A University of British Columbia computer scientist has created a new software that can create a design sketch of an everyday object, addressing the challenge of accurately describing shapes.
If you try to explain what your computer mouse looks like to someone who has never seen a mouse before, you’re going to struggle to verbally describe its shape.
Humans are good at verbally describing colour or dimensions, but cannot easily articulate geometric properties. The easiest way to describe shapes is to sketch them.
This Software program named as FlowRep can turn diverse shapes like airplanes, cars, coffee makers and mugs into sketches, using the insights from a field of psychology known as Gestalt psychology that explains how humans interpret visual content and understand depth from two-dimensional drawings.
This program answers the question about which surface curves we need to trace so that human observers can imagine a shape.
This software program has implications for fields like 3D printing and fabrication.
Since the current algorithm is best suited for man-made rather than natural shapes, the researcher is also looking into improvements that will allow the system to produce top quality sketches of natural shapes.
News Source: https://news.ubc.ca/2017/08/01/algorithms-that-can-sketch-recreate-3d-shapes/
