@article{SemmoDoellner2015, author = {Semmo, Amir and D{\"o}llner, J{\"u}rgen Roland Friedrich}, title = {Interactive image filtering for level-of-abstraction texturing of virtual 3D scenes}, series = {Computers \& graphics : CAG ; an international journal of applications in computer graphics}, volume = {52}, journal = {Computers \& graphics : CAG ; an international journal of applications in computer graphics}, publisher = {Elsevier}, address = {Oxford}, issn = {0097-8493}, doi = {10.1016/j.cag.2015.02.001}, pages = {181 -- 198}, year = {2015}, abstract = {Texture mapping is a key technology in computer graphics. For the visual design of 3D scenes, in particular, effective texturing depends significantly on how important contents are expressed, e.g., by preserving global salient structures, and how their depiction is cognitively processed by the user in an application context. Edge-preserving image filtering is one key approach to address these concerns. Much research has focused on applying image filters in a post-process stage to generate artistically stylized depictions. However, these approaches generally do not preserve depth cues, which are important for the perception of 3D visualization (e.g., texture gradient). To this end, filtering is required that processes texture data coherently with respect to linear perspective and spatial relationships. In this work, we present an approach for texturing 3D scenes with perspective coherence by arbitrary image filters. We propose decoupled deferred texturing with (1) caching strategies to interactively perform image filtering prior to texture mapping and (2) for each mipmap level separately to enable a progressive level of abstraction, using (3) direct interaction interfaces to parameterize the visualization according to spatial, semantic, and thematic data. We demonstrate the potentials of our method by several applications using touch or natural language inputs to serve the different interests of users in specific information, including illustrative visualization, focus+context visualization, geometric detail removal, and semantic depth of field. The approach supports frame-to-frame coherence, order-independent transparency, multitexturing, and content-based filtering. In addition, it seamlessly integrates into real-time rendering pipelines and is extensible for custom interaction techniques. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.}, language = {en} } @article{SemmoTrappJobstetal.2015, author = {Semmo, Amir and Trapp, Matthias and Jobst, Markus and D{\"o}llner, J{\"u}rgen Roland Friedrich}, title = {Cartography-Oriented Design of 3D Geospatial Information Visualization - Overview and Techniques}, series = {The cartographic journal}, volume = {52}, journal = {The cartographic journal}, number = {2}, publisher = {Routledge, Taylor \& Francis Group}, address = {Leeds}, issn = {0008-7041}, doi = {10.1080/00087041.2015.1119462}, pages = {95 -- 106}, year = {2015}, abstract = {In economy, society and personal life map-based interactive geospatial visualization becomes a natural element of a growing number of applications and systems. The visualization of 3D geospatial information, however, raises the question how to represent the information in an effective way. Considerable research has been done in technology-driven directions in the fields of cartography and computer graphics (e.g., design principles, visualization techniques). Here, non-photorealistic rendering (NPR) represents a promising visualization category - situated between both fields - that offers a large number of degrees for the cartography-oriented visual design of complex 2D and 3D geospatial information for a given application context. Still today, however, specifications and techniques for mapping cartographic design principles to the state-of-the-art rendering pipeline of 3D computer graphics remain to be explored. This paper revisits cartographic design principles for 3D geospatial visualization and introduces an extended 3D semiotic model that complies with the general, interactive visualization pipeline. Based on this model, we propose NPR techniques to interactively synthesize cartographic renditions of basic feature types, such as terrain, water, and buildings. In particular, it includes a novel iconification concept to seamlessly interpolate between photorealistic and cartographic representations of 3D landmarks. Our work concludes with a discussion of open challenges in this field of research, including topics, such as user interaction and evaluation.}, language = {en} } @article{SemmoHildebrandtTrappetal.2012, author = {Semmo, Amir and Hildebrandt, Dieter and Trapp, Matthias and D{\"o}llner, J{\"u}rgen Roland Friedrich}, title = {Concepts for cartography-oriented visualization of virtual 3D city models}, series = {Photogrammetrie, Fernerkundung, Geoinformation}, journal = {Photogrammetrie, Fernerkundung, Geoinformation}, number = {4}, publisher = {Schweizerbart}, address = {Stuttgart}, issn = {1432-8364}, doi = {10.1127/1432-8364/2012/0131}, pages = {455 -- 465}, year = {2012}, abstract = {Virtual 3D city models serve as an effective medium with manifold applications in geoinformation systems and services. To date, most 3D city models are visualized using photorealistic graphics. But an effective communication of geoinformation significantly depends on how important information is designed and cognitively processed in the given application context. One possibility to visually emphasize important information is based on non-photorealistic rendering, which comprehends artistic depiction styles and is characterized by its expressiveness and communication aspects. However, a direct application of non-photorealistic rendering techniques primarily results in monotonic visualization that lacks cartographic design aspects. In this work, we present concepts for cartography-oriented visualization of virtual 3D city models. These are based on coupling non-photorealistic rendering techniques and semantics-based information for a user, context, and media-dependent representation of thematic information. This work highlights challenges for cartography-oriented visualization of 3D geovirtual environments, presents stylization techniques and discusses their applications and ideas for a standardized visualization. In particular, the presented concepts enable a real-time and dynamic visualization of thematic geoinformation.