{"id":{"repo_id":"uiuc","oai_identifier":"oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/72075"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/uiuc/oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/72075","repository":{"repo_id":"uiuc","name":"University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign","base_url":"https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh"},"display":{"title":"The Area Sampling Machine","abstract":"Tracing a ray in a typical image synthesis system accomplishes two tasks: it samples in the ray direction for a visible object, and then determines the shading at that sampled point. The sampling process can be thought of as a visibility test along the path of the ray having zero cross sectional area. Recent photorealistic image synthesis work has generally ignored the results from earlier visibility determination research. In the first part of this thesis we introduce the Area Sampling Buffer, an algorithm that allows the use of z-buffer hardware in assisting area sampling for a ray tracing style renderer. The implementation issues involved in discretizing the sampling area and light source area will be discussed and solutions proposed. The second part of the thesis discuss the Area Sampling Machine, a parallel architecture designed to take advantage of the characteristics of the Area Sampling Buffer. The basic processing unit of the Area Sampling Machine is a z-buffer style scan converter. By adopting a mature technology and designing a simple parallel system, it becomes possible to dramatically speedup global illumination renderers while at the same time achieving low cost.","abstract_html":"Tracing a ray in a typical image synthesis system accomplishes two tasks: it samples in the ray direction for a visible object, and then determines the shading at that sampled point. The sampling process can be thought of as a visibility test along the path of the ray having zero cross sectional area. Recent photorealistic image synthesis work has generally ignored the results from earlier visibility determination research. In the first part of this thesis we introduce the Area Sampling Buffer, an algorithm that allows the use of z-buffer hardware in assisting area sampling for a ray tracing style renderer. The implementation issues involved in discretizing the sampling area and light source area will be discussed and solutions proposed. The second part of the thesis discuss the Area Sampling Machine, a parallel architecture designed to take advantage of the characteristics of the Area Sampling Buffer. The basic processing unit of the Area Sampling Machine is a z-buffer style scan converter. By adopting a mature technology and designing a simple parallel system, it becomes possible to dramatically speedup global illumination renderers while at the same time achieving low cost.","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Sung, Hsien Ching Kelvin"],"institution":"University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign","degree_name":"Ph.D.","degree_level":"Dissertation","degree_discipline":"Computer Science","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Kubitz, William J."],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2014,"date_issued":"2014-12-17T20:00:33Z","date_published":"2014-12-17T20:00:33Z","updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:26:06Z","subjects":["Engineering, Electronics and Electrical","Computer Science"],"languages":[],"rights":[],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["(UMI)AAI9305709"],"render_values":[{"text":"(UMI)AAI9305709","href":null,"code":true}]}]},"links":{"outbound_url":"http://hdl.handle.net/2142/72075","outbound_label":"Handle","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Kubitz, William J."]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Sung, Hsien Ching Kelvin"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date","label":"Dc Date","values":["2014-12-17T20:00:33Z","10000-01-01","1992"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["text"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["Computer Science"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Dissertation"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Ph.D."]},{"key":"thesis:institution_name","label":"Thesis Institution Name","values":["University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Engineering, Electronics and Electrical","Computer Science"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["http://hdl.handle.net/2142/72075","(UMI)AAI9305709"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description","label":"Description","values":["Tracing a ray in a typical image synthesis system accomplishes two tasks: it samples in the ray direction for a visible object, and then determines the shading at that sampled point. 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The sampling process can be thought of as a visibility test along the path of the ray having zero cross sectional area. Recent photorealistic image synthesis work has generally ignored the results from earlier visibility determination research. In the first part of this thesis we introduce the Area Sampling Buffer, an algorithm that allows the use of z-buffer hardware in assisting area sampling for a ray tracing style renderer. The implementation issues involved in discretizing the sampling area and light source area will be discussed and solutions proposed. The second part of the thesis discuss the Area Sampling Machine, a parallel architecture designed to take advantage of the characteristics of the Area Sampling Buffer. The basic processing unit of the Area Sampling Machine is a z-buffer style scan converter. By adopting a mature technology and designing a simple parallel system, it becomes possible to dramatically speedup global illumination renderers while at the same time achieving low cost.","Made available in DSpace on 2014-12-17T20:00:33Z (GMT). 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