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Drawing in the third dimension

Drawing of a town and balloon

The NSF-funded small business Mental Canvas has developed a new software platform that allows people to easily sketch in 3-D. The technology incorporates elements of computer-aided design, 2-D and 3-D graphics, software engineering and human-computer interaction. Julie Dorsey, computer scientist at Yale and Mental Canvas founder, thinks of it as "spatial drawing."

Credit: Julie Dorsey, Mental Canvas


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Drawing of girl and cat

The research behind this technology started as passion project by computer scientist Julie Dorsey nearly 10 years ago.

There is a disconnect, she thought, between sketching in 2-D, which is fast and fluid, and modeling in 3-D, which is slow and requires precise geometry. The challenge would be find a way to tease apart and explore complex geometric forms through drawing.

As a first demonstration of the capabilities of the software and new media type, Mental Canvas has applied the technology to an illustrated book called "The Other Side" by Istvan Banyai.

Credit: Julie Dorsey, Mental Canvas


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Person looking at moving illustration

Building the platform meant developing a new media type, as well as a set of tools to design and interact with this media form.

"Most people think IT innovations happen in a garage overnight," says Peter Atherton, NSF program officer who oversees Mental Canvas' Small Business Innovation Research grant. "But it actually most often takes years of hard work and support."

Credit: Julie Dorsey, Mental Canvas


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Who doesn't want to interact with their own favorite picture book? A new software platform from Mental Canvas, a company funded by the National Science Foundation's Small Business Innovation Research program, may soon let you do just that.

The technology allows users to draw like you would with pen and paper, except when you put the pen down, the sketch is viewable from multiple directions--like having access to every camera angle.

Credit: Julie Dorsey, Mental Canvas

 

Watch a sketch break out of the 2-D plane and appear 3-D, thanks to a new digital media type from NSF-funded small business Mental Canvas. The technology combines 2-D sketching and 3-D modeling, and allows users to navigate drawings fluidly. The product is the result of years of NSF-supported fundamental research in computer science and engineering by Julie Dorsey.

Credit: Julie Dorsey, Mental Canvas