A Project Overview
Faculty of Engineering
Prof. Alison McKayProf. David Hogg Prof. Alan de PenningtonDr. Hau Hing ChauDr. Iestyn Jowers
Department of Design and Innovation
Prof. Christopher Earl Dr. Steven GarnerDr. Miquel Prats
Department of Architecture
Dr. Scott ChaseDr. Sungwoo Lim
Funded by
Designing for the 21st Century Initiative
1. What were our aims and objectives?
2. What progress did we make?
3. Where next?
Presentation Overview
… we anticipate three intertwined cycles
The Shape Synthesis
System generating
shapes
The designer designing shapes
Communication between
thetwo
The Vision
• How do designers, across a range of disciplines, generate shapes?
• What similarities and differences in approach can be observed?
• In shape grammar-based systems, can computer vision techniques be used to resolve the sub-shape detection problem?
• How might the ability to compute shapes enhance the act of designing itself?
Research Questions
1. What were our aims and objectives?
2. What progress did we make?
3. Where next?
Presentation Overview
… we anticipate three intertwined cycles
The Shape Synthesis
System generating
shapes
The designer designing shapes
Communication between
thetwo
The Vision
• How do designers, across a range of disciplines, generate shapes?
• What similarities and differences in approach can be observed?
• In shape grammar-based systems, can computer vision techniques be used to resolve the sub-shape detection problem?
• How might the ability to compute shapes enhance the act of designing itself?
Research Questions
• 8 industrial designers and 6 architects participated
• participants undertook three tasks
Learn about
segmentation
Task 13 minutes each
Task 2
Learn about
(re)interpretation
Industrial designers: Lemon squeezer
Architects: Building
10 minutes
Task 3
Industrial designers: Kettle
Architects: Building
Learn about
design networks
14 minutes
How do designers design shapes?
The actions of the participants were video recorded and their pen strokes were captured using a tablet input device
At the end of the tasks participants were asked
to elaborate on the interpretations and
manipulations of their sketches
How do designers design shapes?
How do designers design shapes?
Interpreted as
a component of the lemon squeezer
Interpreted as
side view
Interpreted as
top view
A majority of participants had more than one interpretation of the initial design during the design process Initial design
Capture shape transformations via shape rules
How do designers design shapes?
How do designers design shapes?
Classification of general shape rules
How do designers design shapes?
Frequency of use of general shape rules
Capture shape transformations in sketches via general shape rules
How do designers design shapes?
… we anticipate three intertwined cycles
The Shape Synthesis
System generating
shapes
The designer designing shapes
The Vision
Different interpretations of a shape:
Formalised and manipulated by shape rules:e.g.
How can computers generate shapes?
…which can generate networks of shapes
A set of shape rules defines a shape grammar…
e.g.
How can computers generate shapes?
Shape grammars can be used to define and explore designs:
Palladian GrammarGenerates villa plans in the
style of Andrea Palladio(Stiny and Mitchell 1978)
Buick GrammarGenerates car front ends in the Buick style (McCormack et al. 2004)
How can computers generate shapes?
Implementation of shape grammars depends on a system that can automatically detect sub-shapes under transformation
Previous approaches to sub-shape detection have relied on analytical methods with limited applicability
How can all perceived sub-shapes be represented in a shape?
How can computers generate shapes?
• How do designers, across a range of disciplines, generate shapes?
• What similarities and differences in approach can be observed?
• In shape grammar-based systems, can computer vision techniques be used to resolve the sub-shape detection problem?
• How might the ability to compute shapes enhance the act of designing itself?
Research Questions
LARGE DISTANCESMALL DISTANCE
• Using techniques from computer vision enables a shape synthesis system to “see” the sub-shapes in a design
• This allows for a more robust approach
• In practice it involves measuring the distance between point sets
How can computers generate shapes?
e.g. is a sub-shape of
NO DISTANCE
SUB-SHAPE
Find this shape…
…replace with this shape
How can computers generate shapes?
A shape synthesis system:
How can computers generate shapes?
Find thisshape…
Design
…replacewith thisshape
How can computers generate shapes?
• How do designers, across a range of disciplines, generate shapes?
• What similarities and differences in approach can be observed?
• In shape grammar-based systems, can computer vision techniques be used to resolve the sub-shape detection problem?
• How might the ability to compute shapes enhance the act of designing itself?
Research Questions
… we anticipate three intertwined cycles
The Shape Synthesis
System generating
shapes
Communication between
thetwo
The Vision
The designer designing shapes
… we anticipate three intertwined cycles
The Vision
Designer sketches
Designed shapes
Systemidentifies shapes
System applies rules
and generates new shapes
System produces
shape networks
Generatedshapes
Designer works from available shapes
Designer identifies shapes
Identify shape rules
1. What were our aims and objectives?
2. What progress did we make?
3. Where next?
Presentation Overview
Visit the project website
www.engineering.leeds.ac.uk/dssg
for • project information• publications list• video demo• software download• contact details
For more information…
• How do designers, across a range of disciplines, generate shapes?
• What similarities and differences in approach can be observed?
• In shape grammar-based systems, can computer vision techniques be used to resolve the sub-shape detection problem?
• How might the ability to compute shapes enhance the act of designing itself?
Summary