“Simulating the Visual Appearance and Physical
Application of Automotive Surface Finishes”
Pine Technical College, Johnson Center for Simulation
PI: John Heckman, Co PIs: Gary Meyer, Robert Musgrove
NSF Award #IIP- 0438693
3 Yr Award w/extension Start Date: 01 Feb 2005
Key Attributes of our
Innovation Ecosystem:
Brief Project Overview:
This project has combined cutting-edge
computer graphics research (University of
Minnesota), the coatings and finishing expertise
of the largest US manufacturer of automotive
refinishing products (DuPont Performance
Coatings) and simulation and virtual reality
expertise (Pine Technical College) to produce
valuable painter training tools, completely new
approaches to visual simulation, and to conduct
research into using COTS game devices as 3D
trackers.
Questioning & Curiosity:
This project brought together people with a wide range
of experiences, perspectives, backgrounds, and
incentives, but they have some common elements, too.
These include willingness to consider new possibilities,
an inquisitive approach to learning and development,
and the patience to listen and understand others.
Risk Taking:
Multiple aspects of this project required trying things to
see if they worked. Some of these worked out well,
and others require further research or were found to be
not viable. Examples of viable concepts include the
basic idea of projecting a realistic appearance onto a
surface. A related idea that did not prove useful was
the sufficiently-realistic projection of a new appearance
upon an actual vehicle. Projector technology is not yet
up to the task.
Program Activities:
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Creation of a reflection model and its
supporting software.
•
Importation and “painting” of complex and
realistic virtual models into the existing Pine
Technical College 3D real time simulation
system.
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Incorporation of reflection model into
simulator.
Research into simulating the appearance of
“orange peel” and other undesirable coating
surface flaws.
Development of a compact and portable
simulation hardware set to facilitate training of
painters.
Top Contributions:
•Video projectors were used to make
surfaces realistically appear as if they
had been painted with metallic
automotive paints.
•The previous simulation system was
dramatically improved as a training tool,
providing more-credible images and
feedback along with faster performance.
•A spray painting experiment was
performed at DuPont Marshall Labs in
Philadelphia to capture live the
orientation and position of a spray gun
operated by an expert painter, along
with simultaneous video recording, and
this data informed simulation
development.
•
Development of a virtual air brush system
that permits artistic application of paint
coatings to virtual objects.
•
Research into the use of the popular and
inexpensive Wii-mote controller as a rigorous
3D motion-tracking device.
•The project proved feasible the concept
of a 3D real-time motion tracking system
based on the inexpensive Wii-mote
handheld game device.
Porting the Painting Simulation system to
both Apple (OS-X) and to Linux (Ubuntu 9.10)
•The resulting spray paint simulation
systems were successfully ported from
Windows XP t, other operating systems
including OS-X and Ubuntu 9.10
•
Partners:
University of Minnesota
•Jon Koniecsny
•Clement Shimizu
•Lijun Qu
•Scott Johnson
Lehman Brothers Garage
•Darrell Amberson
DuPont Performance Coatings
• Allan Rodriuguez
•Craig Shoup
•John Moore
BYK Gardner (Geretsried Germany)
•Konrad Lex
•Gabi Kigle-Becker
PFI
Top Challenges:
Openness:
This project has been generally open inside the
network of project collaborators, and with the resulting
research. The biggest challenge to openness was
obtaining access to and permission to use relevant
but confidential industry intellectual property.
Collaboration Across Fields:
Fields of collaborators on this project included
computer science, coatings science, simulation
technology, business, automotive refinishing, and
education and pedagogy.
Placing Partners in “New
Environments” & “Playgrounds”:
Computer graphics graduate students, long-time coatings
industry researchers, and simulation developers all found
themselves in unfamiliar territory and inspired/informed by
different perspectives and approaches to problems. At
different times, various parts of our team were amazed by
bureaucratic hurdles, allocation of resources, and
efficiencies considered normal by other team segments.
•Communication and coordination was
difficult across the industry, research,
and technical college collaborators.
Leading/Inspiring for Surprising
or Unexpected Results
•Initially, in 2005, readily available
computer hardware was not sufficiently
powerful to support project applications.
Improvements in technology have
substantially solved this issue.
The dynamic creative atmosphere of this project
allowed consideration of such concepts as use of the
Wii-mote as a tracking system. Initially assumed to be
too closed, too limited, and too slow, the Wii-mote
device was extensively explored and resulted in proof
of the concept. The main limiting factor turned out to
be the narrow (22º) field of view of the Wii’s on-board
camera.
•Industry partner involvement was
difficult to sustain.
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National Science Foundation Partnerships For Innovation
Grantee’s Meeting April 25-27, 2010
Arlington, VA
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