MIT Department of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science

Digital Lights, Cameras, Materials ...

Patrick Hanrahan
Stanford University

Thursday, May 14, 1998
3:30 PM (refreshments 3:15)
Edgerton Hall, Room 34-101
LCS Distinguished Lecture

Abstract

The age of ubiquitous computer graphics will soon be upon us. In the last ten years 3D computer graphics technology has migrated from a few privileged research laboratories into mainstream media such as the movies. Moreover, in the next few years we can expect every personal computer to be equipped with 3D graphics hardware which is expected to enable a wide range of new applications. Underlying this revolution is a set of algorithms and systems for producing images by computer, which is generally termed rendering. I define rendering as the computer modeling of appearance: lights and lighting effects, materials and their reflective properties, and cameras and aspects of image formation and perception. In this talk I will review the state of the field, draw analogies with the work of early Renaissance painters, and sketch out some of my current projects.

Biography

Pat Hanrahan is the CANON USA Professor of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering at Stanford University where he teaches computer graphics. His current research involves visualization, image synthesis, and graphics systems and architectures. Before joining Stanford he was a faculty member at Princeton. He has also worked at Pixar where he developed developed volume rendering software and was the chief architect of the RenderMan(TM) Interface \- a protocol that allows modeling programs to describe scenes to high quality rendering programs. Previous to Pixar he directed the 3D computer graphics group in the Computer Graphics Laboratory at New York Institute of Technology. Professor Hanrahan has received three university teaching awards. He has also received an Academy Award for Science and Technology, the Spirit of America Creativity Award, and the SIGGRAPH Computer Graphics Achievement Award.