Computer Graphics Laboratory

/ Satoshi Nishimura / Assistant Professor

The Computer Graphics Laboratory is currently working on the following research projects:

• Parallel architecture for image synthesis

  In the Computer Graphics Laboratory, we have a parallel graphics machine called the VC-1 which was developed by Prof.~Nishimura, one of the members of our laboratory. The VC-1 comprises 16 processing elements each of which contains the Intel i860 processor.

  Based on the VC-1's technology, three research directions are currently under investigation. One is the extension of the VC-1 architecture so that anti-aliasing is fully supported. We are also planning to add special hardware for rasterization to the VC-1 architecture to improve polygon rendering performance.

  The second research direction is to develop a parallel machine for real-time volume rendering. Volume rendering is particularly important in medical applications. We are planning to develop scalable hardware including a special chip for trilinear interpolation and alpha-blending.

  The third research direction is to develop special hardware for real-time ray tracing. Although ray tracing can generate marvelously realistic images, no current machines have computation power enough to generate them in real time. We are tackling this problem through developing VLSI-based accelerators for executing both voxel traveral and ray-object intersection tests.

• Computer Music and Computer Graphics The combination of computer-generated music and computer graphics is one of the forms of recent artistic works. In our laboratory, a scripting language for music called the PMML is designed. The PMML is also capable of controlling computer-generated animations synchronizing with music. Language-processing tools for the PMML including its compiler are now publicly available at our Web site http://www-cgl.u-aizu.ac.jp/pmml/.

Refereed Proceeding Papers

1. Satoshi Nishimura. PMML: A Music Description Language Supporting Algorithmic Representation of Musical Expression. Proceedings of International Computer Music Conference 1998, p.171--174, October, 1998.

   This paper describes a novel music description language called the Practical Music Macro Language (PMML), intended for the computer-controlled performance of expressive music using MIDI instruments. A remarkable feature of the PMML is its ability to specify expressive parameters algorithmically. A toolkit consisting of a compiler which translates a PMML source code to the Standard MIDI file, a discompiler, and an Emacs-based data entry tool is developed.

2. Satoshi Nishimura. PIECE: A Music Language Editor Synchronized with Graphical Views. Proceedings of International Computer Music Conference 1999, to appear, 1999.

   This paper describes a music editing system called the PMML Integrated Emacs-based Composing Environment (PIECE). The system provides both a textual-language view and piano-roll view synchronized with each other. The consistency between the views is maintained even if control structures or macros are used in the language texts. A novel algorithm for maintaining the consistency is presented.

Others

1. Kazuo Ikeda, The automatic design of an FPGA-based pipeline system and its application to geometry calculation. University of Aizu, 1999. Thesis Advisor: Satoshi Nishimura.

2. Takuya Sato, Accelerating a Hybrid Ray Tracer for Surface and Volume Data. University of Aizu, 1999. Thesis Advisor: Satoshi Nishimura.

3. Yasuyuki Fukuda, The Evaluation of a Circuit for Volume Rendering. Graduation thesis, Thesis Advisor: Satoshi Nishimura. 1999.

4. Hiroyuki Kitagawa, The Implementation of a Voxel Traverser for a Real-Time Ray Tracing System. Graduation thesis, Thesis Advisor: Satoshi Nishimura. 1999.

5. Hideo Yamada, The Design of an Intersection Unit for a Real-Time Ray Tracing System. Graduation thesis, Thesis Advisor: Satoshi Nishimura. 1999.

6. Yoshichika Taketomi, Synthesizing Natural Sounds Using Acoustic Instruments Graduation thesis, Thesis Advisor: Satoshi Nishimura. 1999.

7. Hiroyuki Watanabe, The Education Support System of Playing Instruments. Graduation thesis, Thesis Advisor: Satoshi Nishimura. 1999.

Academic Activities

1. Satoshi Nishimura, ACM SIGGRAPH, Computer Graphics Society, IEEE Computer Society. Program committee of Shape Modeling International '99. March 1999.