Michael Deering

Michael Frank Deering (born 1956) is a computer scientist, a former chief engineer for Sun Microsystems in Mountain View, California, and a widely recognized expert on artificial intelligence, computer vision, 3D graphics hardware/software, very-large-scale integration (VLSI) design and virtual reality.

Deering oversaw Sun's 3D graphics technical strategy as the chief hardware graphics architect and is a co-architect of the Java 3D API, developing Java platform software.

He is the inventor of deferred shading, inventor of Geometry compression, co-inventor of 3D-RAM, and the chief architect for a number of Sun's 3D graphics hardware accelerators.

Many of his inventions have been patented.

Deering's research endeavors have included development of correct perspective viewing equations, correcting for the optics of both human eyeballs and glass cathode ray tubes, predictive head trackers and other virtual reality interface hardware.

Deering has published articles on computer graphics architectures, virtual reality systems, and 3D interface technologies.

In 1978, Deering received his bachelor's degree, and in 1981 his PhD, in computer science from the University of California, Berkeley, and is an alumnus of the Berkeley Artificial Intelligence Research (BAIR) Computer Science Division, UC Berkeley.

Prior to his tenure with Sun, Deering worked for Schlumberger Laboratories in Palo Alto, California, engaged in graphics and imaging research.