2024.03.05

Easy Compression & Viewing of 3D Data with 'Karumi'

'Avail Corporation', a company dedicated to the development and sales of package systems, has launched a 3D data compression and viewing tool called 'karumi'.

Karumi is made up of 'karu' (compression and optimization of 3D data without any specialized software) and 'mi' (the storage of data on a server for viewing over the Internet).

With a vision of making 3D data utilization more casual and easier for everyone, the company is currently working on further updates for karumi.

In this article, we spoke to Yusuke Odani, the Executive Director at Avail Corporation, about the background of karumi's development, its use cases, and future prospects.

PROFILE

Yusuke Odani

Director, Avail Corporation
Head of the Cloud Solution Business Division

The Development Background of the 3D Data Compression & Viewing Tool 'karumi'

Most of Avail Corporation's clients are companies in the apparel industry, leading the company to specialize its system development toward this industry.

"Our strength is the large number of system engineers who also have knowledge of the apparel industry. We can make proposals based on case studies during system development, allowing for smoother development and implementation."

The 3D data compression and viewing tool 'karumi' was not originally planned. It was developed as a result of a realization that it would be interesting to be able to show clothing simulation in 3D.

"Initially, we aimed to develop a clothing simulation app using 2D images with the concept of 'switching 2D images of clothes according to the user's choice'. To be specific, we planned an application where, upon selection of height, body shape, and clothing pattern, one could simulate a sensation similar to trying on the clothes with an avatar matching their height and body type.

"However, there are already many such apps available, and we felt a lack of originality. That's when we thought, 'Wouldn't it be interesting to visualize the simulation in 3D instead of 2D?'"

While the company primarily develops and sells package systems, it also serves as an agent for foreign 3D simulation software. They thought that if they could use 3D data directly on a web application, they could better showcase use cases as an agent.

"However, there were several challenges in showing 3D data directly to the public via the Internet, such as 'the data size is too large' and 'implementing a 3D viewer is cumbersome'.

"The particular problem of data size was critical to overcome. If the access time is too long, many users would leave the site.

"If you create data with our 3D simulation software without considering optimization, it would result in a size ranging from tens of megabytes(MB) to several hundred MB. We thought if we could compress it down to a size that could be attached to an email, and started considering the data structure and compression methods."

After some trial and error, they found a way to compress the data, but the manual processing was too time-consuming. Depending on the type of data, it could take almost an hour per data set.