FOCUS K3D - Foster the Comprehension and Use of Knowledge intensive 3D media Newsletter 4 (February 2010), download at http://www.focusk3d.eu/downloads

1. Newsletter 04
february 10
FOster the Comprehension and USe of Knowledge intensive 3D media
Topics Editorial
1. Road Map for Future This is the fourth and last newsletter of the project FO-
CUS K3D, whose aim is to „foster the comprehension and
Research use of knowledge intensive 3D media“. In order to impro-
2. FOCUS K3D Conference ve interaction, search, navigation, modeling, and inter-
Remco
pretation, there is a need for rich 3D object descriptions, Veltkamp,
on Semantic 3D Media accessible 3D scenes, smart objects, and semantic descriptions Utrecht
University
and Content of 3D shapes, that is in short, knowledge intensive 3D media.
The FOCUS K3D project advocates the development and deployment of tech-
3. After FOCUS K3D niques in that direction. To find out about 3D media and semantics, please
read http://www.focusk3d.eu/semantic-3d-media-what-is-that/.
4. Computer & Graphics:
Special Issue To achieve that, within four application working groups, namely Medicine and
Bioinformatics, Gaming and Simulation, CAD/CAE and Virtual Product Mode-
5. Events ling, and Archaeology and Cultural Heritage. This proved to be successful: we
organized five thematic workshops that attracted many participants to disse-
6. Project Partners minate the project‘s objectives and discuss the proposed themes with the ap-
plication experts. In addition, many special sessions at other workshops and
conference were organized (e.g. SAMT 09, CASA 09, ICT Event 2008, Future
Challenges in Visual Computing 2009, the series of Shape Retrieval Contests).
To download many slides and videos of the workshop presentations, please vi-
sit the project homepage.
During the project, we identified the current state of affairs as well as the lacking
funtionality in workflow and capabilities of processing 3D media, based on a
state of the art survey, questionnares, and ad hoc meetings and interviews. The
various application domains show different levels of maturity and conscious-
ness with respect to 3D media and the role of knowledge and semantics. We
have derived from that a research road map, which was presented at the final
FOCUS K3D conference. General reactions at this event and the conference‘s
panel discussion provided additional input to the road map. The final version
will be available soon at our homepage. It is an inspiration for further research
directions, and a useful lever for future research proposals.
At the FOCUS K3D conferences there were further presentations from distin-
guished invited speakers, reviewed paper submissions, and related project
presentations. This conference, the organized workshops, the special sessi-
ons, and the portal‘s resources downloads all show a growing community in
the area of semantics of 3D media. In this newsletter you find further informa-
tion about the research road map, the final FOCUS K3D conference, and the
project showcase.
Brainstorming Session Remco Veltkamp
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2. Newsletter 04
1. Road Map Semantic 3D media in the future
for Future The research road map envisaged by long term challenges that the Computer
Research FOCUS K3D is an attempt to synthesi- Graphics (CG) community should face
ze the vision of the project on semantic as future targets for new and disruptive
3D media, after an extensive discussion research, with a strong need to breach
with a variety of users in the application the borders of a single discipline and cal-
domains addressed by the project. The ling for a true multi-disciplinary effort.
perspective of the road map is orien- Within each of these high-level challen-
ted towards challenges that exist more ges, we have also identified a number of
in the content production and sharing mid-term challenges that, without being
phase, rather than in the networking exhaustive of course, could be the re-
phase. quired building blocks for making further
important research advancements. We
Thinking about life fifteen years ago, you tried to avoid the presentation of one
will discover how it is different from now research road map for each application
and how some technologies we normally domain and preferred to give a gene-
use were unimaginable at that time, ral overview while focusing on specific
mobile phones and internet above all. shapes introduced by the application do-
For this a reason, we decided to start main issues, when suitable, to underline
the road map with three visionary sce- problems arising from peculiar shapes
narios, which imagine different aspects introduced by the application domain.
of life in 2040. What emerged from the
stories in the end is that semantic 3D First of all, the adoption of acquisition
content will strongly permeate everyday techniques has become typical in the
life, even if not directly perceived. workflows of the four application do-
mains considered. In Medicine MRI and
TAC are common tools for diagnostics,
while in Gaming motion capture is used
for instance in movies to give a natural
behaviour to virtual characters. In CAD
reverse engineering is a widely adopted
approach to redesign, whereas in Cul-
tural Heritage the digitisation of hyphen
artefacts if separated normally happens
through laser scanning sessions. As we
assessed in the thematic workshops, the
passage from the initial point cloud or
3D image to a 3D model requires usually
a lot of manual labour, while at the same
time, all the knowledge related to the
entity acquired is lost. Moreover, hand-
ling 3D data is not as simple as 2D for
the users: reconstructing high quality
surfaces/volumes is not possible as a di-
rect result of the acquisition session and
strictly geometric processing tools have
to be used. A high-quality model is nee-
ded also to apply shape understanding
methodologies to extract implicit mo-
dels. Currently, the available tools are
still too focussed on geometry and not
Robotics, Bio and Education Scenarios in 2040 ready to extract many semantic features
of the object. For instance, through cur-
The advances in research and techno- vature analysis or segmentation tech-
logy needed to bring semantic 3D into niques special areas can be identified
full action are llustrated in the road but the intervention of the user is still
map, in which we have identified high- fundamental to select the correct regi-
level goals that represent somehow the ons of interest.
