*Speaker: Kavita Bala, Cornell University Title: Perceptually-based scalable graphics Abstract: Simulating the appearance of complex scenes faithfully and efficiently is a challenge in graphics. My research develops algorithms that scale to complex illumination and scenes, by exploiting limitations in human perception. In this talk I will describe two complementary research goals. First, we need to understand image fidelity: when is a rendered image good enough? We introduce a new appearance-based measure of image fidelity called visual equivalence[SIG07,SIG08] that goes beyond pixel accuracy to better capture what graphics practitioners care about: preserving appearance in complex scenes. Second, we design perceptually-based algorithms that scale to complex scenes and complex illumination effects, like motion blur, depth-of-field, participating media, and subsurface scattering. I will describe our work on lightcuts for scalable final rendering [SIG05,SIG06,EG08] and matrix row-column sampling for lighting preview [SIG07,EGSR08]. These approaches are complementary in performance and can be applied across a range of applications such as cinematic relighting, production rendering, games, cultural heritage, and ecommerce, among others. Bio: Kavita Bala is an Assistant Professor in the Computer Science Department and Program of Computer Graphics at Cornell University. She received her S.M. and Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and her B.Tech. from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT, Bombay). Bala specializes in computer graphics, leading research projects in scalable rendering, perceptually-based rendering, interactive global illumination, and image-based modeling and texturing. She has co-authored the graduate-level textbook "Advanced Global Illumination" (A K Peters publisher, second edition). In 2005 she co-chaired the Eurographics Symposium on Rendering (EGSR). Bala has received the NSF CAREER award, Cornell's College of Engineering James and Mary Tien Excellence in Teaching Award, and Cornell's Affinito-Stewart award. **Time/Place: Monday, September 22, 2008 12:00 - 1:30PM, CS 402 (PIXL Lunch) *