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\F1\CSTANFORD ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE LABORATORY
\CDEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE
\CSTANFORD UNIVERSITY
\CSTANFORD, CALIFORNIA 94305
\F0



							May 20, 1974



Dr. Bernard Chern
Advanced Technology Application Division
Room 401
National Science Foundation
Washington, D. C. 20550

Dear Dr. Chern:

\J	Enclosed is a draft of a proposal for a $27K supplement
to our automation proposal.  As we have discussed, the purpose of the supplement
is to support the work of Bruce Baumgart on geometric modeling.
This work is worthwhile in itself and will be particularly valuable in
connection with the main grant.

	In the first place, Baumgart has worked out the first integrated
system of geometric modeling including drawing, hidden line elimination,
generation of half tone pictures under varied lighting conditions, rotation
of the objects concerned under the command of the user, and articulation of
the joints of the objects.  There are other features, and the system is
flexible enough to add many other features.

	In the second place, the system has already been used in connection
with the assembly project and will be especially valuable for the kind
of vision we expect will be useful in the assembly task.  Namely, objects
can be located in a scene and the location made precise by comparing
a television image with a synthetic television image generated from a
geometric description of the object.  This seems clearly the best way to
use vision, and Baumgart is so far ahead of anyone else in the field that
it would be a great pity to lose him.\.

							Sincerely yours,


							John McCarthy
							Professor of Computer Science
							Director, Artificial Intelligence Laboratory