Visual Computing System Technologies

Institute for applied research in Visual Computing

© Fraunhofer IGD

Outline

Visual Computing means the image- and model based IT Science. Subitems are virtual- and augmented reality, computer graphics and computer vision. Fraunhofer IGD is the world leading research facility for allied visual computing. The VCST team was founded with the aim of bringing the basic technologies of Fraunhofer IGD to other researchers and also to industrial partners.

The team of VCST has developed the technological base of its visualization software instantreality, that aimed on creating virtual 3D worlds long before the founding of the department. The software creates lots of possibilities for various sectors, starting at engineering over medical up to cultural heritage. In the sector of engineering it gives the ability of creating interactive simulations of product development and presentation. Here, the main goal lies in the ability of connecting multimodal input- and output devices.

Besides this development, the scientists of VCST do research on the 3D internet. For this, there was an open source platform, named X3DOM created, which is continuously developed.

Research Areas

Rendering

For our projects and our instantreality system we are researching rendering algorithms with focus on Virtual/ Augmented Reality. Current research topics in rendering include believable virtual characters and interactive relighting/ global illumination algorithms.

MMI and immersive systems

Mixed Reality and immersive systems often require input mechanisms,which aren't adequately handled by standard devices such as mice and keyboards (also called WIMP's). 6DoF mice, Wii controllers, multitouch displays or the Microsoft Kinect are prime examples for interaction devices which can be used to control InstantReality applications. However, because of the different ways these devices transmit their input data, a unified and standardized method is provided here in order to make writing applications a simple and intuitive task.

3D Internet

3D Internet is a research area, which combines the transportation and interactive visualization of 3D content in web environments. Transferring VCST base technology onto client-/ server environments opens up new possibilities for different fields like construction, architecture and cultural heritage. 3D Internet technologies, although available for years, weren’t spread to the marked, caused by the missing link of structural and technology requirements. The group is working on different systems (e.g. X3DOM and instantreality) and actively participates in standards like the Web3D (www.web3d.org) and W3C (www.w3.org) consortium to change this situation while building a seamless 3D Internet platform.

Information on the research areas
Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality