Publications by Daniel Thalmann

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Discusses the use of physics-based models for animating clothes on synthetic actors in motion. In this approach, cloth pieces are first designed with polygonal panels in two dimensions, and are then seamed and attached to the actor's body in three dimensions. After the clothes are created, physical properties are simulated and then clothes are animated according to the actor's motion in a physical environment. The paper describes the physical models used and then addresses several problems encountered. It e

Most of today's virtual environments are populated with some kind of autonomous life-like agents. Such agents follow a preprogrammed sequence of behaviours that excludes the user as a participating entity in the virtual society. In order to make inhabited virtual reality an attractive place for information exchange and social interaction, we need to equip the autonomous agents with some perception and interpretation skills. We present one skill: human action recognition. By opposition to human-computer inte

Optical motion capture provides an impressive ability to replicate gestures. However, even with a highly professional system there are many instances where crucial markers are occluded or when the algorithm confuses the trajectory of one marker with that of another. This requires much editing work on the user's part before the complete animation is ready for use. Here, the authors present an approach to increasing the robustness of a motion capture system by using an anatomical human model. It includes a re

Modeling with medical images in this context provides both structural and topological information of different elements. In addition to displaying these elements, the interest is in using them for physically based deformation simulation, motion generation and analysis, and model validation. The Visible Human Dataset (VHD) has provided a referential standard as medical image data for modeling. Surface based models fitting to the boundary of the medical image data are extracted and interactive 3D tools are em

This paper presents the “caddie paradigm” a new interface for teleoperation of mobile robots. We present a prototype based on the use of a treadmill as a free-locomotion interface. The “caddie paradigm” allows for controlling a real robot by “pushing” its ...

This article addresses 2-dimensional layout of high-dimensional biomedical datasets, which is useful for browsing them efficiently. We employ the Isomap technique, which is based on classical MDS (multi-dimensional scaling) but seeks to preserve the intrinsic geometry of the data, as captured in the geodesic manifold distances between all pairs of data points while classical approaches can see just the Euclidean structure. According to first two of Isomap's coordinates, the high-dimensional data points are

A new approach for the animation of articulated figures is presented. The authors propose a system of articulated motion design which offers a full combination of both direct and inverse kinematic control of the joint parameters. Such an approach allows an animator to specify interactively goal-directed changes to existing sampled joint motions, resulting in a more general and expressive class of possible joint motions. The fundamental idea is to consider any desired-joint space motion as a reference model

Pompeii was a Roman city, destroyed and completely buried during an eruption of the volcano Mount Vesuvius. We have revived its past by creating a 3D model of its previous appearance and populated it with crowds of Virtual Romans. In this paper, we detail ...

An integrated framework is proposed in which local perception and close manipulation skills are used in conjunction with a high-level behavioral interface based on a "smart object" paradigm as support for virtual agents to perform autonomous tasks. In our model, virtual "smart objects" encapsulate information about possible interactions with agents, including sub-tasks defined by scripts that the agent can perform. We then use Information provided by lowlevel sensing mechanisms (based on a simulated retina)

Presents a new architecture for simulating virtual humans in complex urban environments. The approach is based on the integration of six modules. Four key modules are used in order to manage environmental data, simulate human crowds, control interactions between virtual humans and objects, and generate tasks based on a rule-based behavioral model. The communication between these modules is made through a client/server system. Finally, all low-level virtual human actions are delegated to a single motion and

Presents the VPARK (Virtual Park) system, which includes a networked virtual environment (NVE) system called W-VLNET and an “attraction building system” that is able to create and modify the attractions used in the NVE. Both systems have been developed in the Windows NT environment. The paper outlines the techniques for communication, scene management, facial and body animation, and general user interaction modules. The use of VRML97 and MPEG-4 SHNC is overviewed for the purpose of outlining the compatabili

