3D Scene Generation and Integration
When I joined the group, one area of their work could be summarized by this diagram:
In the diagram:
- The Foundational Model, or FM, is the knowledge base for the applications above it.
- The FM Explorer, or FME, is a symbolic (text-based) guide through the knowledge base.
- The Image Manager and Scene Generator are 2D and 3D graphics-based representations.
My work:
- First, I worked on developing interfaces to the Scene Generator section.
- Second, I integrated all three sections together in one application.
Scene Generation:
- The Graphics Server was an application written in Skanda. It received Lisp-like commands to create and manipulate scenes out of 3D model primitives.
- The group wanted a Java-based interface to the server that was flexible, portable, and user-friendly.
- I designed two applets, one that used the Java Swing package and one that didn't.
Integration:
- One long-term goal of the Structural Informatics Group has been to integrate symbolic and spatial information into one application. The two representations complement each other and give a more complete understanding of the information than either could do alone.
- The second part of my project was to make the scene generation and image retrieval capabilities readily available from within the FM Explorer.
The FME:
The FME, shown in the screen shot below, is implemented with Java Server Pages. On the left is a hierarchy from the FM, in this case the "is-a" hierarchy. On the right is a content page for the selected term, which contains all the information that the FM has about that concept. From within a content page, I needed to allow the user to access scenes and images.