Section: New Results

Highlights of the Year

We are still developping our expertise in fitting techniques. As an illustration, we have solved of a long-standing problem in fluid capture: the non-invasive three-dimensional digitization of dynamic gas flows including their three-dimensional velocity fields [17] (cf. Figure 8 ). We solve the three-dimensional flow tracking problem by fitting a full 3D Navier-Stokes simulation to the acquired data. To our knowledge, this is a world-first in this area that considerably improves the results by incorporating high-level prior knowledge into the estimate. The resulting mathematical framework can be generalized easily and lends itself to editing operations. The technique has applications, e.g., in aerospace engineering. We are exploring the possibilities with ONERA, the French space agency. In fact, parts of the developed techniques have been validated by them and are now being installed in a wind tunnel facility for real-world tests.

Figure 8. Low-resolution captures obtained by tomographic scanning (left) are used as inputs to our method which estimates physically plausible dense velocity fields. Such velocity fields fully determine the fluid state and can be applied in a variety of applications including fluid super-resolution (right) allowing capture to be integrated into pipelines for visual effects simulation.

This year, the collaboration between Optics and Computer Graphics has grown to a now long-term project, under the initiative of the MANAO team. First, from an institutional point of view, a framework agreement has been signed the 10th of July 2014 between the IOGS and Inria. This is an important and institutional recognition of the potential trans-disciplinary impacts of our work. Second, we have begun to set-up the COEL experimentation facility inside the LP2N laboratory. It has been made possible thanks to the support of the "Région Aquitaine" and upcoming supports from l'"Initiative d’excellence de l’université de Bordeaux". With this trans-disciplinary experimentation facility – rather unique in Europe – we can now put into practice a long-term vision of the researches that we want to achieve.

In term of visibility, we managed to published our first paper in the Optics scientific community [15] , highlighting our trans-disciplinary research. We have also been part of the final and transnational exhibition of the V-Must.net network of excellence: Keys2Rome - http://keys2rome.eu . It was launched simultaneously in Rome, Sarajevo, Amsterdam and Alexandria on September 23, 2014. The exhibition uses immersive technology to present and connect these regional cultures within the Roman Empire, highlighting their diversity and commonality over centuries of Roman rule. Our spatial augmented reality solution [21] was included in this event.