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Kinds of Difficult Terms modified by Difficult Selected AbstractsSTILL DIFFICULT TO KNOW WHAT ALCOHOL DEPENDENT INDIVIDUALS CAN RETURN TO CONTROLLED DRINKING: COMMENTS ON DAWSON ET AL. (2005)ADDICTION, Issue 3 2005DEBORAH HASIN No abstract is available for this article. [source] POSTERS DIFFICULT TO TREAT LOCALISATIONSJOURNAL OF THE EUROPEAN ACADEMY OF DERMATOLOGY & VENEREOLOGY, Issue 6 2004Article first published online: 28 JUN 200 [source] IS EMOTIONAL LABOR MORE DIFFICULT FOR SOME THAN FOR OTHERS?PERSONNEL PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 1 2009A MULTILEVEL, EXPERIENCE-SAMPLING STUDY In response to 2 areas for development in the emotional labor literature,(a) the contemporaneous associations between emotional labor and affective reactions, and (b) whether emotional labor might be more personally costly for some employees than others,this study tested a conceptual model explaining the differential effects of deep and surface acting on job satisfaction and emotional exhaustion via their asymmetrical influences on mood, and whether extraverts fare better when engaging in emotional labor. As expected, surface acting was positively associated with negative mood, and this explained some of the association of surface acting with increased emotional exhaustion and decreased job satisfaction. Contrary to hypotheses, deep acting was unrelated to job satisfaction and was associated with lower positive affect. Extraversion moderated several emotional labor relationships such that, in general, surface and deep acting had more positive (or less negative) effects for extraverts (compared to introverts). Overall, the results support the importance of considering the roles of mood and disposition in the impact of emotional labor. [source] Patient-orientated web sites on laryngectomy: is their information readable?EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF CANCER CARE, Issue 6 2009L. POTHIER m, language therapist , macmillan, speech POTHIER L. & POTHIER D.D. (2009) European Journal of Cancer Care Patient-orientated web sites on laryngectomy: is their information readable? The objective of the study was to determine levels of readability of commonly accessed websites containing patient information on laryngectomy. A Cross-sectional study of Internet websites was designed. The first 20 websites obtained from a Google® search of the word "laryngectomy" that contained a patient information section were selected. Primary outcome measures were the Flesch Readability Ease Score (FRE) and Flesch-Kincaid readability grade (FKRG) score; from these data UK reading age was calculated. The secondary outcome measure was whether or not a site was accredited by an online readability organisation. The reading ages of the 20 sites ranged from 7.8 to 14.7 years with a median of 11.7 years. Half of the Flesch Reading Ease scores were in the "Difficult" or "Fairly difficult" category with 30% falling into the "Standard" or "Fairly easy" categories. Only 20% sites fell into the "Easy" or "Very Easy" categories that are the recommended level for comprehension by the general UK population. Sites not accredited by an online healthcare quality and content control organisation had worse readability scores than those that were not (FRE: p = 0.007, FKRG: p = 0.012). The poor readability of many of the encountered sites about laryngectomy on the Internet may confuse patients who turn to the Internet for information. Methods to improve patient information websites are discussed. [source] Titelbild: Geomechanik und Tunnelbau 6/2008GEOMECHANICS AND TUNNELLING, Issue 6 2008Article first published online: 12 DEC 200 Das Foto zeigt die Ankunft der Tunnelbohrmaschine beim Durchschlag des Reiserbergtunnels. Der rund 1,4 km lange Reiserbergtunnel ist einer von drei Tunneln der so genannten Tunnelkette Perschling im Westabschnitt der Neubaustrecke, die von der STRABAG AG im Auftrag der ÖBB-Infrastruktur Bau AG errichtet wird. In dem Beitrag "Tunnelkette Perschling , Reiserbergtunnel and Stierschweiffeldtunnel: TBM Success under Difficult Ground Conditions" werden die Erfahrungen und Erkenntnisse sowie wesentlichen Ereignisse beim Vortrieb vorgestellt (Seite 567 und ff). (Foto: ÖBB, Stamberg) [source] Why Is the Intelligence Community So Difficult to Redesign?GOVERNANCE, Issue 3 2007Conflicting Goals, Smart Practices, the Creation of Purpose-Based Organizations The adoption of "smart practices" requires that smart practices can actually be identified for the areas of public policy in which we are interested. For the problem of designing structures for public agencies, however, identifying smart practices is not easy. This article explores the reasons for the substantial conservativism, lasting over 50 years, regarding the structural design of the U.S. intelligence community. One central argument is simply that it was very difficult to discover a clearly superior structure; in fact, the long-standing structure may have had some unrecognized virtues. But the other central argument is that one smart practice may have emerged since the 9/11 attacks: It involves the creation of problem-focused interagency centers that are intended to enhance the sharing and integration of information within the intelligence community. These conclusions about redesigning the structure of the intelligence community are based on the arguments of Luther