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CumInCAD is a Cumulative Index about publications in Computer Aided Architectural Design
supported by the sibling associations ACADIA, CAADRIA, eCAADe, SIGraDi, ASCAAD and CAAD futures

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_id	1beb
authors	Coomans, M.K.D. and Timmermans, H.J.P.
year	1998
title	A VR User Interface for Design by Features
source	Timmermans (ed.) Proceedings of the 4th Conference on Design and Decision Support Systems in Architecture and Urban Planning, Maastricht
summary	We present the design of a Virtual Reality based user interface (VR-UI). It is the interface for the VR-DIS system, a design application for the Building and Construction industry (VRDIS stands for Virtual Reality - Design Information System). The interface is characterised by a mixed representation of the task domain: an analogue "mock-up view" is being integrated with a descriptive "feature view". It uses a Fish Tank VR configuration which integrates the virtual objects in the designer's normal working environment. The issues underlying the design of the feature view are discussed, as well as the choice of input devices.
series	other
last changed	2003/04/23 15:50

_id	ddss9812
id	ddss9812
authors	Coomans, M.K.D. and Timmermans, H.J.P.
year	1998
title	A VR-User Interface for Design by Features
source	Timmermans, Harry (Ed.), Fourth Design and Decision Support Systems in Architecture and Urban Planning Maastricht, the Netherlands), ISBN 90-6814-081-7, July 26-29, 1998
summary	We present the design of a Virtual Reality based user interface (VR-UI). It is the interface for the VR-DIS system, a design application for the Building and Construction industry (VRDIS stands for Virtual Reality - Design Information System). The interface is characterised by a mixedrepresentation of the task domain: an analogue “mock-up view” is being integrated with a descriptive “feature view”. It uses a Fish Tank VR configuration which integrates the virtual objects in the designer’s normal working environment. The issues underlying the design of the feature view are discussed, as well as the choice of input devices.
series	DDSS
last changed	2003/08/07 16:36

_id	ddss9802
id	ddss9802
authors	Akin, O., Aygen, Z., Cumming, M., Donia, M., Sen, R. and Zhang, Y.
year	1998
title	Computational Specification of Building Requirements in theEarly Stages of Design
source	Timmermans, Harry (Ed.), Fourth Design and Decision Support Systems in Architecture and Urban Planning Maastricht, the Netherlands), ISBN 90-6814-081-7, July 26-29, 1998
summary	We have been exploring computational techniques to help building designers to specify design requirements during the early stages of design. In the past, little has been accomplished in this area either in terms of innovative computational technologies or the improvement of design performance.The prospect of improving design productivity and creating a seamless process between requirements specification and formal design are our primary motivations. This research has been conducted as partof a larger project entitled SEED (Software Environment to Support Early Phases in Building Design). SEED features an open-ended modular architecture, where each module provides support for a design activity that takes place in early design stages. Each module is supported by a database to store and retrieve information, as well as a user interface to support the interaction with designers. The module described in this paper, SEED-Pro (the architectural programming module of SEED), is a workingprototype for building design requirements specification. It can be used by other modules in SEED or by design systems in other domains, such as mechanical engineering, civil engineering, industrial designand electrical engineering. Our approach to SEED-Pro is divided into two phases: core, and support functionalities. The core functionalities operate in an interactive mode relying on a case-based approach to retrieve and adapt complex specification records to the problem at hand. The supportfunctionalities include the case-base, the data-base, and the standards processing environment for building specification tasks. Our findings indicate that SEED-Pro: (1) is a tool that structures the unstructured domain of design requirements; (2) enables the integration of design requirements with the rest of the design process, (3) leads to the creation of complex case-bases and (4) enables the observation of their performance in the context of real world design problems.
series	DDSS
last changed	2003/11/21 15:15

_id	f02d
authors	Vries, B. de, Achten, H. and Jessurun, J.
year	1998
title	What offers Virtual Reality to the Designer?
source	Proceedings of Conference on Integrated Design & Process Technology, Berlin, Germany
summary	Virtual Reality being a relatively new technology receives much attention in scientific research as well as in public news media. In the first case because of the technical problems that still have to be solved to offer the functionality and performance required by the application developers. In the second case because of the appealing interface between the application user and the computer system. Design in general and especially architectural design has a long-standing tradition in solving design problems by mixing artistic and scientific approaches. Research has resulted in design theories and methodologies in order to better understand the design process and from that to improve the quality of the designed product. Before applying Virtual Reality as an enabling technology for design, the characteristics of the technology and of the application must be specified. This is not an easy job since VR is not yet very 'stable' and design is a very complex process. From the knowledge and experience in the Calibre research group a first draft of a specification is presented so that we can draw some conclusions on the applicability of VR for design.
series	other
email
last changed	2003/04/23 15:50