}, language = {en} } @article{SemmoTrappKyprianidisetal.2012, author = {Semmo, Amir and Trapp, Matthias and Kyprianidis, Jan Eric and D{\"o}llner, J{\"u}rgen Roland Friedrich}, title = {Interactive visualization of generalized virtual 3D city models using level-of-abstraction transitions}, series = {Computer graphics forum : journal of the European Association for Computer Graphics}, volume = {31}, journal = {Computer graphics forum : journal of the European Association for Computer Graphics}, number = {3}, publisher = {Wiley-Blackwell}, address = {Hoboken}, issn = {0167-7055}, doi = {10.1111/j.1467-8659.2012.03081.x}, pages = {885 -- 894}, year = {2012}, abstract = {Virtual 3D city models play an important role in the communication of complex geospatial information in a growing number of applications, such as urban planning, navigation, tourist information, and disaster management. In general, homogeneous graphic styles are used for visualization. For instance, photorealism is suitable for detailed presentations, and non-photorealism or abstract stylization is used to facilitate guidance of a viewer's gaze to prioritized information. However, to adapt visualization to different contexts and contents and to support saliency-guided visualization based on user interaction or dynamically changing thematic information, a combination of different graphic styles is necessary. Design and implementation of such combined graphic styles pose a number of challenges, specifically from the perspective of real-time 3D visualization. In this paper, the authors present a concept and an implementation of a system that enables different presentation styles, their seamless integration within a single view, and parametrized transitions between them, which are defined according to tasks, camera view, and image resolution. The paper outlines potential usage scenarios and application fields together with a performance evaluation of the implementation.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Semmo2016, author = {Semmo, Amir}, title = {Design and implementation of non-photorealistic rendering techniques for 3D geospatial data}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-99525}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {XVI, 155}, year = {2016}, abstract = {Geospatial data has become a natural part of a growing number of information systems and services in the economy, society, and people's personal lives. In particular, virtual 3D city and landscape models constitute valuable information sources within a wide variety of applications such as urban planning, navigation, tourist information, and disaster management. Today, these models are often visualized in detail to provide realistic imagery. However, a photorealistic rendering does not automatically lead to high image quality, with respect to an effective information transfer, which requires important or prioritized information to be interactively highlighted in a context-dependent manner. Approaches in non-photorealistic renderings particularly consider a user's task and camera perspective when attempting optimal expression, recognition, and communication of important or prioritized information. However, the design and implementation of non-photorealistic rendering techniques for 3D geospatial data pose a number of challenges, especially when inherently complex geometry, appearance, and thematic data must be processed interactively. Hence, a promising technical foundation is established by the programmable and parallel computing architecture of graphics processing units. This thesis proposes non-photorealistic rendering techniques that enable both the computation and selection of the abstraction level of 3D geospatial model contents according to user interaction and dynamically changing thematic information. To achieve this goal, the techniques integrate with hardware-accelerated rendering pipelines using shader technologies of graphics processing units for real-time image synthesis. The techniques employ principles of artistic rendering, cartographic generalization, and 3D semiotics—unlike photorealistic rendering—to synthesize illustrative renditions of geospatial feature type entities such as water surfaces, buildings, and infrastructure networks. In addition, this thesis contributes a generic system that enables to integrate different graphic styles—photorealistic and non-photorealistic—and provide their seamless transition according to user tasks, camera view, and image resolution. Evaluations of the proposed techniques have demonstrated their significance to the field of geospatial information visualization including topics such as spatial perception, cognition, and mapping. In addition, the applications in illustrative and focus+context visualization have reflected their potential impact on optimizing the information transfer regarding factors such as cognitive load, integration of non-realistic information, visualization of uncertainty, and visualization on small displays.