Research Areas - Graphics in the Computer Science Department at Carnegie Mellon

CSD faculty: Alexei Efros, Jessica Hodgins, Doug James, James Kuffner (RI), Yanxi Liu (RI), Srinivasa Narasimhan (RI), Nancy Pollard

Graphics research has a long tradition at Carnegie Mellon beginning with papers at one of the first SIGGRAPH's in 1976. More recently, the group has been strengthened with a number of new hires.

The theme of the graphics group is data-driven computer graphics with a strong emphasis on realism. This definition reflects the widely held perception that progress in computer graphics in the next ten years is most likely to be driven by the collection of significant quantities of data whether by motion capture equipment (Hodgins, Kuffner, and Pollard), special purpose optical rigs (Narasimhan), example images (Efros and Liu), or pre-computed results from simulation (James). Individuals in the group then use these collections of data to develop technologies for interfaces for naive users, synthesizing motion for humanoid robots and human characters, interactive haptic simulations, perceptual metrics for human animation, texture synthesis and analysis, tracking human motion, and reconstructing information in foggy environments.

Tthe graphics faculty are able to offer a comphrensive curriculum in computer graphics with an introduction to graphics offered twice per year on the undergraduate level and once per year at the graduate level. The faculty also offer four advanced undergraduate classes per year: Animation Art and Technology, Video Game Programming, Computer Animation, and Computational Photography. They also offer one advanced graduate class per semester on a rotating set of topics.

The strength of the group was enhanced by leveraging other areas in which the Computer Science Department, Robotics Institute and more broadly the School of Computer Science has expertise. For example Liu, Efros, and Narasimhan interact with the strong computer vision group. Hodgins, Pollard and Kuffner are leaders in the budding humanoids effort in SCS. Many of the graphics faculty interact with faculty in data mining and machine learning. Collectively the graphics faculty have expertise in computer animation, rendering, motion capture, simulation, humanoid robotics, machine learning, medical imaging, visualization, and computer vision.