TY - CHAP A1 - Siqueira Rodrigues, Lucas A1 - Nyakatura, John A1 - Zachow, Stefan A1 - Israel, Johann Habakuk T1 - An Immersive Virtual Paleontology Application T2 - 13th International Conference on Human Haptic Sensing and Touch Enabled Computer Applications, EuroHaptics 2022 N2 - Virtual paleontology studies digital fossils through data analysis and visualization systems. The discipline is growing in relevance for the evident advantages of non-destructive imaging techniques over traditional paleontological methods, and it has made significant advancements during the last few decades. However, virtual paleontology still faces a number of technological challenges, amongst which are interaction shortcomings of image segmentation applications. Whereas automated segmentation methods are seldom applicable to fossil datasets, manual exploration of these specimens is extremely time-consuming as it impractically delves into three-dimensional data through two-dimensional visualization and interaction means. This paper presents an application that employs virtual reality and haptics to virtual paleontology in order to evolve its interaction paradigms and address some of its limitations. We provide a brief overview of the challenges faced by virtual paleontology practitioners, a description of our immersive virtual paleontology prototype, and the results of a heuristic evaluation of our design. Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-06249-0 SP - 478 EP - 481 ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Siqueira Rodrigues, Lucas A1 - Riehm, Felix A1 - Zachow, Stefan A1 - Israel, Johann Habakuk T1 - VoxSculpt: An Open-Source Voxel Library for Tomographic Volume Sculpting in Virtual Reality T2 - 2023 9th International Conference on Virtual Reality (ICVR), Xianyang, China, 2023 N2 - Manual processing of tomographic data volumes, such as interactive image segmentation in medicine or paleontology, is considered a time-consuming and cumbersome endeavor. Immersive volume sculpting stands as a potential solution to improve its efficiency and intuitiveness. However, current open-source software solutions do not yield the required performance and functionalities. We address this issue by contributing a novel open-source game engine voxel library that supports real-time immersive volume sculpting. Our design leverages GPU instancing, parallel computing, and a chunk-based data structure to optimize collision detection and rendering. We have implemented features that enable fast voxel interaction and improve precision. Our benchmark evaluation indicates that our implementation offers a significant improvement over the state-of-the-art and can render and modify millions of visible voxels while maintaining stable performance for real-time interaction in virtual reality. Y1 - 2023 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1109/ICVR57957.2023.10169420 SP - 515 EP - 523 ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Siqueira Rodrigues, Lucas A1 - Nyakatura, John A1 - Zachow, Stefan A1 - Israel, Johann Habakuk T1 - Design Challenges and Opportunities of Fossil Preparation Tools and Methods T2 - Proceedings of the 20th International Conference on Culture and Computer Science: Code and Materiality N2 - Fossil preparation is the activity of processing paleontological specimens for research and exhibition purposes. In addition to traditional mechanical extraction of fossils, preparation presently comprises non-destructive digital methods that are part of a relatively new field, namely virtual paleontology. Despite significant technological advances, both traditional and digital preparation remain cumbersome and time-consuming endeavors. However, this field has received scarce attention from a human-computer interaction perspective. The present study aims to elucidate the state-of-the-art for paleontological fossil preparation in order to determine its main challenges and start a conversation regarding opportunities for creating novel designs that tackle the field's current issues. We conducted a qualitative study involving both technical preparators and virtual paleontologists. The study was divided into two parts: First, we assembled technical preparators and paleontology researchers in a focus group session to discuss their workflows, obtain a preliminary understanding of their issues, and ideate solutions based on their counterparts' workflows. Next, we conducted a series of contextual inquiries involving direct observation and semi-structured in-depth interviews. We transcribed our recordings and examined the data through theoretical and inductive thematic analysis, clustering emerging themes and applying concepts from human-computer interaction and related fields. Our findings report on challenges faced by traditional and digital fossil preparators and potential opportunities to improve their tools and workflows. We contribute with a novel analysis of fossil preparation from an HCI perspective. Y1 - 2023 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1145/3623462.3623470 PB - Association for Computing Machinery CY - New York, NY, USA ER -