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 Releases Sneak Peek Emerging Technologies Video

The SIGGRAPH 2014 Emerging Technologies program showcases the latest interactive and graphics technologies before they transform the way we live and work. Emerging Technologies presents demonstrations of research from several fields, including displays, input devices, collaborative environments, gaming, computer vision, biometrics, wearable computing, scientific visualization, medicine, robotics, and design.  Here's the new preview video to get you an early peek of the wonderful tech coming to Vancouver.

Q&A With SIGGRAPH 2014 Emerging Technologies Chair Thierry Frey

"Physical Painting With a Digital Paintbrush"

First off, how many submissions did you get this year and how many were accepted? 

We received almost 90 submissions and accepted 24. We also have an additional two curated pieces. One of these received the SIGGRAPH Emerging Technologies prize at the partner conference, Laval Virtual, and thus was invited to SIGGRAPH ["Cyberith Virtualizer"].

How many submissions were from outside of the United States?

Out of 26 accepted pieces, more than 20 are from outside the USA.

Thierry Frey

Did you notice any new themes surface from the submissions?
Not exactly, even though we had a special call for "invisible technologies," i.e. installations and projects that leave technology in the background to focus on the user and/or the usage.


In a few sentences, how would you describe this year’s content?

Very diverse. Some of the selected submissions fall close to the special call. One, for instance, uses a technology that is known, though not extensively used, but in a manner that could help innovate storytelling. Others are more typical of Emerging Technologies, being very scientific or technical.

How will the venue be physically organized this year?

As in the past years, the venue will share space with Art Gallery and Studio. We have tried to emulate last year's design, where a single path leads attendees through all installations, starting with the more technical installations and taking them towards the more practical and tangible. The latter ones are located closer to the Studio, which is all about experience. Studio and Emerging Technologies are actually working together to share a few installations.

What do you think will be a few of the technologies that will really create a buzz?

“Pixie Dust,” for sure! It demonstrates the  manipulation and movement in a 3D volume light objects, such as very small pieces of Styrofoam.

I also think that “Birdly” and “Direct and Natural Interaction With an Aerial Robot” will be extremely popular with the attendees. They are both related to flight, something that we all yearn for, don't we?

What were some of the biggest challenges the jury faced this year?

"Tangible and Modular Input Device for Character Articulation"

I believe there were more or less the same as the previous years. We have two days to judge approximately 90 submissions, and it’s easy to get excited and to discuss each one of them! So time management is a big issue.

And once we have identified the top and bottom tiers, we have to rank the middle tiers. That takes even more time, because there's a facet to each installation that makes it worthy of being accepted. But, we have to make the cut somewhere.

How did you choose your jury?

I submitted the names of some persons I wanted to have on the unified jury and Ann McNamara, SIGGRAPH 2014 General Submissions Chair, made the final selection.

Outside of Emerging Technologies, what other areas of the conference are you particularly excited about?

First of all, Studio, because it has a lot of ties with Emerging Technologies. They are both what I call "experience programs" or hands-on, where attendees can interact and/or create digital content or tangible objects.

Another favorite is the exhibition, which can sometimes be considered as a natural "next step" for some of what is showcased in Emerging Technologies. An innovative and/or disruptive concept can be displayed in Emerging Technologies and then appear as a full-fledged product in the exhibition as early as the following year.

You have a bit of history with SIGGRAPH, in that regard what advice would you give to someone tackling the conference for their first time?

"Janus" - a transparent, double-sided display.

It can definitely be overwhelming! The first concession to make to oneself is that it's impossible to see everything, and choices must be made. Personal areas of interest will naturally help make some of those choices, favoring one program over another, for example, Production Sessions over Technical Papers (or the reverse!) I think you need to plan for the few things that you absolutely don't want to miss, and then also leave some room for wandering around, letting fate/chance guide you.

Most of the content is or will be accessible online after the conference, but not the venues that have to do with "experience,"such as Emerging Technologies, Studio and Art Gallery.

Finally, and probably most importantly, engage with other attendees, contributors and exhibitors.

One of your hobbies is flying gliders, how did you get into that sport and how has it impacted you professionally?

Thierry at the controls.

My father worked for Dassault Aviation, which manufactures the Falcon line of business jets as well as military jets such as the Mirage 2000 and the Rafale. He is himself a private plane and sailplane pilot, so I've heard constantly about flying machines all of my childhood.

I started flying at 15 and received my sailplane license at 16 and my plane licence at 17. In fact, in France, you're legally allowed to fly an aircraft solo before driving a car! After about a 10 years hiatus, I started flying again about 10 years ago and got my sailplane flight instructor certification 5 years ago. I believe that learning how to fly has had as strong impact on me, both personally and professionally.

Personally, the biggest lesson was probably when my instructor let me fly solo for the first time. We were flying runway circuits when he said, "Stop here, let me down, and keep going!" He was basically telling me "I trust you to bring yourself back in one piece." While my parents had actually taught me that lesson earlier, it really dawned on me then, when the consequence of a small problem can really be dramatic.

Thierry in mid-flight.

Professionally, learning how to fly teaches you focus and priorities. The pilot is actually in a constant state of information overload: You have many instruments that are giving you lots of information when, at any given time, you actually really need a single piece of information because you are focused on a single parameter. So you learn how to weed-out, constantly, the non-essential from the essential. The corollary is that you also learn how to assess and shift priorities, because the non-essential at a given time might become the essential a few minutes, if not seconds, later.

Editor's note: Check out the amazing Emerging Technologies Preview Video by clicking here.

SIGGRAPH 2014 Releases Advance Program

The SIGGRAPH 2014 Advance Program is available here.

For comprehensive information about speakers, exciting events, and SIGGRAPH 2014 content, download this year's Advance Program! To make the best out of your SIGGRAPH 2014 experience, use this important resource to begin planning a week filled with education, interaction, networking, and fascination.

The Advance Program is your guide to all the amazing content packed into five full days in wonderful Vancouver. Whether you are interested in Art Gallery, Art Papers, Birds of a Feather, the Computer Animation Festival, Courses, Dailies, Exhibition, Emerging Technologies, Job Fair, Panels, Production Sessions, Real-Time Live!, Studio, Talks, or Technical Papers, this year's conference will highlight developments from the past 12 months that will spark your imagination and blow your mind.

SIGGRAPH 2014 to Host Panel and Screening of "How to Train Your Dragon 2"

At SIGGRAPH 2014, DreamWorks Animation presents a behind-the-scenes discussion on the feature animated film, "How To Train Your Dragon 2" (June 2014). Writer/Director Dean DeBlois charts the nuanced filmmaking necessary to fully realize this next adventure in the secret and emotional world of dragons. 

Featuring DeBlois, Gil Zimmerman (Head of Layout), Simon Otto (Head of Character Animation) and Dave Walvoord (VFX Supervisor), the panel will discuss the creative contributions that went into advancing the complexity and believability of the storytelling and the cinematography, as well as the leap forward the animators were able to make using Apollo, DreamWorks Animation’s ground-breaking next generation animation system.

Then, catch a special viewing of "How to Train Your Dragon 2" at SIGGRAPH 2014, Wednesday night, 13 August, 8-10 pm.

Long-Time Exhibitors and New Ones Bring Excitement to SIGGRAPH 2014

Autodesk and Intel Corp. are just two of many companies returning to SIGGRAPH in 2014.

SIGGRAPH is delighted to share the current amazing caliber of exhibitors already committed to this year's event in Vancouver. Featuring both veteran and new partners, SIGGRAPH 2014's exhibiting companies will offer expertise that is invaluable to the field of computer graphics and interactive techniques.

Even though SIGGRAPH 2014 is still a few months away, it is interesting to report that 16% of the current exhibitor list are first timers. In addition, they represent a total of 17 countries thus far with 44% of SIGGRAPH 2014 exhibitors having bases outside of the United States. This accounts for a 14% increase in foreign partners over SIGGRAPH 2013.

"We feel this type of growth is a direct result of rotating SIGGRAPH to newer geographical areas," says Mike Weil, SIGGRAPH Exhibition Director. "We pay very close attention to both our exhibitors and attendees when it comes to a conference venue location. This year is no different. We expect Vancouver to be an even better experience then it was in 2011."

He continues, "We are extremely proud to welcome these companies to SIGGRAPH 2014, especially those who were unable to attend last year or are long-time supporters of the conference."

Following is the list of SIGGRAPH 2014 exhibitors as of May 20th:

• 3D Consortium
• 3dMD
• 3DTotal.com
• Academy of Art University
• Account Name
• ACUTE3D
• Advanced Micro Devices (AMD)
• American Express OPEN
• Animation Magazine
• ARM
• ASC-American Cinematographer
• Aspera, an IBM Company
• Autodesk
• Avere Systems
• Axceleon Inc.
• B&H Photo, Video & Pro Audio
• Beijing Noitom Technology Ltd.
• BenQ America Corp.
• Canfield Scientific, Inc.
• Cap Digital
• Carnegie Mellon Entertainment Technology Center
• cebas Visual Technology Inc.
• Centre for Digital Media
• CG Masters, School of 3D Animation and Visual Effects
• CGAL - The Computational Geometry Algorithms Library
• Chaos Group
• Christie Digital Systems
• Clara.io
• Computer Graphics World
• CyberGlove Systems
• DigiPen Institute of Technology
• Dimensional Imaging
• Eizo Inc.
• EnvisionTEC
• Epson America
• Esri
• ETRI
• Faceshift AG
• Facet School of Visual Effects
• FARO Technologies Inc.
• ForgeFX Simulators
• Formlabs Inc.
• FORUM8 Co., Ltd.
• Full Sail University
• FXGear, Inc.
• Gener8 Digital Media
• GI LLC
• Government of British Columbia Ministry of International Trade
• IATSE
• IdN magazine
• IDV/SpeedTree
• IEEE Computer Society
• Imagination Technologies
• Imagineer Systems Ltd.
• Imaging Media Research Center, Korea Institute of Science and  Technology
• Intel Corporation
• Isotropix
• JourneyEd
• KOMMERZ
• Korea Creative Content Agency (KOCCA)
• Lightrig
• Lightwork Design Ltd.
• LMI Technologies Inc.
• Lost Boys Studios
• Luxion, Inc.
• MAXON
• Motion Analysis Corporation
• MSI Computer
• Next Limit Technologies
• NGRAIN
• NVIDIA Corporation
• Oculus
• Ontario Canada Delegation
• Open Exhibits
• OptiTrack
• OTOY, Inc.
• Panasas
• Peer 1 Hosting
• PhaseSpace Inc
• PipelineFX, LLC
• Pixar Animation Studios
• PNY Technologies
• Point Grey Research, Inc.
• Prometheus Kaleido Beijing Technology Limited
• ProMexico
• Purdue University
• QUALCOMM Technologies Inc.
• Quebec Film and Television Council
• Reallusion Inc.
• RebusFarm GmbH
• Ringling College of Art and Design
• Savannah College of Art and Design
• Scanline VFX
• Shapeways
• Sheridan College
• Shotgun Software, Inc.
• "SIAT, Simon Fraser University
• School of Interactive Arts and Technology"
• Side Effects Software
• Siliconarts, Inc.
• Simply Computing
• Simplygon
• Sketchfab Inc.
• Smith Micro Software
• Spheron-VR AG
• Stereolabs
• Stratasys 3D Printers & Production Systems
• Supermicro
• Synertial MotionWerx
• Taylor Francis/CRC/ Focal Press
• TechViz
• The Captury GmbH
• The Foundry Visionmongers
• The University of the Arts
• Think Tank Training Centre
• Thinkbox Software Inc.
• Tinkerine Studios
• United Scenic Artists, Local USA 829 IATSE
• Unity Technologies
• VanArts
• Vancouver Animation School
• Vancouver Film School
• Vicon
• Virtual Motion Labs
• Wacom Technology
• Web3D Consortium
• Western Digital

For more information about this year's exhibition, please visit the SIGGRAPH 2014 website.