}, language = {en} } @article{PasewaldtSemmoTrappetal.2014, author = {Pasewaldt, Sebastian and Semmo, Amir and Trapp, Matthias and D{\"o}llner, J{\"u}rgen}, title = {Multi-perspective 3D panoramas}, series = {International journal of geographical information science}, volume = {28}, journal = {International journal of geographical information science}, number = {10}, publisher = {Routledge, Taylor \& Francis Group}, address = {Abingdon}, issn = {1365-8816}, doi = {10.1080/13658816.2014.922686}, pages = {2030 -- 2051}, year = {2014}, abstract = {This article presents multi-perspective 3D panoramas that focus on visualizing 3D geovirtual environments (3D GeoVEs) for navigation and exploration tasks. Their key element, a multi-perspective view (MPV), seamlessly combines what is seen from multiple viewpoints into a single image. This approach facilitates the presentation of information for virtual 3D city and landscape models, particularly by reducing occlusions, increasing screen-space utilization, and providing additional context within a single image. We complement MPVs with cartographic visualization techniques to stylize features according to their semantics and highlight important or prioritized information. When combined, both techniques constitute the core implementation of interactive, multi-perspective 3D panoramas. They offer a large number of effective means for visual communication of 3D spatial information, a high degree of customization with respect to cartographic design, and manifold applications in different domains. We discuss design decisions of 3D panoramas for the exploration of and navigation in 3D GeoVEs. We also discuss a preliminary user study that indicates that 3D panoramas are a promising approach for navigation systems using 3D GeoVEs.}, language = {en} } @article{ShekharReimannMayeretal.2021, author = {Shekhar, Sumit and Reimann, Max and Mayer, Maximilian and Semmo, Amir and Pasewaldt, Sebastian and D{\"o}llner, J{\"u}rgen and Trapp, Matthias}, title = {Interactive photo editing on smartphones via intrinsic decomposition}, series = {Computer graphics forum : journal of the European Association for Computer Graphics}, volume = {40}, journal = {Computer graphics forum : journal of the European Association for Computer Graphics}, publisher = {Blackwell}, address = {Oxford}, issn = {0167-7055}, doi = {10.1111/cgf.142650}, pages = {497 -- 510}, year = {2021}, abstract = {Intrinsic decomposition refers to the problem of estimating scene characteristics, such as albedo and shading, when one view or multiple views of a scene are provided. The inverse problem setting, where multiple unknowns are solved given a single known pixel-value, is highly under-constrained. When provided with correlating image and depth data, intrinsic scene decomposition can be facilitated using depth-based priors, which nowadays is easy to acquire with high-end smartphones by utilizing their depth sensors. In this work, we present a system for intrinsic decomposition of RGB-D images on smartphones and the algorithmic as well as design choices therein. Unlike state-of-the-art methods that assume only diffuse reflectance, we consider both diffuse and specular pixels. For this purpose, we present a novel specularity extraction algorithm based on a multi-scale intensity decomposition and chroma inpainting. At this, the diffuse component is further decomposed into albedo and shading components. We use an inertial proximal algorithm for non-convex optimization (iPiano) to ensure albedo sparsity. Our GPU-based visual processing is implemented on iOS via the Metal API and enables interactive performance on an iPhone 11 Pro. Further, a qualitative evaluation shows that we are able to obtain high-quality outputs. Furthermore, our proposed approach for specularity removal outperforms state-of-the-art approaches for real-world images, while our albedo and shading layer decomposition is faster than the prior work at a comparable output quality. Manifold applications such as recoloring, retexturing, relighting, appearance editing, and stylization are shown, each using the intrinsic layers obtained with our method and/or the corresponding depth data.}, language = {en} } @article{ReimannBuchheimSemmoetal.2022, author = {Reimann, Max and Buchheim, Benito and Semmo, Amir and D{\"o}llner, J{\"u}rgen and Trapp, Matthias}, title = {Controlling strokes in fast neural style transfer using content transforms}, series = {The Visual Computer}, volume = {38}, journal = {The Visual Computer}, number = {12}, publisher = {Springer}, address = {New York}, issn = {0178-2789}, doi = {10.1007/s00371-022-02518-x}, pages = {4019 -- 4033}, year = {2022}, abstract = {Fast style transfer methods have recently gained popularity in art-related applications as they make a generalized real-time stylization of images practicable. However, they are mostly limited to one-shot stylizations concerning the interactive adjustment of style elements. In particular, the expressive control over stroke sizes or stroke orientations remains an open challenge. To this end, we propose a novel stroke-adjustable fast style transfer network that enables simultaneous control over the stroke size and intensity, and allows a wider range of expressive editing than current approaches by utilizing the scale-variance of convolutional neural networks. Furthermore, we introduce a network-agnostic approach for style-element editing by applying reversible input transformations that can adjust strokes in the stylized output. At this, stroke orientations can be adjusted, and warping-based effects can be applied to stylistic elements, such as swirls or waves. To demonstrate the real-world applicability of our approach, we present StyleTune, a mobile app for interactive editing of neural style transfers at multiple levels of control. Our app allows stroke adjustments on a global and local level. It furthermore implements an on-device patch-based upsampling step that enables users to achieve results with high output fidelity and resolutions of more than 20 megapixels. Our approach allows users to art-direct their creations and achieve results that are not possible with current style transfer applications.}, language = {en} }