Math behind Visual Effects and Image Processing

At the 2012 SIAM Annual Meeting held in July, over a thousand mathematicians and computational scientists gathered from all over the world in Minneapolis, Minnesota, to discuss the state of the art in a variety of disciplines in the mathematical sciences through invited presentation, prize lectures, minisymposia, and contributed papers and posters. Dr. Tony Chan of Hong Kong University of Science and Technology gave a very engaging lecture reviewing the tremendous growth in the field of image processing due to the advent of inexpensive and integrated image capturing devices, leading to massive data and novel applications. Robert Bridson of the University of British Columbia continued on the theme by explaining how film-makers use math and physics to convince audiences that a computer-generated effect, like a stormy ocean, is real. The best way to make visual effects look real, he explained, is to numerically solve physical equations describing motions, bringing mathematics and scientific computing into the forefront of animation.

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