Jim
The two points you have raised, I both agree and disagree. I agree that the
net of applications must be cast wider than core Mech design problems that
are being focussed on today. But doing so requires people who actually deal
first hand in those professions (plastic surgeons, bio engineers, doctors
etc) to be educated and enlightened about the possibilities. This also
bolsters my point about mother nature not being modeled with one set of
mathematical surfaces.
On the second point - well I think that is purely a design issue and not a
RE issue. I suppose you could stretch the concept of reverse engineering
to - for example - reverse engineering a human heart complete with working
valves etc as an implant. That is still some time away and therefore I
consider that out of the realm of RE for now.
I made a point about NURB surfaces. I suppose I was being limited in my
judgement but yet thats exactly the point I was making. Yes, the RE
technology should include volumetric data (tomography, MRI, etc. which some
commercially available software are begining to handle) and not just surface
data - which is traditionally from surface scanners (probes/optical).
CORBA and JAVA being fads - I have my opinions and lets just say only time
will tell if they are fads. I think JAVA or its derivatives do have a
future. Operating Systems (OS) will be relegated more and more to the
background in the future where applications (code once, run on every
platform) based on JAVA would occupy more of the foreground. BTW, the latest
WIRED magazine makes some interesting arguments why Microsoft is worried -
about the same issue (No flames please - these are not my opinions about
Microsoft).
And your suggestion about ignoring the "latest codes" and worrying about
the application. Thats like burying one's head in the sand. The mathematical
modeling (ask Geomagic, Imageware) is perhaps the most important aspect of
RE. Its intertwined with the end applications. If the CAD industry didnt use
NURB surfaces - you think these companies would be finding a better and
better ways to fit NURB surfaces to digitized data. I dont think so. Perhaps
as a designer one doesnt want to look beyond the "surface" to see how it is
modeled (thats a whole another debate) but the fact is that a very complex
process exists to make that happen. Believe me, not all the problems have
been solved in that arena.
I appreciate your comments and that of others.
Anshuman
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-rp-ml@ltk.hut.fi [mailto:owner-rp-ml@ltk.hut.fi] On Behalf
> Of Innomation Systems & Technologies Pte. Ltd.,
> Sent: Tuesday, November 17, 1998 10:19 AM
> To: rpmail; Dr Anshuman Razdan
> Subject: just a thought : the new looks for Reverse
> Engineering...objectoriented-programming....not our concerns.
>
>
> hi Dr. Razdan,
>
> i agree with you that as the software development technologies
> had improved
> tremendously to object-oriented-programming paradigm so should be the
> surface nurbs patches.....but that will be a tremendously complex and
> confusing issue...so the software developers should focus these area
> without much of our concerns.
>
> i think one important point that in the reverse engineering arena
> we should
> focus at are :-
> 1) the types of applications that can be made useful...now medical
> prototyping...how about police work.....forensic
> development....post-plastic surgery planning, geographic digitisation and
> many more.
> 2) the types of design problems that are present and not solved....or not
> created yet. say designing a tooth implant that injects regularly liquid
> drugs into the blood vessel for certain disorder or diseases.
>
> an important point i think developers like Imageware, GeoMagic and
> Innovmetric should consider as developing solutions for the problems i
> mention above...and not following what the IT industries fad..like
> COBRA...OO..Java.
>
> what will be the value of having these latest codes...if the software
> doesn't cater for the needs to solve the problems.
> even at this stage which i look at Surfacer...it is a tremendous powerful
> reverse engineering tool...but it has not been fully applied to all areas
> yet...like forensic...plastic surgery etc.
>
> hence, i think the focus should be on the development of applications and
> not on the codings being used.
>
> Sincerely,
> joseph sim
>
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>
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