Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Real-time animation of spark discharge

  • Special Issue Paper
  • Published:
The Visual Computer Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

We have developed a CG technique that creates real-time animations of spark discharges. The technique proposed in this paper has factors related to the generation of a discharge, such as electric charge distribution and boundary conditions in a virtual space as the input, and generates spark discharge shape patterns based on the electric field defined by the input information. An electric field is expressed by the Laplace equation. Our method efficiently obtains the numerical solution of the equation using the calculation technique of the conjugate gradient method implemented on GPU, and can cope with dynamic changes in input. It also produces discharge patterns in both two and three dimensions. In addition, an efficient pseudo-dimensional expansion technique is proposed in this paper, which uses multiple two-dimensional electric fields to generate three-dimensional discharge patterns.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Dobashi, Y., Yamamoto, T., Nishita, T.: Efficient rendering of lightning taking into account scattering effects due to clouds and atmospheric particles. In: Proc. Pacific Graphics 2001, pp. 390–399 (2001)

  2. Glassner, A.: The digital ceraunoscope: Synthetic thunder and lightning, part 1. IEEE Comput. Graph. Appl. 20(2), 89–93 (2000)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Glassner, A.: The digital ceraunoscope: Synthetic thunder and lightning, part 2. IEEE Comput. Graph. Appl. 20(3), 92–96 (2000)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Hayami, T.: Full of Mysteries – The Science of Lightning (in Japanese). Kodansha (1996)

  5. James, G.: Real-time glow. In: R. Fernando (ed.) GPU Gems, pp. 343–362. Addison-Wesley (2004)

  6. Kim, T., Lin, M.: Physically based animation and rendering of lightning. In: Proc. Pacific Graphics 2004, pp. 267–275 (2004)

  7. Kitagawa, S.: Science of lightning and thundercloud – How to protect yourself from lightning (in Japanese). Morikita Shuppan (2001)

  8. Krüger, J., Westermann, R.: A GPU framework for solving systems of linear equations. In: M. Pharr (ed.) GPU Gems 2, pp. 703–718. Addison-Wesley (2005)

  9. Kruszewski, P.: A probabilistic technique for the synthetic imagery of lightning. Comput. Graph. 23(2), 287–293 (1999)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Narasimhan, S., Nayar, S.: Shedding light on the weather. In: Proceedings of IEEE CVPR, vol. 1, pp. 665–672 (2003)

  11. Niemeyer, L., Pietronero, L., Wiesmann, H.J.: Fractal dimension of dielectric breakdown. Phys. Rev. Lett. 52(12), 1033–1036 (1984)

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  12. OpenGL.org Web site, advanced graphics programming techniques using OpenGL, Course notes, SIGGRAPH99, Mathematics of separable convolution, http://www.opengl.org/resources/tutorials/sig99/advanced99/notes/node235.html

  13. Reed, T., Wyvill, B.: Visual simulation of lightning. In: Proceedings of SIGGRAPH 1994, pp. 359–364 (1994)

  14. Sosorbaram, B., Fujimoto, T., Muraoka, K., Chiba, N.: Visual simulation of lightning taking into account cloud growth. In: Proceedings of CGI 2001, pp. 89–95 (2001)

  15. Takayasu, H.: Simulation of electric breakdown and resulting variant of percolation fractals. Phys. Rev. Lett. 54(11), 1099–1101 (1985)

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Future University-Hakodate, 116-2 Kamedanakano-cho, Hakodate, Hokkaido, 041-8655, Japan

    Katsutsugu Matsuyama

  2. Iwate University, 4-3-5 Ueda, Morioka, Iwate, 020-8551, Japan

    Tadahiro Fujimoto & Norishige Chiba

Authors
  1. Katsutsugu Matsuyama
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Tadahiro Fujimoto
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Norishige Chiba
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Katsutsugu Matsuyama.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Matsuyama, K., Fujimoto, T. & Chiba, N. Real-time animation of spark discharge. Visual Comput 22, 761–771 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00371-006-0061-z

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00371-006-0061-z

Keywords

Search

Navigation