Creative spatial interpretation of freehand sketches

Abstract

For many years, there has been a demand to support creative conceptual design with computerised options. The information contained in vague object depictions in freehand paper sketches is highly valuable to the creative search for ideas. There is a need for this data to be available in computer-aided (CAx) environments. The paper discusses ideas and R&D work concerned with the interpretation of creative shape depictions in freehand sketches and the generation of digital shape models. The software functions implemented are based on image processing techniques. We have developed functions which enable not only the transfer of 2-D shape depictions to fuzzy digital 2-D sketches but also the transfer of 2-D shape concepts to 3-D digital shapes. The geometrical models generated are freeform 3-D elements which can be used for design purposes, for shaping evaluation and as a basis for discussions with design engineers. Future work will deal with extending the geometrical models to enable them to be adapted to 3-D CAD models.