Professor Emeritus, Computing Science

Area: Computer Graphics and Computer-Human Interaction

Contact:

Personal webpage:   http://www.cs.sfu.ca/~tom/

Education

Ph.D. Elect. Eng., Carnegie-Mellon University, 1967
M.S.E.E., Wayne State Univ., 1964
B.Sc. (Eng), Elect. Eng., University College, London,1957

Research interests

My research focuses on computer based tools for user interaction with multimedia systems. This includes the use of networked multimedia for telelearning and systems for the choreography and animation of human figures.

In collaboration with Dr. Linda Harasim of the SFU School of Communication and an interdisciplinary team, we have developed the web-based Virtual-U system for online collaborative learning. I have served as Co-leader of the TeleLearning Network of Centres of Excellence.

My co-workers and I in the Graphics and Multimedia Research Lab developed the Life Forms™ system for the choreography and animation of multiple human figures. The system was developed to support human figure animation, movement planning and the composition of dance. Life Forms has been instrumented and was used as a tool to study the creative processes involved in composition and animation. The research work was done in the Graphics and Multimedia Research Lab at SFU. The Life Forms™ product was distributed in Windows'95, Macintosh and Silicon Graphics IRIS versions throughout the world. The software is being further developed and marketed by CREDO Interactive Inc.