Kenneth H. Perlin is a professor in the Department of Computer Science at New York University, founding director of the Media Research Lab at NYU, director of the Future Reality Lab at NYU, and the Director of the Games for Learning Institute. He holds a BA. degree in Theoretical Mathematics from Harvard University (7/1979), a MS degree in Computer Science from the

Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences The Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences (commonly known as Courant or CIMS) is the mathematics research school of New York University (NYU), and is among the most prestigious mathematics schools and mathematical sciences research cente ...

, New York University (6/1984), and a PhD degree in Computer Science from the same institution (2/1986). His research interests include

graphics Graphics () are visual perception, visual images or designs on some surface, such as a wall, canvas, screen, paper, or stone, to inform, illustration, illustrate, or entertain. In contemporary usage, it includes a pictorial representation of dat ...

animation Animation is a method by which still figures are manipulated to appear as moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Today, most ani ...

, multimedia, and

science education Science education is the teaching and learning of science to school children, college students, or adults within the general public. The field of science education includes work in science content, science process (the scientific method), some ...

. He developed or was involved with the development of techniques such as

Perlin noise Perlin noise is a type of gradient noise developed by Ken Perlin. History Ken Perlin developed Perlin noise in 1983 as a result of his frustration with the "machine-like" look of computer-generated imagery (CGI) at the time. He formally de ...

, real-time interactive

character animation Character animation is a specialized area of the animation process, which involves bringing animated s to life. The role of a character animator is analogous to that of a film or stage actor and character animators are often said to be "actors wit ...

, and computer-user interfaces. He is best known for the development of

and

Simplex noise Simplex noise is the result of an ''n''-dimensional noise function comparable to Perlin noise ("classic" noise) but with fewer directional artifacts and, in higher dimensions, a lower computational overhead. Ken Perlin designed the algorithm in ...

, both of which are algorithms for realistic-looking

Gradient noise Gradient noise is a type of noise commonly used as a procedural texture primitive in computer graphics. It is conceptually different, and often confused with value noise. This method consists of a creation of a lattice of random (or typically pseud ...

. He is a collaborator of the World Building Institute.

Awards

In 1996, K. Perlin received an

Academy Award for Technical Achievement The Technical Achievement Award is one of three Scientific and Technical Awards given from time to time by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. (The other two awards are the Scientific and Engineering Award and the Academy Award of Me ...

from the

Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS, often pronounced ; also known as simply the Academy or the Motion Picture Academy) is a professional honorary organization with the stated goal of advancing the arts and sciences of motio ...

, for the development of

.Nadine Brozan, in ''Chronicle'' of The New York Times, March 13, 1997, https://www.nytimes.com/1997/03/13/style/chronicle-073679.html He had introduced this technique with the goal to produce natural-appearing textures on computer-generated surfaces for motion picture visual effects, while working on the Walt Disney Productions' 1982 feature film

TRON ''Tron'' (stylized as ''TRON'') is a 1982 American science fiction action-adventure film written and directed by Steven Lisberger from a story by Lisberger and Bonnie MacBird. The film stars Jeff Bridges as Kevin Flynn, a computer programmer an ...

for which he had developed a large part of the software.

References

External links

Ken Perlin's NYU home pageKen Perlin's WebLogKen Perlin as Featured Speaker
at SIGGRAPH Asia 2011 {{DEFAULTSORT:Perlin, Ken Living people American computer scientists Computer graphics professionals Computer graphics researchers Human–computer interaction researchers Harvard University alumni New York University alumni New York University faculty Academy Award for Technical Achievement winners Date of birth missing (living people) Place of birth missing (living people) Year of birth missing (living people)

Awards

See also

References

External links