Class of 1960s speaker Turner Whitted, “From Promise to Practical: A Half-Century of Virtual Realities”

The Computer Science Department’s Class of 1960 Scholars Lecture Series
Thursday, October 22 at 8:00 pm in TPL 203

From Promise to Practical: A Half-Century of Virtual Realities

Computer graphics, like many technologies, has advanced from limited demonstrations of promising ideas to practical and widely used implementations. These artifacts then reach a commodity stage of higher performance, lower cost, and wider distribution. In this manner the experience of a few astronauts training to land on the moon using a one-of-a-kind visual simulator can be extended to millions of consumers playing realistic 3D video games in their living rooms.

While Moore’s Law for semiconductor devices is the major factor opening the way to practicality, the evolutionary path for graphics devices is more complex than simply riding the wave of denser and faster silicon circuitry. Two recurring themes in the history of graphics systems are the convergence of multiple, independently developed device disruptions and the re-emergence of techniques once thought to be impractical. This talk looks both forward and backward in an attempt to identify the disruptions which will move today’s promising ideas into tomorrow’s practical realm.

Turner Whitted is a researcher with experience ranging from graphics hardware to HCI and pervasive computing. He is currently experimenting with novel display technologies as a member of NVIDIA Research. His career has included terms as a manager at Microsoft Research, as cofounder and president of game engine company Numerical Design Limited, and as a member of the technical staff at Bell Labs where he introduced the use of recursive ray tracing to implement global illumination. He earned BSE and MS degrees from Duke University and a PhD from North Carolina State University, all in electrical engineering. He is an adjunct faculty member in the Computer Science Department at UNC Chapel Hill and in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at NC State University. He is an ACM Fellow and a member of the National Academy of Engineering.