Carsim is a system that
creates automatically animated 3D scenes from written texts. Carsim uses
language processing as well as visualization techniques and is for now restricted
to car accidents. The image generation is a two-step process. First, the
language processing module extracts information from the text that describe the
roads, the vehicles, and the actions. It produces an intermediate
representation that serves as input to the visualizer. In a second step, the
visualizer synthesizes a 3D symbolic world where it recreates the accident.
The Carsim demonstration
will let you select a text from a list of newspaper clippings or write your own
narrative. By clicking on a button, you will examine the results obtained by
the language module as well as the intermediate representation. Then, Carsim
will try to “imagine” the accident: create and animate the scene using an
iconic representation.
Although we have prototypes
in French and English, only the Swedish version of Carsim is available online.
Should you want a demonstration in another language, please contact us.
Carsim is written mainly in
Java and Java 3D. A small portion of it is in C. Prior to running Carsim, you
must install Java 1.4.2 and Java 3D 1.3.1.
·
For
Window and Sun Solaris, you can download the two packages from Sun:
o
Java: http://java.sun.com/j2se/corejava/index.jsp
o
Java
3D:
http://java.sun.com/products/java-media/3D/index.jsp
·
For
MacOS X, Java should already be installed. You can download Java 3D here: http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/apple/java3dandjavaadvancedimagingupdate.html
·
For
Linux,
o
Java: http://java.sun.com/j2se/corejava/index.jsp
o
Java3D:
have a look here: http://www.blackdown.org/java-linux/java2-status/java-3d-status.html
You will load Carsim from a
server located at the LTH Lucas center in Lund and launch it using the Java web
start program. Java webstart will write files to store intermediate results. It
will ask you the permission to do so before you start. Once loaded, web start
will reconnect to the server to be able run some portions in C.
Click on one of these two
links and Carsim should start automatically:
·
Start Java
Application Manager
Then
1.
Click
on the toolbox icon to the left of the main pane and set the server to torin.cs.lth.se.
2.
Refresh
the data from the server using the double green arrows.
3.
Select
the Publik corpus and the Swedish language.
4.
Select
a text, for instance 5, on the left lower pane or write your own description in
Swedish in the large left-pane.
5.
Click
on the XML button above the left pane that contains the text of the accident.
Allow 30 seconds to 1 minute for the server to process your text. The
intermediate representation should show on the middle pane.
6.
Click
on the yellow signpost to the lower right of the window to visualize the text.
Pierre Nugues,
Universitetslektor, Pierre.Nugues@cs.lth.se
Richard Johansson, Doktorand,
Richard.Johansson@cs.lth.se
Kent
Thuresson, ex-jobb, dat00ket@ludat.lth.se
Anders
Berglund, ex-jobb, d98ab@efd.lth.se
Magnus
Danielsson, ex-jobb, mangedl@hotmail.com
Swedish:
Per Andersson.
French:
Sylvain Dupuy, Vincent Legendre, Simon Le
Gloannec, Pierre Aubeuf, Cédric Métais.
English:
Ola Åkerberg, Hans Svensson.
Graphics:
Arjan Egges, Bastian Schulz, David
Williams
Pierre
Nugues: Pierre.Nugues@cs.lth.se