Volumetric Hyper Reality: A Computer Graphics Holy Grail for the 21st Century?
Gavin Miller
Apple
The talk will start by examining the issues related to integrating real and virtual objects in a virtual reality environment. In particular it will discuss the problems of occlusion, shadows and specular reflections. The speaker then considers existing 3-D display technologies as an alternative to immersive virtual reality, . He will discuss the limitations of these technologies and presents a thought experiment to design a completely general volumetric display. Such a display would convincingly create the illusion of objects with arbitrary optical properties. A metallic object depicted using the display would reflect the visual surroundings of the display. Dielectric materials would show correct refraction and reflection effects. Light shone on the display would illuminate the virtual objects within it. When programmed to depict empty space, the display would, for all practical purposes, disappear, rendering the contained volume invisible. Incremental steps towards such a device will then be discussed.