Modeling and Interacting with Architectural Scale Scenes

With the proliferation of 3D graphics capabilities and the introduction of virtual reality systems, an increasing number of applications are being developed that require the interactive visualization of complex 3D scenes. However impressive the evolution of graphics hardware has been over the past thirty years, the goal of realistically modeling and interactively manipulating scenes of industrial complexity remains an elusive one. We are developing improved methods for the capture and editing of architectural-scale models with a mix of 3D scanning, digital photography, and novel user interfaces. We are developing new algorithms to accelerate the visualization of very complex 3D scenes using novel simplification techniques and image-based impostors, which can supplant complex geometrical objects. Our initial focus concerns the modeling of and interactive navigation in urban environments, and our testbed is the Yale Campus.