ABSTRACT Direct Volume Rendering of Finite Element models is challenging since the visualisation ... more ABSTRACT Direct Volume Rendering of Finite Element models is challenging since the visualisation process is performed in world coordinates, whereas data fields are usually defined over the elements' material coordinate system. In this paper we present a framework for Direct Volume Rendering of Finite Element models. We present several novel implementations visualising Finite Element data directly without requiring resampling into world coordinates. We evaluate the methods using several biomedical Finite Element models. Our GPU implementation of ray-casting in material coordinates using depth peeling is several orders of magnitude faster than the corresponding CPU approach, and our new ray interpolation approach achieves near interactive frame rates for high-order finite element models at high resolutions.
A Mixed Reality (MR) simulation aims to enable robot developers to create safe and close-to-real ... more A Mixed Reality (MR) simulation aims to enable robot developers to create safe and close-to-real world environments from a mixture of real and virtual components for experimenting with robot systems. However, the reliability of the simulation results and its usefulness in solving practical problems remain to be validated. This paper presents an evaluation of an MR simulator by examining its
Telehealth has been widely promoted as a technology to make healthcare more effective and afforda... more Telehealth has been widely promoted as a technology to make healthcare more effective and affordable. However, current telehealth systems suffer from vendor lock-in and high cost, and are designed for managing chronic diseases rather than preventing them. We address shortcomings of existing consumer-level health informatics applications in supporting senior health consumers, and provide designers of such systems with a design framework. We assess the feasibility of patient-centred health management systems (HMSs) that are designed based on the proposed framework. In contrast to traditional telehealth, HMSs are patient centred and aim at enabling health consumers to take control of their own health by providing functionality for health self-management. Quantitative and qualitative methods were adopted in evaluating a prototype HMS. Senior healthcare consumers viewed our HMS prototype positively, and experienced a positive change in their attitude towards their health. We identified requirements and challenges for HMSs. In particular, participants indicated that social networking features must have a clear purpose beyond simple broadcasting of emotions and opinions. Our study indicates that seniors are able and motivated to leverage a web-based patient-centred HMS, provided that there are suitable health support applications tailored to their needs. This could be achieved by making it attractive for third party application developers to contribute HMS content.
2013 28th International Conference on Image and Vision Computing New Zealand (IVCNZ 2013), 2013
ABSTRACT In 3D reconstruction applications frequently large mesh sections are missing. While the ... more ABSTRACT In 3D reconstruction applications frequently large mesh sections are missing. While the geometry can be created with mesh completion techniques, reconstructing the texture is more difficult. An exemplar-based synthesis usually requires that the missing region contains only one texture pattern. Image inpainting techniques work for more complex textures, but were designed primarily to fill narrow missing regions and tend to produce undesirable results when the missing region is large. We solve this problem by exploiting the fact that most 3D objects contain different surface regions with similar textures. We use an appearance space to identify suitable texture patches fitting with the boundary of the missing region, and fill the region by using a patch-based synthesis combined with Poisson interpolation. We evaluate the effect of different parameters and demonstrate its improved performance over existing inpainting techniques.
2013 6th International Conference on Human System Interactions (HSI), 2013
ABSTRACT The increasing cost of healthcare represents a serious challenge to most developed count... more ABSTRACT The increasing cost of healthcare represents a serious challenge to most developed countries. Telehealth has been widely promoted as a technology to make healthcare more effective and affordable. However, current telehealth systems suffer from vendor lock-in and high cost, and are designed for managing chronic diseases, rather than preventing them. In this paper we evaluate technologies for supporting senior health consumers. Based on this we propose a framework for a novel telehealth system overcoming many of the shortcomings of existing technologies. The new system is web-based, has a Facebook-like plug-in architecture for adding new health applications, and incorporates social networking functionalities. We discuss the challenges in implementing the system, and summarize a user study evaluating the system. Our results demonstrate that health consumers have a positive view of this new telehealth technology, and that it can positively change the attitude of users towards their health.