_id	ddssar0203
id	ddssar0203
authors	Alkass, Sabah and Jrade, Ahmad
year	2002
title	A Web-Based Virtual Reality Model for Preliminary Estimates of Hi-Rise Building Projects
source	Timmermans, Harry (Ed.), Sixth Design and Decision Support Systems in Architecture and Urban Planning - Part one: Architecture Proceedings Avegoor, the Netherlands), 2002
summary	Cost estimating of a construction project at its early stage is considered to be very important task since it will be used as a base to commit or otherwise not to commit funds to that project. Preparation of a reliableand realistic preliminary estimate to aid the decision makers to commit funds for a specific project is a complicated assignment. Traditional methods and operations produced unsatisfactory aid due to lack ofaccuracy especially in the pre-design stage of a project. This participates in the increase of percentage of bankruptcy in the construction industry, which has dramatically climbed up and ranked as 15 percent of thewhole bankruptcies claimed in Canada (Statistic Canada 1998). This paper presents a methodology for developing and a Web-based model to automate preliminary cost estimates for hi-rise buildings. This is achieved by integrating a database with design drawings in a Virtual Reality (VR) environment. The model will automatically generate preliminary estimates after modifying a 3D CAD drawing. It provides the user the option to visualize and simulate the drawing and its cost data through VR environment. Having done that, it will allow owners, architects and cost engineers to view a constructed building project, change its geometric objects and shapes, and accordingly generate a new conceptual cost estimate.
series	DDSS
last changed	2003/11/21 15:15

_id	05d5
authors	Corrao, R. and Fulantelli, G.
year	1998
title	Cognitive accessibility to information on the Web: insights from a system for teaching and learning Architecture through the Net
source	AA VV, Towards an Accesible Web, Proceedings of the IV ERCIM Workshop “User Interfaces for All”, Långholmen-Stockholm
summary	The question of accessibility to the Web takes on a special meaning in educational settings where access to information requires cognitive elaboration of the page contents. It is, therefore, a matter of "cognitive access" to the Web. The main efforts of the designers of Web Based Instruction (WBI) environments to encourage cognitive access are usually aimed at the organisation and presentation of Web documents and at specific cues which can improve the user's interaction, orientation and navigation through the pages. However, it is possible to improve this high-level access to the information by supporting study activities through specific "Working tools" which can be implemented in the Web environment. In this paper we report on the design solutions we have adopted to provide cognitive access to a WBI environment for university students studying Architecture and Town Planning. In particular, we introduce "Working tools" that can be used to support flexible and effective study activities. The adopted design solutions provide different classes of users (not only students) with different access facilities. Finally, it should be noted that the methodologies of the design of WBI systems should deal with this kind of high level access and support it through specific solutions at interface and implementation levels.
series	other
last changed	2003/04/23 15:50

_id	8b9d
authors	Corrao, R. and Fulantelli, G.
year	1998
title	Cognitive Accessibility to Information on the Web: Insights from a System for Teaching and Learning Architecture through the Net ShortPapers: Design Methodology for Universal Access
source	Proceedings of the 4th ERCIM Workshop on "User Interfaces forAll" 1998 n.14 p.6 ERCIM
summary	The question of accessibility to the Web takes on a special meaning in educational settings where access to information requires cognitive elaboration of the page contents. It is, therefore, a matter of "cognitive access" to the Web. The main efforts of the designers of Web Based Instruction (WBI) environments to encourage cognitive access are usually aimed at the organisation and presentation of Web documents and at specific cues which can improve the user's interaction, orientation and navigation through the pages. However, it is possible to improve this high-level access to the information by supporting study activities through specific "Working tools" which can be implemented in the Web environment. In this paper we report on the design solutions we have adopted to provide cognitive access to a WBI environment for university students studying Architecture and Town Planning. In particular, we introduce "Working tools" that can be used to support flexible and effective study activities. The adopted design solutions provide different classes of users (not only students) with different access facilities. Finally, it should be noted that the methodologies of the design of WBI systems should deal with this kind of high level access and support it through specific solutions at interface and implementation levels.
series	other
last changed	2002/07/07 16:01

_id	3d1d
authors	De Vries, B. and Jessurun, A.J.
year	1998
title	An Experimental Design System for the Very Early Design Stage
source	Timmermans (ed.) Proceedings of the 4th Conference on Design and Decision Support Systems in Architecture and Urban Planning, Maastricht
summary	The concepts of the experimental design system that are discussed are feature modeling and geometrical constraints. The main technique for creating the user environment is Virtual Reality. Feature modeling forms the basis for managing the design data. To start with, data storage is implemented in a Relational Data Base Management System. Along with this a (traditional) interface is developed for managing the data. Data management consists of feature type creation and feature type instancing. Features are used to define building elements, their relationships and additional constraints. Apart from the design data, geometrical data are stored. Possible design solutions can be limited using geometrical constraints. Specifying connection types between building elements result in a set of solutions for the position of the bounding boxes of the building elements in space.
series	other
email
last changed	2003/04/23 15:50

