Tremendous advances are taking place in 3D graphics in the form of programmable hardware 3D graphics processors, sophisticated sensing/display devices and innovative computer graphics techniques. Applications abound in engineering, medicine, arts, entertainment, gaming, cinema, education, commerce, etc. The primary focus of research in this lab is the development of new, efficient and scalable computational techniques for 3D graphics and more generally for computing with visuals.

Research Projects

Point Based Graphics

Point sampled surfaces are being proposed as alternative simpler geometric representations of 3D objects. Efficient techniques are needed to handle such geometric representations directly in various applications, without resorting to manual conversion to more conventional surface representations. Our work specifically addresses new feature based point sampled surface processing techniques.

Functionality Distribution

The computational requirements for processing very large 3D models including densely sampled point based surfaces can be large. The research goal of this project is to use the multi-node graphics cluster to distribute computations on the CPUs and the programmable GPUs. While data distribution has been the main paradigm, we have experimented with functionality distribution among CPUs and GPUs the and obtained good rendering performance results.
Collaborators: Dr. D. Goswami, CSE, Concordia

Meshless Animation

Our research address key-frame animation techniques for point sampled surfaces and addresses the problems of not having the same number of samples in different key-frames and also the lack of known correspondence between the data in two key-frames. We apply this technique to Chinese opera animation.

Motion Learning-based Animation

This research is aimed at methods to uncover motion information in key-frames or in motion capture data and use it to guide the synthesis of new animations. We are developing a new framework for generating animation sequences. Being relatively less sensitive to key poses, it entails considerably lesser animator effort in synthesizing animation variations while preserving desirable physical properties of the shape.
Collaborators: Dr. T. Fevens, CSE, Concordia

Visualization Usability Studies

Existing visualization systems place high cognitive load on the users as they provide little help to interpret the meanings of different visualizations being displayed. This research addresses the development of a framework which will enable us to systematically carry out studies for measuring the effectiveness of visualization tools/techniques.
Collaborators: Drs. A. Seffah, T. Radhakrsihnan, CSE, Concordia

Immersive Environments

The main objective is to design and develop prototypes of interactive immersive systems that using augmented and virtual reality systems for engineering as well as artistic applications.
Collaborators: Dr. Amin Hammad, CIISE, Concordia, Prof. Jean Claude Bustros and Prof. Leila Sujir, Fine Arts, Concordia.

Web Analytics Data Visualization

Web usage models and profiles, which capture significant interests and trends from past accesses, are used in personalization. In this research we have developed highly efficient and scalable technique called Relational Fuzzy Subtractive Clustering (RFSC) and extensions which enable efficient incremental update of usage profiles.
Collaborators: Dr. N. Shiri, CSE, Concordia

Patient Education Systems

Healthcare professionals believe that portable and web-based personalized patient education tools can bring several direct and indirect benefits to both patients and the healthcare system. This research in collaboration with the Transplant unit at McGill University Health Centre, Montreal, focuses on systematic approaches to the design/development of such tools.
Collaborators: Dr. T. Radhakrishnan, CSE, Concordia and Transplant Unit, MUHC, Montreal.

Generative Design Systems

Structural investigation of textile patterns and decorative designs has long been an active area The focus of study in this multidisciplinary project is the geometric structure inherent in African Kuba textiles and Islamic Zillij mosaics. Detail, craftsmanship and complexity of design characterize these cultural artifacts. Interactive analysis using a shape grammar interpreter and a databank of digitized cultural material form our primary analysis approach.
Collaborators: Dr. C. Dudek, Dr. L. Sharman, Fine Arts, Concordia, Dr. F. Szabo, Mathematics and Statistics, Concordia and Dr. T. Fevens, CSE Concordia