Azam Khan - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Azam Khan

. The ViewCube: clicking on the "front" face of the cube rotates the cube and the 3D scene to the... more . The ViewCube: clicking on the "front" face of the cube rotates the cube and the 3D scene to the front view.

We describe a new interactive system for 3D design review, built to exploit the visual perception... more We describe a new interactive system for 3D design review, built to exploit the visual perception cue of motion parallax, in order to enhance shape perception and aesthetic evaluation. Traditional CAD applications typically use "bookmarked" static views for design evaluation. In our system, we replace static views with moving "shots" interspersed with cinematic visual transitions. Furthermore, users can access shots by picking object features on the 3D model, which invokes a spatial search over all shots, selects the ones deemed relevant to the feature, and plays back those shots. In this paper we describe the rationale behind this system, the main components, the implementation of the search technique, and the initial user evaluation of the system.

Communications of The ACM, 2003

: Our scale-sensitive approach allows navigation between scales in 3D scenes. Here, the user navi... more : Our scale-sensitive approach allows navigation between scales in 3D scenes. Here, the user navigates from thousands of kilometres above Earth's surface to come to rest inside a jug on a table only centimetres in diameter.

ACM Queue, 2003

It has now been over ten years since "information appliances," such as ATM machines and grocery s... more It has now been over ten years since "information appliances," such as ATM machines and grocery store UPC checkout counters were introduced. For the office environment, Mark Weiser began to articulate the notion of ubiquitous computing (UbiComp) and identified some of the salient features of the trend. Embedded computation is also becoming widespread. Microprocessors are finding themselves embedded into seemingly conventional pens that remember what they have written . Anti-lock brake systems in our cars are controlled by fuzzy logic. Wireless computing, miniaturization and the economies of scale mean that technologies such as cell phones, PDAs, instant messaging, and mobile access to the Internet are almost taken for granted.

ACM Transactions on Graphics, 2009

: Our analytic drawing tool infers 3D scaffolds of linear segments (a) from sketched strokes. 3D ... more : Our analytic drawing tool infers 3D scaffolds of linear segments (a) from sketched strokes. 3D feature curves can then be sketched by deriving position and tangent constraints from the scaffold (b). After fixing the viewpoint and adding image-space silhouette curves (c), we apply traditional hand-rendering techniques ] to create a production design drawing of the espresso machine (d).

We describe a new widget and interaction technique, known as a "Frisbee," for interacting with ar... more We describe a new widget and interaction technique, known as a "Frisbee," for interacting with areas of a large display that are difficult or impossible to access directly. A frisbee is simply a portal to another part of the display. It consists of a local "telescope" and a remote "target". The remote data surrounded by the target is drawn in the telescope and interactions performed within it are applied on the remote data. In this paper we define the behavior of frisbees, show unique affordances of the widget, and discuss design characteristics. We have implemented a test application and report on an experiment that shows the benefit of using the frisbee on a large display. Our results suggest that the frisbee is preferred over walking back and forth to the local and remote spaces at a distance of 4.5 feet.

We describe a new interaction technique, called HoverCam, for navigating around 3D objects at clo... more We describe a new interaction technique, called HoverCam, for navigating around 3D objects at close proximity. When a user is closely inspecting an object, the camera motions needed to move across its surface can become complex. For tasks such as 3D painting or modeling small detail features, users will often try to keep the camera a small distance above the surface. To achieve this automatically, HoverCam intelligently integrates tumbling, panning, and zooming camera controls into a single operation. This allows the user to focus on the task at hand instead of continuously managing the camera position and orientation. In this paper we show unique affordances of the technique and define the behavior and implementation of HoverCam. We also show how the technique can be used for navigating about data sets without well-defined surfaces such as point clouds and curves in space.

Previous systems have explored the challenges of designing an interface for automotive styling wh... more Previous systems have explored the challenges of designing an interface for automotive styling which combine the metaphor of 2D drawing using physical tape with the simultaneous creation and management of a corresponding virtual 3D model. These systems have been limited to only 2D planar curves while typically the principal characteristic curves of an automotive design are three dimensional and non-planar. We present a system which addresses this limitation. Our system allows a designer to construct these non-planar 3D curves by drawing a series of 2D curves using the 2D tape drawing technique and interaction style. These results are generally applicable to the interface design of 3D modeling applications and also to the design of arm's length interaction on large scale display systems.

We describe an exploratory design study that integrates a novel input device with the simultaneou... more We describe an exploratory design study that integrates a novel input device with the simultaneous capture of annotations in a 3D domain. The goal of this study is to map the design space and identify the areas in need of further investigation. The annotation application we build as a tool for exploration is one of the main results of our work, exploiting the unique configuration of the Boom Chameleon device in order to simultaneously capture viewpoint, voice and gesture information. Design issues and results of informal tests on the device and annotation application are presented, and the results show that our annotation facility has the potential to be an effective, easy to use 3D design review system.

Digital pen systems, originally designed to digitize annotations made on physical paper, are evol... more Digital pen systems, originally designed to digitize annotations made on physical paper, are evolving to permit a wider variety of applications. Although the type and quality of pen feedback (e.g., haptic, audio, and visual) have a huge impact on advancing the digital pen technology, dynamic visual feedback has yet to be fully investigated. In parallel, miniature projectors are an emerging technology with the potential to enhance visual feedback for small mobile computing devices. In this paper we present the PenLight system, which is a testbed to explore the interaction design space and its accompanying interaction techniques in a digital pen embedded with a spatially-aware miniature projector. Using our prototype, that simulates a miniature projection (via a standard video projector), we visually augment paper documents, giving the user immediate access to additional information and computational tools. We also show how virtual ink can be managed in single and multi-user environments to aid collaboration and data management. User evaluation with professional architects indicated promise of our proposed techniques and their potential utility in the paper-intensive domain of architecture.

We describe a new type of graphical user interface widget, known as a "tracking menu." A tracking... more We describe a new type of graphical user interface widget, known as a "tracking menu." A tracking menu consists of a cluster of graphical buttons, and as with traditional menus, the cursor can be moved within the menu to select and interact with items. However, unlike traditional menus, when the cursor hits the edge of the menu, the menu moves to continue tracking the cursor. Thus, the menu always stays under the cursor and close at hand.

. The ViewCube: clicking on the "front" face of the cube rotates the cube and the 3D scene to the... more . The ViewCube: clicking on the "front" face of the cube rotates the cube and the 3D scene to the front view.

IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications, 2005

ACM Transactions on Graphics, 2003

We describe an exploratory design study that integrates a novel input device with the simultaneou... more We describe an exploratory design study that integrates a novel input device with the simultaneous capture of annotations in a 3D domain. The goal of this study is to map the design space and identify the areas in need of further investigation. The annotation application we build as a tool for exploration is one of the main results of our work, exploiting the unique configuration of the Boom Chameleon device in order to simultaneously capture viewpoint, voice and gesture information. Design issues and results of informal tests on the device and annotation application are presented, and the results show that our annotation facility has the potential to be an effective, easy to use 3D design review system.

This article describes how virtual embossing and wood cutting can be done using the function repr... more This article describes how virtual embossing and wood cutting can be done using the function representation of a shape and tools. The software is implemented as an interactive shape modeler where a functional model of the shape is subsequently modified with offset and set-theoretic operations. For visualization, interactive ray tracing is used. Bounding boxes together with the spatial organization of the functional model provide the required fast function evaluation that is usually a bottleneck for functionally based shape modeling systems. The software runs on a personal computer.

. The Spotlight technique on a large wall-sized display (enhanced image).

ACM Queue

It has now been over ten years since "information appliances," such as ATM machines and grocery s... more It has now been over ten years since "information appliances," such as ATM machines and grocery store UPC checkout counters were introduced. For the office environment, Mark Weiser began to articulate the notion of ubiquitous computing (UbiComp) and identified some of the salient features of the trend. Embedded computation is also becoming widespread. Microprocessors are finding themselves embedded into seemingly conventional pens that remember what they have written . Anti-lock brake systems in our cars are controlled by fuzzy logic. Wireless computing, miniaturization and the economies of scale mean that technologies such as cell phones, PDAs, instant messaging, and mobile access to the Internet are almost taken for granted.

This paper describes StyleCam, an approach for authoring 3D viewing experiences that incorporate ... more This paper describes StyleCam, an approach for authoring 3D viewing experiences that incorporate stylistic elements that are not available in typical 3D viewers. A key aspect of StyleCam is that it allows the author to significantly tailor what the user sees and when they see it. The resulting viewing experience can approach the visual richness and pacing of highly authored visual content such as television commercials or feature films. At the same time, StyleCam allows for a satisfying level of interactivity while avoiding the problems inherent in using unconstrained camera models. The main components of StyleCam are camera surfaces which spatially constrain the viewing camera; animation clips that allow for visually appealing transitions between different camera surfaces; and a simple, unified, interaction technique that permits the user to seamlessly and continuously move between spatial-control of the camera and temporal-control of the animated transitions. Further, the user's focus of attention is always kept on the content, and not on extraneous interface widgets. In addition to describing the conceptual model of StyleCam, its current implementation, and an example authored experience, we also present the results of an evaluation involving real users.

. The ViewCube: clicking on the "front" face of the cube rotates the cube and the 3D scene to the... more . The ViewCube: clicking on the "front" face of the cube rotates the cube and the 3D scene to the front view.

We describe a new interactive system for 3D design review, built to exploit the visual perception... more We describe a new interactive system for 3D design review, built to exploit the visual perception cue of motion parallax, in order to enhance shape perception and aesthetic evaluation. Traditional CAD applications typically use "bookmarked" static views for design evaluation. In our system, we replace static views with moving "shots" interspersed with cinematic visual transitions. Furthermore, users can access shots by picking object features on the 3D model, which invokes a spatial search over all shots, selects the ones deemed relevant to the feature, and plays back those shots. In this paper we describe the rationale behind this system, the main components, the implementation of the search technique, and the initial user evaluation of the system.

Communications of The ACM, 2003

: Our scale-sensitive approach allows navigation between scales in 3D scenes. Here, the user navi... more : Our scale-sensitive approach allows navigation between scales in 3D scenes. Here, the user navigates from thousands of kilometres above Earth's surface to come to rest inside a jug on a table only centimetres in diameter.

ACM Queue, 2003

It has now been over ten years since "information appliances," such as ATM machines and grocery s... more It has now been over ten years since "information appliances," such as ATM machines and grocery store UPC checkout counters were introduced. For the office environment, Mark Weiser began to articulate the notion of ubiquitous computing (UbiComp) and identified some of the salient features of the trend. Embedded computation is also becoming widespread. Microprocessors are finding themselves embedded into seemingly conventional pens that remember what they have written . Anti-lock brake systems in our cars are controlled by fuzzy logic. Wireless computing, miniaturization and the economies of scale mean that technologies such as cell phones, PDAs, instant messaging, and mobile access to the Internet are almost taken for granted.

ACM Transactions on Graphics, 2009

: Our analytic drawing tool infers 3D scaffolds of linear segments (a) from sketched strokes. 3D ... more : Our analytic drawing tool infers 3D scaffolds of linear segments (a) from sketched strokes. 3D feature curves can then be sketched by deriving position and tangent constraints from the scaffold (b). After fixing the viewpoint and adding image-space silhouette curves (c), we apply traditional hand-rendering techniques ] to create a production design drawing of the espresso machine (d).

We describe a new widget and interaction technique, known as a "Frisbee," for interacting with ar... more We describe a new widget and interaction technique, known as a "Frisbee," for interacting with areas of a large display that are difficult or impossible to access directly. A frisbee is simply a portal to another part of the display. It consists of a local "telescope" and a remote "target". The remote data surrounded by the target is drawn in the telescope and interactions performed within it are applied on the remote data. In this paper we define the behavior of frisbees, show unique affordances of the widget, and discuss design characteristics. We have implemented a test application and report on an experiment that shows the benefit of using the frisbee on a large display. Our results suggest that the frisbee is preferred over walking back and forth to the local and remote spaces at a distance of 4.5 feet.

We describe a new interaction technique, called HoverCam, for navigating around 3D objects at clo... more We describe a new interaction technique, called HoverCam, for navigating around 3D objects at close proximity. When a user is closely inspecting an object, the camera motions needed to move across its surface can become complex. For tasks such as 3D painting or modeling small detail features, users will often try to keep the camera a small distance above the surface. To achieve this automatically, HoverCam intelligently integrates tumbling, panning, and zooming camera controls into a single operation. This allows the user to focus on the task at hand instead of continuously managing the camera position and orientation. In this paper we show unique affordances of the technique and define the behavior and implementation of HoverCam. We also show how the technique can be used for navigating about data sets without well-defined surfaces such as point clouds and curves in space.

Previous systems have explored the challenges of designing an interface for automotive styling wh... more Previous systems have explored the challenges of designing an interface for automotive styling which combine the metaphor of 2D drawing using physical tape with the simultaneous creation and management of a corresponding virtual 3D model. These systems have been limited to only 2D planar curves while typically the principal characteristic curves of an automotive design are three dimensional and non-planar. We present a system which addresses this limitation. Our system allows a designer to construct these non-planar 3D curves by drawing a series of 2D curves using the 2D tape drawing technique and interaction style. These results are generally applicable to the interface design of 3D modeling applications and also to the design of arm's length interaction on large scale display systems.

We describe an exploratory design study that integrates a novel input device with the simultaneou... more We describe an exploratory design study that integrates a novel input device with the simultaneous capture of annotations in a 3D domain. The goal of this study is to map the design space and identify the areas in need of further investigation. The annotation application we build as a tool for exploration is one of the main results of our work, exploiting the unique configuration of the Boom Chameleon device in order to simultaneously capture viewpoint, voice and gesture information. Design issues and results of informal tests on the device and annotation application are presented, and the results show that our annotation facility has the potential to be an effective, easy to use 3D design review system.

