Replicating Reality

Hi All,

I'm fascinated by the quest to visually replicate reality. Just as the holy grail of computing is 'transparent computing'* so I believe there exists a holy grail for CGI, where it is so pervasive and realistic that we can no longer distinguish between real events on-screen and fake events on-screen.

The big CGI companies, Dreamworks, Pixar etc share this goal as do many scientific research programmes. One of these is the Institute of Creative Technologies. These guys have produced some quite remarkable methods for creating totally believable simulacrums. Their site has some very informative papers, especially by Paul Debevec. There are also some stunning examples of what they can achieve with their 'Light Stage'. Links follow:

ICT Light Stage 6 - Relighting Human Locomotion. Vid is half way down the page

ICT Light Stage 5 - Performance Relighting. Vid is half way down the page

I know this is a forum primarily for web designers but I'd be very interested in getting your thoughts on the potential of this technology and more generally on the quest to visually replicate reality.

Related to this tech is this application: http://interactive.usc.edu/viewfinder/ which Flickarises Google Earth! Check the vid

And also this vid which is simply amazing

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* Transparent computing is a characteristic of pervasive computing, the possible future state in which we will be surrounded by computers everywhere in the environment that respond to our needs without our conscious use. In this context, transparent means invisible. A long sought goal of computer science, transparent computing would involve systems so subtle and responsive that they could, for example, solve various user problems without any knowledge on the part of the user of what was taking place. As a simple example, an invisible computer could respond to a glance at a particular Web site URL by calling up similar Web sites and listing them unobtrusively nearby.

-- source: http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/0,,sid9_gci765426,00.html