_id	e72f
authors	Dorta, Tomás and LaLande, Philippe
year	1998
title	The Impact of Virtual Reality on the Design Process
doi	https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.acadia.1998.138
source	Digital Design Studios: Do Computers Make a Difference? [ACADIA Conference Proceedings / ISBN 1-880250-07-1] Québec City (Canada) October 22-25, 1998, pp. 138-163
summary	Sketching, either hand or computer generated, along with other traditional visualization tools such as perspective drawing have difficulty in correctly representing three dimensional objects. Even physical models, in architecture, suffer in this regard because of inevitable scaling. The designer finds himself cut off from the reality of the object and is prone to misinterpretations of the object and its surrounding space and to resulting design errors. These are sometimes not perceived until too late, once the object has been constructed. Traditional tools use 2D media to represent 3D objects and only manage to introduce the third dimension in a limited manner (perspectives, not only tedious to construct, are static). This scenario affects the design process, particularly the cycle of proposal, verification and correction of design hypotheses as well as the cognitive aspects that condition the designer’s visualization of the designed object. In most cases, computer graphics mimic, through its interface, the traditional way of doing things. The architectural model is parametricized with little regard for visualization. No allowance is made for the change in the medium of graphic representation. Moreover, effort is not made to capitalize on the advantages of numerical calculation to propose new interfaces and new dimensions in object visualization. Virtual Reality (VR), seen not only as technology but as experience, brings the 3D object, abstractly viewed by traditional means, into clearer focus and provides us with these new dimensions. Errors due to abstracted representation are reduced since the interface is always three dimensional and the interactions intuitively made in real time thus allowing the designer to experience the presence of the designed object very quickly. At the École de design industriel of the Faculté d’aménagement, we have run tests using non-immersive VR–one passive (comprehension) and another active (design). This project, involving a group of 72 students during a period of six weeks (6h/week), aimed at analyzing the impact of VR as a visualization tool on the design process versus traditional tools. The results, described in this presentation, shed light on the effect of VR on the creative process as such, as well as on the quality of the results produced by that process.
series	ACADIA
email
last changed	2022/06/07 07:55

_id	4942
authors	Gardner, Brian M.
year	1998
title	The Grid Sketcher: An AutoCAD Based Tool for Conceptual Design Processes
doi	https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.acadia.1998.222
source	Digital Design Studios: Do Computers Make a Difference? [ACADIA Conference Proceedings / ISBN 1-880250-07-1] Québec City (Canada) October 22-25, 1998, pp. 222-237
summary	Sketching with pencil and paper is reminiscent of the varied, rich, and loosely defined formal processes associated with conceptual design. Architects actively engage such creative paradigms in their exploration and development of conceptual design solutions. The Grid Sketcher, as a conceptual sketching tool, presents one possible computer implementation for enhancing and supporting these processes. It effectively demonstrates the facility with which current technology and the computing environment can enhance and simulate sketching intents and expectations. One pervasive and troubling undercurrent, however, is the conceptual barrier between the variable processes of human thought and those indigenous to computing. Typically with respect to design, the position taken is that the two are virtually void of any fundamental commonality. A designer’s thoughts are intuitive, at times irrational, and rarely follow consistently identifiable patterns. Conversely, computing requires predictability in just these endeavors. Computing is strictly an algorithmic process while thought is not always so predictable. Given these dichotomous relationships, the computing environment, as commonly defined, cannot reasonably expect to mimic the typically human domain of creative design. In this context, this thesis accentuates the computer’s role as a form generator as opposed to a form evaluator. The computer, under the influence of certain contextual parameters can, however, provide the designer with a rich and elegant set of forms that respond through algorithmics to the designer’s creative intents. The software presented in this thesis is written in AutoLISP and exploits AutoCAD’s capacious 3D environment. Designs and productions respond to a bounded framework where user selected parametric variables of size, scale, proportion, and proximity, all which reflect contextual issues, determine the characteristics of a unit form. Designer selected growth algorithms then arbitrate the spatial relationships between the unit forms and their propagation through the developing design. While the Sketcher implements only the GRID as an organizational discipline, many other paradigms are possible. Within this grid structure a robust set of editing features, supported by the computer’s inherent speed, allows the designer to analyze successive productions while refining ever more complex solutions. Through creative manipulation of these algorithmic structures ideas eventually coalesce to formalize images that represent a given design problem’s solution set.
series	ACADIA
email
last changed	2022/06/07 07:51

