ERC Grant Expressive (04/2012-03/2017)

Participants : Marie-Paule Cani, Stefanie Hahmann, Jean-Claude Léon.

To make expressive and creative design possible in virtual environments, the goal is to totally move away from conventional 3D techniques, where sophisticated interfaces are used to edit the degrees of freedom of pre-existing geometric or physical models: this paradigm has failed, since even trained digital artists still create on traditional media and only use the computer to reproduce already designed content. To allow creative design in virtual environments, from early draft to progressive refinement and finalization of an idea, both interaction tools and models for shape and motion need to be revisited from a user-centred perspective. The challenge is to develop reactive 3D shapes – a new paradigm for high-level, animated 3D content – that will take form, refine, move and deform based on user intent, expressed through intuitive interaction gestures inserted in a user-knowledge context. Anchored in Computer Graphics, this work reaches the frontier of other domains, from Geometry, Conceptual Design and Simulation to Human Computer Interaction.

Piper (2013-2017)

The main objective of this European FP7 project is to develop new tools to position and personalize advanced human body models for injury prediction in car crashes. Our partners are automobile constructors and biomechanics research labs. Our main task is to provide tools for the interactive positioning of the models in the cockpits prior to the crash simulation, using our real-time simulation software SOFA. This 42-month contract funds one engineer in Imagine, and we plan to hire post-doc students next year.