Robots Perceive 3D Shapes with Heat Mapping Techniques

The two techniques called as heat distribution and heat mapping enable robots to recognize objects that have bent or twisted shapes. The techniques are based on Albert Einstein’s contributions on diffusion and Fourier’s law. Basic physics and mathematical methods that are related to diffusion of heat over surfaces have been applied in the techniques.

When diffusion of heat occurs over a surface, it captures the contours of the shape of the surface. The heat mapping techniques simulate the flow of heat and in the process characterize the object’s shape. The method initially breaks the object into simple shapes (a triangular mesh) for characterization of surfaces. The flow of heat over the object is then calculated. The data is used by a computer for recognizing the object, even if it is a bent or deformed body part such as a nose, hand or fingers.

Computers normally need to have prior information about the shape of the object, but this technique does away with that need. This technique also allows unsupervised machine learning, which would enable the robot to learn and perceive without prior training.

The heat mapping methods can be used in a wide range of applications including three-dimensional medical imaging, robotic navigation and imaging, multimedia gaming, reading human movements in interactive games, military drones, production of animated films, and in pattern recognition and computer vision.

Source: http://www.purdue.

Wrapping an Image around a 3D Shape Photoshop for Windows

I've long maintained that three-dimensional drawing programs would catch on better if they were sold as plug-in utilities for Photoshop. Imagine being able to import DXF objects, add a line or two of text, move the objects around in 3D space, apply surface textures, and then render the piece directly to independent Photoshop layers. After that, you could change the stacking order of the layers, edit the pixels right there on the spot, or maybe even double-click a layer to edit it in 3D space. Virtually every digital artist working in 3D visits Photoshop somewhere during the process, so why not do the whole process in Photoshop and save everyone a few steps? Experienced artists would love it and novices would take to 3D in droves.

Frankly, my little fantasy isn't likely to take form any time soon. Photoshop would have to modify its plug-in specifications, and some brave programming team would have to spend a lot of time and money producing an aggressive suite of plug-ins. Even so, Adobe seems to share my dream. Filter ^ Render ^ 3D Transform lets you wrap an image around a three-dimensional shape. Although the drawing tools are rudimentary, the spatial controls are barely adequate, and the filter lacks any kind of lighting controls, 3D Transform is a first tentative step in the right direction.

Figure 11-43 shows exactly what 3D Transform can do. In each case, I started with the brick image shown in the upper-left corner of the figure. Then I wrapped the image around the three basic kinds of primitives permitted by the 3D Transform filter — a cube, a sphere, and a cylinder. 3D Transform lets you add points to the side of a cylinder, as I did to get the hourglass shape. You can also mix and match primitives, as the final example in Figure 11-43 illustrates.

Notice that in each case, 3D Transform merely distorts the image. It has no affect on the brightness values of the pixels, nor does it make any attempt to light the shapes (which is why I'd prefer to see it under the Distort submenu as opposed to Render). I added the shadows using Layer Layer Style Drop Shadow.

Note To be perfectly fair, 3D Transform is not the first three dimensional plug in for

Photoshop. That honor went out years ago to the Series 2: Three D Filter from Andromeda { www.andromeda.com ). Even now, Series 2 offers features that Photoshop's 3D Transform plug-in lacks, including a wider range of numerical controls and lighting functions — but 3D Transform is easier to use.

Three-Dimensional Shapes

Three Dimensional Shapes, Cylinders

Three-dimensional shapes

Advances in applied mechanics

Three dimensional shape modeling, segmentation, reconstruction and registration