_id	ddss9822
id	ddss9822
authors	Gribnau, M.W., Verstijnen, I.M. and Hennessey, J.M.
year	1998
title	Three Dimensional Object Orientation Using the Non-Dominant Hand
source	Timmermans, Harry (Ed.), Fourth Design and Decision Support Systems in Architecture and Urban Planning Maastricht, the Netherlands), ISBN 90-6814-081-7, July 26-29, 1998
summary	The paper presents the “Turntable”, a 3D input device for orienting objects using the non-dominant hand. The device supports two-handed manipulation by allowing the non-dominant hand to orient an object while leaving the dominant hand free to perform other actions. Two-handed input is a technique that can enhance the performance, simplicity and intuitiveness of CAD systems. These properties are obligatory for CAD systems dedicated to support the conceptual phase of the design process. Anexperiment has been conducted in which the performance of the Turntable was compared to that of a well known 3D orientation method, known in literature as the “virtual sphere”. The virtual sphere is operated with the mouse using the dominant hand and is documented to be easy to use and efficient. The experiment establishes that a performance gain can be expected from a two-handed user interface that employs the Turntable for 3D object orientation with the non-dominant hand. In a single-handedinterface users must switch between rotating and manipulating an object. In a two-handed interface however, task switching is unnecessary and an additional performance benefit can be achieved when there is temporal overlap in the execution of the two tasks. Experimental results show that the Turntable, operated by the non-dominant hand, is easy to learn and its performance and accuracy are nearly equal to that of the virtual sphere operated by the dominant hand. With these results it can now be expected that a two-handed interface utilizing the Turntable performs better than a single-handed one for manipulating objects in 3D.
series	DDSS
last changed	2003/08/07 16:36

_id	c125
authors	LaViola, J., Holden, L.S., Forsberg, A.S., Bhuphaibool, D.S. and Zeleznik, R.C.
year	1998
title	Collaborative Conceptual Modeling Using the SKETCH Framework
source	Proceedings of IASTED International Conference on Computer Graphics and Imaging, 154-158
summary	This paper introduces NetSketch, an application that supports distributed conceptual design by providing tools for modelessly creating, manipulating and viewing 3D models in a shared virtual space. Inherent problems exist with collaborative design tools because of the simultaneous group interaction required for users to smoothly and effectively work together in the same virtual space. With NetSketch, we provide solutions to these problems by providing a fast and direct gesture-based user interface, a set of visual effects that better enable a user's awareness of operations done by other participants, and a set of tools for enhancing visual communication between participants.
series	other
last changed	2003/04/23 15:50

_id	c16f
id	c16f
authors	McCall, Ray
year	1998
title	World Wide Presentation and Critique of Design Proposals with the Web-PHIDIAS System
doi	https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.acadia.1998.254
source	Digital Design Studios: Do Computers Make a Difference? [ACADIA Conference Proceedings / ISBN 1-880250-07-1] Québec City (Canada) October 22-25, 1998, pp. 254-265
summary	In this paper we describe Web-PHIDIAS, a network-centric design environment based on the PHIDIAS HyperCAD system. Web-PHIDIAS uses the backend of PHIDIAS as a hypermedia database engine to serve up VRML models, HTML pages and Java applets over the Web. In particular, it uses the Web (1) to present 3D models of design proposals using VRML; (2) to present rationale for these proposals; and (3) to get comments on the proposals and their rationale from viewers anywhere in the world. These comments are automatically stored in a server-side hypermedia database where they are linked to the models and rationale that they refer to. The proposal presenter can opt to have Web-PHIDIAS make these comments part of the public presentation so that other viewers throughout the world can comment on the comments. Perhaps most important is the fact that a Web site implemented with Web-PHIDIAS has no persistent HTML pages or forms. All presentations of data over the Web are created “on the fly” by the server-side part of Web-PHIDIAS using HTML and Java. User input is obtained using an authoring interface created in Java.
series	ACADIA
email
last changed	2022/06/07 07:59

_id	2539
authors	Neuckermans, H., De Ridder, T. and Geebelen, B.
year	1998
title	Speech-Driven Computer-Aided Design - Innovation in Human-Computer Interaction
doi	https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.caadria.1998.309
source	CAADRIA ‘98 [Proceedings of The Third Conference on Computer Aided Architectural Design Research in Asia / ISBN 4-907662-009] Osaka (Japan) 22-24 April 1998, pp. 309-316
summary	The use of computers in architectural design has shifted from what initially was a very numerical approach into a graphical way and thus into a designerly way of working. Through the extensive use of WIMPs CAAD packages today are more or less user-friendly. In the meantime the ever increasing functionality of those packages inflate the number of commands, actions, options and choices which have to be activated with the mouse in order to generate a structured drawing. As a result packages become rather cumbersome to handle. In this research we have explored a new medium, namely speech, to tell the machine what to do. With software for speech recognition and making use of a head-mounted microphone we have built a far more user-friendly way of handling a CAD package. Grids, snap, ortho, layers, settings and other commands that can be used in combination with mouse actions are activated and deactivated by voice command. We are convinced that this is a step further towards a more easy and natural way of using computers while designing and certainly a way for speeding up the modeling of real architecture. The experiment has been conducted for AutoCAD with the software for speech recognition by Lernout & Hauspie. This new way of working is not limited to architecture and the principle can be used right now for any other package, provided it has a programming interface.
keywords	Electronic Design Media, Human-Computer Interaction, Design
series	CAADRIA
email
more	http://www.caadria.org
last changed	2022/06/07 07:58

