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This research project deals with volume sculpting with haptic interaction.
We developed a free-form interactive modeling technique based on the concept
of sculpting a voxel-based solid material, such as a block of marble or
wood, using 3D voxel-based tools. The sculpting system supports operations such
as: sawing, carving, painting, heat-gun, pasting, trimming, squirt and
inner-sawing. There are two motivations for this work.
First, although traditional CAGD and CAD have made great strides as design
tools in many engineering disciplines, modeling topologically complex and
highly-detailed objects are still difficult to design in most traditional
CAD systems. Second, sculpting tools have shown to be useful in scientific
and medical applications. For example, scientists and physicians often
need to explore the inner structure of their simulated and sampled datasets
by gradually removing material to reveal an interior section of interest.
Volume visualization techniques typically provide support for visual
exploration of data. However, additional information can be conveyed by
allowing a user to feel virtual objects. In particular,
our sense of touch is capable of supplying a large amount of information
about material properties of objects. In this project, we are developing
a haptic interaction method suitable
for volume visualization and volume sculpting. A haptic device provides
for the sculptor a realistic feeling of working on a sculpted object.
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