Volumetric Light Transport for Vision and Graphics

This talk will demonstrate how to model, measure, interpret and control light transport in volumetric media such as murky water, bad weather, and translucent materials. Historically, the field of computer vision has focused on a specific type of light transport — direct surface reflection from opaque surfaces immersed in vacuum. We will show several applications where volumetric light transport must be taken in to account:

1. Controlling illumination to increase visibility underwater, (b) controlling the focus of illumination to acquire shapes of objects that exhibit strong global illumination effects such as subsurface scattering and interreflections, (c) real-time rendering of fog, haze and rain to be used for movies and video games, and, (d) measuring optical properties of every day liquids such as wines, milks, juices, particulate solutions, ocean water, etc.