Efficient Geometric Algorithms for Computer Simulated Environments

Principal Investigator: Ming Lin
Funding Agency: National Science Foundation
Agency Number: EIA-9806027

Abstract
We propose to address several fundamental geometric problems arising from computer simulated environments. Our emphasis is to develop efficient and accurate algorithms and software systems and to demonstrate their application. Some of the geometric software will be released as public domain packages. The set of research problems include:

• Collision detection between non-convex objects and non-linear models using higher-order bounding volumes and dynamic data structures.
• Multi-resolution free-form deformation for modeling elastic bodies.
• Applications to virtual prototyping and physically-based modeling.

Besides computer simulated environments, these algorithms and systems should also have a significant impact on computer-aided design, robotics and computer animation.