[ Up ] [ Current Status ] [ Previous Status ]

New Opportunities and Challenges for Computer Graphics - 3rd Quarter 1999

Status Report

A. Equipment

In 1999 the project received a Dell 550 MHz Pentium III workstation under the Technology for Education program. This workstation has been installed in the Program of Computer Graphics to support real-time global illumination research, taking advantage of the additional capabilities of the Pentium III instruction set.

B. Teaching

In the Fall 1999 Semester,  Donald Greenberg and members of the research staff of the Program of Computer Graphics are teaching an advanced computer graphics rendering course for the second time. This course teaches the fundamental principles behind photo-realistic image synthesis, building a solid framework to understand individual rendering techniques. Topics covered are fundamental concepts in rendering in computer graphics, reflection properties of materials and modeling them in computer graphics, the light transport problem (stochastic ray tracing, radiosity), perception issues in image rendering, dealing with complexity (image based rendering).

Beginning in the Spring 2000 Semester, Donald Greenberg will be teaching Interactive Computer Graphics as a lecture course with an optional lab for additional credit. This course will offer an introduction to the principles of interactive computer graphics, including three-dimensional perspective transformations, visible surface algorithms, light reflection models, hardware display technology, visual perception and color science, and computer graphics hardware pipelines. Fundamentals of computer modeling and photo-realistic rendering will also be included.

This course will also be cross-listed as Architecture 374. A separate lab section, ARCH 375, will be available for students who do have not a programming background, and will be oriented mostly toward the visual arts.

C. Research

To date, high-quality rendering has really been limited to presentations that can be prepared in advance. Even the film industry must carefully budget the hours required to render each frame of a movie. The ability to accurately render scenes with both indirect and direct lighting components, referred to as global illumination, remains an elusive goal under the practical constraints of today's hardware and software. However, ongoing advances in algorithms, processing speed, and display technology will now enable significant breakthroughs in achieving real-time global illumination. 

We are currently expanding a cluster of immensely powerful parallel computers coupled with our three-screen panoramic display. Through both hardware and software implementations, we have already reduced the rendering time for each image from hours to seconds, a factor of more than three orders of magnitude. 

In the past year, PCG researchers have developed a novel physical error metric that correctly predicts the perceptual threshold for detecting artifacts in scene features. Built into this metric is a computational model of the human visual system's loss of sensitivity at high background illumination levels, high spatial frequencies, and high contrast levels (visual masking). An important feature of the model is that it handles the luminance-dependent processing and spatially-dependent processing independently. This allows precomputation of the expensive spatially-dependent component, making the model extremely efficient.

D. Recent Graduates

David Hart and Mahesh Ramasubramanian successfully defended their theses in September, 1999 and will receive Masters of Science in Architecture degrees in January, 2000.

E. Publications

Donald P. Greenberg, "A Framework for Realistic Image Synthesis," Communications of the ACM, Volume 42, No. 8, August, 1999, pp. 44-53.

David Hart, Philip Dutré, Donald P. Greenberg, "Direct Illumination with Lazy Visibility Evaluation," Computer Graphics Proceedings, Annual Conference Series, 1999, ACM SIGGRAPH, pp. 147-154.Stephen R.

Stephen Marschner, Stephen H. Westin, Eric P. F. Lafortune, Kenneth E. Torrance, and Donald P. Greenberg, "Image-based BRDF Measurement Including Human Skin," Eurographics Workshop on Rendering, 1999

Sumanta N. Pattanaik, Mark D. Fairchild, James A. Ferwerda, and Donald P. Greenberg, "Multiscale Model of Adaptation, Spatial Vision and Color Appearance," Proceedings of the Sixth Color Imaging Conference, Society for Imaging Science and Technology, November 1998.

Last modified on: 10/19/99