Manfred Lau
School of Creative Media
City University of Hong Kong
Hong Kong
office: Room 7103 Creative Media Centre
phone: +852 3442 2209
I am looking for new PhD students and postdocs in the areas of computer graphics and human-computer interaction. If you are interested and you have previous publications in these areas, please email me your CV and tell me about your interests.
Manfred is an Assistant Professor in the School of Creative Media at the City University of Hong Kong. He was previously an assistant professor in the School of Computing and Communications at Lancaster University in the UK, and a post-doc researcher in Tokyo at the Japan Science and Technology Agency - Igarashi Design Interface Project. He received his Ph.D. degree in Computer Science from Carnegie Mellon University, and his B.Sc. degree in Computer Science from Yale University.
Manfred's research interests are in computer graphics, human-computer interaction, and digital fabrication. His recent research in the perception of 3D shapes uses crowdsourcing and learning methods for studying human perceptual notions of 3D shapes. His work in 3D modeling and fabrication focuses on building natural user interfaces for the layperson to model, design, and fabricate their own products. His Ph.D. thesis work explored a combination of motion planning techniques and captured data to generate realistic crowd animation for games and films.
Recent News:
2 New Papers (To appear soon): IEEE TVCG (Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics) papers Sketch2Stress and Sketch Beautification
I will be the Program co-Chair for ACM Symposium on Applied Perception (SAP) 2024
I served on the SIGGRAPH ASIA 2023 Technical Papers Committee
I was the Conference co-Chair for ACM Symposium on Applied Perception (SAP) 2022
PhD Students: Minchan Chen, and Deng Yu (co-supervised with Hongbo Fu)
I served on the Technical Papers Committee for Siggraph Asia 2017 and 2018, and was Program co-chair for TEI 2019
Fall Term 2015: I was on sabbatical as a Visiting Faculty at the Yale Graphics Group
Publications
Sketch Beautification: Learning Part Beautification and Structure Refinement for Sketches of Man-made Objects.
Deng Yu, Manfred Lau, Lin Gao, and Hongbo Fu.
IEEE TVCG (Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics), 2024.
To appear soon.
Sketch2Stress: Sketching with Structural Stress Awareness.
Deng Yu, Chufeng Xiao, Manfred Lau, and Hongbo Fu.
IEEE TVCG (Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics), 2023.
To appear soon.
A Lego Rewriting System for Fabricating 3D Models.
Manfred Lau.
SCULPT (Shape Creation Using Layouts, Programs, & Technology), part of the International Geometry Summit, 2023. PDF
Comparing Shape Representations for the Aesthetic Judgement of 3D Shape Pairs.
Kapil Dev, Letizia Palumbo, and Manfred Lau.
IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications, 2023. PDF
Learning 3D Shape Aesthetics Globally and Locally.
Minchan Chen and Manfred Lau.
Pacific Graphics (Computer Graphics Forum), 2022. PDF
Learning Perceptual Aesthetics of 3D Shapes from Multiple Views.
Kapil Dev and Manfred Lau.
IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications, 2022. PDF
A Motion-Guided Interface for Modeling 3D Multi-functional Furniture.
Minchan Chen and Manfred Lau.
Pacific Graphics (Computer Graphics Forum), 2021. PDF
SketchDesc: Learning Local Sketch Descriptors for Multi-view Correspondence.
Deng Yu, Lei Li, Youyi Zheng, Manfred Lau, Yi-Zhe Song, Chiew-Lan Tai, and Hongbo Fu.
IEEE TCSVT, 2021. PDF
The Interestingness of 3D Shapes.
Manfred Lau and Luther Power.
ACM Symposium on Applied Perception (SAP), 2020. PDF
A Data-Driven Creativity Measure for 3D Shapes.
Manfred Lau and Luther Power.
ISVC, 2020. PDF
Tactile Sketch Saliency.
Jianbo Jiao, Ying Cao, Manfred Lau, and Rynson Lau.
ACM Multimedia, 2020. ACM Digital Library Page
A Human-Perceived Softness Measure of Virtual 3D Objects.
Manfred Lau, Kapil Dev, Julie Dorsey, and Holly Rushmeier.
ACM Transactions on Applied Perception (TAP), 2018. ACM Digital Library Page
Stress-Oriented Structural Optimization for Frame Structures.
Shuangming Chai, Baiyu Chen, Mengyu Ji, Zhouwang Yang, Manfred Lau, Xiao-Ming Fu, and Ligang Liu.
Graphical Models, 2018. PDF
International Conference on Virtual Reality and Visualization, 2017. Best Paper Award
Schelling Meshes.
Luther Power and Manfred Lau.
ACM Symposium on Applied Perception (SAP), Poster, 2017.
Polygons, Points, or Voxels? Stimuli Selection for Crowdsourcing Aesthetics Preferences of 3D Shape Pairs.
Kapil Dev, Nic Villar, and Manfred Lau.
Expressive (Computational Aesthetics), 2017. PDF
A Perceptual Aesthetics Measure for 3D Shapes.
Kapil Dev, Manfred Lau, and Ligang Liu.
arXiv, 2016. arXiv page
Tactile Mesh Saliency.
Manfred Lau, Kapil Dev, Weiqi Shi, Julie Dorsey, and Holly Rushmeier.
ACM Transactions on Graphics (SIGGRAPH), 2016. PDF
Tactile Mesh Saliency via Deep Ranking.
Manfred Lau, Kapil Dev, Weiqi Shi, Julie Dorsey, and Holly Rushmeier.
