ANIMATION DATABASE PROJECT

This project is funded by National Science Foundation (NSF: http://www.nsf.gov) through NSF under Grant No. 0237954 for the project CAREER: Animation Databases.
Animation databases are repositories of animation models and motion sequences. This research project’s goal is to develop content-based retrieval and related techniques for animation databases. These techniques include partial fuzzy query resolution, animation model/motion comparison, animation sequence segmentation, prediction/resolution of collisions, and handling multiple animation formats. An animation authoring toolkit is being developed with the help of these techniques. The functionality of this toolkit is to aid in generating new animation sequences by reusing existing models and motion sequences. The broader impacts of this project on are in the fields of sign language, medical care (animated instructions for patients, say, in physical therapy), education material preparation, and scientific visualization. For instance , a speech-to-text system is being integrated with this toolkit. The purpose of this integration is to aid in generating sign language animations (based on spoken sentences) for persons challenged with hearing disabilities.

Also, some of the techniques being developed (e.g., prediction/resolution of collision) are useful in areas such as robotics.
The educational goals of this project are to: a. Train graduate and under-graduate students from different disciplines (especially Arts & Humanities) in the research and development of animation databases. b. Involve K-12 teachers and students in using the animation authoring toolkit for preparation and understanding of educational materials. The results of this project are being disseminated through courses on animation/multimedia databases, publishing of research papers, and by making the animation toolkit available to public.

QuEST Forum

QuEST-Quality Excellence for Suppliers of Telecommunications. QuEST Forum helps its member organizations pursue global telecommunications quality and performance excellence through the implementation of a common quality standard, the collaborative activities of its global work groups, an emphasis on industry best practices, and the delivery of a leading-edge measurement system.