October 29, Tuesday, 13:30 – 15:30 (2 hours)

Instructor: James Ferwerda, Rochester Institute of Technology  

Level: Intermediate

Prerequisites: A basic level understanding of issues in color/imaging science. All specialized concepts are introduced in the course.

Benefits This course enables the attendee to:

 • Identify the physical and perceptual dimensions of surface appearance.

 • Understand the technologies used to measure, model, and render surface appearance.

 • Appreciate the practicalities of implementing these technologies, and their advantages and limitations.

 • Choose the technologies that are most appropriate for their application domain.

Course Description

Real-world surfaces often have complex topographic and material properties. Creating accurate and realistic digital models of these surfaces is a topic of great interest to many fields. This course describes the physical processes and visual mechanisms that determine surface appearance, and then surveys efforts to develop image-based systems for measuring, modeling, and rendering the appearances of complex surfaces. The capabilities and limitations of different systems are described, and a tutorial on the implementation, calibration, use, and assessment of a system for creating digital models of paintings, manuscripts, and other complex textured surfaces is provided.

Intended Audience: students and professionals who want to understand the physics and psychophysics of surface appearance and want to evaluate and/or develop systems to measure, model, and render these properties.

James A. Ferwerda is an associate professor and the Xerox Chair in the Chester F. Carlson Center for Imaging Science at the Rochester Institute of Technology. He received a BA in psychology, MS in computer graphics, and a PhD in experimental psychology, all from Cornell University. The focus of his research is on building computational models of human vision from psychophysical experiments and developing advanced imaging systems based on these models.