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3. Newsletter 04
Some information cannot be simply de- ned the necessity of a dynamic docu-
rived from geometry. In Cultural Herita- mentation, which should be able to trace
ge, being able, for example, to acquire source and data provenance, to preser-
also colours, materials, would be useful; ve the annotation whenever the geome-
in CAD the identification of components try changes and propagate it for similar
from their function has been pointed objects. Another issue raised related to
out as an advancement. More generally, the integration of different information
tracing all the digital workflows of mo- sources in the documentation process:
dels becomes crucial if digitisation ser- 3D but also 2D images and text should
ves for documenting, sharing and reuse be interlinked to make the annotation of
of knowledge. In fact, only geometry is the object complete.
not enough for non experts in CG, while
a semantic model, in which the context Not only the modelling phase calls for
knowledge is explicitly related to the semantics, but also visualisation and in-
shape, is one of the first big challenges teraction. Due to the different devices
to tackle. We call this challenge Derive supporting 3D, such as 3D TV and mobi-
Symbolic Representations. les, the information should be visualised
semantically, which means according to
The importance to include specific know- the device and according to the semantic
ledge is not only high valid when the mo- priority given to the content. Interaction
del is created from acquisition, but also includes not only computer-computer in-
when it is created from scratch. Including teraction and strict human-machine inter-
and preserving the design intent would action but also how consumers are able to
make the 3D model much more power- search and retrieve the shape data related
ful in all the application fields. In Medici- to their current task. Among the issues
ne, patient-specific data pave the road to collected among our Application Working
precise diagnoses and personalised the- Group members, we can mention intuiti-
rapies; in CAD efficient links between 3D ve GUIs for practitioners who are not ex-
product models, their behaviour/function pert of CG, the use of natural language
and their properties have been identified to formulate queries, and the consequent
as a strong need; in Gaming creating au- need of multilingual and multimedia do-
tonomous virtual characters able to take cuments. The mechanism to express ef-
decisions according to the surrounding fectively queries by the user, on the one
scene would definitely advance the sector. hand, and the development of strong
Among the desiderata collected during the reasoning methodologies to retrieve re-
thematic workshops, we can also mention sources more precisely on the other hand
modelling shapes evolving in time (e.g. appeared as crucial. The forth challenge
in medicine), coding construction rules of is then named Semantic Visualisation
the shape in CAD, and obtaining a comple- and Interaction.
te 3D anatomical human. The inclusion of
knowledge directly in the modelling phase Finally, we can generalise that there is still
not only supports the modelling itself but a strong need of Standards in the dif-
also the simulation phase. In fact, simu- ferent application fields. Interoperability
lations could be performed exploiting the and distributed design oblige users to big
semantics of the model, performing much efforts, if at all possible, in making meta-
more efficiently and effectively than nowa- data and models consistent without losing
days where the quality and the interpre- information. Unfortunately, the FOCUS
tation of the simulation is in the expertise K3D community confirmed that both ven-
of the practitioner. The second big chal- dors and researcher do not focus current-
lenge we identified is then Goal-oriented ly on tackling this issue.
3D Model Synthesising.
After the experience of FOCUS K3D and
The third big challenge is predictably as reflected by the research road map,
Documenting the 3D Lifecycle. In the path towards really effective seman-
fact, efficiently interpreting, sharing, tic 3D content is still complex, but do-
searching, and reusing 3D data has able. As the research road map tries to
been proven as fundamental, together convey, we believe that the potential of
with the preservation of the annotation semantic multimedia technologies could
according to the digital shape workflow. be fully exploited in 3D and knowledge
The discussions on this theme underli- intensive application areas, where the
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4. Newsletter 04
processes deal with contents of multiple closer connection with Knowledge Ma-
form and type, the processing workflows nagement, Machine Learning, and Cog-
are guided by knowledge and semantics, nitive Modelling.
and the working environment is usually
distributed. Computer Graphics is ready The complete road map will be down-
to answer these challenges, but it needs loadable soon at www.focusk3d.eu.
