Figure 1: A model rendered at real-time rates (approximately half the performance of the standard per-vertex lighting model on an NVIDIA GeForce 3) with several BRDFs approximated using the technique in this paper. From left to right: satin (anisotropic Poulin-Fournier model), krylon blue, garnet red, cayman, mystique (Cornell measured data), leather, and velvet (CURET measured data). A bidirectional reflectance distribution function (BRDF) describes how a material reflects light from its surface. To use arbitrary BRDFs in real-time rendering, a compression technique must be used to represent BRDFs using the available texture-mapping and computational capabilities of an accelerated graphics pipeline. We present a numerical technique, homomorphic factorization, that can decompose arbitrary BRDFs into products of two or more factors of lower dimensionality, each factor dependent on a different interpolated geometric parameter. Compared to an earlier factorization technique based on the singular value decomposition, this new technique generates a factorization with only positive factors (which makes it more suitable for current graphics hardware accelerators), provides control over the smoothness of the result, minimizes relative rather than absolute error, and can deal with scattered, sparse data without a separate resampling and interpolation algorithm.

A new technique for interactive vector field visualization using large numbers of properly illuminated stream lines is presented. Taking into account ambient, diffuse, and specular reflection terms as well as transparency, we employ a realistic shading model which significantly increases quality and realism of the resulting images. While many graphics workstations offer hardware support for illuminating surface primitives, usually no means for an accurate shading of line primitives are provided. However, we show that proper illumination of lines can be implemented by exploiting the texture mapping capabilities of modern graphics hardware. In this way high rendering performance with interactive frame rates can be achieved. We apply the technique to render large numbers of integral curves in a vector field. The impression of the resulting images can be further improved by making the curves partially transparent. We also describe methods for controlling the distribution of stream lines in space. These methods enable us to use illuminated stream lines within an interactive visualization environment.

This paper presents a novel approach to assist the user in exploring appropriate transfer functions for the visualization of volumetric datasets. The search for a transfer function is treated as a parameter optimization problem and addressed with stochastic search techniques. Starting from an initial population of (random or pre-defined) transfer functions, the evolution of the stochastic algorithms is controlled by either direct user selection of intermediate images or automatic fitness evaluation using user-specified objective functions. This approach essentially shields the user from the complex and tedious "trial and error" approach, and demonstrates effective and convenient generation of transfer functions.

In this paper, we present anapproach to colorimage understandingthat accountsforcolorvariationsdue to highlights and shading. We demonstrate that the reflected light from every point on a dielectric object. such as plastic, can be described asa linearcombination of the object color and the highlight color. The colors of all light rays reflected from one object then form a planar cluster in the color space.The shapeof this cluster is determined by the object and highlight colors and by the object shape and illumination geometry. We present a method that exploits the difference between object color and highlight color to separate the color of every pixel into a matte component and a highlight component.This generates two intrinsic images, one showing the scene without highlights, and the other one showing only the highlights. The intrinsic images may be a useful tool for a variety of algorithms in computer vision. such as stereo vision, motion analysis, shape from shading,and shapefrom highlights. Ourmethod combines the analysis of matte and highlight reflection with a sensor model that accounts for camera limitations. This enables us to successfully run our algorithm on real images taken in a laboratory setting. We show and discuss the results.

Apple Computer, Inc. Traditional radiosity methods can compute the illumination for a scene independent of the view position. However, if any part of the scene geometry is changed, the radiosity process will need to be repeated from scratch. Since the radiosity

This thesis presents a volumetric representation for the global illumination within a space based on the radiometric quantity irradiance. We call this representation the irradiance volume. Although irradiance is traditionally computed only for surfaces, its de nition can be naturally extended to all points and directions in space. The irradiance volume supports the reconstruction of believable approximations to the illumination in situations that overwhelm traditional global illumination algorithms. Atheoretical basis for the irradiance volume is discussed and the methods and issues involved with building the volume are described. The irradiance volume method is tested within several situations in which the use of traditional global illumination methods is impractical, and is shown to provide good performance.

Detecting regions of change in multiple images of the same scene taken at different times is of widespread interest due to a large number of applications in diverse disciplines, including remote sensing, surveillance, medical diagnosis and treatment, civil infrastructure, and underwater sensing. This paper presents a systematic survey of the common processing steps and core decision rules in modern change detection algorithms, including significance and hypothesis testing, predictive models, the shading model, and background modeling. We also discuss important preprocessing methods, approaches to enforcing the consistency of the change mask, and principles for evaluating and comparing the performance of change detection algorithms. It is hoped that our classification of algorithms into a relatively small number of categories will provide useful guidance to the algorithm designer.

image synthesis based on experimental studies of surface gloss perception. To develop the model, we've conducted two experiments that explore the relationships between the physical parameters used to describe the reflectance properties of glossy surfaces and the perceptual dimensions of glossy appearance. In the first experiment we use multidimensional scaling techniques to reveal the dimensionality of gloss perception for simulated painted surfaces. In the second experiment we use magnitude estimation methods to place metrics on these dimensions that relate changes in apparent gloss to variations in surface reflectance properties. We use the results of these experiments to rewrite the parameters of a physically-based light reflection model in perceptual terms. The result is a new psychophysically-based light reflection model where the dimensions of the model are perceptually meaningful, and variations along the dimensions are perceptually uniform. We demonstrate that the model can facilitate describing surface gloss in graphics rendering applications. This work represents a new methodology for developing light reflection models for image synthesis.

: A new BRDF model is presented which can be viewed as an kind of intermediary model between empirism and theory. Main results of physics are observed (energy conservation, reciprocity rule, microfacet theory) and numerous phenomena involved in light reflection are accounted for, in a physically plausible way (incoherent and coherent reflection, spectrum modifications, anisotropy, self-shadowing, multiple reflection, surface and subsurface reflection, differences between homogeneous and heterogeneous materials). The model has been especially intended for computer graphics applications and therefore includes two main features : simplicity (a small number of intuitively understandable parameters controls the model) and efficiency (the formulation insures adequation to Monte-Carlo rendering techniques and/or hardware implementations). Keywords : Physically-Based Rendering, Bidirectional Reflectance Distribution Function, Optimization 1 Introduction Computation of a reflectance model i...

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