_id	ga0026
id	ga0026
authors	Ransen, Owen F.
year	2000
title	Possible Futures in Computer Art Generation
source	International Conference on Generative Art
summary	Years of trying to create an "Image Idea Generator" program have convinced me that the perfect solution would be to have an artificial artistic person, a design slave. This paper describes how I came to that conclusion, realistic alternatives, and briefly, how it could possibly happen. 1. The history of Repligator and Gliftic 1.1 Repligator In 1996 I had the idea of creating an “image idea generator”. I wanted something which would create images out of nothing, but guided by the user. The biggest conceptual problem I had was “out of nothing”. What does that mean? So I put aside that problem and forced the user to give the program a starting image. This program eventually turned into Repligator, commercially described as an “easy to use graphical effects program”, but actually, to my mind, an Image Idea Generator. The first release came out in October 1997. In December 1998 I described Repligator V4 [1] and how I thought it could be developed away from simply being an effects program. In July 1999 Repligator V4 won the Shareware Industry Awards Foundation prize for "Best Graphics Program of 1999". Prize winners are never told why they won, but I am sure that it was because of two things: 1) Easy of use 2) Ease of experimentation "Ease of experimentation" means that Repligator does in fact come up with new graphics ideas. Once you have input your original image you can generate new versions of that image simply by pushing a single key. Repligator is currently at version 6, but, apart from adding many new effects and a few new features, is basically the same program as version 4. Following on from the ideas in [1] I started to develop Gliftic, which is closer to my original thoughts of an image idea generator which "starts from nothing". The Gliftic model of images was that they are composed of three components: 1. Layout or form, for example the outline of a mandala is a form. 2. Color scheme, for example colors selected from autumn leaves from an oak tree. 3. Interpretation, for example Van Gogh would paint a mandala with oak tree colors in a different way to Andy Warhol. There is a Van Gogh interpretation and an Andy Warhol interpretation. Further I wanted to be able to genetically breed images, for example crossing two layouts to produce a child layout. And the same with interpretations and color schemes. If I could achieve this then the program would be very powerful. 1.2 Getting to Gliftic Programming has an amazing way of crystalising ideas. If you want to put an idea into practice via a computer program you really have to understand the idea not only globally, but just as importantly, in detail. You have to make hard design decisions, there can be no vagueness, and so implementing what I had decribed above turned out to be a considerable challenge. I soon found out that the hardest thing to do would be the breeding of forms. What are the "genes" of a form? What are the genes of a circle, say, and how do they compare to the genes of the outline of the UK? I wanted the genotype representation (inside the computer program's data) to be directly linked to the phenotype representation (on the computer screen). This seemed to be the best way of making sure that bred-forms would bare some visual relationship to their parents. I also wanted symmetry to be preserved. For example if two symmetrical objects were bred then their children should be symmetrical. I decided to represent shapes as simply closed polygonal shapes, and the "genes" of these shapes were simply the list of points defining the polygon. Thus a circle would have to be represented by a regular polygon of, say, 100 sides. The outline of the UK could easily be represented as a list of points every 10 Kilometers along the coast line. Now for the important question: what do you get when you cross a circle with the outline of the UK? I tried various ways of combining the "genes" (i.e. coordinates) of the shapes, but none of them really ended up producing interesting shapes. And of the methods I used, many of them, applied over several "generations" simply resulted in amorphous blobs, with no distinct family characteristics. Or rather maybe I should say that no single method of breeding shapes gave decent results for all types of images. Figure 1 shows an example of breeding a mandala with 6 regular polygons: Figure 1 Mandala bred with array of regular polygons I did not try out all my ideas, and maybe in the future I will return to the problem, but it was clear to me that it is a non-trivial problem. And if the breeding of shapes is a non-trivial problem, then what about the breeding of interpretations? I abandoned the genetic (breeding) model of generating designs but retained the idea of the three components (form, color scheme, interpretation). 1.3 Gliftic today Gliftic Version 1.0 was released in May 2000. It allows the user to change a form, a color scheme and an interpretation. The user can experiment with combining different components together and can thus home in on an personally pleasing image. Just as in Repligator, pushing the F7 key make the program choose all the options. Unlike Repligator however the user can also easily experiment with the form (only) by pushing F4, the color scheme (only) by pushing F5 and the interpretation (only) by pushing F6. Figures 2, 3 and 4 show some example images created by Gliftic. Figure 2 Mandala interpreted with arabesques Figure 3 Trellis interpreted with "graphic ivy" Figure 4 Regular dots interpreted as "sparks" 1.4 Forms in Gliftic V1 Forms are simply collections of graphics primitives (points, lines, ellipses and polygons). The program generates these collections according to the user's instructions. Currently the forms are: Mandala, Regular Polygon, Random Dots, Random Sticks, Random Shapes, Grid Of Polygons, Trellis, Flying Leap, Sticks And Waves, Spoked Wheel, Biological Growth, Chequer Squares, Regular Dots, Single Line, Paisley, Random Circles, Chevrons. 1.5 Color Schemes in Gliftic V1 When combining a form with an interpretation (described later) the program needs to know what colors it can use. The range of colors is called a color scheme. Gliftic has three color scheme types: 1. Random colors: Colors for the various parts of the image are chosen purely at random. 2. Hue Saturation Value (HSV) colors: The user can choose the main hue (e.g. red or yellow), the saturation (purity) of the color scheme and the value (brightness/darkness) . The user also has to choose how much variation is allowed in the color scheme. A wide variation allows the various colors of the final image to depart a long way from the HSV settings. A smaller variation results in the final image using almost a single color. 