FRS 123: Technology in
Art and Cultural Heritage
Dramatis Personae
• Szymon Rusinkiewicz
smr@cs.princeton.edu
• Tim Weyrich
tweyrich@cs.princeton.edu
Modus Operandi
• Each class meeting:
– Lecture / discussion of technical topic
– Discussion about art / art history
• Assignments
– Four regular assignments + final project
– Mixture of writing and other (hands-on) projects
– Class participation
What’s This Class About?
• Premise #1: advances in science and
technology have affected the progress of art
• Premise #2: advances in science and
technology have affected our ability to study
art
What’s This Class About?
• Premise #1: advances in science and
technology have affected the progress of art
• Premise #2: advances in science and
technology have affected our ability to study
art
Realism in Art: Perspective
Realism in Art: Light, Shadow, and Materials
Color
Perception
Photography
Computers as Artistic Tools
What’s This Class About?
• Premise #1: advances in science and
technology have affected the progress of art
• Premise #2: advances in science and
technology have affected our ability to study
art
Computer Graphics
• By simulating phenomena, we understand
them more thoroughly
Computer Graphics
• Can also simulate traditional media, artistic
styles
Computer Graphics
• Can also simulate traditional media, artistic
styles
interactively
Imaging
Imaging
3D Scanning
3D Scans – Interactive Image Synthesis
3D Scans – Changing Lighting
3D Scans – Revealing Detail
Perspective
Historical Context
• Renaissance, Italy, 15th century
• Move towards accurate representation of
reality
• “Discovery” of perspective credited to
Filippo Brunelleschi (1377-1446)
Basic Premises
• Light travels in straight lines
• Light rays reaching the eye pass through a
point
Object
Pinhole Camera
• “Camera obscura” – known since antiquity
Image plane
Image
Pinhole
Object
Pinhole camera
Pinhole Camera
• “Camera obscura” – known since antiquity
Image plane
Image
Pinhole
Object
Pinhole camera
• First recording in 1826 onto a pewter
plate (by Joseph Nicéphore Niepce)
Mathematics of Perspective
Fixed
yo
zo
yi yo

zi z o
zi
yi
Mathematics of Perspective
yo
yi ~
zo
yo
zo
zi
yi
Mathematics of Perspective
• Conclusion: size ~ 1/distance
• Main calculation in computer graphics:
 x
   x/ z

 y   
   y / z 
 z
Demo
What is Preserved by Perspective Projection?
• Straight lines?
• Distances?
– Distances parallel to image plane?
• Angles?
• Parallel lines?
Vanishing Points
• Groups of parallel lines in the world
intersect at a point in the image
– Does this always happen? If not, when?
• Different vanishing points for each direction of
parallel lines
Well-known Perspective Constructions
• 1, 2, 3-point perspective
• Tile floor
• Alberti’s construction