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i3D 2010 Keynote Talk

Biomechanical and Artificial Life Simulation of Humans for Computer Animation and Games

Abstract:

This two-part talk will present our recent work on human simulation, specifically:

1. The comprehensive biomechanical animation of the human body, confronting the challenge of modeling and controlling more or less all of the relevant articular bones and muscles, as well as simulating the physics-based deformations of the soft tissues.
2. An artificial life framework for multi-human simulation that addresses the problem of emulating the rich complexity of human activity in urban environments, resulting in 3D virtual worlds populated by lifelike autonomous pedestrians.

I will conclude with a discussion of the profound scientific and computational challenges that remain in combining physics and AI for the purposes of realistic, interactive human simulation.

Bio:

Demetri Terzopoulos (PhD '84 MIT) is the Chancellor's Professor of Computer Science at UCLA. He is a Guggenheim Fellow, a Fellow of the ACM, a Fellow of the IEEE, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, and a member of the European Academy of Sciences. One of the most highly cited authors in engineering and computer science, among his many awards are an Academy Award for Technical Achievement from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for his pioneering research on physics-based computer animation, and the inaugural Computer Vision Significant Researcher Award from the IEEE for his pioneering and sustained research on deformable models and their applications.