Research Challenges in Computer Graphics
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Research Challenges in Computer Graphics
Computer Science and Telecommunications Board
National Research Council
This project will identify areas in which additional research is needed to make computer
graphics a more capable medium for supporting a growing body of work in areas such as
health care, entertainment, product design and manufacturing, scientific visualization, and
education. It will bring together computer graphics researchers with users from a range of
application areas to derive a set of research needs and will attempt to identify key
remaining problems to be solved in the field. In order to ensure broad input from the
computer graphics community and user communities, the project will solicit participation
through workshops, white papers and briefings. Indeed this process has already started:
the final form of this document is the result of a review by key members of the computer
graphics research community.
Computer graphics is becoming a ubiquitous tool for interacting with information
technologies. Although many feel that entertainment uses in video games, feature-length
films, and Web pages dominate, computer graphics is increasingly being used to help
doctors plan difficult surgeries, to enable engineers to create virtual mock-ups of large
engineering projects, to help scientists interpret the results of scientific simulations, to help
educators illustrate key concepts for their students, and to help monitor natural resources
and environmental conditions. Graphics provides an accessible medium for users to
interact with computing and communications systems and interpret data.
As the capabilities of computing and communications technologies continue to increase,
improvements in generating, manipulating and displaying computer graphic images will
continue to grow, enabling them to be used in an ever-broader range of applications.
Advances in this field will play an important role in the diffusion of information technology
Despite the more widespread use of computers and the Internet by the general public,
certain groups of citizens are underrepresented, creating what has been referred to as a
"digital divide". There are many dimensions to the Digital Divide, but computer graphics
has the potential to help many more people use computers and the Internet effectively by
creating more capable users and modes of accessing information (SIGGRAPH 1997).
Ensuring that computer graphics capabilities will keep pace with advances in hardware and
software will require continued research. As in the past, industry, academia, and
government will have important roles to play in supporting this work. Industry supports
considerable research and development in graphics, especially in support of entertainment,
graphics production, and computer-aided design. But industry is generally not well equipped
to support fundamental research that will develop broad graphics capabilities that may
not mature for a decade or more. Industry's goals, traditions, and mechanisms for
selecting R&D projects tend to select research that is more closely tied to immediate
needs. Ensuring continued effort in fundamental graphics research will therefore require
continued federal support of university research.
Federal funding has historically played a significant role in advancing computer graphics
research. The Department of Defense provided critical, early support for university
research in the basic techniques for modeling solid objects, shading, and virtual reality that
are used today (CSTB 1995). Other federal agencies, such as the Department of Energy,
National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and the National Institutes of Health
have supported projects to extend computer graphics capabilities into particular mission
areas, such as weapons simulation, scientific visualization, biomedical imaging,
manufacturing design and analysis, and the global information system. The National
Science Foundation has also funded computer graphics and in 1991 established a Science
and Technology Center for Computer Graphics.
To date, most federal support for computer graphics has been provided on an ad hoc
basis, with little long-term program support or planning. Perhaps in part because
computer graphics is frequently not seen as a real branch of computing research, each
agency has tended to sponsor work in its own area of interest. As computer graphics
expands into a widening range of application areas, such fragmentation of support is likely
to proliferate, leading to the possibility that the potential benefits of computer graphics will
not be fully realized. Indeed, a 1997 review of the National Science Foundation's Science
and Technology Center in Computer Graphics (NSF 1997) recommended that the NSF
work with the National Research Council to identify the broader scope of research that
remains to be done in computer graphics and to communicate this information to policy
makers, but this recommendation has yet to be implemented. The surge in information
technology applications since that time makes the need even more compelling today.
Research in computer graphics encompasses a broad range of topics, including modeling,
rendering, interactive techniques, and graphics hardware. Modeling consists of techniques
for creating computer-based representations of objects and scenes to be depicted.
Rendering is the process of producing images for display on a monitor or printer. Interactive
techniques include tools and physical devices that permit the development of applications
that allow human users to interact with graphical representations in real time. Graphics
hardware consists of specialized and general-purpose hardware for creating and displaying
computer graphics. It ranges from high-end workstations and desktop PCs augmented
with graphics accelerator cards for carrying out graphics calculations to specialized user
interfaces, such as helmet mounted displays for virtual reality or augmented reality
Advances in these core areas will be needed to enable faster, simpler development of
realistic and complex computer graphics images such as those found in increasing
abundance in the growing collection of digital libraries. Research will also be needed to help
tailor these fundamental advances to particular application areas, whether healthcare,
entertainment, or scientific research. Such efforts will require collaboration between
computer science researchers and those in other disciplines such as art, engineering, and
medicine. We have specifically not defined the scope of computer graphics in detail in order
to allow study members great latitude in their work.
