You can see the wind.

Eugene Fiume

And Eugene Fiume can show you how.

“I love the look of the world, and computer graphics can help capture a bit of its beauty,” says the Department of Computer Science professor.  One of Fiume’s areas of specialty is realistic computer graphics, which means he looks at things people find beautiful in everyday life and tries to model them mathematically and computationally.  Specifically, he’s about capturing how things look and move.  “Our job as researchers in computer graphics is to capture the visual aspects of things in the world as mathematical models and then to develop software that hides the mathematical details from artists and designers who want to work directly with the creation of convincing images.”

Some of Fiume’s early work included modelling of smoke and clouds.  Together with then PhD student, Jos Stam, this work was published and then transferred into a commercial animation system that was subsequently used by others in many film productions.  Stam, Fiume and all the many researchers and developers of the system Maya at Alias Research were given an Oscar for Technical Achievement by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 2003 for their efforts.  A few years ago, Fiume began looking at more complex movement, such as how branches and leaves on a tree or shrub move in the wind, and how that translates to computer graphics that animators can use.  “Look at a person whose hair is blowing in the wind.  We’d like to extract the wind field that made the hair move, and then combine other phenomena into the scene, such as grass, and have them move in the same way.”

The goal of realistic graphics is to allow people to create synthetic environments that are visually convincing.  This raises questions for Fiume about what it means for an image to be real, and the difference between illusion and deception.  “I’m concerned that sophisticated computer graphics will be used deceptively because of how easy it is to create some kinds of artificial realities,” he says, suggesting that politics may be an area particularly open to manipulating images and potentially propagating distortions.  “A counterbalance to this is that what’s more detailed or realistic isn’t necessarily more believable,” he adds.  “Viewers looking at realistic animations of faces immediately notice what’s wrong – that the images aren’t real, and they are perceived to be zombie-like,” he says.  “But if the graphics are reduced to lines, like eyebrow squiggles, the faces can seem more human and believable.”

More recently, Fiume has been studying the mathematics of light and the physics of human bodies – how bodies can move, what makes movement expressive, and how bodies look in light and shadow.  He has been involved in projects in biomechanics and biomedicine, working with fellow researchers in computer science, as well as anatomy and medicine.  Their efforts at simulation may lead to a better understanding of what happens in reality.  “How does muscle work? How does the hand work? How will a young person’s face age?  It’s all tremendously complex and the visual component is very important,” he says.  “Using visual processes may help us understand a lot of mysterious behaviours in the world, including our bodies.”

Fiume’s work is just one example of how faculty and students in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Toronto are helping to answer the world's questions, by understanding that the application of technology can resolve a host of problems in science and art that are both intellectually challenging and critical to our future.  If you are someone who is creative, likes to solve puzzles, enjoys digging into complex problems, and are inspired by inventing solutions that can help people, computer science might be for you.