Gulick on methods of departmentalization and Martin Landau on redundancy and system reliability. [source] More Difficult to Believe?INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY, Issue 1 2001Luther on Divine Omnipotence This article considers Luther's statement in thesis 21 of the 1545 doctoral disputation of Petrus Hegemon (1545) concerning the difficulty of belief in creatio ex nihilo, and suggests that this difficulty shapes the later Luther's theology in significant ways. The difficulty is reconstructed as a gradual movement into the mystery of the creatio ex nihilo. The first site of difficulty correlates the knowledge of creatures as particulars with the knowledge of the Creator as the source of existence. The move towards a second site is propelled by the question of inevitable death, which Luther answers by moving from material and natural generation to the resurrection and then to the creatio ex nihilo. At the third site, Luther addresses such disturbing questions as the suffering of the righteous, the historical cycle of political power, and the harshness of reprobation. He answers these questions by integrating the symmetrical biblical statements of the annihilatio and the creatio with a theological theory of divine omnipotence. God's hiddenness is understood as God's omnipotence working at the specific locations of self-negation, as well as behind the ebb and flow of historical-political contingency. Faith presses into the hidden mystery, grounded in the certainty that all things are effected by the Creator whose nature is self-giving goodness, and established by the hope that the light of glory will determine more fully the God who is to be honored above all. [source] Poverty as a human rights violationINTERNATIONAL SOCIAL SCIENCE JOURNAL, Issue 180 2004Geneviève Koubi Difficult as it is to admit, poverty cannot be defined in law. In the tension between dealing with poverty and focusing on extreme poverty, there is an indeterminacy that makes democracies inattentive to the economic and social dynamics of poverty as inequality. As a result, responses to extreme poverty, especially when they are explicitly targeted or preferential, violate the fundamental equality of rights and dignity that they are supposed, formally, to express. Measures for the underprivileged thus do not offer them a way out from their status, but rather, paradoxically, lead them to qualify their suffering, and to find in favours received the strength to think of themselves as poor without being exposed to the terrors of extreme poverty. In a sense, such people, who depend on minimal welfare granted to them, have no "rights". Should we thus learn to think of poverty as an inevitable and unavoidable phenomenon in a world that claims to work to guarantee human rights, civil and political rights, economic, social, and cultural rights? [source] What Makes Learning Second-Language Grammar Difficult?LANGUAGE LEARNING, Issue S1 2005A Review of Issues First page of article [source] Virus DNA translocation: progress towards a first ascent of Mount Pretty DifficultMOLECULAR MICROBIOLOGY, Issue 1 2006Nasib K. Maluf Summary Virion DNA molecules of large dsDNA viruses are highly condensed. To pack the DNA, an ATP hydrolysis-powered motor translocates the DNA into a preformed empty protein shell, the prohead. The icosahedral prohead has a special fivefold vertex, the portal vertex, where the translocation machinery acts. The portal vertex contains the portal protein, a gear-shaped dodecamer of radially disposed subunits with a central channel for DNA entry. The symmetry mismatch between the fivefold symmetry of the shell vertex and the 12-fold symmetry of the portal protein has prompted DNA packaging models in which ATP-driven portal protein rotation drives DNA translocation. In this issue of Molecular Microbiology, Baumann and colleagues test portal rotation models using bacteriophage T4. A fusion between the gp20 portal protein and the HOC external shell decoration protein is used to create a block to portal rotation. Finding that DNA packaging is unimpeded in proheads containing the fusion argues that portal rotation is not crucial to DNA translocation. The paper is a landmark for describing direct testing of the mechanism of DNA translocation. [source] What CBS Wants: How Groups Can Have (Difficult To Uncover) BeliefsPHILOSOPHICAL FORUM, Issue 3 2001Todd Jones First page of article [source] Difficult and failed intubation in 3430 obstetric general anaesthetics*ANAESTHESIA, Issue 11 2009E. A. Djabatey Summary A retrospective audit was performed of all obstetric general anaesthetics in our hospital over an 8 year period to determine the incidence of difficult and failed intubation. Data was collected from a number of sources to ensure accuracy. A total of 3430 rapid sequence anaesthetics were given. None of the patients had a failed or oesophageal intubation (95% CI, 0,1:1143). There were 23 difficult intubations (95% CI, 1:238,1:100). This was anticipated in nine cases, requiring awake fibreoptic intubation in three cases. Consultants or specialist registrars were involved in the management of all cases. We attribute the low incidence of airway complications to the above average rate of general anaesthesia in our hospital, senior cover and specialised anaesthetic operating department assistants. [source] Daughters and Dads: Guidance Through a Difficult But Necessary ProcessANALYSES