3D freeform design: interactive shape deformations by the use of CyberGlove

This paper presents an approach for interactive and intuitive deformation of 3D shapes. The approach combines a fast and efficient 3D free form deformation algorithm with a high degrees-offreedom input device of hand joint angles, namely, the CyberGlove. The deformation algorithm employs compactly supported radial basis functions (CSRBFs) to produce reasonable shape deformations quickly. However, positioning and moving CSRBFs properly to create a desired shape deformation is not a trivial task. In our approach, the 10 CSRBFs are virtually attached to the fingertips of the CyberGloves worn on both hands of the user. This allows the user an intuitive manipulation of 3D shapes in a manner somewhat similar to clay modeling. While the shape deformation algorithm is not physically-based, the shape deformation created by the algorithm is plausible and quite useful. In terms of speed, deformations involving all the 15k vertices of a 32k triangle mesh model can be produced at speed of about 30 frames-per-second.