3. Colors chosen from an image: The user can choose an image (for example a JPG file of a famous painting, or a digital photograph he took while on holiday in Greece) and Gliftic will select colors from that image. Only colors from the selected image will appear in the output image. 1.6 Interpretations in Gliftic V1 Interpretation in Gliftic is best decribed with a few examples. A pure geometric line could be interpreted as: 1) the branch of a tree 2) a long thin arabesque 3) a sequence of disks 4) a chain, 5) a row of diamonds. An pure geometric ellipse could be interpreted as 1) a lake, 2) a planet, 3) an eye. Gliftic V1 has the following interpretations: Standard, Circles, Flying Leap, Graphic Ivy, Diamond Bar, Sparkz, Ess Disk, Ribbons, George Haite, Arabesque, ZigZag. 1.7 Applications of Gliftic Currently Gliftic is mostly used for creating WEB graphics, often backgrounds as it has an option to enable "tiling" of the generated images. There is also a possibility that it will be used in the custom textile business sometime within the next year or two. The real application of Gliftic is that of generating new graphics ideas, and I suspect that, like Repligator, many users will only understand this later. 2. The future of Gliftic, 3 possibilties Completing Gliftic V1 gave me the experience to understand what problems and opportunities there will be in future development of the program. Here I divide my many ideas into three oversimplified possibilities, and the real result may be a mix of two or all three of them. 2.1 Continue the current development "linearly" Gliftic could grow simply by the addition of more forms and interpretations. In fact I am sure that initially it will grow like this. However this limits the possibilities to what is inside the program itself. These limits can be mitigated by allowing the user to add forms (as vector files). The user can already add color schemes (as images). The biggest problem with leaving the program in its current state is that there is no easy way to add interpretations. 2.2 Allow the artist to program Gliftic It would be interesting to add a language to Gliftic which allows the user to program his own form generators and interpreters. In this way Gliftic becomes a "platform" for the development of dynamic graphics styles by the artist. The advantage of not having to deal with the complexities of Windows programming could attract the more adventurous artists and designers. The choice of programming language of course needs to take into account the fact that the "programmer" is probably not be an expert computer scientist. I have seen how LISP (an not exactly easy artificial intelligence language) has become very popular among non programming users of AutoCAD. If, to complete a job which you do manually and repeatedly, you can write a LISP macro of only 5 lines, then you may be tempted to learn enough LISP to write those 5 lines. Imagine also the ability to publish (and/or sell) "style generators". An artist could develop a particular interpretation function, it creates images of a given character which others find appealing. The interpretation (which runs inside Gliftic as a routine) could be offered to interior designers (for example) to unify carpets, wallpaper, furniture coverings for single projects. As Adrian Ward [3] says on his WEB site: "Programming is no less an artform than painting is a technical process." Learning a computer language to create a single image is overkill and impractical. Learning a computer language to create your own artistic style which generates an infinite series of images in that style may well be attractive. 2.3 Add an artificial conciousness to Gliftic This is a wild science fiction idea which comes into my head regularly. Gliftic manages to surprise the users with the images it makes, but, currently, is limited by what gets programmed into it or by pure chance. How about adding a real artifical conciousness to the program? Creating an intelligent artificial designer? According to Igor Aleksander [1] conciousness is required for programs (computers) to really become usefully intelligent. Aleksander thinks that "the line has been drawn under the philosophical discussion of conciousness, and the way is open to sound scientific investigation". Without going into the details, and with great over-simplification, there are roughly two sorts of artificial intelligence: 1) Programmed intelligence, where, to all intents and purposes, the programmer is the "intelligence". The program may perform well (but often, in practice, doesn't) and any learning which is done is simply statistical and pre-programmed. There is no way that this type of program could become concious. 2) Neural network intelligence, where the programs are based roughly on a simple model of the brain, and the network learns how to do specific tasks. It is this sort of program which, according to Aleksander, could, in the future, become concious, and thus usefully intelligent. What could the advantages of an artificial artist be? 1) There would be no need for programming. Presumbably the human artist would dialog with the artificial artist, directing its development. 2) The artificial artist could be used as an apprentice, doing the "drudge" work of art, which needs intelligence, but is, anyway, monotonous for the human artist. 3) The human artist imagines "concepts", the artificial artist makes them concrete. 4) An concious artificial artist may come up with ideas of its own. Is this science fiction? Arthur C. Clarke's 1st Law: "If a famous scientist says that something can be done, then he is in all probability correct. If a famous scientist says that something cannot be done, then he is in all probability wrong". Arthur C Clarke's 2nd Law: "Only by trying to go beyond the current limits can you find out what the real limits are." One of Bertrand Russell's 10 commandments: "Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every opinion now accepted was once eccentric" 3. References 1. "From Ramon Llull to Image Idea Generation". Ransen, Owen. Proceedings of the 1998 Milan First International Conference on Generative Art. 2. "How To Build A Mind" Aleksander, Igor. Wiedenfeld and Nicolson, 1999 3. "How I Drew One of My Pictures: or, The Authorship of Generative Art" by Adrian Ward and Geof Cox. Proceedings of the 1999 Milan 2nd International Conference on Generative Art.
series	other
email
more	http://www.generativeart.com/
last changed	2003/08/07 17:25

