Section: Research Program

Methodology

Our research is guided by several methodological principles:

Experimentation:

to find solutions and phenomenological models, we use experimentation, performing statistical measurements of how a system behaves. We then extract a model from the experimental data.

Validation:

for each algorithm we develop, we look for experimental validation: measuring the behavior of the algorithm, how it scales, how it improves over the state-of-the-art... We also compare our algorithms to the exact solution. Validation is harder for some of our research domains, but it remains a key principle for us.

Reducing the complexity of the problem:

the equations describing certain behaviors in image synthesis can have a large degree of complexity, precluding computations, especially in real time. This is true for physical simulation of fluids, tree growth, illumination simulation... We are looking for emerging phenomena and phenomenological models to describe them (see framed box “Emerging phenomena”). Using these, we simplify the theoretical models in a controlled way, to improve user interaction and accelerate the computations.

Transfering ideas from other domains:

Computer Graphics is, by nature, at the interface of many research domains: physics for the behavior of light, applied mathematics for numerical simulation, biology, algorithmics... We import tools from all these domains, and keep looking for new tools and ideas.

Develop new fondamental tools:

In situations where specific tools are required for a problem, we will proceed from a theoretical framework to develop them. These tools may in return have applications in other domains, and we are ready to disseminate them.

Collaborate with industrial partners:

we have a long experiment of collaboration with industrial partners. These collaborations bring us new problems to solve, with short-term or medium-term transfert opportunities. When we cooperate with these partners, we have to find what they need, which can be very different from what they want, their expressed need.