CS 448A - Topics in Computer Graphics

Digital photography and image-based rendering

Quarter: Spring, 2002
Units: 3-4 (+/NC or letter grade)
Time: Tue/Thu 2:45 - 4:00
Place: 392 Gates Hall (graphics lab conference room)
Instructors: Marc Levoy and Steve Marschner
Office hours: Marc Levoy: Tue/Thu, 11:00 - 12:15; Steve Marschner: TBA
Prerequisite: CS 248 or equivalent.
Televised?: No

Course abstract

Although the digital photography industry is expanding rapidly, most digital cameras still look and feel like film cameras, and they offer roughly the same set of features and controls. However, as sensors, actuators, and in-camera processing systems improve, these cameras will begin to offer capabilities that film cameras never had. These capabilities force us to relax our notion of what constitutes "a photograph." They also blur the distinction between photography and scene modeling. These changes will lead to new photographic techniques, new scientific tools, and possibly new art forms.

In this one-time seminar course, we will survey the emerging technologies of digital photography, and we will explore the new imaging modalities that they enable. In particular, we will focus on three areas:

digital photography technologies. Topics: image sensors, photographic optics, camera design, digital camera systems, selected topics from image and video compression and storage.
computational imaging, i.e. building images from other images. Topics: high-X imaging (resolution, exposure, dynamic range, depth of field), unusual panoramic formats, omnidirectional imaging, multi-perspective photography, integral photography, selected topics from camera calibration, camera tracking, pose estimation.
image-based rendering, i.e. building views of scenes from other views. Topics: view interpolation, layered depth images, light fields and other plenoptic representations, model-based image editing.

The course is targeted to both CS and EE students, reflecting our conviction that successful researchers in this area must understand both the algorithms and the underlying technologies.

Course requirements

Most classes will consist of a lecture by one of the instructors. These lectures may be accompanied by readings from textbooks or the research literature. These readings will be handed out in class or placed on the course web site. Students are expected to:

read the assigned papers, attend the lectures, and participate in class discussions,
present one research paper, typically from a recent computer graphics or computer vision conference, to the class,
participate in one of the two scheduled debates, and
do a major project of their own design.

Click here for a tentative class schedule, which shows the days set aside for student presentations of papers and for the debates. The schedule also shows some dates for project milestones. Since this project will constitute the bulk of your work in the course, we've spaced these dates out to cover most of the quarter.

levoy@cs.stanford.edu
srm@graphics.stanford.edu