.S. Painter, ``Qualitative Constraints for Structure-From-Motion,'' Computer Vision, Graphics, and Image Processing B: Image Understanding, July, 1992.
M.R. Wick and W.B. Thompson, ``Reconstructive Expert System Explanation,'' Artificial Intelligence, March 1992.
W.B. Thompson and T.C. Pong, ``Detecting Moving Objects,'' International Journal of Computer Vision, January 1990.
W.B. Thompson, K.M. Mutch, and V.A. Berzins, ``Dynamic Occlusion Analysis in Optical Flow Fields,'' IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence, July 1985.
C.L. Fennema and W.B. Thompson, ``Velocity Determination in Scenes Containing Several Moving Objects,'' Computer Graphics and Image Processing, April 1979.