Computer Graphics

Current Computer Graphics Research Projects

There are two main themes to our research work: character modelling and animation, led by Dr Steve Maddock, and virtual reality and interfaces, led by Dr Daniela Romano. In addition there are one-off projects such as procedural planet modelling. A brief description of each project is given below and further information can be obtained by following the links to individual researchers.

SPICE - Simulation & Prediction In Crowded Environments Jan 2008 - Dec 2010 Partners: Dr Daniela Romano, University of Sheffield, Prof Robert (Bob) Stones, University of Birmigham. The project aims to provide an virtual environment for decision making training for emergency situation in crowded environments.

URSULA: Urban River Corridors and Sustainable Living Agendas Urban Rivers Jan 2008 - Dec 2011 Partners: Prof David Lerner, Dr Joby Boxall, Dr Stephen Connelly, Dr John Davison, Prof John Michael Henneberry, Prof Eckart Lange, Prof L Maltby, Prof S Sharples, Dr Virginia Stovin, Dr Philip Warren, Prof Stuart Lane, Dr E Sharp, Dr Susan Molyneux-Hodgson, Mr P Bibby, Prof Kevin Gaston, Dr Daniela Romano (Computer Science), Dr Paul Armsworth. The project aims to identify the social, economic and environmental gains to be made from innovative interventions in urban river corridors, using the River Don and its tributaries as a case study. It is supported by Sheffield City Council and the Environment Agency and many non-governmental organisations. It draws expertise from multiple academic departments at Sheffield, incorporating a real mix of disciplines from engineering through to ecology, planning and the social sciences.

Serious Games - Engaging Training Solutions Partners: Blitz Games, VEGA Group, Prof Bob Stone, University of Birmingham, Dr Daniela Romano, University of Sheffield, Dr. Sara de Freitas, Birbeck College Project Funded by DTI The project aims to apply skills and technology used in video games to create serious training applications.

My Exhibition - Designing for Affective Communication, Personalisation and Social Experience Partners: Prof. Chris Rust (Sheffield Hallam-Art and Design), Dr Peter Wright (Sheffield Hallam-Human Centred Design), Dr Alison McKay (Leeds-Computer Science), Prof Sharon MacDonald (Sheffield-Sociological studies), Dr Tom Fisher (Sheffield Hallam-Art and Design), Dr Daniela Romano (Sheffield-Computer Science), Dr Serge Sharoff (Leeds-Moder Language & Culture), Dr Daniela Petrelli (Sheffield-Information Studies), Mr Jeff Baggott (Sheffield Hallam-Art, Design, Communication & Media) Project funded by AHRC The project aims to develop and evaluate principles for designing for personalisation using "ambient" techniques and affective communication in a large scale interdisciplinary design and research exercise for a museum exhibition in 2008.

PhD projects An architecture for serious games Researcher: Ahmed BinSubaih; Supervisors: Maddock and Romano Sponsored by Dubai Police, 1 Jan 2003 - 2007 We have developed a new architecture to support serious games and have tested this in the training of police traffic accident officers in Dubai.

Visual speech Researcher: Oscar Martinez Lazalde; Supervisor: Maddock CONACYT PhD studentship, 2004- The aim of this work is to investigate ways to deal with the issue of coarticulation in visual speech.

Facial Reconstruction Researcher: Miguel Salas; Supervisors: Maddock CONACYT PhD studentship, 2004- The aim is to investigate the use of MRI data in forensic facial reconstruction.

Procedural Planet Modelling Researcher: Manuel Gamito; Supervisor: Maddock PhD studentship (Portugal), 2004- This project aims to model and render entire Earth-sized planets using procedural modelling techniques with a high degree of visual realism.

Gesture to Speech Researcher: Arturo Arroyo Palacios; Supervisor: Romano CONACYT PhD studentship, 2005-

Presence Research Researcher: Jorge Arroyo Palacios; Supervisor: Romano CONACYT PhD studentship, 2005- This work is investigating the measurement of the feeling of presence in Immervise Virtual Reality Applications.

Characters Emotional Gesture Expression Researcher: Ahmad Shaarizan Shaarani; Supervisor: Romano PhD research sponsored by Kolej Universiti Teknikal Kebangsaan Malaysia, 2005- This study aims to understand the role of affect in personalizing interactive interfaces that use embodied animated human characters.

Sketching faces Researcher: Orn Gunnarsson; Supervisor: Maddock PhD, 2005- This project involves creating faces using sketching methods.

Dealing with Dealers: A Drug Market Simulation Researcher: Paul Richmond; Supervisor: Romano Project funded by EPSRC and DAT Lincolnshire, PhD, 2006- The aim of this work is to investigate the use of virtual environments as a training platform for drugs enforcement officers in the Lincolshire area.

Virtual Interfaces Researcher: Anthony Bailey; Supervisor: Romano Project funded by EPSRC

Bootstrapping Spoken Language Generation to Introduce Style and Variety in Virtual Characters Researcher: Swati Gupta; Supervisors: Walker (NLP) and Romano PhD studentship, 2004- This project addresses one of the many issues of Stylistic Spoken Language Generation: Politeness. This is then extended to other domains of style and variety while preserving a generic and generative behaviour and with an application to Virtual Characters.