The paper shows a novel approach to model and control interactive objects for simulations with virtual human agents when real time interactivity is essential. A general conceptualization is made to model objects with behaviors that can provide: information about their functionality changes in appearance from parameterized deformations, and a complete plan for each possible interaction with a virtual human. Such behaviors are described with simple primitive commands, following the actual trend of many standa

Our approach is based on the multi-sensory integration of the standard theory of neuroscience, where signals of a single object coming from distinct sensory systems are combined. The acquisition steps of signals, filtering, selection and simplification intervening before proprioception, active and predictive perception are integrated into virtual sensors and a virtual environment. We will focus on two aspects: 1) the assignment problem: determining which sensory stimuli belong to the same virtual object and

In this paper, we present a novel method for real-time 3D hand pose estimation from single depth images using 3D Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs). Image-based features extracted by 2D CNNs are not directly suitable for 3D hand pose estimation due to th ...

A model is described to simulate expressive wrinkles in 3D facial animation and skin aging. A plastic visco elastic skin surface is defined that can slide over an underlying layer. This layer constrains the skin surface by the spring force that simulates the connective fat tissue between skin and muscles. Muscle masks are constructed to characterize the muscular contractions that offer the tension to the skin and provide the facial movement. By choosing proper parameters for this physically based model, wri

We present a posture design paradigm for the positioning of complex characters. It is illustrated here on human figures. We exploit the inverse kinetics technique which allows the center of mass position control for postures with either single or multiple supports. For the multiple support case, we introduce a compatible flow model of the supporting influence. With this approach, we are able to handle continuous modification of the support distribution. By construction, inverse kinetics presents the same co

Reconstructing objects in three dimensions (3D) has always been one of the primary tasks in the domain of computer graphics (CG). Succeeding in this task in real-time, including texture reconstruction, and with very low-cost hardware is the challenge prese ...

Our experience with a Haptic Workstation™ has shown that this device is uncomfortable to use during long sessions. The main reason is the uncomfortable posture of the arms, which must be kept outstretched horizontally while supporting the weight of an exos ...

The paper proposes virtual input devices based on collision detection for easy construction of interactive 3D graphics applications which use a motion capture system as a real time input device. Each virtual input device is composed from several collision sensor objects and an actuator object. These objects are software components represented as a visible object which users can manipulate on a computer screen. Each virtual input device has a certain metaphor associated with its role that is determined by lo

The present paper describes the integration of a multi-finger haptic device with deformable objects in an interactive environment. Repulsive forces are synthesized and rendered independently for each finger of a user wearing a Cybergrasp force-feedback glove. Deformation and contact models are based on mass-spring systems, and the issue of the user independence is dealt with through a geometric calibration phase. Motivated by the knowledge that human hand plays a very important role in the somatosensory sys

Daniel Thalmann

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Dressing animated synthetic actors with complex deformable clothes

Conferring human action recognition skills to life-like agents

Using skeleton-based tracking to increase the reliability of optical motion capture

Modeling using the Visible Human Dataset

The “Caddie Paradigm”: a free-Locomotion Interface for Teleoperation

Planar arrangement of high-dimensional biomedical data sets by Isomap coordinates

Combined direct and inverse kinematic control for articulated figure motion editing

Populating Ancient Pompeii with Crowds of Virtual Romans

Defining behaviors for autonomous agents based on local perception and smart objects

A paradigm for controlling virtual humans in urban environment simulations

VPARK - A Windows NT software platform for a virtual networked amusement park

A behavioral interface to simulate agent-object interactions in real time

An artificial life environment for autonomous virtual agents with multi-sensorial and multi-perceptive features

Real-Time 3D Hand Pose Estimation with 3D Convolutional Neural Networks

A plastic-visco-elastic model for wrinkles in facial animation and skin aging

Complex character positioning based on a compatible flow model of multiple supports

Real-time textured volume reconstruction using virtual and real video cameras

Improving user comfort in haptic virtual environments through gravity compensation

Virtual input devices based on motion capture and collision detection

Multi-finger haptic rendering of deformable objects