Knowledge-based Graphics Generation - Latest Commercial Developments

  The software package Jack developed at the Center for Human Modeling and Simulation at the University of Pennsylvania constitutes on of the most sophisticated human modeling and simulation systems. Jack provides a detailed human model and offers a 3D interactive environment for controlling articulated figures. A distinguishing feature are the advanced animation control techniques including a prototype natural language interface build on top of the system.

An interesting tool that controls the sequencing of animation actions within an advanced multimedia interface is under development at Microsoft Research . This component, which is called Player , supports a convenient plan-based specification of high-level animation actions, and compiles this specification into a representation that can be executed efficiently at run time. In general, the coordination of animation actions or scripts poses a severe problem as they often have strict dependencies on the state of the current interaction. The explicit encoding of these dependencies in an animation plan allows to automatically determine the sequence of animation actions that must be executed to carry out the requested high-level animation.

(New Sep. 96) The new release of the software development tool Imagix 4D constitutes an interesting example for the application of knowledge-based exploration and information visualization technologies. The product offered by Imagix Corporation (USA) provides software developers with high-performance, program understanding tools for C and C++. It helps to reverse engineer and document software that is complex, large, or unfamiliar. Knowledge-based graphics, as it is employed in Imagix 4D , provides a broad range of linked and synchronized displays, that go far beyond traditional call graphs and class hierarchies.

(New Oct. 96) The YPPS (Yellow-Page Pagination System) component integrated into the product DSMP (Directory Systems Multi-Platform) available from Pre Print Inc. , Edmonton, Canada and Pre Press Gesellschaft für Software-Entwicklung mbH, Dresden, Germany, is a constraint-based pagination tool for yellow-page telephone directories. This product has been designed to support the automated pagination of both printed yellow pages and electronic directories in HTML format. YPPS constitutes one of the first real-world applications of constraint technology for automatic, knowledge-based layout. This innovative commercial product is mainly based on the transfer of expertise gained during the development of an academic research prototype, the knowledge-based multimedia layout manager LayLab, Graf [1995].

(New Jan. 97) Microsoft Comic Chat , Kurlander et al. [1996], is a new Internet chat program that represents on-line communications in the form of comics. As users enter text, a comic strip unfolds showing the various participants in the conversation as comic characters, and their utterances in word balloons. On the fly, each Microsoft Comic Chat client automatically determines a number of aspects related to the generation of each panel of the resulting comic strip. This includes in particular balloon construction and layout, the placement and orientation of comic characters, the default selection of character gestures and expressions, the incorporation of semantic panel elements, and the choice of zoom factor for the virtual camera.

(New June 97) Specializing in dynamic simulation coupled to 3D computer graphics, the US company Boston Dynamics, Inc. (BDI) offers to create automated computer characters and engineering simulations for things that move, such as humans, animals, robots, and electromechanical devices. In particular, BDI 's interactive virtual humans are targeted for use in interactive environments such as training systems, games, and location-based entertainment. BDI customers are provided with fully integrated software modules including graphic models, motion data and interactive control systems. Poser 2 available from Fractal Design Corporation is a powerful and easy-to-use commercial package for the design and animation of human figures. Developed for artists, illustrators, designers, animators and video producers, the inexpensive PC-based tool allows to easily integrate the human form into 2D images, 3D scenes, Web graphics and animations.

(New Aug. 97) Transom Technologies, Inc. is a recently founded technology company which now possesses the worldwide, exclusive rights to develop, enhance, commercialize, and support the renowned Jack software originally created by the Center for Human Modeling and Simulation at the University of Pennsylvania.
Transom Jack enables the definition, positioning, animation, and human factors performance analysis of simulated, life-like human figures. The software system provides a powerful 3D graphical environment that enables a user to create or import graphics of objects and environments, easily populate the environment with one or more high-fidelity human models, and interact with the virtual scene. This sophisticated developer tool allows the the creation of custom applications in distributed interactive simulations, multi-user networked environments for remote training, dynamically-correct avatars for networked communication, and advanced motion and cognitive behaviors in human simulations.