_id	30
authors	Vizcaino, M.S., Leal, M., Maria, L., Persia, M. and Tamagnini, A.
year	1998
title	Base de Datos Bodega (Data Base Warehouse)
source	II Seminario Iberoamericano de Grafico Digital [SIGRADI Conference Proceedings / ISBN 978-97190-0-X] Mar del Plata (Argentina) 9-11 september 1998, pp. 232-237
summary	The architectural objects and their site are an indivisible part of the concrete culture of a place.in order to achieve the protection of the Cultural Property, the indispensable previous step is the fulfilment of an inventory. If a good inventory is not available, serious tasks of public awareness could not be carried out, nor could be adopted policies or specific safeguard projects. Besides, neither criteria nor protective measurements in the plans of urban or regional development could be incorporated. Finally, we could not discuss with the sufficient scientific support. San Juan has climatic features typical of and regions with high seismic risk, scarce hydric resources, landscape diversity and singular vegetation. This favoured the cultivation of vineyards as well as the construction of important industrial buildings. In this sense, the Architecture of the Vine Production and Wine - making gave rise to establishments (buildings and sites), whose architectural characteristics, in a holistic consideration, are part of the Provincial Architectural Patrimony. A relational database structured by fields related to different levels of information was designed so as to fulfil this inventory. The data processing application used enables to search and ask for information by means of an easy access interface with the following possibilities :expansion, versatility in the design of visualization-printing plugs and readiness to migrate to other formats.
series	SIGRADI
email
last changed	2016/03/10 10:02

