XSAMPL3D: An Action Description Language for the Animation of Virtual Characters

In this paper we present XSAMPL3D, a novel language for the high-level representation of actions performed on objects by (virtual) humans. XSAMPL3D was designed to serve as action representation language in an imitation-based approach to character animation: First, a human demonstrates a sequence of object manipulations in an immersive Virtual Reality (VR) environment. From this demonstration, an XSAMPL3D description is automatically derived that represents the actions in terms of high-level action types and involved objects. The XSAMPL3D action description can then be used for the synthesis of animations where virtual humans of different body sizes and proportions reproduce the demonstrated action. Actions are encoded in a compact and human-readable XML-format. Thus, XSAMPL3D describtions are also amenable to manual authoring, e.g. for rapid prototyping of animations when no immersive VR environment is at the animator's disposal. However, when XSAMPL3D descriptions are derived from VR interactions, they can accomodate many details of the demonstrated action, such as motion trajectiories,hand shapes and other hand-object relations during grasping. Such detail would be hard to specify with manual motion authoring techniques only. Through the inclusion of language features that allow the representation of all relevant aspects of demonstrated object manipulations, XSAMPL3D is a suitable action representation language for the imitation-based approach to character animation.

Produktentwicklung von Druckgussteilen

Die Produktentwicklung von Druckgussteilen kann flexibel, wirtschaftlich und schnell durch die Herstellung von RP-Unikaten und Metallabgüssen aus Keramikschalen realisiert werden. Dieser Weg eignet sich vor allem für komplexe Bauteile und macht eine Produkterprobung mit qualitativ deutlich verbesserter Aussagekraft trotz reduzierter Entwicklungskosten möglich. In Abgrenzung zum Sandguss, muss die Konstruktion der Bauteile nicht verändert werden. 
Durch eine gezielte Wärmebehandlung wird die Vergleichbarkeit der mechanischen Eigenschaften von Prototypen zu späteren Serienteilen möglich. Technisch sinnvolle Änderungen sind leicht und flexibel realisierbar, da werkzeuglos gefertigt wird. Für unerreichbare Hohlräume und Hinterschnitte kann in diesem Verfahren mit Keramikkernen als Einleger gearbeitet werden. Auch diese Kerne können werkzeuglos hergestellt werden. Ein Verzicht auf technisch Sinnvolles aus Kostengründen ist damit hinfällig.
In der Konstruktion ergeben sich neue Freiheitsgrade, so dass Ziele im Leichtbau, die Einsparung von Verbindungstechnik oder die erhöhte Materialeffizienz realisierbar werden. Die so entwickelten Bauteile sind insgesamt qualitativ hochwertiger und bilden die technischen Anforderungen bestmöglich ab. Damit kann die für die Erprobung benötigte Zahl der Prototypen verringert werden. 
Je komplexer die Geometrie der Bauteile, je stärker kommen die beschriebenen Effekte zum Tragen. Diese Aussage gilt für die Produktentwicklung und für Kleinserien, die herkömmlich zu teuer und zu schwer im Druckguss oder Schmiedeverfahren produziert werden

Ansätze zur Qualitätsbewertung von generativen Fertigungsverfahren durch die Einführung eines Kennzahlensystems

Generative Fertigungsverfahren haben sich in den letzten Jahren als effektive Werkzeuge für die schnelle Entwicklung von Produkten nahezu beliebiger Komplexität entwickelt. Gleichzeitig wird gefordert, die Reproduzierbarkeit der Bauteile und auch seriennahe bzw. seriengleiche Eigenschaften zu gewährleisten. Die Vielfalt und der Umfang der Anwendungen sowie die große Anzahl verschiedener generativer Fertigungsverfahren verlangen adäquate Qualitätsüberwachungs- und Qualitätskontrollsysteme. Ein Lösungsansatz für die Qualitätsbewertung von generativen Fertigungsverfahren besteht in der Einführung eines Kennzahlensystems. Hierzu müssen zunächst Anforderungsprofile und Qualitätsmerkmale für generativ hergestellte Bauteile definiert werden, welche durch Prüfkörpergeometrien abgebildet und mit Hilfe von Einzelkennzahlen klassifiziert werden. In Rahmen der durchgeführten Untersuchungen wurde die Qualitätsbewertung anhand von Prüfkörpergeometrien am Beispiel des Laser-Sinterprozesses qualifiziert. Durch Beeinflussung der Prozessparameter, d.h. der gezielten Einbringung von Störgrößen, welche einzeln oder in Kombination zu unzulässigen Qualitätsschwankungen führen können, ist es möglich, die Qualität des Produktes zu beurteilen. Die Definition von Einzelkennzahlen, die eine Steuerung und Kontrolle sowie eine Vorhersage potentieller Fehler ermöglicht, bietet hierbei essentielle Möglichkeiten zur Qualitätsbewertung. Eine Zusammenführung zu einem gesamtheitlichen Kennzahlensystem soll zum einen den Prozess auf Grundlage der definierten Anforderungsprofile bewerten und zum anderen einen direkten Zusammenhang der ausgewählten Störgrößen und Prozessgrößen herleiten, um vorab eine Aussage über die Bauteilqualität treffen zu können.

