| NSF Org: |
IIS Division of Information & Intelligent Systems |
| Recipient: |
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| Initial Amendment Date: | February 13, 2009 |
| Latest Amendment Date: | June 27, 2013 |
| Award Number: | 0845401 |
| Award Instrument: | Continuing Grant |
| Program Manager: |
Ephraim Glinert
IIS Division of Information & Intelligent Systems CSE Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering |
| Start Date: | July 1, 2009 |
| End Date: | June 30, 2016 (Estimated) |
| Total Intended Award Amount: | $479,808.00 |
| Total Awarded Amount to Date: | $494,808.00 |
| Funds Obligated to Date: |
FY 2010 = $91,694.00 FY 2011 = $110,759.00 FY 2012 = $100,029.00 FY 2013 = $104,516.00 |
| History of Investigator: |
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| Recipient Sponsored Research Office: |
110 8TH ST TROY NY US 12180-3590 (518)276-6000 |
| Sponsor Congressional District: |
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| Primary Place of Performance: |
110 8TH ST TROY NY US 12180-3590 |
| Primary Place of
Performance Congressional District: |
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| Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): |
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| Parent UEI: |
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| NSF Program(s): | GRAPHICS & VISUALIZATION |
| Primary Program Source: |
01001011DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT 01001112DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT 01001213DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT 01001314DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT |
| Program Reference Code(s): |
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| Program Element Code(s): |
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| Award Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Fund Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Assistance Listing Number(s): | 47.070 |
ABSTRACT
In this project the PI, building on her expertise in computer graphics, computational geometry, daylighting, and architectural design, will use computer graphics and daylight modeling to advance the science of architectural daylighting design, to promote the science and understanding of creativity in design, and to create innovative tools that allow designers to explore alternative designs and new technologies for improving the sustainability of their buildings. In particular, the PI will extend her prior results on efficient, interactive algorithms for qualitatively and quantitatively accurate interactive lighting simulation, to develop a "plug in" for global illumination and visualization that can be seamlessly incorporated into the early stages of design and that will work directly with meshes produced by commonly-used modeling programs. The new tool will be intended for use on a standard desktop computer by an experienced designer, who need not be an expert in daylighting technology or advanced graphical simulations. The PI will also develop, as a companion system, a full-scale, immersive environment in which multiple architectural designers, a designer and a client, or a teacher and student(s) can gather to experience animated visualizations of the natural illumination within a proposed design by controlling the time of day, the season, and the climate. Participants will also be able to interactively redesign the space, by changing the geometry and materials. This system will be developed and exhibited on the PI's campus in the Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center (EMPAC), leveraging the computational resources at the new Computational Center for Nanotechnology Innovations (CCNI), two state-of-the-art facilities that are unique to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
Broader Impacts: The tools to be developed in this project will incorporate fundamentally new interactive global illumination algorithms to solve for the challenging dynamic illumination conditions presented by daily and seasonal variations of the sun and sky. Techniques from the realm of parallel and distributed computing will be applied and extended, in order to facilitate online simulation and optimization during iterative architectural design. The architectural design process will thus become more effective and creative, enabling better exploitation of daylighting with a consequential reduction in the need for supplemental electric lighting, thereby leading to more energy-efficient building designs. The same framework will be applicable to other design problems that require complex physical simulation and visualization, including for example passive solar heating and cooling, acoustics, aerodynamic building envelopes, structural analysis, and general (non-architectural) design scenarios.
PUBLICATIONS PRODUCED AS A RESULT OF THIS RESEARCH
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PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORT
Disclaimer
This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.
In this research we use computer graphics and daylight modeling to advance the science of architectural daylighting design, promote the science and understanding of creativity in design, and create innovative tools that allow designers to explore alternative designs and new technologies for improving the sustainability of their buildings. We tackled the computationally-intensive simulation of daylighting within an architectural environment. We used a hybrid approach of existing computer graphics techniques to calculate the lighting on all surfaces to achieve the necessary accuracy in overall interreflection of light (global illumination) with the speed necessary for time-lapse animation and re-design.
We collaborated with architecture faculty & students to learn what aspects of daylighting simulation more useful during their design process, and in evaluation of their design. To have a positive impact on architectural design the new tools must interaction, effective visualization, redesign, and analysis. We create a variety of different user interfaces that utilized many of the same components.
Our first major thrust was a table top, tangible interface that would be appropriate for use in a conference room. It allows multiple users to gather around the design, inspecting the geometry, reviewing the lighting at a static point in time or a dynamic playback. The viewers can engage with the model, editing the geometry or modifying the simulated materials. This interface is useful for an architect-client meeting at an intermediate stage of the design process to review and evaluate the current design and request changes. Through this effort we developed and demonstrated a new paradigm for projecting imagery on changing geometry.
Our next major thrust was to stretch this design and analysis environment to full scale, allowing the viewer to stand inside of the room and be immersed in the simulation results. We explored methods for users to interact with full scale simulation results using wearable technology and laser pointers. Through these efforts we demonstrated algorithms for robustly and interactively detecting real-time changes to the room configuration despite presence of users within the environment.
In developing the technology for the first two thrusts a significant challenge was the projection of crisp and vivid imagery, preserving color fidelity despite the challenge of interreflections in the closed environment. We have published new techniques for optimization of this display for human perception using modern GPU to achieve fast computation.
Our third major thrust was to adapt the technology to create a web interface for lighting simulation and to allow remote users to experience the design and analysis environment. This web interface allows us to more rigorously test some of the geometric algorithms for sketching and construction of multiple interconnected rooms, allowing designers to explore more creative and complex designs.
The final thrust of evaluation spanned the full time period of the grant. After each stage of development (approximately once per year) we conducted a user study to confirm the effectiveness of our new algorithms and surveyed the participants to focus our future improvements and research directions.
Broader Impacts and Intellectual Merit: Our system improves the architect's ability to make effective use of daylighting and reduce the need for supplemental electric lighting, reducing consumption of nonrenewable energy resources.
Intellectual Merit and Integration of Research and Education: Graduate-level courses in computer graphics (also open to computer science undergraduates) as well as interdisciplinary seminar courses (targeting undergraduate and graduate students in computer science, architecture, and related fields) form the foundation of the educational plan.
This grant supported 2 PhD theses in Computer Science, 7 masters theses in Computer Science, and over a dozen undergraduate researchers in Computer Science. This research resulted in 15 peer-reviewed publications. The PI taught a seminar in a Architectural Design Tools and has developed a new course in Interactive Visualization.
Last Modified: 01/13/2017
Modified by: Barbara M Cutler
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