=================
		    Rendering, 15-862
		    =================

Meets: Tue,Thu 10:30am-11:50, 5304 Wean Hall, 19 Sep - 7 Dec.

Professor: Paul Heckbert

Purpose of course: to teach you how to do research in rendering (image
synthesis). I will not attempt to survey all of rendering, but will instead
focus on a few topics of active research, namely: image-based modeling, volume
rendering, global illumination, wavelets, and multiresolution modeling.

Prerequisites: undergraduate courses in, or ability to teach yourself:
    * graphics (familiarity with z-buffer, ray tracing,
        surfaces, transformations, shading)
    * linear algebra
    * calculus

Grading: 40% programming assignments, 30% project, 15% midterm, 15% class
participation. No final. This course is worth 1 Computer Science graduate
student core unit.

Programming Assignments:
    P1. Create an image mosaic: shoot some overlapping photos, then digitize,
	warp, resample, and composite them into a seamless photomosaic.
    P2. Volume rendering: use ray tracing or other algorithm to generate nice
	pictures of volume medical data.
    P3. Wavelet radiosity: use wavelets to compute diffuse interreflection in
	an architectural scene.

Project: At the end of the semester, you will do original research on a
rendering topic of your choice, give in-class presentation, and write a report.

Reading: For most of the semester, class meetings will consist of lecture and
paper discussion.  We will typically read one technical paper for each class
meeting.  One student will give a short presentation summarizing the paper,
after which we will all discuss it.  Come to first class meeting for reading
list.


Syllabus with tentative pace:

    Introduction  (1 meeting)

    Aliasing & Rastering  (1 meeting)
	causes of aliasing, antialiasing by low pass filtering
	reconstruction, gamma correction

    Image-Based Models  (3 meetings)
	(review of z-buffer algorithm)
	image warping, texture mapping
	image & volume resampling, image mosaics
	image flow, images as a 3-D scene representation, view interp.

    Volume Rendering  (2 meetings)
	physics of absorption, scattering, transmission
	painter's & ray tracing algorithms for volume rendering

    Radiometry & Local Illumination  (2 meetings)
	color, reflectance
	image formation (cameras)

    Global Illumination  (6 meetings)
	(review of ray tracing algorithm)
	matrix radiosity, progressive radiosity
	wavelets
	wavelet radiosity
	mesh generation
	Monte Carlo techniques
	stochastic sampling, distribution ray tracing

    Miscellaneous  (4 meetings)
	multiresolution modeling (levels of detail)
	spatial data structures
	graphics hardware

    Project Presentations  (3 meetings)