Akira Fujimoto
Encyclopedia
is president of Integra Incorporated, a Japan
ese software company producing visual computing systems which he founded in 1986. Born in Poland
as Wiesław Romanowski, he became a Japanese citizen
.
He earned BS and MS degrees in engineering from the University of Szczecin
, Poland and PhD from the University of Tokyo
. Since 1981 he worked for Grafica Computer Corporation, leaving it in 1986 to form his own company.
In 1985 he developed the first commercially feasible rendering software system called ARTS (Accelerated Ray Tracing System), based on ray tracing technique. This had become possible due to his development of a method for speeding up inherently slow ray tracing by several orders of magnitude for complex real-life scenes. The ARTS system used acceleration of ray tracing based on the uniform subdivision of the space into "voxel
s" and their efficient traversal.
His company, Integra, continued development of rendering software in close cooperation with the scientists from the company Voxel in his homeland city of Szczecin
where the TBT (Turbo Beam Tracing) software was developed. This fact was the base of allegations in industrial espionage, because the counter-intelligence
section of the Japanese police had found it impossible to believe that such an advanced software had been produced in Poland. This sensational spy story swept over Japanese newspapers in 1987 with titles like "The Shadow of the KGB
in the center of Tokyo
" (the headquarters of the company were in the Toshima-ku district of Tokyo). At these times, the Strategic Defense Initiative
was the word of the day, and to some, the terms "ray tracing" and "ray casting" sounded very dangerous. It took several years to clear up the misunderstanding.
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
ese software company producing visual computing systems which he founded in 1986. Born in Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
as Wiesław Romanowski, he became a Japanese citizen
Foreign-born Japanese
A is a Japanese person of foreign descent or heritage, who was born outside Japan and later acquired Japanese citizenship. This category encompasses persons of both Japanese and non-Japanese descent...
.
He earned BS and MS degrees in engineering from the University of Szczecin
University of Szczecin
The University of Szczecin is a public university in Szczecin, western Poland. It is the biggest university in West Pomerania, with 33,267 students and a staff of nearly 1,200...
, Poland and PhD from the University of Tokyo
University of Tokyo
, abbreviated as , is a major research university located in Tokyo, Japan. The University has 10 faculties with a total of around 30,000 students, 2,100 of whom are foreign. Its five campuses are in Hongō, Komaba, Kashiwa, Shirokane and Nakano. It is considered to be the most prestigious university...
. Since 1981 he worked for Grafica Computer Corporation, leaving it in 1986 to form his own company.
In 1985 he developed the first commercially feasible rendering software system called ARTS (Accelerated Ray Tracing System), based on ray tracing technique. This had become possible due to his development of a method for speeding up inherently slow ray tracing by several orders of magnitude for complex real-life scenes. The ARTS system used acceleration of ray tracing based on the uniform subdivision of the space into "voxel
Voxel
A voxel is a volume element, representing a value on a regular grid in three dimensional space. This is analogous to a pixel, which represents 2D image data in a bitmap...
s" and their efficient traversal.
His company, Integra, continued development of rendering software in close cooperation with the scientists from the company Voxel in his homeland city of Szczecin
Szczecin
Szczecin , is the capital city of the West Pomeranian Voivodeship in Poland. It is the country's seventh-largest city and the largest seaport in Poland on the Baltic Sea. As of June 2009 the population was 406,427....
where the TBT (Turbo Beam Tracing) software was developed. This fact was the base of allegations in industrial espionage, because the counter-intelligence
Counter-intelligence
Counterintelligence or counter-intelligence refers to efforts made by intelligence organizations to prevent hostile or enemy intelligence organizations from successfully gathering and collecting intelligence against them. National intelligence programs, and, by extension, the overall defenses of...
section of the Japanese police had found it impossible to believe that such an advanced software had been produced in Poland. This sensational spy story swept over Japanese newspapers in 1987 with titles like "The Shadow of the KGB
KGB
The KGB was the commonly used acronym for the . It was the national security agency of the Soviet Union from 1954 until 1991, and was the premier internal security, intelligence, and secret police organization during that time.The State Security Agency of the Republic of Belarus currently uses the...
in the center of Tokyo
Tokyo
, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...
" (the headquarters of the company were in the Toshima-ku district of Tokyo). At these times, the Strategic Defense Initiative
Strategic Defense Initiative
The Strategic Defense Initiative was proposed by U.S. President Ronald Reagan on March 23, 1983 to use ground and space-based systems to protect the United States from attack by strategic nuclear ballistic missiles. The initiative focused on strategic defense rather than the prior strategic...
was the word of the day, and to some, the terms "ray tracing" and "ray casting" sounded very dangerous. It took several years to clear up the misunderstanding.