Past Research Projects:
The Computer Graphics Project carries out research in the following areas. Click on the research projects, listed in alphabetical order, for further information.
Please refer to the following link when applying for postgraduate research degrees (MSc, MPhil or PhD) in the School of Computing Sciences.
Postgraduate Research Programmes (MSc, MPhil, PhD)
Augmented Reality (AR) is the integration and co-existence of virtual images, objects and subjects within the real world. A user of our AR system typically wears a see-through head-mounted display (HMD). A virtual character, called an avatar, is displayed on the HMD (SONY Glasstron). The user’s head movements are tracked in space using an optical tracking system (NDI Polaris) to ensure that the ...
Collision Detection for Deformable Objects
Many applications in Computer Graphics require an adequate use of collision detection to deal with the interaction between objects. In physically-based systems it is essential to consider the mechanical and geometric aspects of the objects in order to make realistic simulations. Incorporating deformable objects in dynamic environments requires the handling of different parameters and constraints ...
Computational Geometry Project, CGP
Forrest published the first paper on computational geometry and this defined the field in broad terms. Concentrating on the design and represenation issues rather than the algorithmic issues later pioneered by Shamos, he analysed the Bezier method for curve description, re-working the mathematics into the form now universally used; later association with Xerox PARC led to the adoption of Bezier ...
Hardware Accelerated Collision Detection
In the last few years PC technology has been evolving at gigantic steps. Following Moore’s law (an integrated circuit will double its capacity in components every 18-24 months), CPU’s have been duplicating their power every two years on average, but also, they have reduced their size thanks to the advent of new micro-architecture technologies (currently 130nm and later this year 90nm). On th...[more]
The focus of this research is to develop a haptic rendering algorithm, which will permit virtual three dimensional tools to be used in a virtual environment. Simulating the interactions that occur is important for many training applications with haptic feedback. The physical properties of the tool, such as the flexibility, are particularly important for a variety of applications.
Heaven and Earth: A Real Time Distributed Simulation Metaphor for Dynamic Entities.
'Discreet event simulation of dynamic entities' is useful for a large variety of applications including 'Traffic modelling', 'Crowds Simulation' and 'Artificial Life'. The operations related with such applications can become computationally expensive. Hence, 'real time distributed computing' is used to increase the processing power and to keep the overall simulation synchronized. The 'middle-wa...[more]
Point-Based Rendering
Point-based rendering is an active research area, driven by the need to handle the vast quantities of data derived from object scanning. Conventional polygon-based rendering in current graphics cards is inefficient since typical polygons may generate only a handful of pixels and the cost of setting up polygon shading parameters is wasted if no interior pixels are produced. Thus point-based render...[more]
Real-time Rendering of Crowds
Without virtual humans in a virtual environment, the scene looks lifeless and the user is drawn to the fine details of the surrounding buildings. Adding a crowd brings visual interest to the scene, improves realism and draws attention away from other elements of the simulation. The goal is to add a crowd of virtual humans to a scene, incurring as minimal overhead as possible, while achieving...[more]
A Walking Robot
Using a hierarchical control architecture based on one conjectured to be present in living organisms, we have built a physical simulation of a walking robot with four or more legs, which exhibits very lifelike movement and purposive activity. It is able to: Stand up and balance on uneven terrain. Resist random external forces. Seek out virtual food particles. Continue to operate (less robustly) w...[more]
