Publications by Daniel Thalmann

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The ability to build and control exposure through a seamless synergy of interaction and narration is a strongly required feature of a new type of immersive-VR training and therapy system. This paper presents a practical approach for immersive-VR training a ...

This article surveys the theory and techniques of computer graphics and animation. The main topics are modeling primitives, transformations and colors, visible surface algorithms, light and shadows, ray-tracing, texture, phenomena modeling, principles of computer animation, classification of computer animation methods, key-frame animation, and animation of synthetic actors.

There is a large body of research on motion control of legs in human models. However, they require specification of global paths in which to move. A method for automatically computing a global motion path for a human in a 3D environment of obstacles is presented. Object space is discretized into a 3D grid of uniform cells and an optimal path is generated between two points as a discrete cell path. The grid is treated as graph with orthogonal links of uniform cost. The A* search method is applied for path fi

We present a system that exploits advanced Mixed and Virtual Reality technologies to create a surveillance and security system that could be also extended to define emergency prevention plans in crowdy environments. Surveillance cameras are carried by a mi ...

In the recent years medical diagnosis and surgery planning often require the precise evaluation of joint movements. This has led to exploit reconstructed three-dimensional models of the joint tissues obtained from CT or MR Images (for bones, cartilages, et ...

This paper introduces a framework for real-time simulation and rendering of crowds navigating in a virtual environment. The solution first consists in a specific environment preprocessing technique giving rise to navigation graphs, which are then used by t ...

The newest three-dimensional input devices, together with high speed graphics workstations, make it possible to interactivity specify virtual camera motions for animation in real time. The authors describe how naturalistic interaction and realistic-looking motion can be achieved by using a physically-based model of the camera's behavior. The approach is to create an abstract physical model of the camera, using the laws of classical mechanics, which is used to simulate the virtual camera motion in real time

We introduce a constraint-based motion editing technique enforcing the intrinsic motion flow of a given motion pattern (e.g., golf swing). Its major characteristic is to operate in the motion Principal Coefficients (PCs) space instead of the pose PCs space ...

This paper presents an efficient and robust technique for generating global motion paths for a human model in virtual environments. Initially, a scene is discretized using raster hardware to generate an environment map. An obstacle-free cell path sub-optimal according to Manhattan metric is generated between any two cells. Unlike 2D techniques present in literature, the proposed algorithm works for complex 3D environments suitable for video games and architectural walk-throughs. For obstacle avoidance, the

Interactions between a virtual actor and its virtual environment involve many aspects. An important one is hand interactions. In a virtual scene depicting everyday life, the actor will need to grasp and hold objects, in such a way that both skeleton motion and body deformation have a realistic visual aspect. It will also need to interact with other virtual actors sharing the same virtual world, shaking hands when meeting for example. The authors present an efficient and realistic method combining automatic

Performing 3D interactions with virtual objects easily becomes a complex task, limiting the implementation of larger applications. In order to overcome some of these limitations, the paper describes a framework where the virtual object aids the user to accomplish a pre-programmed possible interaction. Such objects are called Smart Objects, in the sense that they know how the user can interact with them, giving clues to aid the interaction. We show how such objects are constructed, and exemplify the framewor

Motion capture techniques are rarely based on orientation measurements for two main reasons: (1) optical motion capture systems are designed for tracking object position rather than their orientation (which can be deduced from several trackers), (2) known animation techniques, like inverse kinematics or geometric algorithms, require position targets constantly, but orientation inputs only occasionally. We propose a complete human motion capture technique based essentially on orientation measurements. The po

In this paper, we propose a new integration approach to simulate an autonomous virtual agent's cognitive learning of a task for interactive virtual environment applications. Our research focuses on the behavioural animation of virtual humans capable of act ...

In this paper, we show that, given video sequences of a moving person acquired with a multi-camera system, we can track joint locations during the movement and recover shape information. We outline techniques for fitting a simplified model to the noisy 3-D data extracted from the images and a new tracking process based on least squares matching is presented. The recovered shape and motion parameters can be used to either reconstruct the original sequence or to allow other animation models to mimic the subje

Presents a human walking model built from experimental data based on a wide range of normalized velocities. The model is structured on two levels. On the first level, global spatial and temporal characteristics are generated. On the second level, a set of parameterized trajectories produce both the position of the body in space and the internal body configuration. This is performed for a standard structure and an average configuration of the human body. The experimental context corresponding to the model is

The communication between avatar and agent has already been treated from different but specialized perspectives. In contrast, this paper gives a balanced view of every key architectural aspect: from text analysis to computer graphics, the chatting system a ...

Recent progress in 3-D capture technology has made it possible to obtain much of realistic motion data of human subjects. Being captured in high frame rates, compression or extraction of key postures out of the motion data is useful for storage, transfer and browsing among them: this can serve as an important pre-processing for applications such as rehabilitation, ergonomics and sports physiology. This paper addresses these problems by treating the motion data as trajectory curves in a high-dimensional spac

The authors have been working on simulating virtual humans for several years. Until recently, these constructs could not act in real time. Today, however, many applications need to simulate in real time virtual humans that look realistic. They have invested considerable effort in developing and integrating several modules into a system capable of animating humans in real-time situations. This includes interactive modules for building realistic individuals and a texture-fitting method suitable for all parts

For situations like crowd simulation, serious games, and VR-based training, flexible and spontaneous movements are extremely important. Motion models would be the best strategy to adopt, but unfortunately, they are very costly to develop and the results ar ...

Nowadays, it becomes possible to show a live virtual stage application allowing a human's real time participation by motion capture. The big problem in participatory animation is figuring out where to place the camera and in what direction to point it to provide an interesting feedback. In participatory animation such as live stage performance or television show, animation is not specified in the form of giving commands but by a real human's action. Unlike filming, pre- and post-editing is not allowed. Ther

Daniel Thalmann

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Building exposure: synergy of interaction and narration through the social channel

Computer graphics and animation

Space discretization for efficient human navigation

Advanced Mixed Reality Technologies for Surveillance and Risk Prevention Applications

Fast collision detection methods for joint surfaces

Real-time navigating crowds: Scalable simulation and rendering

Physically-based interactive camera motion control using 3D input devices

Motion Pattern Preserving IK Operating in the Motion Principal Coefficients Space

Path finding for human motion in virtual environments

Virtual hand interactions with 3D world

Direct 3D interaction with Smart Objects

Human motion capture driven by orientation measurements

Autonomous virtual agents learning a cognitive model and evolving

Modeling human bodies from video sequences

A global human walking model with real-time kinematic personification

An Interdisciplinary VR-Architecture for 3D Chatting with Non-verbal Communication

Key-posture extraction out of human motion data by curve simplification

Real-time animation of realistic virtual humans

Motion Modeling: Can We Get Rid of Motion Capture?

CAIAS: camera agent based on intelligent action spotting for real-time participatory animation in virtual stage