Eurographics 2006 - Conference Webpage

T5Inverse Rendering: From Concept to Applications

Image of Inverse Rendering: From Concept to Applications

Date:	Monday, 4th September
Time:	9:00 - 12:30
Location:	Tutorial Room 7 (HS 7)

Organizer: Celine Loscos, University College London
Speakers: Celine Loscos, University College London
Katrien Jacobs, University College London
Xavier Pueyo, Universitat de Girona, Girona Graphics Group
Gustavo Patow, Universitat de Girona, Girona Graphics Group
Abstract: Inverse problems are usually of extreme complexity and are an important research topic for the graphics community due to their wide applicability. Those problems are considered for which the input data is captured from reality with a camera, so it is possible to extract information about the scene illumination, reflectance properties, or geometry. Unfortunately, sometimes standard techniques fail due to practical issues: uncertainty in acquisition methods, dynamic behaviors, complexity of the scene and approximate geometrical or lighting model. This course not only aims at the presentation of the fundamental principles behind inverse rendering problems, but also presents some practical considerations that arise in some applications, explains the new problems introduced and shows adequate solutions. In the introduction, a review is given of the course objectives, the context and some of the prerequisites, e.g. a general definition of global illumination. The first part of the course gives a definition of inverse rendering, and presents a selection of inverse rendering solutions present in the literature. The second part of the course, describes practical methods that can be used in specific applications of inverse rendering. Retrieving reflectance and illumination properties of an existing site is of interest in areas as post-production, architectural and urban planning, and interior lighting design. Modeling geometric properties of an object based on illumination output can be used in the design of reflectors in the car industry or urban lighting design.
The course is given as a lecture and is supported by slides and videos. Material created by the course organizers and coming from other sources is used to illustrate the ideas presented in the course.
At the end of the course, attendees will have a good understanding of inverse rendering problems, and be able to select a method from the literature to apply to a specific application.

Speakers' Background

Celine Loscos: Celine Loscos joined the Department of Computer Science at UCL in 2000 as a post-doc, after completing her PhD on interactive relighting for augmented reality (1999, IMAG-INRIA, France). Since 2001, she has been a lecturer in department and teaches computer graphics to undergraduate and postgraduate students. She is part of Virtual Environments and Computer Graphics (VECG) laboratory. Her research focuses on real-time rendering, animation and interaction in complex environments for mixed reality on which she has co-authored papers published in IEEE, ACM and EG conferences/journals.
Katrien Jacobs: Katrien Jacobs graduated as an Electrical Engineer at the Katholieke University of Leuven (ESAT-KUL), Belgium, in 2002 and started her PhD in Computer Science at University College London (UCL) in 2003. Her work includes developing common illumination and relighting solutions for difficult to capture and model environments. Recent published work includes a survey on illumination methods for mixed reality in Computer Graphics Forum. She is supervised by Dr. Celine Loscos.
Xavier Pueyo: Xavier Pueyo received a PhD in Engineering from Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya (UPC), Spain, in 1986 and the degree of Docteur Ingenieur in Computer Sciences from Universite de Rennes I, France, in 1984. He is a professor of Computer Sciences at the Universitat de Girona (UdG), Spain, since 1996 and he has been the dean of its School of Technology. He taught Computer Sciences (Programming and Computer Graphics) at UdG from 1993 to 1996 and at UPC from 1988 to 1993 as an associate professor. His research interest includes computer graphics, realistic computer rendering and visualization. Pueyo has chaired the Eurographics Rendering Working Group and the Spanish Chapter of Eurographics.
Gustavo Patow: Gustavo Patow got a degree in physics from the Universidad de La Plata, Argentina, and got his PhD at the Universitat Politcnica de Catalunya at Barcelona, Spain, under the supervision of Xavier Pueyo and lvar Vinacua. His thesis topic was the inverse design of reflector surfaces for luminaire design, and his current research continues in the inverse rendering set of problems. He currently holds an associate professor position at the Universitat de Girona, Spain.