The bandwidth required for accessing over the internet 3D models that support interactive graphic applications in manufacturing, scientific, commercial, and entertainment areas exceeds the capabilities of current personal computers and phone connections by several orders of magnitude. Anticipated technology improvements are offset by the growing need for more detailed models of oceans, cities, factories, aircrafts, virtual malls, appliances, molecules, or atomic reactions. This project will investigate new theories, architectures, datastructures, and algorithms for a 3D geometry server that will significantly reduce the delays experienced by internet client-users when first accessing complex 3D databases, when interactively navigating through the model, and when inspecting specific details. The project will explore the acceptable visual error limits in common applications and will exploit these tolerances to significantly improve on existing techniques for 3D simplification, geometric compression, and progressive transmission of 3D models. The project will develop new compact multi-resolution datastructures and new algorithms that combine 3D simplification and compression. Anticipated results may impact software products and standards for the internet exploitation of the broadly available interactive 3D graphics technology.
