Teaching creativity in a technological design context

We want to teach creativity techniques to prospective technological designers in a domainindependent way. To facilitate this, we adopt a format and nomenclature that is close to the terminology used by engineers. Central notions are concepts, attributes and values. A crucial role is played by, what we call, productive attributes: attributes that come with a set of values that can easily be enumerated. In this paper we show how this format supports several creativity techniques and how it allows engineers to explore option spaces in a structured manner. We briefly discuss some practical experiences with our approach

Reconstructing depth from spatiotemporal curves

We present a novel approach for 3D reconstruction based on multiple video frames taken from a static scene. Our solution emerges from the spatiotemporal analysis of video frames. The method is based on a best fitting scheme for spatiotemporal depth curves, which allows us to compute 3D world coordinates of the objects within the scene. As opposed to a large number of current methods, our technique deals with random camera movements in a transparent way, and even performs better in these cases than with pure translation. Robustness against occlusion and aliasing is inherent to the method as well.Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia – PRAXIS XXI/BD/20322/99

From spatiotemporal curves to reconstructed depth

We present a novel approach for 3D reconstruction based on a set of images taken from a static scene. Our solution is inspired by spatio temporal analysis of video sequences. The method is based on a best fitting scheme for spatio temporal curves, that allows us to compute 3D world coordinates of points within the scene. As opposed to a large number of current methods, our technique deals with random camera movements in a transparent way, and even performs better in these cases than with restrained motion such as pure translation. Robustness against occlusion and aliasing is inherent to the method as well

Designing across discipline borders : obstacle or option?

Educating technological designers is difficult. An educational curriculum should provide both sufficient discipline-related skills, and cross-disciplinary skills. In order to argue about the balance between the two, we speculate on the relation between disciplines and application domains, and we give some considerations as to what disciplinary baggage gives the best preparation for prospect interdisciplinary designers. Finally, we hint at a particular role for software designers in the process of designing across discipline borders