"10 Future Shocks for the Next 10 Years"

IDG News Service (09/23/08)

The next 10 years promise to contain many computer technology advancements and developments.  As the cost of power and space continues to rise, cloud computing will play an increasingly large part in enterprise computing, as companies look to store their data in inexpensive technologies.  Computing will become increasingly ubiquitous as consumers start wearing eyeglasses that superimpose a machine-enhanced view of the world and as technology is built into clothing and objects.  Keyboards and traditional interfaces will become virtual, with keyboards being projected on surfaces or in the air.  Computers will turn on instantly and run without delays or errors.  Interfaces will be intuitive and sleek, and adapt to users based on what they are doing so they can easily access relevant features.  Automation will continue to spread throughout industry, essentially eliminating the need for human-run manufacturing.  Image recognition will improve to the point where a picture can be submitted to a search engine and the engine will be able to return relevant results based on the image.  Smart phones will evolve into the preferred instrument for constant connectivity, with voice interaction, facial recognition, location awareness, constant video and sound input, and multitouch screens.  Devices will always be connected, providing a constant stream of data on friends' activities, sports scores, and other topics without interrupting the user's current activities.  Surveillance technology will improve to the point where it will be possible to track every human being, possibly through LoJack-style implants for personal safety, or through trackers in drivers' licenses and automobiles.  Finally, technology will help us remember and strengthen social connections, recording every interaction to help people remember who they met and what they did.
http://www.infoworld.com/article/08/09/23/39FE-future-shock_1.html

Chapter 18 Procedural animation

1. Particle set animation;

2. Behavioural procedural animation;

3. Animating analytical models;

a. Cloth animation;

b. Water animation;

c. Snake animation;

4. Advanced wave effects:

a. Animating waves approaching the beach;

b. Rendering waves;

Chapter 17 Soft object animation

1. Deformation: the polygonal representation & the parametric representation;

2. Deformation of Bezier patch representation;

3. Deformation of B-spline patch representation - Hierarchy;

4. Deformation independent of representation:

a. Non-linear global deformation;

b. Free Form Deformation;

c. Extended free form deformation;

5. Animating deformation:

a. Factor curves(both space and time);

6. Deformation of animated articulated structures:

a. Three layers: skeletal layer, muscle layer and skin layer;

7. Animating facial expression;

8. Inbetweening key deformations;

Chapter 16 Animating articulated structures

1. Terms: Kinematics, Articulated figure, Degree of freedom, End effector, State vector;

2. Forward kinematics and Inverse kinematics;

3. Ease-in & ease-out curves;

4. Energy minimization & Momentum conservation;

5. Representing articulated figures:

a. DH notation;

b. Axis position joint representation;

6. Inverse Kinematics:

a. the Jacobian & construction;

b. Moving axis formula;

c. Numerical error, Singularities, Ill conditioning;

d. Apply Inverse kinematics to skeletons;

7. General forward kinematics system

8. Animation of legged figures

Overview and low-level motion specification(Chapter 15)

1. Hierarchy control system in animation;

2. Procedural animation, Representational animation, Stochastic animation, Behavioural animation & Low-level control;

3. Scripting system: ASAS & MIRA;

4. Motion Control: Key framing, Spline-driven animation, Splining translation;

5. Arclength parameterization;

6. Velocity curves;

7. Kinetic control: Hermite basis;

8. Parameterization of orientation: Euler angles;

9. Problems with Euler angles representing orientation: Gimbal lock(the lost of one degree of freedom) & Non-steady interpolation;

10. Angular displacement;

11. Quaternion;

12. Interpolating using quaternion:

a. Represent a rotation with a rotation matrix;

b. Convert the matrix to a quaternion;

c. Interpolate between the quaternion;

d. Convert the quaternion to a matrix;

e. Apply the matrix to the object;

13. Move into and out of quaternion space ( Matrix -> Quaternion & Quaternion -> Matrix);

14. Spherical linear interpolation & Shortest arc determination on quaternion hyper-sphere;

Why use Quaternions in CG?

I have been wondering for a long time, why we use quaternions in CG. Even more, dual quaternions are used in CG recently. Today I just find one possible reason.
The act of rotating a vector r by an angular displacement (theta, n) is the same as tacking this angular displacement, 'lifting' it into quaternion space, by representing it as the unit quaternion (cos(theta/2), sin(theta/2)n) and performing the operation q*()*conjugate(q) on the quaternion (0,r).

Parametic representation

Finally I fininshed the first chapter of learning the animation!

1. Parametric representation & Implicit representation;
2. Basis and Control Points(Vertices);
3. The property of basis function: Convex hull property & Affine invariance;
4. Bezier curves and surfaces;
5. Recursive subdivision of Bezier curves & Bezier surfaces (patch splitting);
6. B-splines: The uniform B-spline;
7. Local & global paramenters;
8. The blending functions and knot vectors;
9. Nonuniform B-splines;
10. Nonperiodic knot vectors;
11. Knot insertion;
12. Continuity: G0,C0,G1,C1,G2,C2;
13. Interpolation using B-splines;
14. Chord lenght parametrization;
15. Surface fitting using B-spline fitter;
16. The twist vector;
17. Non-uniform rational B-spline(NURBS);
18. beta-splines;
19. Catmull-Rom splines;
20. Converting between representation.