Generalized trackball for surfing over surfaces Malomo L., Cignoni P., Scopigno R. We present a friendly, efficient 3D interaction technique that, generalizing the well known trackball approach, unifies and blends the two common interaction mechanisms known as panning and orbiting. The approach allows to inspect a virtual object by navigating over its surrounding space, remaining at a chosen distance and performing a sort of automatic panning over its surface. This generalized trackball allows an intuitive navigation of topologically complex shapes, by enabling unexperienced users to visit hard-to-be-reached parts better and faster than with standard GUI components. The approach is based on the construction of multiple smooth approximations of the model under inspection and, at rendering time, it constrains the camera to stay at a given distance to these approximations. The approach is designed to require negligible preprocessing and memory overhead and works well for both mouse-based and touch interfaces. A user study confirms the impact of the proposed technique.Source: ISTI Technical reports, 2014 Project(s): HARVEST4D
Web and mobile visualization for cultural heritage Di Benedetto M., Ponchio F., Malomo L., Callieri M., Dellepiane M., Cignoni P., Scopigno R. Thanks to the impressive research results produced in the last decade, digital technologies are now mature for producing high-quality digital replicas of Cultural Heritage (CH) artifacts. At the same time, CH practitioners and scholars have also access to a number of technologies that allow distributing and presenting those models to everybody and everywhere by means of a number of communication platforms. The goal of this chapter is to present some recent technologies for supporting the visualization of complex models, by focusing on the requirements of interactive manipulation and visualization of 3D models on the web and on mobile platforms. The section will present some recent experiences where high-quality 3D models have been used in CH research, restoration and conservation. Some open issues in this domain will also be presented and discussed.Source: 3D Research Challenges in Cultural Heritage. A Roadmap in Digital Heritage Preservation, edited by Marinos Ioannides, Ewald Quak, pp. 18–35. Berlin: Springer, 2014 DOI: 10.1007/978-3-662-44630-0_2 Project(s): ARIADNE Metrics: