Alvy Ray Smith
Author, computer graphicist, artist, cellular automata theorist, scholarly genealogist. Most famous as the cofounder of Pixar. At Xerox Parc, New York Tech, Lucasfilm, Pixar, JPL, Microsoft. PhD Stanford, computer science 1970. Born Mineral Wells TX, 1943. Raised in Clovis NM. Best known artwork (outside Pixar): Sunstone, with Ed Emshwiller, at MOMA, NYC. Writing a book now called A Biography of the Pixel.
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Everything I say about little squares and pixels in the 2D case applies equally well to little cubes and voxels in 3D. The generalization is straightforward, so I won’t mention it from hereon.
I discuss why the little square model continues to dominate our collective minds. I show why it is wrong in general. I show when it is appropriate to use a little square in the context of a pixel. I propose a discrete to continuous mapping—because this is where the problem arises—that always works and does not assume too much.
I presented some of this argument in Tech Memo 5 but have encountered a serious enough misuse of the little square model since I wrote that paper to make me believe a full frontal attack is necessary.
Everything I say about little squares and pixels in the 2D case applies equally well to little cubes and voxels in 3D. The generalization is straightforward, so I won’t mention it from hereon.
I discuss why the little square model continues to dominate our collective minds. I show why it is wrong in general. I show when it is appropriate to use a little square in the context of a pixel. I propose a discrete to continuous mapping—because this is where the problem arises—that always works and does not assume too much.
I presented some of this argument in Tech Memo 5 but have encountered a serious enough misuse of the little square model since I wrote that paper to make me believe a full frontal attack is necessary.