Digital pen systems, originally designed to digitize annotations made on physical paper, are evol... more Digital pen systems, originally designed to digitize annotations made on physical paper, are evolving to permit a wider variety of applications. Although the type and quality of pen feedback (e.g., haptic, audio, and visual) have a huge impact on advancing the digital pen technology, dynamic visual feedback has yet to be fully investigated. In parallel, miniature projectors are an emerging technology with the potential to enhance visual feedback for small mobile computing devices. In this paper we present the PenLight system, which is a testbed to explore the interaction design space and its accompanying interaction techniques in a digital pen embedded with a spatially-aware miniature projector. Using our prototype, that simulates a miniature projection (via a standard video projector), we visually augment paper documents, giving the user immediate access to additional information and computational tools. We also show how virtual ink can be managed in single and multi-user environments to aid collaboration and data management. User evaluation with professional architects indicated promise of our proposed techniques and their potential utility in the paper-intensive domain of architecture.

We describe a new type of graphical user interface widget, known as a "tracking menu." A tracking... more We describe a new type of graphical user interface widget, known as a "tracking menu." A tracking menu consists of a cluster of graphical buttons, and as with traditional menus, the cursor can be moved within the menu to select and interact with items. However, unlike traditional menus, when the cursor hits the edge of the menu, the menu moves to continue tracking the cursor. Thus, the menu always stays under the cursor and close at hand.

. The ViewCube: clicking on the "front" face of the cube rotates the cube and the 3D scene to the... more . The ViewCube: clicking on the "front" face of the cube rotates the cube and the 3D scene to the front view.

IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications, 2005

ACM Transactions on Graphics, 2003

We describe an exploratory design study that integrates a novel input device with the simultaneou... more We describe an exploratory design study that integrates a novel input device with the simultaneous capture of annotations in a 3D domain. The goal of this study is to map the design space and identify the areas in need of further investigation. The annotation application we build as a tool for exploration is one of the main results of our work, exploiting the unique configuration of the Boom Chameleon device in order to simultaneously capture viewpoint, voice and gesture information. Design issues and results of informal tests on the device and annotation application are presented, and the results show that our annotation facility has the potential to be an effective, easy to use 3D design review system.

This article describes how virtual embossing and wood cutting can be done using the function repr... more This article describes how virtual embossing and wood cutting can be done using the function representation of a shape and tools. The software is implemented as an interactive shape modeler where a functional model of the shape is subsequently modified with offset and set-theoretic operations. For visualization, interactive ray tracing is used. Bounding boxes together with the spatial organization of the functional model provide the required fast function evaluation that is usually a bottleneck for functionally based shape modeling systems. The software runs on a personal computer.

. The Spotlight technique on a large wall-sized display (enhanced image).

ACM Queue

It has now been over ten years since "information appliances," such as ATM machines and grocery s... more It has now been over ten years since "information appliances," such as ATM machines and grocery store UPC checkout counters were introduced. For the office environment, Mark Weiser began to articulate the notion of ubiquitous computing (UbiComp) and identified some of the salient features of the trend. Embedded computation is also becoming widespread. Microprocessors are finding themselves embedded into seemingly conventional pens that remember what they have written . Anti-lock brake systems in our cars are controlled by fuzzy logic. Wireless computing, miniaturization and the economies of scale mean that technologies such as cell phones, PDAs, instant messaging, and mobile access to the Internet are almost taken for granted.

This paper describes StyleCam, an approach for authoring 3D viewing experiences that incorporate ... more This paper describes StyleCam, an approach for authoring 3D viewing experiences that incorporate stylistic elements that are not available in typical 3D viewers. A key aspect of StyleCam is that it allows the author to significantly tailor what the user sees and when they see it. The resulting viewing experience can approach the visual richness and pacing of highly authored visual content such as television commercials or feature films. At the same time, StyleCam allows for a satisfying level of interactivity while avoiding the problems inherent in using unconstrained camera models. The main components of StyleCam are camera surfaces which spatially constrain the viewing camera; animation clips that allow for visually appealing transitions between different camera surfaces; and a simple, unified, interaction technique that permits the user to seamlessly and continuously move between spatial-control of the camera and temporal-control of the animated transitions. Further, the user's focus of attention is always kept on the content, and not on extraneous interface widgets. In addition to describing the conceptual model of StyleCam, its current implementation, and an example authored experience, we also present the results of an evaluation involving real users.