System and method for morphable model design space definition

• US 20060038832A1
• Filed: 07/20/2005
• Published: 02/23/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 08/03/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: GM Global Technology Operations LLC (General Motors Company)
• Original Assignee: GM Global Technology Operations Incorporated (Motors Liquidation Co. GUC Trust)
• Inventors: Smith, Randall C., Warn, David Robert, Pawlicki, Richard R.
• Granted Patent: US 7,519,522 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/629
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2111/04 Constraint-based CAD
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2111/08 Probabilistic or stochastic CAD
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 30/15 Vehicle, aircraft or watercraft design
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 13/20 3D [Three Dimensional] animation
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 19/20 Editing of 3D images, e.g. changing shapes or colours, aligning objects or positioning parts
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2210/44 Morphing
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2219/2021 Shape modification

Abstract

A system, method, apparatus and product for designing, on a display device, a geometric shape is disclosed. The method comprises the steps of displaying an initial set of similarly structured model exemplars on a display device, selecting a chosen set of models from the initial set of similarly structured model exemplars to apply to a model mix, mixing the set of models consisting of a first portion and a second portion to form a currently displayed shape, providing on the display device at least one selectable feature for manipulating the currently displayed shape, and applying a constraint of the selectable feature to the displayed shape to update both the first portion and the second portion of the currently displayed shape into a new geometric shape design. In a particular implementation, the first portion of the geometric shape is an automobile and the second portion is a standardized human occupant representation.

Claims

1. A method for designing, on a display device, a geometric shape, comprising the steps of:

on a display device, displaying an initial set of similarly structured model exemplars, each exemplar including a first portion and a second portion;

selecting a chosen set of models from the initial set of similarly structured model exemplars to apply to a model mix;

mixing the set of models to form a currently displayed shape including a first portion and a second portion;

on the display device, providing at least one selectable feature for manipulating the first portion of the currently displayed shape; and

applying at least one constraint of the selectable feature to the currently displayed shape to update both the first portion and the second portion of the currently displayed shape into a new geometric shape design.

2. A method as in claim 1 wherein the currently displayed shape continuously morphs into the new geometric shape design as the constraint is applied.

3. A method as in claim 1, further comprising, on the display device including a plurality of selectable features.

4. A method as in claim 1 wherein the initial set of model exemplars have elements in 1-to-1 correspondence.

5. A method as in claim 1 wherein the chosen set of models and the currently displayed model or the new geometric shape design model may be displayed on the display device so that they are transparently superimposed upon one another.

6. A method as in claim 1 wherein the first portion of the geometric shape is that of a human representation and the second portion of the geometric shape is that of an automobile.

7. A method as in claim 1 wherein the selectable feature is a point on the currently displayed shape.

8. An exemplar design selection system, comprising:

a computing device having a memory;

a display device operatively connected to the computing device;

a selection device operatively connected to the computing device;

a user interface configured for use with the display and selection device;

a datastore of exemplar designs, each exemplar design including a first portion and a second portion, the datastore being stored in the memory;

a design space creation module operatively connected to the computing device configured to create a design space from a set of selected exemplar designs including a first portion and a second portion wherein the user interface allows the selection of a plurality of exemplar designs for processing by the design space module to generate a statistical model; and

an update module operatively connected to the computing device including instructions for applying at least one constraint to at least one selectable feature of the first portion of the exemplar for updating both the first portion and the second portion and generating a new model from the statistical model.

9. A system as recited in claim 8 wherein the first portions of the exemplar designs are human representations and wherein the second portions of the exemplar designs are vehicle designs.

10. A system as recited in claim 8 wherein the design space module includes instructions to process the exemplar designs so that their statistics are generated to form a statistical model.

11. A system as recited in claim 10 wherein the statistical model is displayed on the display device by displaying an average model.

12. A system as recited in claim 11 wherein the plurality of exemplar designs and the statistical model are displayed simultaneously on the display device.

13. A system as recited in claim 8 wherein the selectable feature is a point on the statistical model.

14. A system as recited in claim 8 wherein the user interface includes a plurality of separate user stations operatively connected for use by a plurality of users.

15. A product for designing complex geometric shapes, comprising:

a tangible media for storing instructions capable of being executed by a computer;

instructions for storing in a memory a datastore of exemplar designs having a first portion and a second portion;

instructions for processing a set of selected exemplar designs including the first portions and the second portions;

instructions for creating a design space from a set of selected exemplar designs;

instructions for mixing the set a set of selected exemplar designs to form a statistical model; and

instructions for applying one or more constraints to a selectable feature of the first portion of the statistical model to form a morphed geometric shape design of the first portion and the second portion.

16. A product as recited in claim 15 further comprising:

instructions for displaying on a display device, the set of selected exemplars and the statistical model superimposed upon one another.

17. A product as recited in claim 15 further comprising:

instructions for displaying on a display device, at least one selectable feature for manipulating the statistical model.

18. A product as recited in claim 15 wherein the statistical model is an average model.

19. A product as in claim 15, further comprising:

instructions for morphing the model according to user input.

20. A product as recited in claim 15 wherein the first portion of the exemplar designs are human representations and the second portions of the exemplar designs are second portions are vehicle designs.