2. FOCUS K3D The Conference on Semantic 3D Media of panelists from the applications: the
and Content was held February 11-12, goal was to consolidate the road map
Conference 2010 at INRIA Sophia Antipolis - Mé- through identifying current issues and
on Semantic diterranée, France, and organized by trace future research and technological
3D Media Pierre Alliez. The purpose of the confe- directions.
rence was to bring together researchers
and Content working on Semantic 3D Media and Ap- Finally, the conference featured presen-
plications, around the four main appli- tations from 10 European projects and
cation domains of the project: Medicine national initiatives: 3DLife: Bringing the
and Bioinformatics, Gaming and Simula- Media Internet to Life; 3D-COFORM:
tion, CAD/CAE and Virtual Product Mo- Making 3D documentation an everyday
delling, and Archaeology and Cultural choice for the cultural heritage sector;
Heritage. CHRONIOUS: An Open, Ubiquitous and
Adaptive Chronic Disease Management
A total of 50 participants (40 from aca- Platform for COPD and Renal Insufficien-
demia, 10 from industry) attended the cy; Games@Large: 3D Graphic Streaming
conference, with 25 coming from out- Protocol for Pervasive Gaming; 80DAYS -
side the project consortium. The confe- around an inspiring virtual learning world
rence, chaired by the project coordinator in eighty days; PROBADO3D – New Ways
Bianca Falcidieno, mainly featured five of Indexing and Experiencing Architectu-
technical sessions with some key appli- ral 3D Databases; 3D Anatomical Human:
cation members involved in the project 3D anatomical functional models for the
and some key players in their domains human musculoskeletal system; NUBES:
as invited speakers: John Arthur from describing, analyzing, documenting and
OCTAGA (Norway) for CAD, Sameer Ve- sharing digital representations of heritage
lankar from the European Bioinformatics buildings; the CNR Project on Bioinforma-
Institute, Luc Soler from IRCAD Stras- tics; and the CNR Project on Multimodal
bourg for medicine, Sara de Freitas from and Multidimensional Content and Media.
the Serious Games Institute for gaming, All technical contributions and abstracts
Dieter Fellner from Fraunhofer IGD for of invited talks have been made availab-
Cultural Heritage and Ivan Herman from le as a 100-page conference procee-
W3C about Semantic Web, Linked Data, dings edited by Michela Spagnuolo from
and Semantic 3D Media. In addition, CNR-IMATI-GE. A call for contributions
Members of the panel
we had the invited talk by our Project for a special issue of Computers & Gra-
Officer Stefano Bertolo from the Euro- phics has been distributed to all parti-
pean Commission DG INFSO/E2 about cipants. The slides and most videos of
the EU opportunities and strategies for the presentations are available from
dealing with massive 3D data. Key event the conference programme web site:
of the programme was the presentation http://www.focusk3d.eu/conference. All
of the road map was followed envisaged FOCUS K3D members wish to thank all
by FOCUS K3D by Chiara Catalano from invited speakers, panelists and presen-
CNR-IMATI-GE. The presentation of the ters for their contributions to a stimula-
road map has been followed by a suc- ting conference.
cessful panel with a representative set
Final Conference panel
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5. Newsletter 04
3. After What is going to happen after the official time. This means that everybody is most
end of the FOCUS K3D project? welcome to contact us for discussions
FOCUS K3D when putting together a project propo-
All public project material will of course sal either directly involving or possibly
still be available from the project web benefiting from 3D semantics.
site. In addition, we have produced a
Project Showcase DVD. It provides a Finally, the research road map, as a
comprehensive overview of the project result of a lot of brainstorming by the
and contains all the important project consortium partners, and validated by
documents, not just the research road working group members and attendees
map, but also the State-of-the-Art re- of the FOCUS K3D Conference, will give
ports for each Application Working Group the research and development commu-
produced and validated in the course nity (as built in this project but also bey-
of the project, as well as the position ond it) a valuable means to relate their
statements prepared before each the- own efforts to in the years to come. It
matic workshop and the Workshop Out- will serve as a tool to avoid pursuing
come Assessments derived afterwards. just some more incremental research,
The Project Showcase can be requested instead putting the stakeholders in a po-
(of course free-of-charge) from the con- sition to place their activities in a wider
sortium partners and will also be distri- context on an international level, hel-
buted at upcoming major conferences ping to justify their research and deve-
and events. lopment goals when applying for funding
from private, national, and international
A major aspect of the community buil- sources.
