I am in the first year of PhD research in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Bristol, investigating high fidelity graphics with particular regard to archaeological reconstructions. My undergraduate degree was a BA Hons in archaeology, and following two years of working in field archaeology with an emphasis on draughting and illustrating, I returned to university to complete an MSc in Computer Science and Applications.

I am interested in the potential of realistic graphics as an aid to the archaeologist, both as a research tool and as a method of interpretive display. It stems from a desire to go beyond photo-realistic modelling to create physically realistic scenes, so that a numerical simulation rather than an artist's conception is produced, offering us a more valid view of past environments. This involves precision modelling of the distribution of light energy in such scenes, and my work will focus on flame lit environments. This interdisciplinary perspective offers me the unique opportunity to engage in research into realistic graphics and also to answer questions raised from an archaeological perspective.

The aim of realistic image synthesis is the creation of accurate, high quality imagery which faithfully represents a scene, be it real or imaginary. Computer generated imagery indistinguishable from the real physical environment will be of substantial benefit in a wide variety of fields, and in particular the reconstruction of archaeological sites. Advances in rendering techniques allow us to simulate the distribution of light energy in a scene with great precision, however a number of fundamental issues still have to be addressed if we are to ensure that the displayed image does in fact have a high fidelity visual appearance. These issues include the limited dynamic range of displays, any residual shortcomings of the rendering process, and the extent to which human vision encodes such departures from perfect physical realism. A good quantitative understanding of the spatial, temporal, chromatic and three dimensional properties of human vision will lead to more realistic and efficient rendering algorithms by concentrating computational effort on those areas of the image which are important to the human eye. The need to establish a metric for realism through comparison is essential if the images are to be of full use, and work in the future will attempt to quantify how "real" realistic graphics actually are.

What I wish to learn from this campfire

As this is the first year of my PhD my work so far has involved research and reading into the theory and the existing applications and techniques of realistic graphics. This campfire offers me the opportunity to pose questions to the experts who will be attending and discuss the relevant issues of my research subject, thus allowing me to progress with the practical aspects of my study.

Issues I wish to discuss

How "real" can an archaeological reconstruction be, given that all archaeology is in a sense "virtual" - we are trying to recreate scenes that no longer exist. How can a metric for realism be established if we have no physical scene with which to compare it? In flame-lit environments the range of light can vary greatly over short distances. How can we compensate for this? Is tone mapping the answer? Does increased realism lead to misinterpretation? Are we more likely to take a reconstruction at face value and ignore alternative interpretations if it appears "real" to us?