The objectives of this research effort are 1) to extend to motion and surfacedeformation the investigator's prior research in perceptually basedvisualization of texture, and 2) to develop a practical system based on thisapproach that will handle actual motion and deformation visualizationproblems. The method is based on the method the investigator has already employed withsuccess for texture visualization. The method will proceed in a number ofstages. First the computational paradigm used in the investigator's texturesynthesis system will be adapted to surface deformation. Then an initial setof texture attributes that are potentially of perceptual significance will bedefined. This set will form the foundation for a library of applicativefunctions that will be implemented. Users will compose these functions tocreate visual syntheses of specific types of naturally occurring motion andsurface deformation. Those functions discovered to be useful for this processwill form the basis of a perceptual attribute taxonomy. This taxonomy canthen be used to form a systematic parameterized approach to realisticvisualization of surface deformation. The new contributions will be a taxonomy of perceptually significant motionand deformation operations, and a working system of perceptually based userinterface for visualizing motion and surface deformation. A key result willbe that the user of such an interface will be able to specify and controlhighly realistic visual simulations without having to be overly concerned withdetails at lower levels.