OF SOCIAL ISSUES & PUBLIC POLICY, Issue 1 2006Roseanne L. Flores No abstract is available for this article. [source] Work demands, job insecurity and sickness absence from work.AUSTRALIAN AND NEW ZEALAND JOURNAL OF PUBLIC HEALTH, Issue 3 2006How productive is the new, flexible labour force? Background: We investigate one aspect of productivity , sickness absence , and ask whether job insecurity and high work demands are associated with increased sickness absence and, if so, whether mental or physical health mediates this association. We further investigate if having control at work modifies these associations. Methods: We used cross-sectional survey data from 2,248 employees aged 40,44 years living in two cities of south-eastern Australia. Logistic regressions were used to compare the associations between job insecurity and demands among those with short (1,3 days) or long-term (>3 days) sickness absence with those who had no sickness absence in the last four weeks. The mediating effects of mental and physical health were assessed by evaluating changes in the magnitude of the association between these work conditions and sickness absence. Results: High job insecurity (OR=3.28; 95% CI 1.54-6.95) and high work demands (OR=1.62; 95% CI 1.13-2.30) were significantly associated with long-term, but not with short-term, sickness absence. These associations were unaffected by job control. Depression and anxiety explained 61% of the association between high work demands and long-term sickness absence and 30% of the association between job insecurity and long-term sickness absence. Conclusion: Difficult working conditions may reduce productivity by contributing to longer absences from work. Implications: Reforms intended to improve economic performance should address any potential health costs of insecurity or intensification, which could inadvertently decrease productivity, possibly through their impact on mental health. [source] Why is Knowledge Management So Difficult?BUSINESS STRATEGY REVIEW, Issue 1 2001Julian Birkinshaw Knowledge management promises much, but often delivers very little. There are no simple solutions to this challenge. This article starts by trying to define what knowledge management is. It then identifies where the problems lie and suggests five steps to resolve those problems. The article is based on research in a dozen leading companies, including HP, Ericsson, ABB, Skandia and Xerox. [source] FAST AND ROBUST INCREMENTAL ACTION PREDICTION FOR INTERACTIVE AGENTSCOMPUTATIONAL INTELLIGENCE, Issue 1 2005Jonathan Dinerstein The ability for a given agent to adapt on-line to better interact with another agent is a difficult and important problem. This problem becomes even more difficult when the agent to interact with is a human, because humans learn quickly and behave nondeterministically. In this paper, we present a novel method whereby an agent can incrementally learn to predict the actions of another agent (even a human), and thereby can learn to better interact with that agent. We take a case-based approach, where the behavior of the other agent is learned in the form of state,action pairs. We generalize these cases either through continuous k -nearest neighbor, or a modified bounded minimax search. Through our case studies, our technique is empirically shown to require little storage, learn very quickly, and be fast and robust in practice. It can accurately predict actions several steps into the future. Our case studies include interactive virtual environments involving mixtures of synthetic agents and humans, with cooperative and/or competitive relationships. [source] A Complexity Model and a Polynomial Algorithm for Decision-Tree-Based Feature ConstructionCOMPUTATIONAL INTELLIGENCE, Issue 1 2000Raymond L. Major Using decision trees as a concept description language, we examine the time complexity for learning Boolean functions with polynomial-sized disjunctive normal form expressions when feature construction is performed on an initial decision tree containing only primitive attributes. A shortcoming of several feature-construction algorithms found in the literature is that it is difficult to develop time complexity results for them. We illustrate a way to determine a limit on the number of features to use for building more concise trees within a standard amount of time. We introduce a practical algorithm that forms a finite number of features using a decision tree in a polynomial amount of time. We show empirically that our procedure forms many features that subsequently appear in a tree and the new features aid in producing simpler trees when concepts are being learned from certain problem domains. Expert systems developers can use a method such as this to create a knowledge base of information that contains specific knowledge in the form of If-Then rules. [source] Stylized lighting for cartoon shaderCOMPUTER ANIMATION AND VIRTUAL WORLDS (PREV: JNL OF VISUALISATION & COMPUTER ANIMATION), Issue 2-3 2009Hideki Todo Abstract In the context of non-photorealistic imaging, such as digital cel animation, lighting is symbolic and stylized to depict the scene's mood and the geometric or physical features of the objects in the scene. Stylized light and shade should therefore be intentionally animated rather than rigorously simulated. However, it is difficult to achieve smooth animation of light and shade that are stylized with a user's intention, because such stylization cannot be achieved using just conventional 3D lighting. To address this problem, we propose a 3D stylized lighting method, focusing on several stylized effects including straight lighting, edge lighting, and detail lighting which are important features in hand-drawn cartoon animation. Our method is an extension of the conventional cartoon shader and introduces a light coordinate system for light shape control with smooth animations of light and shade. We also extend a toon mapping process for detailed feature lighting. Having these algorithms in a real-time cartoon shader, our prototype system allows the interactive creation of stylized lighting animations. We show several animation results obtained by our method to illustrate usefulness and effectiveness of our method. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Fast simulation of skin slidingCOMPUTER ANIMATION AND VIRTUAL WORLDS (PREV: JNL OF VISUALISATION & COMPUTER ANIMATION), Issue 2-3 2009Xiaosong Yang Abstract Skin sliding is the phenomenon of the skin moving over underlying layers of fat, muscle and bone. Due to the complex interconnections between these separate layers and their differing elasticity properties, it is difficult to model and expensive to compute. We present a novel method to simulate this phenomenon at real-time by remeshing the surface based on a parameter space resampling. In order to evaluate the surface parametrization, we borrow a technique from structural engineering known as the force density method (FDM)which solves for an energy minimizing form with a sparse linear system. Our method creates a realistic approximation of skin sliding in real-time, reducing texture distortions in the region of the deformation. In addition it is flexible, simple to use, and can be incorporated into any animation pipeline. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] A moving planar mirror based approach for cultural reconstructionCOMPUTER ANIMATION AND VIRTUAL WORLDS (PREV: JNL OF VISUALISATION & COMPUTER ANIMATION), Issue 3-4 2004Kyung Ho Jang Abstract Modelling from images is a cost-effective means of obtaining virtual cultural heritage models. These models can be effectively constructed from classical Structure from Motion algorithm. However, it's too difficult to reconstruct whole scenes using SFM method since general oriental historic sites contain a very complex shapes and brilliant colours. To overcome this difficulty, the current paper proposes a new reconstruction method based on a moving planar mirror. We devise the mirror posture instead of scene itself as a cue for reconstructing the geometry. That implies that the geometric cues are inserted into the scene by compulsion. With this method, we can obtain the geometrical details regardless of the scene complexity. For this purpose, we first capture image sequences through the moving mirror containing the interested scene, and then calibrate the camera through the mirror's posture. Since the calibration results are still inaccurate due to the detection error, the camera pose is revised using frame-correspondence of the corner points that are easily obtained using the initial camera posture. Finally, 3D information is computed from a set of calibrated image sequences. We validate our approach with a set of experiments on some cultural heritage objects. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Image modification for immersive projection display based on pseudo-projection modelsCOMPUTER ANIMATION AND VIRTUAL WORLDS (PREV: JNL OF VISUALISATION & COMPUTER ANIMATION), Issue 4 2003Toshio Moriya Abstract This paper describes a practical method that enables actual images to be converted so that they can be projected onto an immersive projection display (IPD) screen. IPD screens are particularly unique in that their angle of view is extremely wide; therefore, the images projected onto them need to be taken on a special format. In practice, however, it is generally very difficult to shoot images that completely satisfy the specifications of the targeting IPD environment due to cost, technical problems or other reasons. To overcome these problems, we developed a method to modify the images by abandoning geometrical consistency. We were able to utilize this method by assuming that the given image was shot according to a special projection model. Because this model differed from the actual projection model with which the image was taken, we termed it the pseudo-projection model. Since our method uses simple geometry, and can easily be expressed by a parametric function, the degree of modification or the time sequence for modification can readily be adjusted according to the features of each type of content. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Detection of bacterial DNA by PCR and reverse hybridization in the 16S rRNA gene with particular reference to neonatal septicemiaACTA PAEDIATRICA, Issue 2 2001S Shang Aim: The clinical diagnosis of sepsis is difficult, particularly in neonates. It is necessary to develop a rapid and reliable method for detecting bacteria in blood and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and reverse hybridization of the 16S rRNA gene would permit fast and sensitive determination of the presence of bacteria and differentiate gram-positive bacteria from gram-negative ones in clinical specimens. Methods: We developed a pair of primers according to the gene encoding 16SrRNA found in all bacteria. DNA fragments from different bacterial species and from clinical samples were detected with PCR, and with reverse hybridization using a universal bacterial probe, a gram-positive probe and a gram-negative probe. Results: A 371 bp DNA fragment was amplified from 20 different bacterial species. No signal was observed when human DNA and viruses were used as templates. The sensitivity could be improved to 10T -12 g. All 26 culture-positive clinical samples (22 blood samples and 4 CSF samples) were positive with PCR. The gram-negative and gram-positive probes hybridized to clinical samples and to known bacterial controls, as predicted by Gram's stain characteristics. Conclusions: Our results suggest that the method of PCR and reverse hybridization is rapid, sensitive and specific in detecting bacterial infections. This finding may be significant in the clinical diagnosis of sepsis in neonates. [source] Developing an intelligent system for teaching pre-tender cost estimating of office building projectsCOMPUTER APPLICATIONS IN ENGINEERING EDUCATION, Issue 1 2001Qiping Shen Abstract Pre-tender cost estimating of office building projects requires extensive knowledge and expertise. Due to the lack of design information in the early design stages, it is extremely difficult for cost engineers or quantity surveyors to arrive at an accurate cost estimate. This paper presents the design and testing of a knowledge-based system that enables students to learn cost estimating of building projects in the conceptual design stages. The system, embedded with knowledge from experts, has been proved to be a very useful teaching and learning tool. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Comput Appl Eng Educ 9: 26,36, 2001 [source] An Optimizing Compiler for Automatic Shader BoundingCOMPUTER GRAPHICS FORUM, Issue 4 2010Petrik Clarberg Abstract Programmable shading provides artistic control over materials and geometry, but the black box nature of shaders makes some rendering optimizations difficult to apply. In many cases, it is desirable to compute bounds of shaders in order to speed up rendering. A bounding shader can be automatically derived from the original shader by a compiler using interval analysis, but creating optimized interval arithmetic code is non-trivial. A key insight in this paper is that shaders contain metadata that can be automatically extracted by the compiler using data flow analysis. We present a number of domain-specific optimizations that make the generated code faster, while computing the same bounds as before. This enables a wider use and opens up possibilities for more efficient rendering. Our results show that on average 42,44% of the shader instructions can be eliminated for a common use case: single-sided bounding shaders used in lightcuts and importance sampling. [source] Winding Roads: Routing edges into bundlesCOMPUTER GRAPHICS FORUM, Issue 3 2010A. Lambert Abstract Visualizing graphs containing many nodes and edges efficiently is quite challenging. Drawings of such graphs generally suffer from visual clutter induced by the large amount of edges and their crossings. Consequently it is difficult to read the relationships between nodes and the high-level edge patterns that may exist in standard node-link diagram representations. Edge bundling techniques have been proposed to help solve this issue, which rely on high quality edge rerouting. In this paper, we introduce an intuitive edge bundling technique which efficiently reduces edge clutter in graphs drawings. Our method is based on the use of a grid built using the original graph to compute the edge rerouting. In comparison with previously proposed edge bundling methods, our technique improves both the level of clutter reduction and the computation performance. The second contribution of this paper is a GPU-based rendering method which helps users perceive bundles densities while preserving edge color. [source] Illustrative White Matter Fiber BundlesCOMPUTER GRAPHICS FORUM, Issue 3 2010Ron Otten Abstract Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI) has made feasible the visualization of the fibrous structure of the brain white matter. In the last decades, several fiber-tracking methods have been developed to reconstruct the fiber tracts from DTI data. Usually these fiber tracts are shown individually based on some selection criteria like region of interest. However, if the white matter as a whole is being visualized clutter is generated by directly rendering the individual fiber tracts. Often users are actually interested in fiber bundles, anatomically meaningful entities that abstract from the fibers they contain. Several clustering techniques have been developed that try to group the fiber tracts in fiber bundles. However, even if clustering succeeds, the complex nature of white matter still makes it difficult to investigate. In this paper, we propose the use of illustration techniques to ease the exploration of white matter clusters. We create a technique to visualize an individual cluster as a whole. The amount of fibers visualized for the cluster is reduced to just a few hint lines, and silhouette and contours are used to improve the definition of the cluster borders. Multiple clusters can be easily visualized by a combination of the single cluster visualizations. Focus+context concepts are used to extend the multiple-cluster renderings. Exploded