3D printing and its applications

Eine zunehmende Anzahl von Artikeln in Publikumszeitschriften und Journalen rückt die direkte Herstellung von Bauteilen und Figuren immer mehr in das Bewusstsein einer breiten Öffentlichkeit. Leider ergibt sich nur selten ein einigermaßen vollständiges Bild davon, wie und in welchen Lebensbereichen diese Techniken unseren Alltag verändern werden. Das liegt auch daran, dass die meisten Artikel sehr technisch geprägt sind und sich nur punktuell auf Beispiele stützen. Dieser Beitrag geht von den Bedürfnissen der Menschen aus, wie sie z.B. in der Maslow’schen Bedürfnispyramide strukturiert dargestellt sind und unterstreicht dadurch, dass 3D Printing (oder Additive Manufacturing resp. Rapid Prototyping) bereits alle Lebensbereiche erfasst hat und im Begriff ist, viele davon zu revolutionieren.

3D Drucken und die Anwendungen

Eine zunehmende Anzahl von Artikeln in Publikumszeitschriften und Journalen rückt die direkte Herstellung von Bauteilen und Figuren immer mehr in das Bewusstsein einer breiten Öffentlichkeit. Leider ergibt sich nur selten ein einigermaßen vollständiges Bild davon, wie und in welchen Lebensbereichen diese Techniken unseren Alltag verändern werden. Das liegt auch daran, dass die meisten Artikel sehr technisch geprägt sind und sich nur punktuell auf Beispiele stützen. Dieser Beitrag geht von den Bedürfnissen der Menschen aus, wie sie z.B. in der Maslow’schen Bedürfnispyramide strukturiert dargestellt sind und unterstreicht dadurch, dass 3D Printing (oder Additive Manufacturing resp. Rapid Prototyping) bereits alle Lebensbereiche erfasst hat und im Begriff ist, viele davon zu revolutionieren.

Angiographic C-arm CT- versus MDCT-guided stereotactic punctures of liver lesions: nonrigid phantom study

OBJECTIVE Angiographic C-arm CT may allow performing percutaneous stereotactic tumor ablations in the interventional radiology suite. Our purpose was to evaluate the accuracy of using C-arm CT for single and multimodality image fusions and to compare the targeting accuracy of liver lesions with the reference standard of MDCT. MATERIALS AND METHODS C-arm CT and MDCT scans were obtained of a nonrigid rapid prototyping liver phantom containing five 1-mm targets that were placed under skin-simulating deformable plastic foam. Target registration errors of image fusion were evaluated for single-modality and multimodality image fusions. A navigation system and stereotactic aiming device were used to evaluate target positioning errors on postinterventional scans with the needles in place fused with the C-arm CT or MDCT planning images. RESULTS Target registration error of the image fusion showed no significant difference (p > 0.05) between both modalities. In five series with a total of 25 punctures for each modality, the lateral target positioning error (i.e., the lateral distance between the needle tip and the planned trajectory) was similar for C-arm CT (mean [± SD], 1.6 ± 0.6 mm) and MDCT (1.82 ± .97 mm) (p = 0.33). CONCLUSION In a nonrigid liver phantom, angiographic C-arm CT may provide similar image fusion accuracy for comparison of intra- and postprocedure control images with the planning images and enables stereotactic targeting accuracy similar to that of MDCT.

Three-dimensional printing creates models for surgical planning of aortic valve replacement after previous coronary bypass grafting.