ABSTRACT Direct Volume Rendering of Finite Element models is challenging since the visualisation ... more ABSTRACT Direct Volume Rendering of Finite Element models is challenging since the visualisation process is performed in world coordinates, whereas data fields are usually defined over the elements' material coordinate system. In this paper we present a framework for Direct Volume Rendering of Finite Element models. We present several novel implementations visualising Finite Element data directly without requiring resampling into world coordinates. We evaluate the methods using several biomedical Finite Element models. Our GPU implementation of ray-casting in material coordinates using depth peeling is several orders of magnitude faster than the corresponding CPU approach, and our new ray interpolation approach achieves near interactive frame rates for high-order finite element models at high resolutions.
A Mixed Reality (MR) simulation aims to enable robot developers to create safe and close-to-real ... more A Mixed Reality (MR) simulation aims to enable robot developers to create safe and close-to-real world environments from a mixture of real and virtual components for experimenting with robot systems. However, the reliability of the simulation results and its usefulness in solving practical problems remain to be validated. This paper presents an evaluation of an MR simulator by examining its
Telehealth has been widely promoted as a technology to make healthcare more effective and afforda... more Telehealth has been widely promoted as a technology to make healthcare more effective and affordable. However, current telehealth systems suffer from vendor lock-in and high cost, and are designed for managing chronic diseases rather than preventing them. We address shortcomings of existing consumer-level health informatics applications in supporting senior health consumers, and provide designers of such systems with a design framework. We assess the feasibility of patient-centred health management systems (HMSs) that are designed based on the proposed framework. In contrast to traditional telehealth, HMSs are patient centred and aim at enabling health consumers to take control of their own health by providing functionality for health self-management. Quantitative and qualitative methods were adopted in evaluating a prototype HMS. Senior healthcare consumers viewed our HMS prototype positively, and experienced a positive change in their attitude towards their health. We identified requirements and challenges for HMSs. In particular, participants indicated that social networking features must have a clear purpose beyond simple broadcasting of emotions and opinions. Our study indicates that seniors are able and motivated to leverage a web-based patient-centred HMS, provided that there are suitable health support applications tailored to their needs. This could be achieved by making it attractive for third party application developers to contribute HMS content.
2013 28th International Conference on Image and Vision Computing New Zealand (IVCNZ 2013), 2013
ABSTRACT In 3D reconstruction applications frequently large mesh sections are missing. While the ... more ABSTRACT In 3D reconstruction applications frequently large mesh sections are missing. While the geometry can be created with mesh completion techniques, reconstructing the texture is more difficult. An exemplar-based synthesis usually requires that the missing region contains only one texture pattern. Image inpainting techniques work for more complex textures, but were designed primarily to fill narrow missing regions and tend to produce undesirable results when the missing region is large. We solve this problem by exploiting the fact that most 3D objects contain different surface regions with similar textures. We use an appearance space to identify suitable texture patches fitting with the boundary of the missing region, and fill the region by using a patch-based synthesis combined with Poisson interpolation. We evaluate the effect of different parameters and demonstrate its improved performance over existing inpainting techniques.
2013 6th International Conference on Human System Interactions (HSI), 2013
ABSTRACT The increasing cost of healthcare represents a serious challenge to most developed count... more ABSTRACT The increasing cost of healthcare represents a serious challenge to most developed countries. Telehealth has been widely promoted as a technology to make healthcare more effective and affordable. However, current telehealth systems suffer from vendor lock-in and high cost, and are designed for managing chronic diseases, rather than preventing them. In this paper we evaluate technologies for supporting senior health consumers. Based on this we propose a framework for a novel telehealth system overcoming many of the shortcomings of existing technologies. The new system is web-based, has a Facebook-like plug-in architecture for adding new health applications, and incorporates social networking functionalities. We discuss the challenges in implementing the system, and summarize a user study evaluating the system. Our results demonstrate that health consumers have a positive view of this new telehealth technology, and that it can positively change the attitude of users towards their health.
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Papers by B. Wunsche