THERE IS huge potential for the use of cutting-edge computer graphics beyond gaming and movies, according to Carol O’Sullivan, professor of visual computing at Trinity College Dublin.
The health sector is one area of particular interest, she said, with research ongoing to help doctors use the technology when treating patients.
“I’m keen to move that [research] to the space where it’s extremely practical and useful, there’s huge scope for using virtual technologies in health and education,” said Prof O’Sullivan.
“I want to try to make it possible for non-experts in graphics to create these kinds of graphics, say for a doctor to create an entertaining programme for someone with Parkinson’s disease.”
Prof O’Sullivan gave her inaugural lecture in her new position last week, which was titled “Specs, Lies and Video games: Perceiving Realism in Virtual Worlds”. The address focused on the work she has done in trying to make animations more realistic and renders of heavily populated cities more accurate.
She said the shift of gaming into the mainstream as well as the ageing of a population that is comfortable with computers also made the “silver market” a potentially significant one.
Visual computing was in a strong position because academia was in sync with industry.
Prof O’Sullivan said there were a lot of good small companies in Dublin which should pull those together into a coherent industry.
“I think we can compete on a global scale . . . the performance of Irish universities and researchers in terms of growth of citations and publications is even larger than could be explained by the amount of investment being made,” she said.