PURPOSE Resternotomy for aortic valve replacement in patients with previous coronary artery bypass grafting and an internal mammary artery graft may be a surgical problem. Thus, we are exploring the effect of using rapid prototyping techniques for surgical planning and intraoperative orientation during aortic valve replacement after previous coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG). DESCRIPTION As a proof of concept, we studied a patient who had undergone CABG 5 years earlier. At that time the patient received a left internal mammary artery graft to the left anterior descending artery and a venous graft to the right coronary artery. Now the patient required aortic valve replacement due to symptomatic aortic valve stenosis. The left internal mammary artery bypass and the right coronary artery bypass were patent and showed good flow in the angiography. The patient was examined by 128-slice computed tomography. The image data were visualized and reconstructed. Afterwards, a replica showing the anatomic structures was fabricated using a rapid prototyping machine. EVALUATION Using data derived from 128-slice computed tomography angiography linked to proprietary software, we were able to create three-dimensional reconstructions of the vascular anatomy after the previous CABG. The models were sterilized and taken to the operating theatre for orientation during the surgical procedure. CONCLUSIONS Stereolithographic replicas are helpful for choosing treatment strategies in surgical planning and for intraoperative orientation during reoperations of patients with previous CABG.

A Survey on FPGA-Based Sensor Systems: Towards Intelligent and Reconfigurable Low-Power Sensors for Computer Vision, Control and Signal Processing

The current trend in the evolution of sensor systems seeks ways to provide more accuracy and resolution, while at the same time decreasing the size and power consumption. The use of Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) provides specific reprogrammable hardware technology that can be properly exploited to obtain a reconfigurable sensor system. This adaptation capability enables the implementation of complex applications using the partial reconfigurability at a very low-power consumption. For highly demanding tasks FPGAs have been favored due to the high efficiency provided by their architectural flexibility (parallelism, on-chip memory, etc.), reconfigurability and superb performance in the development of algorithms. FPGAs have improved the performance of sensor systems and have triggered a clear increase in their use in new fields of application. A new generation of smarter, reconfigurable and lower power consumption sensors is being developed in Spain based on FPGAs. In this paper, a review of these developments is presented, describing as well the FPGA technologies employed by the different research groups and providing an overview of future research within this field.

Caraterização e modelação do comportamento mecânico da resina fotopolimerizada V-Flash FTI-GN

A utilização de tecnologias de prototipagem em objetos e estruturas do dia-a-dia é cada vez maior. Porém, os componentes que é possível fabricar estão em geral associados a protótipos demonstrativos não funcionais. Para ultrapassar estas limitações têm vindo a ser desenvolvidos novos materiais, procurando a melhoria das suas características mecânicas. A presente dissertação insere-se no projeto Firend®, que se tem vindo a desenvolver numa parceria entre a Academia Militar e outras instituições como o Instituto Superior Técnico e procura avaliar a viabilidade da utilização da técnica de deposição de resina fotopolimerizável por ultra-violeta no fabrico de projéteis para o transporte especial de agentes extintores, procurando caracterizar o desempenho deste material em condições operativas simulativas do disparo real. A pesquisa bibliográfica da presente dissertação baseou-se numa breve introdução aos materiais poliméricos. O trabalho teórico consistiu na modelação numérica através do método dos elementos finitos do ensaio de compressão utilizando o programa Deform® e na respetiva validação do modelo através de comparação dos resultados das simulações com dados experimentais existentes na literatura da especialidade. O trabalho experimental fundamentou-se no fabrico e preparação de provetes através da tecnologia de impressão 3D, na descrição das ferramentas utilizadas e do plano experimental. No final verificou-se a fratura de todos os provetes ensaiados e uma grande dispersão dos resultados, conseguindo-se apenas retirar uma tensão de segurança que não deve ser ultrapassada. De acordo com o estudo realizado o material ensaiado demonstrou-se não ser apropriado para a aplicação pretendida e recomenda-se a avaliação de outros materiais igualmente utilizados pelas técnicas de prototipagem rápida, tais como uma mistura de uma resina polimérica com um outro material com características mecânicas mais adequadas.

