SIGGRAPH 1983 Computer Graphics Achievement Award: Blinn
Awardee(s):
Award:
- Computer Graphics Achievement Award
Description:
Dr. James F. Blinn has been actively involved in computer graphics for the past 15 years. He obtained Bachelors and Masters degrees from the University of Michigan in 1970 and 1972, respectively and a PH.D. from the University of Utah in 1978. While a student at Utah he worked as a consultant for the Computer Graphics Lab of the New York Institute of Technology and for the Motion Picture Project at Information International Incorporated. He is currently at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory of the California Institute of Technology.
During the past six years, Dr. Blinn has made major and significant contributions to the advancement of image synthesis algorithms and systems. The technique for modelling textured surfaces and the use of reflectance maps, introduced by Blinn and Martin Newell, ate two of the most widely used and most effective methods of producing highly realistic synthetic images. His model of light reflection from opaque surfaces is now the standard. He was the first to devise a scan-line algorithm for directly displaying bi-cubic surfaces. He has devised a variety of less spectacular but equally useful mathematical techniques for manipulating three dimensional objects. Moreover, this work has formed the starting point for numerous other projects by other researchers.
More recently, Dr. Blinn has published a method of describing nebulous objects whose geometry defies conventional representations. The model represents a complete departure from previous methods and promises to spawn a new class of useful geometric models.
Source:
- ACM SIGGRAPH Citation
