The Challenges of Ubiquitous Visual Communication

Eugene Fiume, University of Toronto, Canada

Visual communication likely predated written language and has always been of profound social importance. Yet apart from occasionally posting pictures or videos of the excesses of your last party to a social media site, good visual communication requires considerable expertise and remains the job of experts. Why should only a select few have this ability?

A seemingly endless, but I believe surmountable, set of challenges and impediments must be overcome before we can make computer aided visual communication as accessible as a tweet. I will explore these challenges and reflect on the scientific problems we will need to resolve to achieve ubiquity.

Eugene Fiume is Professor and past Chair of the Department of Computer Science at the University of Toronto, where he co-directs the Dynamic Graphics Project and is director of the Masters of Science in Applied Computing programme. He currently sits on the Board of Directors of Tucows Inc. (Toronto), and is on the Advisory Board of the Intel Science and Technology Center for Visual Computing (Santa Clara). Eugene has participated in many task forces and reviews of research institutes around the world. Eugene’s research interests include most aspects of realistic computer graphics, including computer animation, modelling natural phenomena, and illumination, as well as strong interests in internet based imaging, image repositories, software systems and parallel algorithms. He has written two books and (co-)authored over 120 papers on these topics. Fourteen doctoral students and 32 masters students have graduated under his supervision. He has won two teaching awards, as well as Innovation Awards from ITRC for research in computer graphics, Burroughs-Wellcome for biomedical research, and an NSERC Synergy Award for innovation and industrial collaboration in visual modelling. His industrial interests include technology transfer in the Information Technology area, internet-based applications, digital media, wireless and multimedia systems, web-based services, large-scale computation, and the interaction of information technology and business.

Statistical Approaches in Computer Graphics

WonSook Lee, University of Ottawa, Canada

There are numerous statistics used to analyse data, from average and standard deviation to more sophisticated methods such as Principal Component Analysis (PCA). Statistical approach in computer graphics is mainly for example-based method where many examples (usually from real-life data) are analysed and the important characteristics are extracted to build realistic looking virtual shapes and movements. In this talk we discuss how the statistical methods have been used in various objects such as human modeling, animation and even fluid simulation.

WonSook Lee’s main research interests are in computer graphics and computer animation. She has worked on virtual human modeling and animation, face recognition, music analysis, haptic, medical imaging, and fluid. WonSook Lee obtained her B. Sc. in POSTECH (South Korea) in Mathematics), M.Scs in POSTECH in Mathematics and National University of Singapore (Singapore) in Systems Science and Diplôme d’Etudes Supérieures en Systèmes d’Information in University of Genève (Switzerland). Her PhD, from University of Genève, was on the topic of human modeling for animation. She has working experience in several industries such as Korea Telecom, Samsung (South Korea) as well as Eyematics (USA). She has been with School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, University of Ottawa, Canada since 2003 where she is currently Associate Professor. She is a member of several conferences, Journals and NSERC evaluation committees.

The Visual Effects of Inception

Paul Franklin, Double Negative

In early 2009 director Christopher Nolan invited Paul Franklin to supervise the visual effects work for his new film, Inception. Franklin worked closely with Nolan to create some of the most spectacular and original effects sequences ever seen in a summer block buster. In this presentation Franklin will tell the story of the film’s development, production and the technical process involved in making VFX for a large-scale Hollywood movie.

Inception was released in summer 2010 to critical acclaim and commercial success. Franklin went on to win an Academy Award® and BAFTA award for his visual effects work on the film.