Generation of variability in shape, aspect and time of 3D Fruits and Vegetables

With the growth of organic Fruits and Vegetables (FaVs) markets, there is now a trend in marketing research toward studies of non-standardized fruits and vegetables in stores. Yet, because of the decaying nature of FaVs, it is difficult to conduct such studies. A solution is to conduct them within a Virtual Environment (VE) (with virtual FaVs). Therefore, it is of interest to develop an approach to generate a large variety and variability of FaVs, so one can later use them in a VE. In this paper we introduce a pipeline to generate a large variability of FaVs, focusing both on their shape and on their external appearance. Regarding the shape, we use a semi-automated approach. A parametric Skeletal Structure and Generalized Cylinders (GCs) generates their overall shape and metaball-based techniques give them an organic aspect. Regarding their external appearance, we use a particle system approach to simulate their modifications over time. This particle system-based approach decomposes FaVs appearance changes into distinct visual characteristics producing different texture maps that can be combined.