Resumen
The article focuses on a framework for realistic image synthesis in computer graphics. The goal of the Cornell Program of Computer Graphics is to develop physically based lighting models and perceptually based rendering procedures that produce synthetic images visually and measurably indistinguishable from real-world images. In this article, the author emphasizes on the formal comparisons between simulations and actual measurements, difficulties that algorithm designers and scientists encounter while building light-reflection and light-transport models and the need to tap the vast amount of psychophysical research conducted over the past 50 years, as well as future research directions. Although the earliest computer graphics renderings, in the late 1960's, involved simple environments with direct lighting, the graphics community today generates pictures of complex scenes with shadows, shading, textures and inter-reflections. For decades, high-quality simulations have been used for a number of industrial tasks, including pilot training, automotive design, and architectural walkthroughs.