Mobile 3D Graphics Research Articles

Real-time visual transmission mechanism of graphics diversity based on mobile 3D graphics matching algorithm

ABSTRACT A visual communication mechanism for the diversity of advertising graphs based on matching algorithm of mobile 3D graphs is proposed, so as to increase the effectiveness of visual communication mechanism for the diversity of advertising graphs. Firstly, a matching algorithm of mobile 3D graph is proposed, and the optimal prediction block in the search scope of reference frame is searched with the current frame block, thus increasing the effectiveness of visual communication mechanism; secondly, optimal matching block is sought is the search scope of reference frame with boundary pixel of sparse image block, thus improving the performance of matching algorithm; and finally, the performance advantage of the proposed algorithm concerning communication precision and communication efficiency is verified.

A QoS Aware Resource Allocation Strategy for Mobile Graphics Rendering With Cloud Support

With the rapid development of cloud technology, many services have been transferred from local computers to the cloud-based platform, which decreases the amount of computation done on the former. The local computer could thus be developed in the direction of portability and power saving. Graphics processing, apart from providing user interfaces featuring diversified special effects, is also significant in terms of application programs and play interactions. It is exactly on the basis of the concept of graphics processing that cloud-support rendering is developed, which is aimed to improve the graphics efficiency in mobile devices, via the graphics processing units in the cloud-based platform. The cloud-based platform and the mobile devices are usually connected by the Internet; however, as remote rendering might call for greater network bandwidth, its efficiency will be compromised if the network bandwidth is not stable. Given this limitation, this paper sets out to propose a quality-of-service-aware resource allocation strategy for mobile 3D graphics rendering, which is a hybrid rendering technology combining the client-side graphics processing capabilities with the graphics processing units in the cloud-based platform. When network bandwidth is not stable, the technology is able to assess the current network bandwidth, and dynamically configure the rendered frames on the client side and cloud-based platforms. Even when the client side could not access the network, it would still be possible to carry out the drawing through the graphics processing units on the local computer. Three applications are tested in this research: the technology can increase the frame rate by an average of 44.99% when the bandwidth is 10% greater than the minimum limit, by an average of 44.57% when the bandwidth is less than the minimum limit, by an average of 30.86% when the bandwidth is 10% less than the minimum limit, and by an average of 33.74% when the bandwidth is not stable.

Dynamically Selective Performance Optimization Method for Mobile 3D Graphics Application with N-Screen Service

In this paper, we focus on a dynamically selective performance optimization method for mobile 3D graphics applications under n-screen service environment. Thus, an effective solution to enhance the performance is required to support real time processing under limited network bandwidth. This method can be employed to apply quality loss techniques that trade the quality within the range of tolerance over performance. First, we describe performance optimization methods for mobile graphics applications in 2 dimensions: Graphic Processing Unit (GPU) performance and image quality. Second, we present an adaptive level-of-detail (LOD) configuration method for graphics applications via OpenGL ES API level. Third, we show how OpenGL ES library hooking method can be employed to apply quality loss techniques that trade quality over performance. Last, we argue that OpenGL ES library hooking method is crucial to achieve higher performance, since it can be used in common android phones without any source code modification of applications. Overall, the experimental result shows that the proposed technique allows 24 % of performance improvement for all applied methodologies, and 4 % improvement for some selected methodologies while causing around 14 and 2 % of quality degradation, respectively. Thus, our approach can support an acceptable trade-off by determining the level of reduced quality that would lead to the desired performance improvements of the mobile GPU.

USING MOBILE DISASTER RESPONSE SYSTEM IN BRIDGE MANAGEMENT

Over the years, various hydro-meteorological disasters have impacted many countries and civilians, thus decreasing the losses caused by these disasters has become important for disaster management. While bridges often are essential to connect the affected disaster areas, this study focuses on bridge management associated with typhoons and rain-storms. Recently, although numerous information technology-based applications are available, three problems (i.e. asynchronous information records, unsteady information transmission, and inaccessible information analysis) still influence responses on disaster sites. Therefore, this study integrated several mobile information techniques to propose a mobile disaster response system. The applied mobile GPS- and GIS-based data reports simplify information generation, AR-based assistance enhances information representation, and mobile 3D graphics accelerates information processes. Based on the tests, this system not only improved the recognized problems but also strengthened the cooperation between construction engineers and workers and disaster managers. Overall, this study is a useful reference for similar applications in bridge management and disaster management.

Area-power efficient lighting unit architecture based on hardware sharing

A shared lighting unit architecture suitable for mobile 3D graphics is presented. Sharing of resources is achieved by reusing a unitary vector operation, and diffuse and specular components calculation. Balance between area and power dissipation was compared with a more prevalent parallel unit architecture implementation. Results indicate that parallel implementations of the proposed shared units lead to much better area × power efficiency as more of these units are used for higher processing performance.

A Memory-Efficient Unified Early Z-Test

The Unified Early Z-Test (U-EZT) is proposed to examine the visibility of pixels during tile-based rasterization in a mobile 3D graphics processor. U-EZT combines the advantages of the Z-max and Z-min EZT algorithms: the Z-max algorithm is improved by the independently updatable z-max tiles and the use of mask bits; and the Z-min algorithm is improved by reusing the mask bits from the z-max test to update the z-min tiles after tile rasterizing. As a result, storage requirements are reduced to 3 bits per pixel, and simulations suggest that U-EZT requires 20 percent to 57 percent less memory bandwidth than previous EZT algorithms.

