Graphics and Vision

Instructor: Prof. Jack Tumblin

Discussion Questions:

• What is umwelt?
• What is the relationship between umwelt and computer graphics?
• What is the different between depiction and photo-realistic rendering?
• What, exactly, is a picture? What distinguishes a rectangular picture from a non-picture arrangement of colors within a rectangle? What are its visually-essential components?
• Are there kinds of depiction that don’t fit within Durand’s formalizations? Find some examples and share them on Piazza.
• Compare picture making with and without a computer? What are the differences in tools? What is missing (or overly clumsy among current computer-assisted picture-making tools?
• Can you see anything that your digital camera cannot?
• High-quality, easily-searched online e-books, magazines, and images have decimated library attendance, but not museum attendance. Why not? Why does a visit reveal so much more than online photos?
• How is computer graphics enabling us to see things that are unseeable?
• Compare the ways displaying computer graphics by (a) a computer screen, (b) hololens, (c) Google Cardboard.

• What makes computer vision really hard?
• How is Li’s approach to computer vision different from the approach of the research that preceded her work?
• What are some useful technologies that computer vision enables?
• How will computer vision enable humans to be better at things?
• How does Word Lens work?

Readings and Media: