SIGGRAPH 2014 to Demo Latest Real-Time Advancements

Destruction Sequences in "Call of Duty: Ghosts" (see below for description)

The SIGGRAPH 2014 Real-Time Live! program will present a 90-minute show of the most cutting-edge real-time work from the past year. Real-Time Live! is part of the Computer Animation Festival and is the premier showcase for the latest trends and techniques for pushing the boundaries of interactive visuals.

"For one night only, SIGGRAPH attendees will enjoy a unique and fast-paced display of the most innovative real-time techniques for interactive systems and computer graphics,” said Nicolas Gonzalez, SIGGRAPH 2014 Real-Time Live! Chair from Deloitte Consulting. "Our international jury truly outdid itself as this year's show is mind-boggling with fascinating advancements that we cannot wait to show off."

The 2014 Real-Time Live! program will take place on Tuesday, 12 August at 5:30 p.m. PST in the West Building of the Vancouver Convention Centre. Each live presentation lasts less than 10 minutes and is presented by the original artists and engineers. As an added bonus, the 2014 Real-Time Live! program includes presentations from the Augmented/Virtual Reality Contest finalists, a brand-new conference event.

For more information on Real-Time Live! and the Augmented/Virtual Reality Contest, visit s2014.siggraph.org. Tickets to Real-Time Live! are available at the Full and Select Conference registration levels and start at $230 USD.

SIGGRAPH 2014 Real-Time Live! Highlights:

Destruction Sequences in "Call of Duty: Ghosts"
Presenters: David Johnson, Alessandro Nardini, Infinity Ward

In an effort to raise the bar for destruction sequences in a real-time game engine, non-localized particles, "instant pop," low density, generic fracturing, and more were identified and addressed through several artistic techniques and technical advancements for "Call of Duty: Ghosts".

NVIDIA FlameWorks: Real-Time Fire Simulation
Presenters: Simon Green, Nuttapong Chentanez, Aron Zoellner, Johnny Costello, Kevin Newkirk, Dane Johnston, NVIDIA Corporation

FlameWorks is the first system to bring cinema-quality volumetric fire, smoke, and explosion effects to real-time graphics. The demo simulates and renders more than 32 million voxels per frame, at around 30 frames per second.

Real-Time Animation of Cartoon Character Faces
Presenters: Emiliano Gambaretto, Charles Piña, Mixamo, Inc.

This live demo allows a viewer to stand in front of a webcam and animate a 3D character in real time. The video stream is processed by Mixamo Face Plus proprietary technology, the facial expression of the user is extracted, and the emotional facial information is transferred to the 3D character.

SIGGRAPH 2014 Seeks Developer App Submissions for New "Appy Hour"

Have you been slaving over your keyboard to create the next mobile app masterpiece all on your own? Join us at the debut of the Appy Hour cocktail reception during SIGGRAPH 2014. Appy Hour is the place for independent application developers to show off their creations ... all while enjoying a drink!

In addition to libations, Appy Hour gives developers the opportunity to solicit feedback from peers, cultivate new ideas, and make important connections to help move future efforts along. Whether your app incorporates augmented reality, computational photography, image manipulation, location-based gaming, or anything else you can make mobile devices do, come show it to our audience. 

SIGGRAPH 2014 provides those selected with the following:

• A spot to set up shop with your devices
• A sign with your name, logo, and app screen-shot
• That drink we mentioned

Submit today through 17 July for the chance to display your work.

SIGGRAPH 2014 Posts Studio Preview Video

Now you can take an early tour of the wonderful content in this year's SIGGRAPH Studio - a collaborative working environment where the latest technologies and brightest minds come together to learn, experiment, and create. Attendees of the SIGGRAPH Studio explore wide range of new techniques and media with help from experienced hands. Here is where attendees experience the latest in 3D printing, modeling, and animation software.

The SIGGRAPH Studio is made for anyone interested in cutting-edge DIY gadgets, quasi-objects, Rube Goldberg machines, user-generated content projects, software, hardware, processes, workflows, technologies, etc.

SIGGRAPH 2014 Focus For Educators

               Image Credit: Charismatic and Eloquent Instructor Avatars With Scriptable Gesture © 2014.                                Jian Cui, Nicoletta Adamo-Villani, Voicu Popescu, Purdue University

Every year, teachers and students look forward to the in-depth educators sessions at SIGGRAPH. This year’s program includes student-run pipeline productions, augmented reality in education, animatronics, strategies and tools for teaching online, WebGL, and virtual worlds for therapy. And, on Sunday (10 August), the SIGGRAPH Education Committee presents an all-day training course on Unity3D just for educators.

Meet with educators over coffee during the Morning Meet and Greet on Monday and Tuesday from 8:00 A.M - 9:00 A.M. then stay for presentations and discussions during Birds of a Feather sessions on topics including:

• Augmented Reality in Informal and Formal Education
• Collaborative Content Creation in 3D Digital Design
• Scientific Visualization Using 3D Printing
• Strengthening the School-Industry Continuum
• Teaching intro and Advanced Graphics with WebGL
• The Dyslexic Advantage in Computer Graphics
• The Zen of Collaboration

Courses, Panels, Studio Projects and Talks are offered every day of the week at SIGGRAPH 2014, and all include topics with an education focus.  Here is just a sampling:

Courses

Creating Next-Gen 3D Interactive Apps With Motion Control and Unity3D

Through a series of live-coded examples, this course grounds attendees in the fundamentals of using the Unity3D engine for game and application development, integrating the Leap Motion Controller into an application, and designing and developing a next-generation 3D interactive application with motion control.

Presenters: Elizabeth Ruscitto, David Holz and Daniel Plemmons, Leap Motion, Inc.

Introduction to 3D Gestural Interfaces

With the proliferation of inexpensive motion-sensing technology, 3D gestural interfaces are becoming common in applications such as video games and mobile computing. This course provides an introduction to design and development of 3D gestural interfaces, covering topics from user tracking to gesture recognition and evaluation.

Presenter: Joseph LaViola, University of Central Florida

Panels

An Evaluation of University Education as it Relates to the VFX, Animation, and Game Industries 

This ever-changing digital age requires individuals with different perspectives to coalesce around ideas to create new techniques and paradigms that enable both academia and industry to thrive. This intelligent, spirited, creative panel will examine how education and industry can work together to unite their visions in an era of profound change.

Speakers: Margaret Lomas Carpenter, Texas A&M University; Frederic Parke, Texas A&M University; Donald House, Clemson University; Jerry Tessendorf, Clemson University; Dave Walvoord, DreamWorks Animation Studios; David Parrish, Reel FX Creative Studios; Jack Stenner, University of Florida; Gracie Arenas Strittmatter, BioWare; Michelle Robinson, Walt Disney Animation Studios

Cultivating Creative Thinking Across Disciplines: Stories From the Field

Creative thinking across disciplines is what distinguishes the perfunctory from the inspired. Hear reflections from renowned individuals whose work depends on successful integration of art and science in different ways. Speakers, representing industry and academia, share lessons learned in establishing creative environments for effective productivity and educational transformation.

Moderators: Ginger Alford, Trinity Valley School and Fort Worth Museum of Science and History
Panelists: Paul Dietz, Microsoft Research; Mk Haley, Disney Research; Roger Malina, University of Texas at Dallas; Ramesh Raskar, MIT Media Labs

Studio Projects

Arduino Drawing Machines

Participants design, program, and build drawing machines that will be showcased in a live crowd-sourced voting event.

Presenter: Erik Brunvand, Paul Stout, University of Utah

Talks

Stina and the Wolf – Feature Film Production in Education

Staff from the University of Portsmouth review the making of “Stina and the Wolf”, a feature length CGI film driven by performance capture and discuss how this novel approach in higher education is giving their students that extra edge.

Presenters: Alexander Counsell and Paul Charisse, University of Portsmouth

The Making of “Owned”: A Student-Built Iterative Pipeline

A large group of Brigham Young University students created a short animated film in two-thirds the time required for previous BYU animations yet with more time to focus on artistic quality. The main factor in this improvement was student-generated pipeline that allowed all departments to work in parallel and iterate quickly.

Presenters: Seth Holladay, Brigham Young University; Brent Adams, Brian Kingery, Daniel Clark, Carson Crawford, Kaleb Goulding, Jeff Raines, Evan Roberts, Susan Hatton, and Andrew Rasmussen, Brigham Young University Center for Animation

Development of Communication Assistant Application with Blinking for Physically Handicapped Children and Elderly People

Two new communication applications, Eye Talk and Eye Tell, were developed to help physically handicapped children and elderly people who cannot speak communicate with others. The apps are operated with eye-blinks to detect letters or symbols and translate them into sound.

Presenters: Ippei Torii and and Kaoruko Ohtani, Aichi Institute of Technology

Virtual Dog Head: Using 3D Models to Teach Complex Veterinary Anatomy

A new method of interactive learning through incorporation of 3D computed tomography (CT) scan-generated models of the larynx and hyoid apparatus in dogs using OpenGL and the Oculus Rift. 