Symposium on Computational Fabrication, Poster, 2016.
Learning a Human-Perceived Softness Measure of Virtual Objects.
Manfred Lau, Kapil Dev, Julie Dorsey, and Holly Rushmeier.
ACM Symposium on Applied Perception (SAP), 2016. PDF
Improving Style Similarity Metrics of 3D Shapes.
Kapil Dev, Kwang In Kim, Nicolas Villar, and Manfred Lau.
Graphics Interface, 2016. PDF
StandUp: Understanding Body-Part and Gestural Preferences for First-Person 3D Modeling.
Kapil Dev, Nicolas Villar, and Manfred Lau.
SBIM (Expressive), 2016. PDF
Magnetic Files: Exploring Tag Based File Systems Using Embodied Files.
David Gullick, Paul Coulton, and Manfred Lau.
IEEE Conference on Tangible, Embedded and Embodied Interaction (TEI) Work-in-Progress, 2015. ACM Digital Library Page
Democratizing Digital Content Creation Using Mobile Devices with Inbuilt Sensors.
Kapil Dev and Manfred Lau.
IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications magazine, 2015. IEEE Page
MixFab: A Mixed-Reality Environment for Personal Fabrication.
Christian Weichel, Manfred Lau, David Kim, Nicolas Villar, and Hans Gellersen.
ACM Conf. on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI), 2014.
Best Paper Award. Top 1% of submissions. ACM Digital Library Page
Enclosed: A Component-Centric Interface for Designing Prototype Enclosures.
Christian Weichel, Manfred Lau, and Hans Gellersen.
International Conference on Tangible, Embedded and Embodied Interaction (TEI), 2013. ACM Digital Library Page
Digital Fabrication.
Manfred Lau, Jun Mitani, and Takeo Igarashi.
IEEE Computer, 2012. PDF IEEE Computer Page
Sketching and Prototyping Personalized Objects: From Teapot Lids to Furniture to Jewelry.
Manfred Lau, Jun Mitani, and Takeo Igarashi.
National Conf. on Rapid Design, Prototyping & Manufacture, 2012. PDF
Sixth Sense Transport: Challenges in Supporting Flexible Time Travel.
Nigel Davies, Manfred Lau, Chris Speed, Tom Cherrett, Janet Dickinson, and Sarah Norgate.
International Workshop on Mobile Computing Systems and Applications (HotMobile), 2012. ACM Digital Library Page
Situated Modeling: A Shape-Stamping Interface with Tangible Primitives.
Manfred Lau, Masaki Hirose, Akira Ohgawara, Jun Mitani, and Takeo Igarashi.
International Conference on Tangible, Embedded and Embodied Interaction (TEI), 2012. Project Page
Converting 3D Furniture Models to Fabricatable Parts and Connectors.
Manfred Lau, Akira Ohgawara, Jun Mitani, and Takeo Igarashi.
ACM Transactions on Graphics (SIGGRAPH), 30(4), 85, 2011. Project Page
Automatic Learning of Pushing Strategy for Delivery of Irregular-Shaped Objects.
Manfred Lau, Jun Mitani, and Takeo Igarashi.
IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), 2011. PDF Video (YouTube)
SketchChair: An All-in-one Chair Design System for End Users.
Greg Saul, Manfred Lau, Jun Mitani, and Takeo Igarashi.
International Conference on Tangible, Embedded and Embodied Interaction (TEI), 2011. Project Page
Scalable Precomputed Search Trees.
Manfred Lau and James Kuffner.
International Conference on Motion in Games (MIG), 2010.
Invited Paper. PDF
Modeling-in-Context: User Design of Complementary Objects with a Single Photo.
Manfred Lau, Greg Saul, Jun Mitani, and Takeo Igarashi.
ACM Symposium on Sketch-Based Interfaces and Modeling (SBIM), 2010.
Best Paper Award. Project Page Video (YouTube)
Face Poser: Interactive Modeling of 3D Facial Expressions Using Facial Priors.
Manfred Lau, Jinxiang Chai, Ying-Qing Xu, and Harry Shum.
ACM Transactions on Graphics (presented at SIGGRAPH 2010), 29(1), 3, 2009.
Project Page Video (YouTube)
Modeling Spatial and Temporal Variation in Motion Data.
Manfred Lau, Ziv Bar-Joseph, and James Kuffner.
ACM Transactions on Graphics (SIGGRAPH ASIA), 28(5), 171, 2009.
Project Page Video (YouTube)
Animation Theatre piece on Behavior Planning.
Manfred Lau, James Kuffner, and Moshe Mahler.
Eurographics Animation Theatre, 2007.
Animation Page
Face Poser: Interactive Modeling of 3D Facial Expressions Using Model Priors.
Manfred Lau, Jinxiang Chai, Ying-Qing Xu, and Harry Shum.
ACM Symposium on Computer Animation (SCA), 161-170, 2007.
Project Page
Precomputed Search Trees: Planning for Interactive Goal-Driven Animation.
Manfred Lau and James Kuffner.
ACM Symposium on Computer Animation (SCA), 299-308, 2006.
Project Page
Footstep Planning for the Honda ASIMO Humanoid.
Joel Chestnutt, Manfred Lau, German Cheung, James Kuffner, Jessica Hodgins, and Takeo Kanade.
IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), 2005.
Project Page
Behavior Planning for Character Animation.
Manfred Lau and James Kuffner.
ACM Symposium on Computer Animation (SCA), 271-280, 2005.
Project Page Image used in "Planning Algorithms" Textbook