On Raising a Digital Human

Norman I. Badler is the Rachleff Family Professor (Emeritus) of Computer and Information Science at the University of Pennsylvania. He received his B.A. in Creative Studies Mathematics from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 1970 and his M.Sc. in Mathematics and Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Toronto in 1971 and 1975, respectively. Prof. Badler has been a leading scholar in computer graphics and animation, co-authoring more than 275 technical papers with over 23,400 citations and a Google Scholar h-index of 77. He was elected the national Vice-Chair of the ACM Special Interest Group in Computer Graphics (SIGGRAPH) in 1978 and 1980 and served as the Senior Co-Editor-in-Chief for the journal Graphical Models for 20 years. He has served on the Editorial Boards of several other journals, including MIT Press’ Presence.

"The book is a good read for anyone who wants to understand how technology tries to copy real human behavior and movement. Researchers, graduate students, and industry professionals will learn how Dr. Badler became an influential scientist through the valuable insights he shares." (Gulustan Dogan, Computing Reviews, May 12, 2025)

• Prologue.- Beginnings.- UCSB and the College of Creative Studies.- Kramer Research and a New Trajectory.- The University of Toronto.- Component Parts for the PhD.- The Strands Take Form.- The PhD Thesis.- I Need a Job, and Get an Insight, too.- The Penn CIS Faculty in 1974.- A PhD Student! .- Research at Penn.- Color Graphics! .- NASA, TEMPUS, and Beyond.- Building the Computer Graphics Research Lab.- Jack.-Jack Grows Up.- Faces.- ANIMI.- Maintainer Simulations.- Transitioning from Human Models to Virtual Beings.- Locomotion and Gait.- A Virtual Human Presenter.- SIGGRAPH.- Movement Notations.- Motion Capture.- LiveActor.- Jack Joins the Military.- MediSim.- Eyes Alive.- Parametrized Action Representation.- CAROSA.- Teaching.- Digital Media Design.- The SIG Center Renovation.- Crowds.- Behavior Trees, Navigation, and Storytelling.- Smells and Sounds.- Running Hot and Cold.- Personality and PERFORM.- The ViDi Center.- Archaeological Lighting.- Visualizing the Past/Peopling the Past.- Marching Order.- Publicity.- Cesium GS.- Philosophies.- Life Lessons.