Pete Stein

What's so Hard about 3D?

Most computer users are accustomed to viewing things in two dimensions, despite the great potential that three-dimensional visualizations have for a richer and more intuitive user experience. So why not 3D?

One problem with 3D is that, well, you can't just flip a switch and generate a 3D scene. Typically, you'll need to know how big all the objects are, where they are in the scene, etc. There's where "Unleashing Dynamic Data in 3D and Beyond" comes in.

My Project

For my undergraduate Computer Science honors project at Clark University, I created a system whose ultimate purpose is to generate a 3D "fly-through." Rather than create a 3D authoring program using existing technogies (e.g., VRML), the point of my project is to remove the need for manual editing all together -- to automate the decision making process of deciding where an object should be placed in a 3D scene, how large it should be, what color it should be, etc.

Why would we want to do that? Because with large sets of data, we may have neither the time nor inclination to either:

• Plot out all the 3D items by hand, or
• Design a perfect algorithm, from scratch, to make all the decisions about what the 3D scene should look like, considering that the algorithm and desired result may be drastically different for different types of data.