In addition, future research in computer graphics will respond to new opportunities created
by the increasing capabilities of computing and communications systems. For example,
work on the virtual reality markup language (VRML) is enabling the creation of
three-dimensional images that can be incorporated into pages and shared over the World
Wide Web. Future work could extend these principles to allow large scale virtual
environments to be shared via the Internet. Image-based rendering techniques, which
incorporate real-world or synthetic imagery into 3D databases, will provide more complex
and realistic computer graphics and may transform rendering, modeling, and graphics
hardware. Virtual reality and augmented reality systems will be experienced through all our
senses, including sight, sound, and motion or touch.
Similarly, work on automatic data simplification and database re-targeting will produce
the capability to take models created at a high level of complexity and deploy them at a
lower level of complexity commensurate with available computing resources. Hence, a
model created on a high-end workstation can be deployed on a notebook computer. Such
work is particularly important with the advent of the World Wide Web where bandwidth is
limited and complex models might overwhelm the infrastructure. While itself a research
issue, development of the Next Generation Internet promises to allow increased
collaboration among researchers in different disciplines and countries, many of whom will
share graphical images and simulations.
PLAN OF ACTION
Statement of Task
A group of experts in computer graphics and its varied applications will identify compelling
research needs in the field, highlighting those that promise significant returns due to the
scope, scale, or breadth of their potential applications. The group will examine research
needs in both core areas of computer graphics (such as modeling and rendering) and in
application areas such as defense, entertainment, medicine, manufacturing, and scientific
visualization to identify those research areas that can be leveraged broadly. The results
will inform research-related activities in government, universities, and industry and provide
guidance on the roles each entity can play in achieving the research objectives. We do not
mean to imply that such a study entirely replaces the traditional bottoms up proposal
driven method of defining research areas.
CSTB will assemble a study committee of 12-15 members to conduct this study.
Membership will be drawn from industry and academia, and will include recognized experts
with strong knowledge of core computer graphics disciplines and a diverse set of
application areas. It will attempt to combine the perspectives of computer graphics
researchers, artists, scientists, engineers, and others who use graphics systems to
create different forms of imagery or content. Suggestions for committee membership will
be solicited from CSTB members and staff, other relevant groups within the National
Academies, the computer graphics research community, potential sponsors, and from
recognized leaders in interesting application areas.
Although such a group cannot possibly represent all of computer graphics research and
applications, committee members would attempt to solicit a wide range of input to help
them identify the most pressing technical needs and biggest research challenges.
Preliminary Work Plan
Based on consultations among Board members, CSTB committee members, and the
sponsors, CSTB will seek nominees for the study committee and suggestions for topics to
address. The study committee will meet approximately five times over the course of the
study to plan its work, meet with the sponsors and other relevant parties, prepare a
summary report, and respond to review comments.
A workshop or series of smaller data-gathering sessions will be convened to solicit input on
research needs from diverse communities of users. Should timing allow, a meeting or small
workshop could be held in conjunction with the annual SIGGRAPH conference to facilitate
broad participation of the computer graphics community. Additional efforts will be made to
solicit input through white papers, briefings to the committee, and the Internet.
The committee would consider such questions as (1) How will advances in computer
graphics enable significant breakthroughs in fields such as entertainment, health care,
engineering design, manufacturing, and scientific research? (2) What technical advances
and research are required to enable computer graphics to serve a growing range of needs?
(3) What unsolved problems remain within the field of computer graphics and are they
being adequately addressed? (4) What new capabilities do advanced computing and
communications provide that may drive computer graphics applications? (5) How can the
most promising research issues be best addressed? (6) What are the complementary
roles of industry, government, and universities in meeting future challenges? (7) What are
the benefits of research in different areas of computer graphics? To the extent possible,
the committee will attempt to identify research topics of enduring interest and value and
those with broad applicability.
Product and Dissemination Plan
The principal product of this project will be a report summarizing the findings of the study
committee and articulating its recommendations. The report will be subject to NRC review
procedures to ensure its accuracy, balance, and rigor. Dissemination will be targeted
toward government policy makers, members of the computer graphics research
community, and key users of computer graphics systems in industry, academia, and
government. The report will be made available on the National Academy of Sciences World
Wide Web server, as well as in paper form. Additional efforts will be made to disseminate
the report's conclusions through briefings to interested parties in government, academia,
and industry; through participation in high-level government and industry conferences; and
by publication of summary articles in relevant journals, as appropriate. Funds for
dissemination are included in the budget. In the final analysis, the success of this project
will be determined by whether the daunting goals of increased awareness and funding for
important elements of computer graphics research happens.
CSTB 1995. Evolving the High Performance Computing and Communications Initiative to
Support the Nation's Information Infrastructure. National Academy Press, Washington,
NSF 1997. Review of the Science and Technology Center for Computer Graphics.
National Science Foundation. Arlington, VA.
SIGGRAPH 1997 "Computer Graphics, Visualization, Imaging and the GII (Internet)",
SIGGRAPH White Paper #1, Gershon, et.al., May 1997 (www.siggraph.org/pub-policy).