Experimental studies on the accuracy of wax patterns used in investment casting

Investment casting is often used to produce fully functional prototype components from sacrificial patterns. These patterns (prototypes) may be made using specialized rapid prototyping techniques such as stereolithography or three-dimensional printing. When multiple functional prototypes are required, interim tools for making wax patterns are employed. The objective of this research work was to determine the precision and accuracy of wax patterns produced using several prototype tools. Linear contraction was used to determine the accuracy as a function of the wax injection parameters used in low-pressure injection moulding. Wax patterns were produced using polyurethane and silicone rubber tools. It has been shown that the accuracy of patterns from both tools is similar. However, silicone tools produce patterns with much higher contraction than those produced by polyurethane tools. Unconstrained patterns dimensions contracted as much as 3.44 +/- 0.40 per cent and 1.70 +/- 0.60 per cent for silicone and polyurethane tools respectively. The constrained dimensions contracted by 2.20 +/- 0.20 per cent in the case of silicone tools and 1.40 +/- 0.20 per cent in the case of polyurethane tools.

Electromagnetic fields inside a lossy, multilayered spherical head phantom excited by MRI coils: models and methods

The precise evaluation of electromagnetic field (EMF) distributions inside biological samples is becoming an increasingly important design requirement for high field MRI systems. In evaluating the induced fields caused by magnetic field gradients and RF transmitter coils, a multilayered dielectric spherical head model is proposed to provide a better understanding of electromagnetic interactions when compared to a traditional homogeneous head phantom. This paper presents Debye potential (DP) and Dyadic Green's function (DGF)-based solutions of the EMFs inside a head-sized, stratified sphere with similar radial conductivity and permittivity profiles as a human head. The DP approach is formulated for the symmetric case in which the source is a circular loop carrying a harmonic-formed current over a wide frequency range. The DGF method is developed for generic cases in which the source may be any kind of RF coil whose current distribution can be evaluated using the method of moments. The calculated EMFs can then be used to deduce MRI imaging parameters. The proposed methods, while not representing the full complexity of a head model, offer advantages in rapid prototyping as the computation times are much lower than a full finite difference time domain calculation using a complex head model. Test examples demonstrate the capability of the proposed models/methods. It is anticipated that this model will be of particular value for high field MRI applications, especially the rapid evaluation of RF resonator (surface and volume coils) and high performance gradient set designs.

On the role of tin in the nitridation of aluminium powder

The role of tin in the mechanism by which aluminium nitride grows on aluminium powder is explored. In the absence of tin, the aluminium powder nitrides rapidly, with growth occurring both into and out from the surface of the particles. In contrast, nitridation occurs more slowly in the presence of tin, which is incorporated in the growing nitride. When the tin is depleted, rapid nitridation occurs. The initial tin concentration determines the point at which the growth rate changes. (c) 2006 Acta Materialia Inc. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Canonical solution groups of a homomorphism : manipulator kinematics, nonparametric regression and distributed object systems

The kinematic mapping of a rigid open-link manipulator is a homomorphism between Lie groups. The homomorphisrn has solution groups that act on an inverse kinematic solution element. A canonical representation of solution group operators that act on a solution element of three and seven degree-of-freedom (do!) dextrous manipulators is determined by geometric analysis. Seven canonical solution groups are determined for the seven do! Robotics Research K-1207 and Hollerbach arms. The solution element of a dextrous manipulator is a collection of trivial fibre bundles with solution fibres homotopic to the Torus. If fibre solutions are parameterised by a scalar, a direct inverse funct.ion that maps the scalar and Cartesian base space coordinates to solution element fibre coordinates may be defined. A direct inverse pararneterisation of a solution element may be approximated by a local linear map generated by an inverse augmented Jacobian correction of a linear interpolation. The action of canonical solution group operators on a local linear approximation of the solution element of inverse kinematics of dextrous manipulators generates cyclical solutions. The solution representation is proposed as a model of inverse kinematic transformations in primate nervous systems. Simultaneous calibration of a composition of stereo-camera and manipulator kinematic models is under-determined by equi-output parameter groups in the composition of stereo-camera and Denavit Hartenberg (DH) rnodels. An error measure for simultaneous calibration of a composition of models is derived and parameter subsets with no equi-output groups are determined by numerical experiments to simultaneously calibrate the composition of homogeneous or pan-tilt stereo-camera with DH models. For acceleration of exact Newton second-order re-calibration of DH parameters after a sequential calibration of stereo-camera and DH parameters, an optimal numerical evaluation of DH matrix first order and second order error derivatives with respect to a re-calibration error function is derived, implemented and tested. A distributed object environment for point and click image-based tele-command of manipulators and stereo-cameras is specified and implemented that supports rapid prototyping of numerical experiments in distributed system control. The environment is validated by a hierarchical k-fold cross validated calibration to Cartesian space of a radial basis function regression correction of an affine stereo model. Basic design and performance requirements are defined for scalable virtual micro-kernels that broker inter-Java-virtual-machine remote method invocations between components of secure manageable fault-tolerant open distributed agile Total Quality Managed ISO 9000+ conformant Just in Time manufacturing systems.

The effect of innate compliance on the performance of a counterpulsation device

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) continues to be one of the top causes of mortality in the world. World Heart Organization (WHO) reported that in 2004, CVD contributed to almost 30% of death from estimated worldwide death figures of 58 million[1]. Heart failure treatment varies from lifestyle adjustment to heart transplantation; its aims are to reduce HF symptoms, prolong patient survival and minimize risk [2]. One alternative available in the market for HF treatment is Left Ventricular Assist Device (LVAD). Chronic Intermittent Mechanical Support (CIMS) device is a novel (LVAD) heart failure treatment using counterpulsation similar to Intra Aortic Balloon Pumps (IABP). However, the implantation site of the CIMS balloon is in the ascending aorta just distal to aortic valve contrasted with IABP in the descending aorta. Counterpulsation coupled with implantation close to the aortic valve enables comparable flow augmentation with reduced balloon volume. Two prototypes of the CIMS balloon were constructed using rapid prototyping: the straight-body model is a cylindrical tube with a silicone membrane lining with zero expansive compliance. The compliant-body model had a bulging structure that allowed the membrane to expand under native systolic pressure increasing the device’s static compliance to 1.5 mL/mmHg. This study examined the effect of device compliance and vascular compliance on counterpulsating flow augmentation. Both prototypes were tested on a two-element Windkessel model human mock circulatory loop (MCL). The devices were placed just distal to aortic valve and left coronary artery. The MCL mimicked HF with cardiac output of 3 L/min, left ventricular pressure of 85/15 mmHg, aortic pressure of 70/50 mmHg and left coronary artery flow rate of 66 mL/min. The mean arterial pressure (MAP) was calculated to be 57 mmHg. Arterial compliance was set to be1.25 mL/mmHg and 2.5 mL/mmHg. Inflation of the balloon was triggered at the dicrotic notch while deflation was at minimum aortic pressure prior to systole. Important haemodynamics parameters such as left ventricular pressure (LVP), aortic pressure (AoP), cardiac output (CO), left coronary artery flowrate (QcorMean), and dP (Peak aortic diastolic augmentation pressure – AoPmax ) were simultaneously recorded for both non-assisted mode and assisted mode. ANOVA was used to analyse the effect of both factors (balloon and arterial compliance) to flow augmentation. The results showed that for cardiac output and left coronary artery flowrate, there were significant difference between balloon and arterial compliance at p < 0.001. Cardiac output recorded maximum output at 18% for compliant body and stiff arterial compliance. Left coronary artery flowrate also recorded around 20% increase due to compliant body and stiffer arterial compliance. Resistance to blood ejection recorded highest difference for combination of straight body and stiffer arterial compliance. From these results it is clear that both balloon and arterial compliance are statistically significant factors for flow augmentation on peripheral artery and reduction of resistance. Although the result for resistance reduction was different from flow augmentation, these results serves as an important aspect which will influence the future design of the CIMS balloon and its control strategy. References: 1. Mathers C, Boerma T, Fat DM. The Global Burden of disease:2004 update. Geneva: World Heatlh Organization; 2008. 2. Jessup M, Brozena S. Heart Failure. N Engl J Med 2003;348:2007-18.

Femtosecond laser inscribed phase masks for fibre Bragg grating sensor inscription

We present femtosecond laser inscribed phase masks for the inscription of Bragg gratings in optical fibres. The principal advantage is the flexibility afforded by the femtosecond laser inscription, where sub-surface structures define the phase mask period and mask properties. The masks are used to produce fibre Bragg gratings having different orders according to the phase mask period. The work demonstrates the incredible flexibility of femtosecond lasers for the rapid prototyping of complex and reproducible mask structures. We also consider three-beam interference effects, a consequence of the zeroth-order component present in addition to higher-order diffraction components. © 2012 SPIE.