Henri Gouraud (born 1944) is a French

computer scientist A computer scientist is a person who is trained in the academic study of computer science. Computer scientists typically work on the theoretical side of computation, as opposed to the hardware side on which computer engineers mainly focus (a ...

. He is the

inventor An invention is a unique or novel device, method, composition, idea or process. An invention may be an improvement upon a machine, product, or process for increasing efficiency or lowering cost. It may also be an entirely new concept. If an ...

Gouraud shading Gouraud shading, named after Henri Gouraud, is an interpolation method used in computer graphics to produce continuous shading of surfaces represented by polygon meshes. In practice, Gouraud shading is most often used to achieve continuous li ...

used in

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 ...

. He is the great-nephew of general Henri Gouraud. During 1964–1967, he studied at

École Centrale Paris École Centrale Paris (ECP; also known as École Centrale or Centrale) was a French grande école in engineering and science. It was also known by its official name ''École Centrale des Arts et Manufactures''. In 2015, École Centrale Paris mer ...

. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Utah College of Engineering in 1971, working with Dave Evans and

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 subject ...

, with his dissertation titled
Computer Display of Curved Surfaces
'. In 1971, Gouraud made the first

geometry Geometry (; ) is, with arithmetic, one of the oldest branches of mathematics. It is concerned with properties of space such as the distance, shape, size, and relative position of figures. A mathematician who works in the field of geometry is c ...

capture Capture may refer to: *Asteroid capture, a phenomenon in which an asteroid enters a stable orbit around another body *Capture, a software for lighting design, documentation and visualisation *"Capture" a song by Simon Townshend *Capture (band), an ...

and representation of a human face in

wire-frame model A wire-frame model, also wireframe model, is a visual representation of a three-dimensional (3D) physical object used in 3D computer graphics. It is created by specifying each edge of the physical object where two mathematically continuous ...

, and applied his

shader In computer graphics, a shader is a computer program that calculates the appropriate levels of light, darkness, and color during the rendering of a 3D scene - a process known as ''shading''. Shaders have evolved to perform a variety of speci ...

to produce the famous human face images showing the effect of his shading, which were done using his wife Sylvie Gouraud as the model.

Original publications

* H. Gouraud, "Continuous shading of curved surfaces," ''

IEEE Transactions on Computers ''IEEE Transactions on Computers'' is a monthly peer-reviewed scientific journal covering all aspects of computer design. It was established in 1952 and is published by the IEEE Computer Society. The editor-in-chief is Ahmed Louri, David and Mari ...

'', C-20(6):623–629, 1971. * H. Gouraud, ''Computer Display of Curved Surfaces'', Doctoral Thesis,

University of Utah The University of Utah (U of U, UofU, or simply The U) is a public research university in Salt Lake City, Utah. It is the flagship institution of the Utah System of Higher Education. The university was established in 1850 as the University of De ...

, United States, 1971. * H. Gouraud, ''Continuous shading of curved surfaces''. In Rosalee Wolfe (editor)
Seminal Graphics: Pioneering efforts that shaped the field

ACM Press The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) is a US-based international learned society for computing. It was founded in 1947 and is the world's largest scientific and educational computing society. The ACM is a non-profit professional memb ...

, 1998. .

References

1944 births École Centrale Paris alumni Computer graphics professionals Computer graphics researchers French computer scientists Living people University of Utah alumni {{France-compu-bio-stub