Presenters: Matt Viehdorfer, Sarah Nemanic, Serena Mills, and Mike Bailey, Oregon State University 

Charismatic and Eloquent Instructor Avatars With Scriptable Gesture

Introducing a new approach that allows users to create animation stimuli for research on instructor gesture without the prerequisites of artistic talent or programming expertise. The approach has been used to support experiments that investigate the benefits of instructor gesture in the context of mathematical equivalence learning.

Presenters: Jian Cui, Nicoletta Adamo-Villani, and Voicu Popescu, Purdue University

AR/VR Contest Deadline Extended to 25 June - DK2s Added as Prizes

A scene from last year's Real-Time Live!

SIGGRAPH 2014 is conducting an augmented reality - virtual reality contest in order to showcase the best augmented/virtual reality experiences to date.  The contest is open to anyone interested in augmented/virtual reality: researchers, students, hobbyists, and professionals. Contestants can use any software and hardware they choose.

Up to three finalists will be selected to demonstrate their technology at SIGGRAPH 2014, during Real-Time Live! The winning team will then be announced from the Real-Time Live stage!

All finalists will also have the opportunity to demonstrate their system to attendees during SIGGRAPH 2014's new networking event "Appy Hour," Wednesday, 13 August, 5:30-7:30 pm.

Oculus VR is on board to provide DK2s to the top-three finalists, with one of them being signed for the grand prize. The DK2 is the latest development kit for the Oculus Rift that allows developers to build amazing games and experiences for the consumer Oculus Rift. 

The new deadline to submit is 25 June 2014.

For more information and to submit your work to the contest, click here.

SIGGRAPH 2014 Announces New Augmented Reality - Virtual Reality Contest

A scene from last year's Real-Time Live!

SIGGRAPH 2014 is conducting an augmented reality - virtual reality contest in order to showcase the best augmented/virtual reality experiences to date.  The contest is open to anyone interested in augmented/virtual reality: researchers, students, hobbyists, and professionals. Contestants can use any software and hardware they choose.

Up to three finalists will be selected to demonstrate their technology at SIGGRAPH 2014, during Real-Time Live! The winning team will then be announced from the Real-Time Live stage!

All finalists will also have the opportunity to demonstrate their system to attendees during SIGGRAPH 2014's new networking event "Appy Hour," Wednesday, 13 August, 5:30-7:30 pm.

The deadline to submit is 20 June 2014.

For more information and to submit your work to the contest, click here.

SIGGRAPH 2013 Exhibits Fast Forward Provides Quick Summary of Show Floor

Come to the Exhibits Fast Forward to hear from exhibitors before the show floor even opens.

SIGGRAPH 2013 (21-25 July) at the Anaheim Convention Center in California will feature a new session: Exhibits Fast Forward, where attendees have the opportunity to hear a one-minute highlight of what is new from participating exhibitors.

“This diverse session gives attendees a taste of the Exhibit floor in a very condensed format,” said Mk Haley, SIGGRAPH 2013 Conference Chair from Disney Research. “Even though this is the first year for this event, we anticipate this becoming a favorite, just like Technical Papers Fast Forward. It is a very efficient and entertaining way to hear the latest and greatest from a variety of exhibitors. ”

Based off of the perennially popular Technical Papers Fast Forward, Exhibits Fast Forward gives presenters less than a minute to impress the crowd with their product or service and entice them to hear the complete story at the exhibitor booth later in the week. Attendees can expect entertaining and enlightening presentations from many exhibitors including:

• Mcor technologies
• zSpace, Inc. 
• Avere Systems 
• Prefixa International INC 
• French Pavilion by Cap Digital  and Imaginove
• Lightcraft Technology 
• ForgeFX 
• Vancouver Film School 
• Esri 
• Kobold Charakteranimation 
• ARM 
• Korea Creative Content Agency 
• Siliconarts, Inc. 
• Bleank 
• Vicon Motion Systems
• BZP PRO 
• The CGAL Project
• WorldViz 
• SpeedTree - Interactive Data Visualization, Inc.  
• Qt by Digia  
• Integrated Media Technology Inc. 
• Leopoly  - Leonar3Do International Zrt. 
• Lightwork Design Ltd  
• AMD 
• CADA
• Faceware Technologies 
• Reallusion, Inc. 
• GreenButton Ltd.
• Beijing Noitom Technology Ltd
• Dimensional Imaging Ltd
• Christie Digital Systems
• British Columbia Ministry of International Trade 

The session will take place on Monday, 22 July starting at 3:45pm in Ballroom AB and is open to full conference, select conference, exhibitors, exhibits plus, and exhibits-only badge holders.  Check back to this page for exhibitor updates to this list.  And for those attendees only at SIGGRAPH for Sunday and Monday, this just might be a "must attend" event, so get there early.

SIGGRAPH Mobile Presents Latest Advances in Handheld Technology

Sphero Augmented Reality: When Balls Become Beavers

Now in its second year, the SIGGRAPH Mobile program presents the latest advances in mobile technologies, graphics, and apps. In talks, workshops, panels, and demonstrations, mobile innovators from around the world explore powerful new graphics techniques, game production for handheld devices, visualizations with augmented reality, and how mobile games can help save the world's rainforests.

Lars Erik Holmquist

“We are very excited about this year's SIGGRAPH Mobile program. We are seeing a lot of innovation in graphics as well as mobile applications, and it is clear that mobile is now an established part of SIGGRAPH,” said Lars Erik Holmquist, SIGGRAPH Mobile Chair and Principal Research Scientist at Yahoo! Labs. “Some of the top companies in mobile graphics hardware will present their latest technologies, including ARM, NVIDIA, Intel, and QUALCOMM.”

According to Holmquist, some of the interesting application areas include mobile games for positive change, augmented reality for museums, and new ways to take digital photographs. There will also be workshops and talks about how to make mobile graphics and apps across many platforms. Plus, there will be a theatre group that uses iPads in live performances and a toy robot anyone can control with a mobile phone in addition to a hands-on, interactive area.

SIGGRAPH Mobile Highlights:

Challenges With High-Quality Mobile Graphics
Sam Martin, Geomerics Ltd.; Marius Bjørge, Sandeep Kakarlapudi, Jan-Harald Fredriksen, ARM Holdings, plc.

Click on image to enlarge.

This talk identifies and explores potential solutions to the challenges that exist in bringing AAA-quality graphics to mobile, including the new features exposed by OpenGL ES 3.0, the trend to high-resolution screens, and a novel "on chip" deferred-rendering technique for Mali GPUs.

Mobile Visual Computing in C++ on Android
Yun-Ta Tsai, Orazio Gallo, David Pajak, Kari Pulli, NVIDIA Research

Click on image to enlarge.

This workshop teaches the basics to get started quickly with your visual-computing project on Android using native C++ code, from setting up tools to running your first native application, and it dives into deeper topics, including computer vision with OpenCV, camera control on FCam, and performance tuning.

New Directions and Developments in Mobile GPU Design
Eric Demers, QUALCOMM Incorporated; Barthold Lichtenbelt, NVIDIA Corporation; David Blythe, Intel Corporation; Dave Shreiner, ARM Inc.; James McCombe, Imagination Technologies Limited; Anand Shimpi, AnandTech, Inc.

This panel is designed for advanced programmers who want to learn more about taking full advantage of the latest GPU design and implementations to deliver the most advanced graphics for smartphone and tablet users.

Red Ball - Performing With iPads
Marla Schweppe, Rochester Institute of Technology; Darren Stevenson, PUSH Physical Theatre

Click on image to enlarge.

PUSH Physical Theatre, a Rochester-based group, added iPads to their traditional tools of magic, mime, and movement in the performance of Red Ball.  They added five iPads to the mix, performing with graphics created by Marla Schweppe.

Social Reform Through Mobile Gaming (Seed.Genesis)
Alexis Polanco, Danielle Esmaya, Nathaniel Martin, Bradley Chun, Mateusz Mrowiec, Joseph Hewitt, New Jersey Institute of Technology

Click on image to enlarge.

Team Seed believes that mobile games provide the level of immersion required to renew society's interest in protecting our rainforests.

Sphero Augmented Reality: When Balls Become Beavers
Jonathan Carroll, Fabrizio Polo, Orbotix, Inc.

Click on image to enlarge.

The moving robot “fiducial” takes augmented reality on mobile devices to an entirely new level.

The Collaborative Composite Image, the MAG Project
Susan Lakin, David Halbstein, Rochester Institute of Technology

Click on image to enlarge.

A collaborative project involving students and faculty in the School of Photography and the 3D Digital Design Department of the School of Design at Rochester Institute of Technology with the curators of the Memorial Art Gallery (MAG) in Rochester created an augmented-reality experience using paintings from the MAG's permanent collection.

SIGGRAPH 2013 Educators Focus

SIGGRAPH 2013 features five days of talks, technical sessions, hands-on exhibits, networking opportunities, and affinity groups specifically geared towards educators.

On Sunday, 21 July, a pair of co-located workshops held at the Hilton Anaheim is being offered specifically for educators: "Processing as Intro to CS" and "Drawing Machines." Also on Sunday, SIGGRAPH 2013 kicks off with the popular "Introduction to Computer Graphics" course for educators and others who want a complete, concise summary of this dynamic field.

On Sunday, 21 July and Monday, 22 July, more than 15 Birds of a Feather sessions focus on a variety of education-related topics, including 3D printing technology, integration of art and science, worlds of art and music, open source in graphics education and more. One session ("Studio View of Demo Reels," on Sunday, 21 July) focuses on game designers' demo reels and the other ("VFX Student and Intern Showcase," on Monday, 22 July) showcases visual-effects production. Other sessions explore open standards, undergraduate research, and multi-disciplinary collaboration in education.

SIGGRAPH 2013 offers several courses that focus on the subject matter that educators teach and/or subjects that educators may want to integrate in their teaching like VFX, physical computing, and new interfaces for musical expression. On Tuesday, 23 July, Art Papers such as "Early History of French Computer Graphics" and "The Emergence and Growth of Evolutionary Art 1980-1993" help students and educators understand the historical context of their academic pursuits.

Production sessions for games and films provide even more opportunities for educators to learn about state-of-the-art applications. And, of course, educators can (and should) see the annual Computer Animation Festival, new products in the Exhibition, Emerging Technologies, and interactive/hands-on activities in the Studio.

Interview with SIGGRAPH 2010 Emerging Technologies Chair Preston Smith

Following below is a brief conversation with Preston Smith, SIGGRAPH 2010 Emerging Technologies Chair from Laureate Institute for Brain Research, who shares his insights and expected highlights for this year's Emerging Technologies.

What various sciences and industries will be involved in the Emerging Technologies area this year?
• Haptics
• Display Technologies
• Interactive Techniques
• Immersive Techniques
• Augmented Reality
• Motion Capture Technologies
• Robotics
• Mobile Phone Technologies
• Laser Technologies

How is the 2010 Emerging Technologies different from previous years?

This year’s Emerging Technologies will be a focused, choice selection of the very best of what the industry has to offer. In 2010, we went through the same jury process as previous years except that this year the jury made a second round of selections to really show off the best of the best. Our goal was to engage attendees through diverse and original ideas.

What is the overriding message of Emerging Technologies demonstrations this year?

Beyond a doubt, our message this year is that innovation is alive and well in the computer graphics and interactive techniques world. We will showcase a wide variety of technologies that should surprise, inspire, and truly make people wonder.

What trends in technology, consumer products or other areas do you see indicated by the submissions for Emerging Technologies this year?

Display technology continues to be a hot subject and shows important innovation, plus interactive technologies are reaching new heights and spanning across all the human senses.

What implications does the Emerging Technologies venue have for artists and others working in the computer graphics industry?

This year’s message and implication for anyone in computer graphics is that today's ideas can be realized and can be tomorrow’s daily tool in computer graphics or interactivity. We hope that people walking through Emerging Technologies will leave inspired to push the envelope and be creative in their professional lives.

How did you become involved with SIGGRAPH, how many years have you been involved, and what led you to become the Emerging Technologies Chair?
I attended college later in my life than the typical student and was working with a large retail company when “Jurassic Park” came out, which inspired me to become a part of the computer graphics industry. So I went to college and happened to meet a professor who was a member and attendee of SIGGRAPH.

He informed me of the possibility of being a part of the conference as a student volunteer. So, in 1996 I submitted and was accepted as a student volunteer. That experience with the industry first hand, and with the incredible people behind it, was all it took to make me never want to miss being a part of this amazing and historical event. I have been a part of SIGGRAPH ever since.

From student volunteer to student volunteer team leader to subcommittee, every year’s participation has been incredible. So this marks my 15th year and every year I have played a role in Emerging Technologies. From my first year’s assignment (the Digital Bayou) up to my current role as Emerging Technologies Chair, my personal goal is to give my services and abilities toward making the conference a great experience for attendees, contributors, and volunteers alike.

You have served a few different roles on Emerging Technologies - what did you most gain or learn from each of these roles?

I seriously think the role of student volunteer is what sets the stage to truly learn to do every task to the best of one’s abilities. As a student volunteer, we tackle a variety of tasks – some mundane, which helps to establish the required humility and willingness to do anything all the while developing an appreciation for the many opportunities presented at SIGGRAPH. It is truly an experience that can have an immense impact on your professional life for many, many years.

Editor's note: To view the SIGGRAPH 2010 Emerging Technologies preview video, click here. For a full description of each technology that will be on display, click here.