[AG-TECH] Access Grid Seminar(s)

[Lee Margetts]

*** Apologies for Cross Posting ***

On Friday, 22nd September, we will host two seminars, both to be broadcast
over the Access Grid.

1. "From a Small Formula to Cyberworlds"

Dr Alexei Sourin, School of Computer Engineering, Nanyang Technological
University, Singapore

Friday, 22nd September 2006, 1100-1200 (1000-1100 UTC)
G95, Kilburn Building

The talk covers projects on function-based web visualisation and
visualisation on Grid.

We have proposed and implemented function-based extensions (FX3D/ FVRML)
of X3D and its predecessor VRML which allow for defining time-dependent
geometric shapes, their appearance and transformations with analytically
defined parametric, implicit and explicit functions. The function-defined
shapes can be used together with the standard X3D and VRML shapes. Besides
defining shapes by analytical functions, we have developed interactive
function-based shape modelling tools. We have extended these interactive
shape modelling tools to work on the Grid.

We have also developed Grid-based portal for rendering animation scene
files. Rendering computer animation frames is a very time consuming job.
Using parallel computing on clusters and render farms is a common solution
to this problem. In this project we developed a framework for Grid
rendering services. We have also developed a novel lossless 3D compression
method which allowed us to transfer gigabytes of scene representation
files (Renderman (.rib) and mental images (.mi) files).


2. "High Dynamic Range Image Capture, Representation and Display"

Greg Ward, BrightSide Technologies

Friday, 22nd September 2006, 1400-1500 (1300-1400 UTC)
Room 1.10, Kilburn Building

Conventional digital imaging is constrained to lie within the limited
gamut and dynamic range of a standard CRT monitor, whereas the human eye
can see roughly twice the sRGB color gamut and 100 times the dynamic
range. LCD monitors are already claiming contrast ratios of over 1000:1,
and true high dynamic range displays capable of 10,000:1 with
16-bits/channel are in the works. On the capture side, multiple exposures
from a conventional digital camera can be used to create an HDR image,
though issues such as image alignment and ghosting must be addressed. The
speaker will describe and demonstrate techniques for hand-held HDR image
capture using the Photosphere application he developed, and explain the
various HDR image formats available along with their strengths and
weaknesses. The audience is invited to ask questions on related topics,
such as image-based lighting, tone-mapping, and what HDR means for the
future.