Abstract:
With Hephaestus, we provide users with a 3D canvas to manipulate objects in. The user can use gestures to interact with the objects on the screen. No contact is required to make the shapes. The motion of the user's hands are detected by Microsoft's Kinect and this is translated into input for the brushes.
Hephaestus offers an array of brushes totaling 10. These include 'Inflate', 'Drag', 'Smoothen', 'Flatten', 'Paint' and 'Crease' to name some. Moreover, users can also select from 11 'skins' or textures. '3D' files, formats like '.ply', '.obj' or '.stl', may also be imported and altered.
Models or sculptures created with Hephaestus can be exported in '.ply', '.obj' or '.stl', format so that users can get their models printed with a 3D printer. The sculptures that are created can be brought from the digital world into the 'real world' and users can actually showcase or use these models.
Hephaestus can be used by people of all ages and having differing familiarity with technology due to its intuitiveness. Although, it is intended to be used as an entertainment product it can nonetheless, be used by professionals as a technical tool.The key objectives of this project are to deliver a system that can be used for sculpting, reads gestures as input and is able to save 3D printable files.
