A 2D sketch interface for a 3D model search engine

This sketch describes our experiences with creating query interfaces for an online search engine for 3D models. With the advent of affordable powerful 3D graphics hardware, and the improvement of model acquisition methods, an increasing number of 3D models is available on the web, creating a need for a 3D model search engine [Paquet and Rioux 2000; Suzuki 2001]. An important problem that arises for such an application is how to create an effective query interface. To investigate this issue, we created several different query interfaces, and tested them both in controlled experiments as well as in a publicly available 3D model search engine.