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Researchers Develop 3-D Search Engine

Posted by michael on from the etch-a-sketch dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Researchers have developed new search engines that can mine catalogs of three-dimensional objects, like airplane parts or architectural features. All the users have to do is sketch what they're thinking of, and the search engines can produce comparable objects."

6 of 140 comments (clear)

  1. accuracy.. by zeruch · · Score: 3, Insightful

    ...will be the most critical part. i could easily see people doodling in the dark trying to get an object they desire, but are not sure how to visually detail out.

  2. i dunno about you, by trmj · · Score: 2, Insightful

    but I rarely see stuff come out of MS Paint that resembles what it's supposed to be.

    Of course, this could be used to search from a scanned in image, which would be good for things like finding car parts, which we had a story about a couple of days ago. Old news, slightly different subject.

    --
    Work sucked, until it became unemployment, when it became slightly more tolerable. -Tet
  3. is it really easier to use? by zome · · Score: 2, Insightful

    it's alot easier to type "fireplace" than draw it.

    1. Re:is it really easier to use? by Carnildo · · Score: 2, Insightful

      it's alot easier to type "fireplace" than draw it.

      It's easier to sketch the part than to remember that the guy who created the drawing called it a "3/8ths Gripley"

      --
      "They redundantly repeated themselves over and over again incessantly without end ad infinitum" -- ibid.
  4. Shit... by AstrumPreliator · · Score: 3, Insightful

    My drawing skills are something to be desired. I'm not exactly sure how they can compensate for poor artists...

  5. Re:pr0n by wwest4 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    > And they developed this for searching for
    > "industrial objects". Riiighht.

    I'll take the sinister uses with the good on this one. This is really exciting for engineers and tinkerers alike, because it means less time reinventing the proverbial wheel.

    Let's say I need gizmoX but it's not manufactured anymore. Fuck! No knock-offs, either. The local CNC shop says they can make it for me but they need a model. 3D modeling could take a while unless you have something similar to start with.

    So instead of PORING over an industrial parts catalog and missing the one close-enough part you needed but didn't expect to find under "444_T91_fillets" or whatever, you just search for matches using dimensions, materials, etc. Just a few minor tweaks to the mesh, export, send to the shop, and you just saved a lot of time.

    That said - the design and manufacturing industries have been writing ad hoc programs for searching for parts and tooling since the proliferation of computers, but it's nice to see that a general-purpose algorithm that could be more or less universally applicable is evolving from the efforts thus far.