Current fundings
ERCIM xDDiff Project (2024-2027)
This project aims to provide tools that are effective at the industrial level to capture, communicate, reproduce and monitor the visual appearance of real or virtual objects. The project aims to provide tools for carrying out the traceable measurement of the visual appearance of non-isotropic, non-flat and functional surfaces and of translucent materials. It will provide practical solutions for measuring haze, gloss, iridescence, matte and translucency of objects, which will also help to improve the quality of virtual reality rendering models.
ECCH Automata Project (2025-2029)
EU-funded AUTOMATA will transform this process by enabling low-cost and time-efficient digitisation. Using AI-augmented robotics and sensors, AUTOMATA will create 3D models enriched with archaeometric data, providing a practical and cost-effective solution for digitisation. Robotic tools with newly developed AI methodologies will improve the digitisation process of visible and non-visible properties of archaeological finds, enhance the robustness and efficiency of 3D digitisation, improve surface appearance acquisition, and integrate 2D representations. This approach streamlines data acquisition, aided by human-AI collaboration, and, in turn, the collection of big, well-identified data will empower the development of AI models. This cost-effective technology will democratise access to digitisation, benefiting museums and smaller institutions, aid preservation methods and restorers’ work, and foster inclusive knowledge-sharing via a dedicated crowdsourcing platform. Finally, the data collected by AUTOMATA will ensure seamless integration of data into the ECCCH Cloud and facilitate data sharing and innovative usage strategies by CCIs.
VESPAA (2022-2027)
Partner: Region Nouvelle Aquitaine
The main goals of VESPAA are (1) to improve the quality of measurements data acquired by La Coupole in order to represent complex materials (gilding, pearl, patina and varnish), (2) to develop new SV-BRDF models and multi-resolution representations to visualize in real-time and with high fidelity the digitized objects under dynamic light and view directions. The targeted audience ranges from Cultural Heritage experts to mainstream public visiting the museums. Finally it also aims at ensuring the durability of the acquired reflectance properties by storing the measurements (geometry and tabulated data) as well as the SV-BRDF models (Source Code) in an open database.
ANIS (2025-2028)
Partners: Ministère de la Culture, Musée d’Archéologie nationale
The objective of the ANIS – Acquisition Numérique In-Situ (In-Situ Digital Acquisition) project is to contribute to the restoration of the appearance of three-dimensional heritage objects through the creation of a mobile physical prototype for appearance acquisition, enabling on-site intervention directly at the museum (in the exhibition hall, studio, or storage area), in the laboratory, or even directly at the archaeological site of discovery, with quantification and traceability of uncertainties.
ANIS (2025-2026)
Partners: Ministère de la Culture, Musée d’Archéologie nationale
The digitization of heritage objects addresses research challenges and opens up new possibilities for the mediation and dissemination of knowledge. However, the 3D digitization of certain objects still poses a real challenge, particularly shiny objects. This is the case for the gold coins from the Tayac treasure. The TOL project aims to define a protocol for acquiring and digitizing these objects. Three main areas of interest have emerged: the scientific analysis of reliable digital twins (metrology and distortion correction), the virtual reunification of a dispersed treasure, and use in a museum context (mounting, lighting, etc.).
Past fundings
MoStyle (2021-2025)
The main goal of this project is to investigate how computer tools can help capturing and reproducing the typicality of traditional 2D animations. Ultimately, this would allow to produce 2D animations with a unified appearance starting from roughs drawings or 3D inputs.
ECOPTICS (2021-2024)
This project ambition to bring new tools that help unravel some of the mysteries found in the visual communication of animals having remarkable optical properties (iridescence, transparency, etc). It takes a Computer Graphics approach to develop new image synthesis techiques with the goal of filling the gap between existing Optical and Ecological methodologies. The main challenge consists in connecting light transport in microscopic structures found at the surface of animals, to visual signal that may be perceptibles by another animal in its own habitat. Achieving this objective would not only shed some new light on the visual interactions among animals, but it might also suggest new bioinspired fabrication techniques.
CaLiTrOp (2017-2021)
Leader: IRIT Other partners: LIRIS
The main objective of this project is to go over a general functional and geometrical analysis of the structure of light paths space in a 3D scene in order to identify and model the properties of the light transport operators useful for efficient rendering.
FOLD-Dyn (2017-2021)
Leader: IRIT Other partners: IMAGINE, TeamTo, Mercenaries
This project proposes to explore the possibilities offered by a novel theoretical way of addressing character deformations: the implicit skinning which jointly uses meshes and volumetric scalar functions.
MATERIALS (2015-2019)
Leader: MAVERICK Other partners: Musée d’Ethnographie de Bordeaux, OCé-Print
This project aims at scanning complex cultural artifacts, such as silk cloths, capturing all the geometry of their materials at the microscopic level, then reproducing them for study by public and researchers. Reproduction can be either done through 2.5D printing or virtual reality displays.
RichShape (2014-2017)
This project aims to enhance the realism and visual richness of digital images. More precisely, its goal is to design novel representations for the creation, manipulation and efficient rendering of highly detailed 3D objects.
ISAR (2014-2017)
Leader: Potioc Other partners: LIG-CNRS-UJF, Diotasoft
This project focuses on the design, implementation and evaluation of new interaction paradigms for spatial augmented reality, and to systematically explore the design space.
PRISM (2013-2015)
Leader: Justus-Liebig Universität, Germany Other partners: listed here
PRISM is an EU-funded research and training network that unites nine leading academic and industrial partners from across Europe to understand how the brain represents the physical properties of objects, surfaces and lighting in the surrounding world.
IM&M (2011-2015)
Leader: IRIT
This project aims at the definition of simple and robust tools for the modeling of 3D objects. To this end, the proposed approach consists in combining the nice mathematical properties of implicit surfaces with classical meshes.
ALTA (2011-2015)
Leader: MAVERICK Other partners: REVES
The project ALTA aims at analyzing the light transport equations and at using the resulting representations and algorithms for more efficient computation. We target lighting simulations, either offline, high-quality simulation or interactive simulations.
V-MusT (2011-2015)
Leader: CNR ITABC
V-MusT is a EU FP7-funded network of excellence that aims to provide the heritage sector with the tools and support to develop virtual museums that are educational, enjoyable, long-lasting and easy to maintain.
SeARCH (2009-2013)
Other partners: Archéovision (UPS CNRS 3551), CEAlex (USR CNRS 3134), ESTIA
Cultural Heritage (CH) artifacts often come as a set of broken fragments leading to difficult 3D puzzles and sometime impossible to solve in a real world. The project’s goal is to propose solutions from on-site acquisition, 3D surface reconstruction and semi-automatic virtual reassembly, taking into account the expertise of CH scientists.
State Key Lab of CAD&CG (Zhejiang University – China) – Since 2008
Image Stylization and Augmented Reality
With the State Key Lab of CAD&CD, we are working on the image and video stylization. We specifically focus on the extraction of pertinent structures and their use in augmented reality.