Sketching a Virtual Environment: Modeling Using Line-Drawing Interpretation

Alasdair Turner, Dave Chapman, Alan Penn
VR Centre for the Built Environment
Bartlett School of Architecture
University College London
UK

Here we demonstrate the direct input to computer of a hand-drawn perspective sketch to create a virtual environment. We either start with a photograph of a real environment or an existing VRML model, and then use a mouse or pen pad to sketch line drawings onto the scene. Visual clues and constraints from the existing background and line drawing, as well as heuristics for form recognition are used to build a 3D optimization problem. We use a multiple objective genetic algorithm to find a viable solution to the problem, and VRML output is generated, either for re-entry to the system or use in another system. Our software is currently available compiled for either a PC running Windows 98/NT or an SGI machine running IRIX 6.x.