ding and its subsequent maintenance al-
ready became clear in the second half of It is clear that the FOCUS K3D consor-
the project, namely the discussion of fu- tium is committed to providing 3D re-
ture projects involving consortium part- search activities with greater visibility
ners and working group members, both in the European Commission-funded
on a national and international level, eit- arena, and to giving 3D a more promi-
her centered in semantic 3D media and nent role there as an important subject
content or providing it as a key enabling area, not just as an enabler serving
technology to proposal ideas from other other topics. Therefore we intend to be
subject areas. Some of these proposals active in various ways at the next ICT
ICT2010: Digitally Driven have even been submitted already, and Event in Brussels, in September 27-29,
we will certainly measure the long-term “ICT 2010: Digitally Driven“. Stay in
success of FOCUS K3D also by the num- touch with us to get information in due
ber of project ideas arising from it over course how to join us there!
4. Computer Special Issue on Semantic 3D Media
and Content
& Graphics:
Special Issue FOCUS K3D has promoted a Special Is- use of 3D modelling and simulation;
sue for the Computers&Graphics Journal professional developers of tools for 3D
(Elsevier) to provide an up-to-date view content creation and management;
of the open issues in knowledge intensi- publishers/dealers of online 3D repo-
ve 3D media, and trace future research sitories; creators of digital 3D content.
and technological directions. All submissions will undergo a two-
stages review cycle according to the
The goal of the special issue is to coll- standard of the Computers & Graphics
ect a broad range of papers on perspec- Journal.
tive applications of 3D content, a rapid-
ly emerging new form of media in the Guest editors: Bianca Falcidieno (CNR-
semantic multimedia panorama and an IMATI, Italy) Ivan Herman (CWI, the
extremely challenging context of appli- Netherlands)
cation of semantic multimedia. Papers due: 30th May 2010
The special issue addresses scientists Detailed instructions are available at
not only in Computer Graphics but also the FOCUS K3D project website: http://
in all the disciplines that make strong www.focusk3d.eu/.
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6. Newsletter 04
5. Events Upcoming Events
Date Event
March Second International IEEE Conference in Serious Games and Virtual Worlds
25-26 (VS-Games ‘10), Braga, Portugal
2010 http://www.vs-games.org.uk/
May SHREC’10 - Shape Retrieval Contest 2010 in Norrköping, Sweden
2-3 http://www.aimatshape.net/event/SHREC
2010
May Eurographics Workshop on 3D Object Retrieval 3DOR 2010 in Norrköping,
2 Sweden, co-event of Eurographics 2010
2010 http://www-rech.telecom-lille1.eu/3dor/
May FMX 2010, the 15th Conference on Animation, Effects, Games and Interactive
4-7 Media in Stuttgart, Germany
2010 http://www.fmx.de/home.E.1.html
May The 3IA International Conference on Computer Graphics and Artificial Intel-
28-29 ligence in Athens, Greece
2010 http://3ia.teiath.gr/main_page.php
June Sketch Based Interfaces and Modeling and Non-Photorealistic Animation and
7-10 Rendering in Annecy, France
2010 http://graphics.cs.williams.edu/sbim-npar10/
June Computer Graphics International 2010 in Singapore
8-11 http://cgi2010.miralab.unige.ch/
2010
June SMI’10 (Shape Modeling International) Arts er Mètiers ParisTech in Aix-en-
21-23 Provence, France
2010 http://www.smi2010.lsis.org/
July The Symposium on Computer Animation (SCA) 2010 in Madrid, Spain
2-4 http://www.gmrv.es/sca2010/
2010
September ICT 2010: Digitally Driven in Brussels, Belgium
27-29 http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/events/ict/2010/index_en.htm
2010
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7. Newsletter 04
6. Project Institute for Applied Mathematics and Information
Technologies (CNR-IMATI-GE)
Partners Italy
http://www.ge.imati.cnr.it
Coordinator:
Center for Research and Technology - Thessaly (CERETETH)
Dr. Bianca Falcidieno Greece
Istituto di Matematica Applicata e http://www.cereteth.gr/
Tecnologie Informatiche
Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale De Lausanne (VRlab-EPFL)
Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche Switzerland
Via De Marini 6, http://vrlab.epfl.ch/
16149 Genova, Italy
Fraunhofer Institute for Computer Graphics Research (IGD)
Germany
e-mail: http://www.igd.fhg.de/igd-a2
bianca.falcidieno@ge.imati.cnr.it
http://www.ge.imati.cnr.it/ Institut National de Recherche en Informatique et en
Automatique (INRIA)
France
http://www.inria.fr/
Université de Genève - MIRALab (MIRALab)
Switzerland
http://www.miralab.unige.ch/
STIFTELSEN SINTEF
Norway
http://www.sintef.no/
Utrecht University (UU)
The Netherlands
http://www.uu.nl/
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