Bui Tuong Phong (December 14, 1942 – July 1975) was a

Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...

ese-born

computer graphics Computer graphics deals with generating images with the aid of computers. Today, computer graphics is a core technology in digital photography, film, video games, cell phone and computer displays, and many specialized applications. A great de ...

researcher and pioneer. He invented the widely used

Phong shading In 3D computer graphics, Phong shading, Phong interpolation, or normal-vector interpolation shading is an interpolation technique for surface shading invented by computer graphics pioneer Bui Tuong Phong. Phong shading interpolates surface norm ...

algorithm and

Phong reflection model The Phong reflection model (also called Phong illumination or Phong lighting) is an empirical model of the local illumination of points on a surface designed by the computer graphics researcher Bui Tuong Phong. In 3D computer graphics, it is somet ...

Life

Phong was born in

Hanoi Hanoi or Ha Noi ( or ; vi, Hà Nội ) is the capital and second-largest city of Vietnam. It covers an area of . It consists of 12 urban districts, one district-leveled town and 17 rural districts. Located within the Red River Delta, Hanoi is ...

, then

French Indochina French Indochina (previously spelled as French Indo-China),; vi, Đông Dương thuộc Pháp, , lit. 'East Ocean under French Control; km, ឥណ្ឌូចិនបារាំង, ; th, อินโดจีนฝรั่งเศส, ...

. After attending the

Lycée Albert Sarraut Lycée Albert Sarraut was a French lyceum in Hanoi, Vietnam, during the French colonial period, active from 1919 to 1965. It was one of 69 high schools founded by the French in their colonies worldwide, named for Albert Sarraut. The school offered ...

there, he moved with his family to

Saigon , population_density_km2 = 4,292 , population_density_metro_km2 = 697.2 , population_demonym = Saigonese , blank_name = GRP (Nominal) , blank_info = 2019 , blank1_name = – Total , blank1_ ...

in 1954, where he attended the Lycée Jean Jacques Rousseau. He went to France in 1964 and was admitted to the

Grenoble Institute of Technology The Grenoble Institute of Technology (Grenoble INP) (''Institut polytechnique de Grenoble'', ''Groupe Grenoble INP'' and before INPG) is a French technological university system consisting of eight engineering and management schools. Grenoble INP ...

. He received his from Grenoble in 1966 and his ''

Diplôme d'Ingénieur The Diplôme d'Ingénieur (, often abbreviated as ''Dipl. Ing.'') is a postgraduate degree in engineering ''(see Engineer's Degrees in Europe)'' usually awarded by the Grandes Écoles in engineering. It is generally obtained after five to seven ye ...

'' from the ENSEEIHT, Toulouse, in 1968. In 1968, he joined the (then

IRIA , stylized as ''I・Я・I・A ZЁIЯAM THE ANIMATION'', is a six-episode original video animation (OVA) anime series produced by Ashi Productions and directed by Tetsurō Amino. The series serves as a prequel to the original live-action film ' ...

) as a researcher in Computer Science, working in the development of

operating system An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware, software resources, and provides common services for computer programs. Time-sharing operating systems schedule tasks for efficient use of the system and may also in ...

s for digital computers. He went to the

University of Utah College of Engineering The College of Engineering at the University of Utah is an academic college of the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, Utah. The college offers undergraduate and graduate degrees in engineering and computer science. History The College of Engi ...

in September 1971 as a research assistant in Computer Science and he received his Ph.D. from the University of Utah in 1973. Phong knew that he was terminally ill with

leukemia Leukemia ( also spelled leukaemia and pronounced ) is a group of blood cancers that usually begin in the bone marrow and result in high numbers of abnormal blood cells. These blood cells are not fully developed and are called ''blasts'' or ' ...

while he was a student. In 1975, after his tenure at the University of Utah, Phong joined

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

as a professor. Phong was married to Bùi Thị Ngọc Bích from

Nha Trang Nha Trang ( or ; ) is a coastal city and capital of Khánh Hòa Province, on the South Central Coast of Vietnam. It is bounded on the north by Ninh Hòa District, Ninh Hoà town, on the south by Cam Ranh city and on the west by Diên Khánh Distri ...

, Vietnam, in 1969 in Paris, France. He and his wife had one daughter. According to Professor

Ivan Sutherland Ivan Edward Sutherland (born May 16, 1938) is an American computer scientist and Internet pioneer, widely regarded as a pioneer of computer graphics. His early work in computer graphics as well as his teaching with David C. Evans in that subje ...

and Phong's friends, Phong was intelligent, affable and modest. About improving the quality of synthesized images he wrote, "We do not expect to be able to display the object exactly as it would appear in reality, with texture, overcast shadows, etc. We hope only to display an image that approximates the real object closely enough to provide a certain degree of realism." Two years after receiving his Ph.D., Phong died in 1975 of end-stage leukemia.

Work on computer graphics

Phong was the inventor of the

and the

interpolation method, techniques widely used in computer graphics. He published the description of the algorithms in his 1973 PhD dissertation and a 1975 paper. He developed the first algorithm for simulating

specular Specular reflection, or regular reflection, is the mirror-like reflection of waves, such as light, from a surface. The law of reflection states that a reflected ray of light emerges from the reflecting surface at the same angle to the surfac ...

phenomena. When working on his doctorate, he was very focused on selecting a topic and completing his dissertation very fast. Professor David C. Evans very enthusiastically supported him in this project. Professor

worked with him for improving the previous

Mach banding Mach bands is an optical illusion named after the physicist Ernst Mach. It exaggerates the contrast between edges of the slightly differing shades of gray, as soon as they contact one another, by triggering edge-detection in the human visual ...

problems, and on using normals for shading. His fellow students also supported him very much, including

James H. Clark James Henry Clark (born March 23, 1944) is an American entrepreneur and computer scientist. He founded several notable Silicon Valley technology companies, including Silicon Graphics, Netscape, myCFO, and Healtheon. His research work in comput ...

, Franklin C. Crow, George Randall, Dennis Ting and John Riley. He finished his dissertation much faster than other students of the time did. Phong, Robert McDermott, Jim Clark and Raphael Rom had created the very first computer graphics generated picture that looked like its physical model: the

Volkswagen Beetle The Volkswagen Beetle—officially the Volkswagen Type 1, informally in German (meaning "beetle"), in parts of the English-speaking world the Bug, and known by many other nicknames in other languages—is a two-door, rear-engine economy car, ...

. As a computer graphics icon, it still crops up in highly respected journals and animated features.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bui, Tuong Phong 1942 births 1975 deaths Computer graphics researchers People from Hanoi Vietnamese expatriates in the United States Vietnamese academics Vietnamese scientists University of Utah alumni Deaths from leukemia Deaths from cancer in California People educated at Lycee Albert Sarraut

Life

Work on computer graphics

See also

References