Eco3D is an initiative started by Jeppe Revall Frisvad, Knut Conradsen, and Henrik Aanæs to coordinate our research activities in sensors and 3D geometric and radiometric modeling in relation to the cyber-physical 3D ecosystem. This ecosystem is an abstraction of the fact that we oftentimes wish to manipulate the physical world based on sensor generated digital or cyber models of this physical world. This is illustrated in the following diagram.

This ecosystem encompasses much of the research we do at the Section for Visual Computing at the Technical University of Denmark, and is as such a nice framework for exploiting the possible synergies within our group. Examples of this ecosystem are

• Scanning an object in 3D, designing a fixture for it, and 3D printing the fixture.
• Doing 3D stereo of an object to determine its pose, and then gripping with a robot.
• Scanning a manufactured part, and based on 3D and radiometric specifications doing quality control, and ultimately rejecting or accepting it.

Furthermore, we have noticed that most of the individual parts of this ecosystem are vibrant research topics, but that very few consider these parts as a whole. We believe that there is significant potential in such a holistic approach, and have the good fortune to take it, in that we have experts within most - if not all - of the individual parts on 'sensors' and 'synthesis prediction & modeling' and have close collaboration with top researchers doing actuators, like 3D print and robotics.

As seen under People, this initiative has a sufficient number of participants, working on parts of the ecosystem. A benefit of taking the holistic ecosystem approach to our research is that it also enforces relevant performance metrics on our research in the individual parts. In 2015, the first year of the initiative, our collaboration has focus on

• Investigating what taking a holistic ecosystem approach actually implies, especially in a 3D printing and copy machine setting.
• Generating high quality data sets with high quality ground truth, to have good empirical evidence for our research. This is relevant in an ecosystem approach, in that it e.g. implies that hard precision requirements are needed for actuators to function. We have a great opportunity for doing this, due to our relatively well developed Image Lab, see Facilities.

We also have had a lot of activities in the individual parts via the existing projects of the individual participants.