views ease the exploration of the focus cluster while keeping the context clusters in an abstract form. Real-time results are achieved by the GPU implementation of the presented techniques. [source] Embedded Implicit Stand-Ins for Animated Meshes: A Case of Hybrid ModellingCOMPUTER GRAPHICS FORUM, Issue 1 2010D. Kravtsov Abstract In this paper, we address shape modelling problems, encountered in computer animation and computer games development that are difficult to solve just using polygonal meshes. Our approach is based on a hybrid-modelling concept that combines polygonal meshes with implicit surfaces. A hybrid model consists of an animated polygonal mesh and an approximation of this mesh by a convolution surface stand-in that is embedded within it or is attached to it. The motions of both objects are synchronised using a rigging skeleton. We model the interaction between an animated mesh object and a viscoelastic substance, which is normally represented in an implicit form. Our approach is aimed at achieving verisimilitude rather than physically based simulation. The adhesive behaviour of the viscous object is modelled using geometric blending operations on the corresponding implicit surfaces. Another application of this approach is the creation of metamorphosing implicit surface parts that are attached to an animated mesh. A prototype implementation of the proposed approach and several examples of modelling and animation with near real-time preview times are presented. [source] Live Video Montage with a Rotating CameraCOMPUTER GRAPHICS FORUM, Issue 7 2009Zilong Dong Abstract High-quality video editing usually requires accurate layer separation in order to resolve occlusions. However, most of the existing bilayer segmentation algorithms require either considerable user intervention or a simple stationary camera configuration with known background, which is difficult to meet for many real world online applications. This paper demonstrates that various visually appealing montage effects can be online created from a live video captured by a rotating camera, by accurately retrieving the camera state and segmenting out the dynamic foreground. The key contribution is that a novel fast bilayer segmentation method is proposed which can effectively extract the dynamic foreground under rotational camera configuration, and is robust to imperfect background estimation and complex background colors. Our system can create a variety of live visual effects, including but not limited to, realistic virtual object insertion, background substitution and blurring, non-photorealistic rendering and camouflage effect. A variety of challenging examples demonstrate the effectiveness of our method. [source] ProcDef: Local-to-global Deformation for Skeleton-free Character AnimationCOMPUTER GRAPHICS FORUM, Issue 7 2009Takashi Ijiri Abstract Animations of characters with flexible bodies such as jellyfish, snails, and, hearts are difficult to design using traditional skeleton-based approaches. A standard approach is keyframing, but adjusting the shape of the flexible body for each key frame is tedious. In addition, the character cannot dynamically adjust its motion to respond to the environment or user input. This paper introduces a new procedural deformation framework (ProcDef) for designing and driving animations of such flexible objects. Our approach is to synthesize global motions procedurally by integrating local deformations. ProcDef provides an efficient design scheme for local deformation patterns; the user can control the orientation and magnitude of local deformations as well as the propagation of deformation signals by specifying line charts and volumetric fields. We also present a fast and robust deformation algorithm based on shape-matching dynamics and show some example animations to illustrate the feasibility of our framework. [source] Animating Quadrupeds: Methods and ApplicationsCOMPUTER GRAPHICS FORUM, Issue 6 2009Ljiljana Skrba I.3.7 [Computer Graphics]: 3D Graphics and Realism , Animation Abstract Films like Shrek, Madagascar, The Chronicles of Narnia and Charlotte's web all have something in common: realistic quadruped animations. While the animation of animals has been popular for a long time, the technical challenges associated with creating highly realistic, computer generated creatures have been receiving increasing attention recently. The entertainment, education and medical industries have increased the demand for simulation of realistic animals in the computer graphics area. In order to achieve this, several challenges need to be overcome: gathering and processing data that embodies the natural motion of an animal , which is made more difficult by the fact that most animals cannot be easily motion-captured; building accurate kinematic models for animals, with adapted animation skeletons in particular; and developing either kinematic or physically-based animation methods, either by embedding some a priori knowledge about the way that quadrupeds locomote and/or adopting examples of real motion. In this paper, we present an overview of the common techniques used to date for realistic quadruped animation. This includes an outline of the various ways that realistic quadruped motion can be achieved, through video-based acquisition, physics based models, inverse kinematics or some combination of the above. [source] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||