Arnulph Fuhrmann

Technische Hochschule Köln | FH Köln · Institute for Media and Imaging Technology

Physically based rendering uses principles of physics to model the interaction of light with matter. Even though it is possible to achieve photorealistic renderings, it often fails to be predictive. There are two major issues: first, there is no analytic material model that considers all appearance critical characteristics; second, light is in many...

We present an approach for exploring OSGi-based software systems in virtual reality. We employ an island metaphor, which represents every module as a distinct island. The resulting island system is displayed in the confines of a virtual table, where users can explore the software visualization on multiple levels of granularity by performing intuiti...

Stereoscopic rendering is a prominent feature of virtual reality applications to generate depth cues and to provide depth perception in the virtual world. However, straight-forward stereo rendering methods usually are expensive since they render the scene from two eye-points which in general doubles the frame times. This is particularly problematic...

We present an approach to reduce high-resolution polygonal clothing meshes for Mixed Reality (VR/AR) scenarios. Due to hardware limitations, current mobile devices require 3D models with a strongly reduced triangle count to be displayed smoothly. A particular challenge for mesh reduction of clothing models is that these models usually consist of se...

This paper investigates the influence of embodied visualization on the effectiveness of remote collaboration in a worker-instructor scenario in augmented reality (AR). For this purpose, we conducted a user study where we used avatars in a remote collaboration system in AR to allow natural human communication. In a worker-instructor scenario, spatia...

Simulating light–matter interaction is a fundamental problem in computer graphics. A particular challenge is the simulation of light interaction with rough surfaces due to diffraction and multiple scattering phenomena. To properly model these phenomena, wave‐optics have to be considered. Nevertheless, the most accurate BRDF models, including wave‐o...

This paper describes a method to generate 3D meeting rooms for virtual reality (VR) applications using a greedy cost minimization. Our algorithm can create unique meeting rooms during runtime efficiently enough that its suitable for commonly used stand-alone consumer VR Headsets. First, it extracts information about the room, such as its volume and...

This paper presents an overview of AVASAG; an ongoing applied-research project developing a text-to-sign-language translation system for public services. We describe the scientific innovation points (geometry-based SL-description, 3D animation and video corpus, simplified annotation scheme, motion capture strategy) and the overall translation pipel...

The ventriloquism effect (VQE) describes the illusion that the puppeteer’s voice seems to come out of the puppet’s mouth. This effect can even be observed in virtual reality (VR) when a spatial discrepancy between the auditory and visual component occurs. However, previous studies have never fully investigated the impact of visual quality on VQE. T...

Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) technologies can be used to address people with auditory disabilities by integrating them in an interpersonal communication via textual visualization of speech. Especially in avatar-based Mixed Reality (MR) remote collaboration systems, speech is an important additional modality and allows natural human interactio...

This paper investigates the effects of normal mapping on the perception of geometric depth between stereoscopic and non-stereoscopic views. Results show, that in a head-tracked environment, the addition of binocular disparity has no impact on the error rate in the detection of normal-mapped geometry. It does however significantly shorten the detect...

We investigate the influence of four different audio representations on visually induced self-motion (vection). Our study followed the hypothesis, that the feeling of visually induced vection can be increased by audio sources while lowering negative feelings such as visually induced motion sickness. The test participants wore a head-mounted display...

In this paper, we present a Mixed Reality telepresence system that allows the connection of multiple AR or VR devices to create a shared virtual environment by using the simple MQTT networking protocol. It follows a subscribe-publish pattern for reliable and easy platform independent integration. Therefore, it is possible to realize different clien...

The simulation of light-matter interaction is a major challenge in computer graphics. Particularly challenging is the modelling of light-matter interaction of rough surfaces, which contain several different scales of roughness where many different scattering phenomena take place. There are still appearance critical phenomena that are weakly approxi...

In Augmented Reality, interaction with the environment can be achieved with a number of different approaches. In current systems, the most common are hand and gesture inputs. However experimental applications also integrated smartphones as intuitive interaction devices and demonstrated great potential for different tasks. One particular task is con...

We propose the tool IslandViz for exploring modular software systems in virtual reality. We use an island metaphor, which represents every module as a distinct island. The resulting island system is displayed in the confines of a virtual table, where users can explore the software visualization on multiple levels of granularity by performing naviga...

For locomotion in virtual environments (VE) the method of redirected walking (RDW) enables users to explore large virtual areas within a restricted physical space by (almost) natural walking. The trick behind this method is to manipulate the virtual camera in an user-undetectable manner that leads to a change of his movements. If the virtual camera...

We present a new, physically plausible, real-time approach to compute directional occlusion for dynamic objects, lit with image based lighting. For this, we partition the hemisphere into multiple sectors and pre-convolve these into separate irradiance maps. At runtime the contributions of each sector are then individually occluded and summed togeth...

The following paper investigates the effect on the intensity of perceived vection by changing the field of view (FOV) using a headmounted display (HMD) in a virtual environment (VE). For this purpose a study was carried out, where the participants were situated in a vection evoking VE using a HMD. During the experiment, the VE was presented with di...