_id	ddss9862
id	ddss9862
authors	Vries, B. de and Jessurun, A.J.
year	1998
title	An experimental design system for the veryearly design stage
source	Timmermans, Harry (Ed.), Fourth Design and Decision Support Systems in Architecture and Urban Planning Maastricht, the Netherlands), ISBN 90-6814-081-7, July 26-29, 1998
summary	The concepts of the experimental design system that are discussed are feature modeling and geometrical constraints. The main technique for creating the user environment is Virtual Reality. Feature modeling forms the basis for managing the design data. To start with, data storage is implemented in a Relational Data Base Management System. Alongwith this a (traditional) interface is developed for managing the data. Data management consists of feature type creation and feature type instancing. Features are used to define building elements, their relationships and additional constraints. Apart from the design data, geometrical data are stored. Possible design solutions can be limited using geometrical constraints. Specifying connection types between building elements result in a set of solutions for the position of the bounding boxes of the building elements in space.
series	DDSS
last changed	2003/08/07 16:36

_id	avocaad_2001_16
id	avocaad_2001_16
authors	Yu-Ying Chang, Yu-Tung Liu, Chien-Hui Wong
year	2001
title	Some Phenomena of Spatial Characteristics of Cyberspace
source	AVOCAAD - ADDED VALUE OF COMPUTER AIDED ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN, Nys Koenraad, Provoost Tom, Verbeke Johan, Verleye Johan (Eds.), (2001) Hogeschool voor Wetenschap en Kunst - Departement Architectuur Sint-Lucas, Campus Brussel, ISBN 80-76101-05-1
summary	"Space," which has long been an important concept in architecture (Bloomer & Moore, 1977; Mitchell, 1995, 1999), has attracted interest of researchers from various academic disciplines in recent years (Agnew, 1993; Benko & Strohmayer, 1996; Chang, 1999; Foucault, 1982; Gould, 1998). Researchers from disciplines such as anthropology, geography, sociology, philosophy, and linguistics regard it as the basis of the discussion of various theories in social sciences and humanities (Chen, 1999). On the other hand, since the invention of Internet, Internet users have been experiencing a new and magic "world." According to the definitions in traditional architecture theories, "space" is generated whenever people define a finite void by some physical elements (Zevi, 1985). However, although Internet is a virtual, immense, invisible and intangible world, navigating in it, we can still sense the very presence of ourselves and others in a wonderland. This sense could be testified by our naming of Internet as Cyberspace -- an exotic kind of space. Therefore, as people nowadays rely more and more on the Internet in their daily life, and as more and more architectural scholars and designers begin to invest their efforts in the design of virtual places online (e.g., Maher, 1999; Li & Maher, 2000), we cannot help but ask whether there are indeed sensible spaces in Internet. And if yes, these spaces exist in terms of what forms and created by what ways?To join the current interdisciplinary discussion on the issue of space, and to obtain new definition as well as insightful understanding of "space", this study explores the spatial phenomena in Internet. We hope that our findings would ultimately be also useful for contemporary architectural designers and scholars in their designs in the real world.As a preliminary exploration, the main objective of this study is to discover the elements involved in the creation/construction of Internet spaces and to examine the relationship between human participants and Internet spaces. In addition, this study also attempts to investigate whether participants from different academic disciplines define or experience Internet spaces in different ways, and to find what spatial elements of Internet they emphasize the most.In order to achieve a more comprehensive understanding of the spatial phenomena in Internet and to overcome the subjectivity of the members of the research team, the research design of this study was divided into two stages. At the first stage, we conducted literature review to study existing theories of space (which are based on observations and investigations of the physical world). At the second stage of this study, we recruited 8 Internet regular users to approach this topic from different point of views, and to see whether people with different academic training would define and experience Internet spaces differently.The results of this study reveal that the relationship between human participants and Internet spaces is different from that between human participants and physical spaces. In the physical world, physical elements of space must be established first; it then begins to be regarded as a place after interaction between/among human participants or interaction between human participants and the physical environment. In contrast, in Internet, a sense of place is first created through human interactions (or activities), Internet participants then begin to sense the existence of a space. Therefore, it seems that, among the many spatial elements of Internet we found, "interaction/reciprocity" Ñ either between/among human participants or between human participants and the computer interface Ð seems to be the most crucial element.In addition, another interesting result of this study is that verbal (linguistic) elements could provoke a sense of space in a degree higher than 2D visual representation and no less than 3D visual simulations. Nevertheless, verbal and 3D visual elements seem to work in different ways in terms of cognitive behaviors: Verbal elements provoke visual imagery and other sensory perceptions by "imagining" and then excite personal experiences of space; visual elements, on the other hand, provoke and excite visual experiences of space directly by "mapping".Finally, it was found that participants with different academic training did experience and define space differently. For example, when experiencing and analyzing Internet spaces, architecture designers, the creators of the physical world, emphasize the design of circulation and orientation, while participants with linguistics training focus more on subtle language usage. Visual designers tend to analyze the graphical elements of virtual spaces based on traditional painting theories; industrial designers, on the other hand, tend to treat these spaces as industrial products, emphasizing concept of user-center and the control of the computer interface.The findings of this study seem to add new information to our understanding of virtual space. It would be interesting for future studies to investigate how this information influences architectural designers in their real-world practices in this digital age. In addition, to obtain a fuller picture of Internet space, further research is needed to study the same issue by examining more Internet participants who have no formal linguistics and graphical training.
series	AVOCAAD
email
last changed	2005/09/09 10:48

_id	ddss9801
id	ddss9801
authors	Achten, Henri and Leeuwen, Jos van
year	1998
title	A Feature-Based Description Technique for Design Processes: A Case Study
source	Timmermans, Harry (Ed.), Fourth Design and Decision Support Systems in Architecture and Urban Planning Maastricht, the Netherlands), ISBN 90-6814-081-7, July 26-29, 1998
summary	In order to develop appropriate tools for decision support in design processes, it is necessary to found them on an understanding of design. Analytical techniques of design processes that have a direct relationship with tool development can enhance design support systems development. The paper focuses on a design support system in the VR-DIS research program. The aim of this research program is to develop insight in the architectural design process and to establish design tools for architectsworking in Virtual Reality. The basic approach for data modelling in VR in this research is based on an extension of the Feature Based Modelling paradigm taken from design in mechanical engineering. The computer model of the design in the system is a Feature-based model. This paper describes design processes in terms of changes in the Feature-based model of the design. For this purpose, a case of a house design is used. Drawings in the conceptual design phase up to the preliminary design phase arestudied. Each state of the drawings is described in terms of a Feature-model. Particular design actions such as creation of spaces, definition of architectural elements, and changes during the design process can be expressed in terms of changes in the Feature-model. Because of the use of Features, the changes can be formalised in the VR-DIS system. The description in terms of Features offers an analytical toolthat leads to a functional brief for design support tools. The paper ends with a discussion of implications and future work.
series	DDSS
last changed	2003/11/21 15:15

_id	0f09
authors	Ando, H., Kubota, A. and Kiriyama, T.
year	1998
title	Study on the collaborative design process over the internet: A case study on VRML 2.0 specification design
source	Design Studies 19, pp. 289-308
summary	In this paper, we analyze the process of VRML 2.0 (Virtual Reality Modeling Language, Version 2.0) specification design for the deeper understanding of Internet-based collaboration. The VRML design process has the characteristics of being open to the public, geographically distributed, long-term, large-scale, and diverse. First, we examine the overall features of the design process by analyzing the VRML mailing list archive statistically. Secondly, we extract prototyping vocabulary (operational patterns) from the document change log. Thirdly, we analyze the process of proposing and agreeing with the PROTO node in detail. The results of analysis provide us with a guidance for facilitating innovation in the Internet-based collaboration.
series	journal paper
last changed	2003/11/21 15:15

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