The purpose of this research is to develop and apply efficient methods for computing radiant energy transfer. The methods are being developed by drawing on an expanding concepts and techniques from both engineering and computer science. The ultimate goal is to develop methods which allow the simulation of radiant transfer in geometrically complex, dynamic environments. A variety of issues are being considered. The accuracy required in the modelling of environment geometry and material properties is being studied. The potential for speeding up the calculation of the effects of scattering by Monte Carlo and finite are (radiosity) methods is being explored. The use of specialized and/or parallel computer processors is being considered. The nature and format of output available during the solution process is also being studied. The new computational methods are being applied to several different types of problems including the generation of photorealistic computer graphics images, the calculation of infrared signatures, and the simulation of illumination for the design of computer vision systems.