In this paper, we present a avatar-mediated communication platform for socially immersive interaction in virtual reality (VR). Our approach is based on the combination of body tracking, facial expression tracking and "fishtank" VR. Our prototype enables two remote users to communicate via avatars.

Recent advances in real-time rendering enable virtual production pipelines in a broad range of industries. These pipelines are based on a fast, latency-free handling in addition to the accurate appearance of results. This requires the use of high dynamic range rendering for photo-realistic results and a tone mapping operator for a matched display....

In this paper, we compare a full body marker set with a reduced rigid body marker set supported by inverse kinematics. We measured system latency, illusion of virtual body ownership, and task load in an applied scenario for inducing acrophobia. While not showing a significant change in body ownership or task performance, results do show that latenc...

This paper presents a system for a shared virtual experience which was developed within a student project. The main idea is to have two or more persons at different locations, who can interact with each other in the same virtual environment. In order to realize this idea every person is motion-captured and wears a head-mounted display (HMD). The vi...

In this paper, we present important steps towards a coupled simulation of textiles and human soft tissue. We have developed a new simulator for soft tissue which is able to simulate the skin of a non-moving virtual human in a realistic manner. This simulator is coupled with a cloth simulator so that both human skin and textiles can be simulated in...

The development of an in-store sales support system that focuses on the “virtual try-on” of clothing is the aim of the research project “IntExMa”. Based on sophisticated virtual reality technology, the interactive system provides visualization of made-to-measure shirts in combination with digital customer counterparts. The system is intended for se...

We present different approaches for accelerating the process of continuous collision detection for deformable triangle meshes. The main focus is upon the collision detection for simulated virtual clothing, especially for situations involving a high number of contact points between the triangle meshes, such as multi-layered garments. We show how the...

We give an ontology for garment patterns that can be incorporated into the simulation of virtual clothing. On the basis of this ontology and ex-tensions to garments we can specify and manip-ulate the process of virtual dressing on a higher semantic level. Moreover, we show how the process of collision detection can be enhanced by using the induced...

Collision detection is an enabling technology for many virtual environments, games, and virtual prototyping applications containing some kind of physically-based simulation (such as rigid bodies, cloth, surgery, etc.). The persistent interest in collision detection by both academia and industry is due to the large variety of applications as well as...

Interactive environments for dynamically deforming objects play an important role in surgery simulation and entertainment technology. These environments require fast deformable models and very efficient collision handling techniques. While collision detection for rigid bodies is well-investigated, collision detection for deformable objects introduc...

The correct simulation and visualisation of textiles comprises many research fields such as mathematics, physics, materials science, and computer graphics. It consists of modelling the physical behaviour of textiles based on real data of garment patterns which have to be placed around an avatar. Therefore efficient numerical algorithms have to be d...

In this paper we present a method for illuminating a dynamic scene with a high dynamic range environment map with real-time or interactive frame rates, taking into account self shadowing. Current techniques require static geometry (pre-computed light transport), are limited to few and small area lights or are limited in the frequency of the shadows...

Abstract In the course of the project Virtual Try-On new VR technologies have been developed, which form the basis for a realistic, three dimensional, (real-time) simulation and visualization of individualized garments put on by virtual counterparts of real customers. To provide this cloning and dressing of people in VR, a complete process chain is...

In the course of the project Virtual Try-On new VR technologies have been developed, which form the basis for a realistic, three dimensional, (real-time) simulation and visualization of individualized garments put on by virtual counterparts of real customers. To provide this cloning and dressing of people in VR, a complete process chain is being bu...

In this paper we present a method for dressing virtual humans using CAD cloth data. Our method is based on the idea of geometric pre-positioning and physically-based simulation for end-positioning. The geometric pre-positioning algorithm places several pieces of clothing automatically and simultaneously around the human body in such a way that the...

We describe an interaction-free method for a geometric pre-positioning of virtual cloth patterns with human 3D scans. Combined with the following physically based sewing simulation, a fully automated dressing of virtual humans becomes possible. This reduces the time needed for dressing virtual humans by eliminating the time needed for the interacti...

We describe a system for interactive animation of cloth, which can be used in e-commerce applications, games or even in virtual prototyping systems. In order not to restrict the shape of the cloth we use a triangulated mesh, which serves as basis of a mass-spring system. For the animation of the particles internal and external forces are considered...

In this paper we address the problem of rapid distance computa-tion between rigid objects and highly deformable objects, which is important in the context of physically based modeling of e.g hair or clothing. Our method is in particular useful when modeling deformable objects with particle systems—the most common ap-proach to simulate such objects....

In diesem Beitrag wird ein äußerst zuverlässiger und robuster Zeitstempeldienst vorgestellt. Die verwendeten Kerntechnologien bilden die von Boneh-Franklin [BoFr97] und Frankel-MacKenzie-Yung [FMY98] vorgeschlagenen Protokolle für eine verteilte RSA-Schlüsselerzeugung und ein von Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (NTT) entwickeltes System zur Zeitsync...

We describe an interaction-free method for a geometric pre-positioning of virtual cloth patterns with human 3D scans. Combined with the followingphysically based sewingsimulation, a fully automated dressingof virtual humans becomes possible. This reduces the time needed for dressingvirtual humans by eliminatingthe time needed for the interactive pl...