Broad Area Colloquium For AI-Geometry-Graphics-Robotics-Vision
(CS 528)

Capturing and Representing Surface Detail and Appearance

Szymon Rusinkiewicz
June 5, 2006, 4:15PM
TCSeq 200
http://graphics.stanford.edu/ba-colloquium/

Abstract

Although overall geometry and texture are the fundamental ingredients of computer graphics rendering, a great deal of richness and realism is conveyed by subtle variations in reflectance, fine-scale detail, and subsurface scattering. Researchers have shown that it is possible to capture such phenomena from real-world objects, but incorporating them as first-class citizens of the graphics pipeline requires efficient, accurate, and meaningful representations. This talk describes recent work aimed at distilling raw measured data into flexible and intuitive representations, using a combination of generic data analysis techniques and domain-specific parameterizations, constraints, and heuristics.

In the case of spatially- and directionally-varying reflectance (SVBRDFs), measured data are approximated with intuitively editable "shade trees", which separate different scattering phenomena into individual terms while maintaining physical plausibility through constraints such as non-negativity, energy conservation, and reciprocity. Similarly, heterogeneous subsurface scattering (BSSRDF) phenomena are decomposed using a domain-specific factored representation. Finally, the statistical nature of fine-scale geometric detail (displacement maps) is captured with spatially-varying analogues of texture analysis and synthesis algorithms.

About the Speaker

Szymon Rusinkiewicz is an assistant professor of Computer Science at Princeton University, having obtained a Ph.D. from Stanford in 2001. His work focuses on acquisition and analysis of the 3D shape and appearance of real-world objects, including the design of scanning devices and data structures for efficient representation. He also investigates algorithms for processing complex geometric and reflectance datasets, including registration, matching, completion, and sampling. In addition to data acquisition, his research interests include real-time rendering and perceptually-guided depiction.

Contact: bac-coordinators@cs.stanford.edu

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