Jean-Christophe Nebel

Michelangelo Position: Research Fellow Funding: SHEFC Duration: 2000-2003 Award: AH Reeve Premium in 2004 by the IEE

Project description

Michelangelo's aim is to provide the infrastructure and tools for research into whole body imaging, for applications in the creative media, biomedical and other sectors, by deploying whole body 3D imagers.

I was in charge of the development of the Michelangelo dynamic scanner.

The basic concept of the Michelangelo dynamic scanner was to equip a studio space such that the "working volume" of the space is imaged from all directions using fixed stereo-pairs of TV cameras. The stereo-pair images collected by the camera pairs are then processed using photogrammetric techniques to create a spatio-temporal 3D model of this space. This would give a full 3D model of all the action (being up-dated in real-time), which can be viewed from any direction. It would also be possible to build a data structure that accommodates information about the objects in this 3D space and how they change over time: a true 3D movie.

Studio configuration

For more information, go to Publications

Research interest keywords

computer graphics, 3D scanners  

3D Films

Talking Head - April 2002.	Breathing - September 2001.
Jump! - September 2001.	The Awakening - May 2001.

Projects using the technology

The Peppers Ghost Productions Grid Project (PGPGrid)

• Pepper's Ghost Productions Ltd, a computer generated animation company
• 3D-Matic Lab at The University of Glasgow, part of the Imaging Faraday Partnership and expert in 3D processing technology
• EPCC at The University of Edinburgh, Europe's leading High Performance Computing centre

	Full Size (640x480 8.16MB) Small (320x240 2.24MB)	A sequence captured using our dynamic 3D capture studio and then conformed to a generic mesh. This animated mesh was then processed by a high frequency filter to smooth the motion between frames based on vertex positions from adjacent frames. The mesh was then imported into 3D Studio Max® where materials and textures were added before the final animation was rendered.
	Full Size (640x480 8.18MB) Small (320x240 2.25MB)	This animation sequence is the same as the one above with the addition of an overlaid mesh to show how the underlying model structure is animated.

Publications

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2005

• Pre-commercial 3D Digital TV studio, J.-C. Nebel, W. P. Cockshott, V. Yarmolenko, E. Borland and D. MacVicar, IEE Proceedings - Vision, Image & Signal Processing, Volume 152, Issue 6, pp. 665-667, December, 2005 [PDF]

2004

• Experimental 3D Digital TV studio, J.-C. Nebel, Poster for competition for Britain's Top Younger Engineer, 14 December 2004, House of Commons, UK, poster [PDF] and certificate [PDF]

2003

• An Experimental 3D Digital TV studio, W. P. Cockshott, S. Hoff and J.-C. Nebel, IEE Proceedings - Vision, Image & Signal Processing, Vol. 150, Issue 1, February 2003 (A H Reeve Premium awarded by the IEE Council) [PDF]

2002

• An Experimental 3D Digital TV studio, W. P. Cockshott, S. Hoff and J.-C. Nebel, Internal Report, 2002 [PDF]
• Study of the breathing pattern based on 4D data collected by a dynamic 3D body scanner, L. Benton and J.-C. Nebel, Proc. 7th Numerisation 3D/Scanning 2002 Congress, Paris, France, 2002 [PDF]

2001

• Generation of True 3D Films, J.-C. Nebel, LNCS 2197, International Conference on Virtual Storytelling 2001, September 27-28, 2001, Avignon, France [PDF]
• Stroboscopic stereo rangefinder, J.-C. Nebel, F. J. Rodriguez-Miguel and W. P. Cockshott, 3DIM2001, May 28 - June 1, 2001, Quebec City, Canada [PDF]