Many applications of image analysis and image processing involve the alteration of the geometry of real images. This thesis presents the theory and implementation of three types of geometrically altered imagery: synthetic orthographic stereo pairs, synthetic perspective stereo pairs, and synthetic airborne scanner imagery. The real image is altered as a function of a corresponding surface model. Included is a determination of surface points which are hidden under the assumed imaging geometry and, in the case of radar systems, a determination of surface points which contribute to pixel layover. In this research, a digital terrain model determines the underlying surface geometry of the real image. / Science, Faculty of / Computer Science, Department of / Graduate

published_or_final_version / Mechanical Engineering / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

Geometry processing has witnessed tremendous development in the last few decades. Starting from acquiring 3D data of real life objects, people have developed practical methods for polishing the raw data usually in the format of point clouds, reconstructing surfaces from the point clouds, cleaning up the surfaces by denoising or fairing, texturing the object surfaces by parametrization to 2D domain, deforming the objects realistically and in real time, and many other advanced tasks. Along with the notable methods is the sophistication of knowledge for working with discrete geometric data, in particular points, triangles, quadrangles and polygons for object representation, with a large body summarized and principled in the field known as discrete differential geometry. Meanwhile, geometric modeling has come to a new era: unlike the previous industrial practice of spline-based modeling where people tune control points to search for aesthetic shapes, now people want novel ways of interaction. For example, find unknown shapes that are usually characterized to have variational and physical properties of interest. Also user-friendly modeling methods like sketching have gained remarkable attention and advances. We note that many of these surface modeling problems could be regarded as asking for surfaces with special differential geometric properties. To be specific, people find surfaces of minimal area for modeling soap films that are balanced under surface tension; surfaces that if fabricated could stand firmly and are therefore important in real life architectural structures, are described by having homogeneous relative mean curvatures; even for surfaces filling up sketched 3D curves, the significant property of a good filling surface is that the curves follow principal curvature directions of the surface. This thesis presents our results in developing effective algorithms for modeling the above mentioned surfaces, by adapting knowledge and techniques in geometry processing, especially from computational and discrete differential geometry. In particular, we extend surface remeshing techniques to model high quality Constant Mean Curvature (CMC) surfaces that are models of soap films and bubbles, use power diagrams and the dual regular triangulations to parametrize and process self-supporting surfaces, and apply direction field modeling and discrete curvature adaptation to surfacing sketch curve networks. / published_or_final_version / Computer Science / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

No description available.

No description available.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Tufts University, 1992. / Submitted to the Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Electro-Optics Technology Center. Adviser: Robert Gonsalves. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 195-206). Access restricted to members of the Tufts University community. Also available via the World Wide Web;

Thesis (M.S.)--Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 1992. / Vita. Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 87-91). Also available via the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hong Kong, 1992.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin, 1964. / Typescript. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references.

The aim of the present study was to investigate the potential for children to use the turtle methaphor to develop understandings of intrinsic, euclidean and cartesian geometrical ideas. Four aspects of the problem were investigated. a) the nature of the schema children form when they identify with the turtle in order to change its state on the screen; b) whether it is possible for them to use the schema to gain insights into certain basic geometrical principles of the cartesian geometrical system; c) how they might use the schema to form understandings of euclidean geometry developed inductively from specific experiences; d) the criteria they develop for choosing between intrinsic and euclidean ideas. Ten 11 to 12 year - old children participated in the research, previously having had 40 to 50 hours of experience with Turtle geometry. The research involved three case - studies of pairs of children engaging in cooperative activities, each case - study within a geometrical Logo microworld. The data included hard copies of everything that was said, typed and written. Issues a) and b) were investigated by means of the first case - study which involved three pairs of children and a microworld embedding intrinsic and coordinate ideas. A model of the children's intrinsic schema and a model of the coordinate schema which they formed during the study were devised. The analysis shows that the two schemas remained separate in the children's minds with the exception of a limited number of occasions of context specific links between the two. Issue c) was investigated in the second case - study involving one pair of children and a microworld where the turtle was equipped with distance and turn measuring instruments and a facility to mark positions. The analysis illustrates how a turtle geometric environment of a dynamic mathematical nature was generated by the children, who used their intrinsic schema and predominantly engaged in inductive thinking. The geometrical content available to the children within this environment was extended from intrinsic to both intrinsic and euclidean geometry. Issue d) was investigated by means of the third case - study involving a pair of children and a microworld where the children could choose among circle procedures embedding intrinsic and/or euclidean notions in order to construct figures of circle compositions. The analysis shows that the children employed their turtle schema in using both kinds of notions and did not seem to perceive qualitative differences between them. Their decisions on which type of notion to use were influenced by certain broader aspects of the mathematical situations generated in the study.