계층적 타일기반 탐색기법과 SIMD 구조가 적용된 스캔변환회로의 FPGA 구현

In this paper, we present research results of developing high performance scan conversion unit and implementing it on FPGA chip. To increase performance of scan conversion unit, we propose an architecture of scan converter that is a SIMD architecture and uses tile-based traversing method. The proposed scan conversion unit can operate about 124Mhz clock frequency on Xilinx Vertex4 LX100 device. To verify the scan conversion unit, we also develop shader unit, texture mapping unit and 240x320 color TFT-LCD controller to display outputs of the scan conversion unit on TFT-LCD. Because the scan conversion unit implemented on FPGA has 311Mpixels/sec pixel rate, it is applicable to desktop pc's 3d graphics system as well as mobile 3d graphics system needing high pixel rates.

Memory bandwidth saving by hardware tessellation with vertex shader

Hardware architecture of a tessellator based on a vertex shader is proposed to save memory bandwidth for a mobile 3D graphics engine. According to the appropriate separation of the tessellation process, the powerful performance of a vertex shader, 120 Mvertices/s, is utilised for floating point computations. The remaining part of the process is handled by a dedicated control unit, implementation of which requires 6.2% additional logic gates. The proposed tessellator reduces the bandwidth consumed to transfer 3D geometry data up to 1/250.

Simulation and development environment for mobile 3D graphics architectures

This paper describes a simulation and development environment for designing mobile three-dimensional (3D) graphics architectures. The proposed simulation and verification environment (SVE) uses glTrace's ability to intercept and redirect an OpenGL|ES streams. The SVE simulates the behaviour of mobile 3D graphics pipeline during the playback of traces and produces the second geometry trace that can be used as a test vector for the Verilog/hardware discription language RT-level model. An architectural verification can be conducted by comparing the frame-by-frame results. The functionality of the SVE is demonstrated by designing a mobile 3D graphics architecture and implementing the verified architecture on field programmable gate array (FPGA) boards. An application development environment (ADE) is also presented that includes a mobile graphics application programming interface and a device driver interface. The proposed SVE and the ADE could be efficiently used for developing and testing mobile applications, architectural analysis and hardware designs.

A middleware architecture for mobile 3D graphics

Mobile graphics, which involves running networked computer graphics applications on mobile devices across wireless networks, is a fast growing segment of the networks and graphics industries. Running networked graphics applications in mobile environments faces a fundamental conflict; graphics applications require large amounts of memory, CPU cycles, battery power and disk space, while mobile devices and wireless channels tend to be limited in these resources. In order to mitigate mobile environment issues, some form of adaptation based on a client device's capabilities, prevailing wireless network conditions, characteristics of the graphics application and user preference, is necessary. In this paper, we describe the mobile adaptive distributed graphics framework (MADGRAF), a graphics-aware middleware architecture that makes it feasible to run complex 3D graphics applications on low-end mobile devices over wireless networks. In MADGRAF, a server can perform mobile device-optimized pre-processing of complex graphics scenes in order to speed up run time rendering, scale high-resolution meshes using polygon or image-based simplification, progressively transmit compressed graphics files, conceal transmission errors by including redundant bits or perform remote execution, all tailored to the client's capabilities. MADGRAF exposes our mobile adaptive distributed graphics language (MADGL), an API that facilitates the programming and management of networked 3D graphics in mobile environments.

Low-power 3D graphics processors for mobile terminals

A full 3D graphics pipeline is investigated, and optimizations of graphics architecture are assessed for satisfying the performance requirements and overcoming the limited system resources found in mobile terminals. Two mobile 3D graphics processor architectures, RAMP and DigiAcc, are proposed based on the analysis, and a prototype development platform (REMY) is implemented. REMY includes a software graphics library and simulation environment developed for more flexible realization of mobile 3D graphics. The experimental results demonstrate the feasibility of mobile 3D graphics with 3.6 Mpolygons/s at 155 mW power consumption for full 3D operation.

Designing Graphics Programming Interfaces for Mobile Devices

Mobile devices have evolved to a point where interactive 3D graphics is becoming feasible. The first standardized 3D programming interfaces for mobile devices - OpenGL ES for native C/C++ and Mobile 3D Graphics (M3G) for Java applications - are now available to hardware vendors and application developers. The interfaces complement rather than compete with each other and can share the same underlying rendering engine, whether implemented in hardware or software. Three-dimensional graphics on mobile devices is still about converting descriptions of geometry, material, and illumination into pixels shown on a raster display, using the same fundamental algorithms as elsewhere. However, mobile devices' limited capabilities must be reflected in the realizations of those algorithms, as well as in the overall graphics system design. In this article, we describe a design that attempts to take on that challenge, consisting of OpenGL ES, a low-level API, and M3G (also known as JSR-184), a high-level API for Java. We describe how the two interfaces relate to each other and existing graphics architectures on the desktop, and how they attempt to provide optimal features and performance across the whole gamut of different devices. OpenGL ES and M3G, as well as our presentation of them in this article, derive from a long tradition of graphics systems design.