(New May 98) Digital Equipment Corporation's Cambridge Research Laboratory located in Massachusetts, USA, has developed a facial animation system called DECface (see also Waters and Levergood [1995]) which is to be used as an enhancement of traditional speech synthesis modules. A talking synthetic face is essentially the visual component of a speech synthesizer such as Digital's DECtalk product. Such a combination of the audio functionality provided by a speech synthesizer with the graphical functionality of a computer-generated face opens the door for a variety of new applications with sophisticated multimedia functionality. Digital is now offering its facial animation technology for licensing. The technology is currently available for the standard PC platform as well as Digital Unix Alpha workstations. The synthetic face with synchronized speech works from simple text files and offers the necessary APIs (application programming interfaces) for easy integration into other products. The technology requires no specialized hardware other than sound capabilities, operates with a variety of synthesized faces and it is extensible to other faces, including recognizable people.

(New July 98) PuppetTime is a novel approach towards an open architecture for digital actors, built on top of Apple Computer's QuickTime multimedia software architecture. PuppetTime , which is currently under development, constitutes a new media type for QuickTime and defines a standard Application Programmer's Interface for digital puppets and avatars that can be controlled via a pre-recorded or realtime event stream, called a PuppetScript. An important feature of the approach is the fact that digital actors are rendered on the user's computer instead of preparing a complete video sequence in advance. PuppetTime has many applications, including broadcast Virtual Reality, netplay interactive games, and other 3D simulations that require camera freedom, low bandwidth thruput, and high visual fidelity.
QuickTime , which forms the basis for PuppetTime , has established itself as a market-leading digital media architecture. The QuickTime file format has recently been adopted by the International Standards Organization (ISO) as the starting point for the development of a unified digital media storage format for the MPEG-4 specification. MPEG-4 is an emerging digital media standard currently being defined by ISO's Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG) that will enable users to select, view and manipulate audio, video and other forms of digital content.

(New Nov. 98) Richardson, Texas-based 7th Level, Inc. offers a powerful and low-cost character animation software called Agent 7. This product constitutes a new kind of voice activated, internet software for making and running broadcast quality, lip-synched, re-usable animation on the Web as well as from within major desktop applications for word processing or slide-show presentation like Microsoft Word and Powerpoint.
Characters can be choreographed and lip-synchronized in a matter of minutes to create an unlimited number of animated characters. Users can change a character's dialog by recording a new voice track with a microphone plugged into a PC. The software lets users select from a cast of characters created by 7th Level and insert animation into other programs. Such characters can also serve as automated attendants guiding Web site visitors through an information search or an electronic commerce transaction.
Available Agent 7 characters feature a wide variety of styles, including 2D animation, 3D animation and photo-montage. Each character within the growing set of components is uniquely styled and designed to suit a particular e-business application, ranging from advertising, marketing, customer support and entertainment, to news, information, retail service and training.
According to 7th Level , Agent 7 aims to provide consumer and professional Web and presentation developers with key benefits to increase the effectiveness and reduce the time and cost of developing and updating Web pages and presentations. The Agent 7 product itself is based on 7th Level 's core technology Media Control 7 which can be used to control, manipulate and publish multiple sources of streaming media on the Internet, other narrow and broadband networks, or standalone PCs.

(New Dec. 98) The US company Artlandia, Inc. offers a new software product for computer-generated art - also named Artlandia - that can be used as an add-on to the well-known Mathematica package for technical computing. Using Artificial Intelligence algorithms, Artlandia augments Mathematica to automatically generate two-dimensional graphical designs. It extends Mathematica 's powerful language and allows to write simple programs that produce ornaments, patterns and designs for the whole spectrum of applications ranging from industrial to mathematical recreations.
A design piece starts as an algorithmic description in Mathematica , which then computes the image by interweaving traditional symmetric and special random effects. As the entire graphics operation remains under programmatic control, simple changes in parameters bring about different graphical displays. Whereas traditional graphic design tools use random numbers and sequences as a source of distortion Artlandia users can choose from a library of random sources from pure random to natural to strongly correlated random-walk processes. The unique ability to bring about a mild, naturally correlated distortion facilitates non-traditional artistic interpretation of data.