Pat Hanrahan: A Revolutionary in Computer Graphics and Rendering
Intro
The ubicomp leader that I would like to discuss is Pat M. Hanrahan. He is a computer graphics researcher, and he is currently the Canon USA Professor of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering in the Computer Graphics Lab at Stanford University. His research has to do with GPUs and rendering algorithms, in addition to computer visualization and technical illustration.
RenderMan
Some of Hanrahan’s earliest work comes from his time with Pixar Animation Studios. He began working at Pixar in 1986, and perhaps his most notable achievement there was his contributions to RenderMan.
RenderMan is a 3D rendering software that facilitates communication between modeling and animation applications and the render engine that generates the final high-quality images. It is a structured environment in which elements of the complex render pipeline from geometry to lighting and virtual cameras are simulated, allowing users to create 3D images without intimate knowledge of each element or even of the system being used to render them. It was built upon the foundation of a previous system called REYES (Render Everything You Saw). What was particularly revolutionary was the RenderMan shading language, which allowed for surfaces such as metal, glass, or cloth to be described using a C-like programming language. Users could modify these descriptions to suit the task at hand, rather than relying on RenderMan’s designers to specify all possible values and options. During his time at Pixar, Hanrahan also developed important techniques for volume rendering, which allows a CGI artist to render a 2-D projection of a 3-D data set. RenderMan was used in many movies, the most popular being Toy Story (1995).
Thinking past the context of filmmaking, technology like RenderMan could be used to assist with visual impairments, as it is capable of describing various types of surfaces and images. Upon using the software to code in a variety of images, we could create tactile graphics that would allow the visually impaired community to also consume the visualizations that they would not have otherwise been able to.
Tableau
One of Hanrahan’s most prominent achievements was the co-founding of the Tableau software in 2003. Tableau is a widely utilized software for data visualization and business intelligence, acclaimed for its robust functionalities. Users can seamlessly connect to diverse data sources, create engaging visualizations, and conduct real-time data analysis. Its user-friendly drag-and-drop interface facilitates ad-hoc reporting and the integration of data from various sources. Users can construct dashboards and stories, collaborate through Tableau Server and Tableau Online, and uphold data security and governance. The software is compatible with multiple devices, and a thriving community offers support and resources. Overall, Tableau empowers both individuals and organizations to extract valuable insights from their data. Although the company was acquired by Salesforce in 2019, Hanrahan remains its Chief Scientist.
ICrafter: A Service Framework for Ubiquitous Computing Environments
Besides his contributions to software tools in computer graphics and visualizations, he has also done research into some proposed tools. In a 2001 research paper produced at Stanford, Hanrahan along with some other colleagues proposed ICrafter, which is a framework for services and their user interfaces in a class of ubiquitous computing environments. The primary goal of ICrafter is to enable users to interact with services in their surroundings using a range of modalities and input devices. It enhances current service frameworks through three key approaches. Firstly, ICrafter supports the offloading of services and user input devices by providing infrastructure support for UI selection, generation, and adaptation. Secondly, it permits the association of UIs with service patterns, allowing for dynamic aggregation of services. Lastly, ICrafter simplifies the creation of service UIs that are portable yet still responsive to the specific context of the local environment.
One of the key themes of the ICrafter framework is heterogeneity. This is relevant to the ICrafter framework because some of the goals include making sure that it will accommodate a variety of UI languages/modalities in addition to the UI reflecting the specified workspace configuration of the system. If we zoom out to look at the field of Ubicomp as a whole, we have to acknowledge how crucial heterogeneity is in Ubicomp environments. It enables the integration of diverse devices and technologies, fostering interoperability, adaptability, and user-centric experiences. This diversity supports the development of standards, promotes adaptability to emerging technologies, and enhances system scalability and robustness. Overall, heterogeneity is fundamental for driving innovation and creating intelligent, context-aware computing environments.
References
\/. (2023, June 16). YouTube. Retrieved December 4, 2023, from https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-540-70540-6_44
Levoy, M. (n.d.). Pat Hanrahan — A.M. Turing Award Laureate. A.M. Turing Award. Retrieved December 4, 2023, from https://amturing.acm.org/award_winners/hanrahan_4652251.cfm
Mitten, G. (n.d.). ICrafter: A Service Framework for Ubiquitous Computing Environments Shankar Ponnekanti, Brian Lee, Armando Fox, Pat Hanrahan, Terry Winograd (Stanford. — ppt download. SlidePlayer. Retrieved December 4, 2023, from https://slideplayer.com/slide/1603829/
Pat Hanrahan. (n.d.). Stanford Computer Graphics Laboratory. Retrieved December 4, 2023, from https://graphics.stanford.edu/~hanrahan/
Pat Hanrahan. (n.d.). Wikipedia. Retrieved December 4, 2023, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pat_Hanrahan
Pixar RenderMan. (n.d.). Wikipedia. Retrieved December 4, 2023, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pixar_RenderMan
Tableau Software. (n.d.). Wikipedia. Retrieved December 4, 2023, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tableau_Software
