Emerging Technologies at SIGGRAPH 2001

SIGGRAPH Overview

September 01: Emerging Technologies
Margarita Benitez, Fort Lauderdale: Emerging Technologies is one of SIGGRAPHs must-sees. E-Tech is comprised of hands on exhibits in wide assortment of cutting edge technologies. There were a total of 13 countries participating in the exhibit this year. Every year there is a theme and this year's theme was a celebration of play. It featured the latest developing technologies that enable and promote play: design, interactivity, robotics, display systems, and more. Some of these technologies will be implemented into our lives in the future. Some, although innovative and promising, will be a stepping-stone into another technological breakthrough. Some you just ask why…at least that might be your first reaction. A casual stroll through the E-Tech floor usually leads to curiosity on a couple of exhibits. This year was no different. Here is a brief description of a few of the many exhibits that caught my eye:
One exhibit that caught my attention was "Just Follow Me (JFM)" A VR-based Motion Training System. Its goal is enhanced learning of motion using VR technology. This can be applied for interactive real-time motion training for dance, sports and entertainment. A dance training game was being showcase…it was quite humorous to watch. The user gets wristbands to wear and there are also 2 trackers placed on the legs and one on the torso area. These enable the user's movements to be tracked by 4 motion cameras and matched against the reference motion database. The user could choose from a variety of music styles to dance to. The picture on the right shows the dance game interface. JFM is based on an intuitive interaction method ("Ghost") in which the motion of the trainer is visualized in real time as a ghost. The user is to follow the ghost's movements as closely as possible. This is exhibit was from the Virtual Reality Laboratory of Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH) and more information on it can be seen at http://www.postech.ac.kr/cse/vr/resframe.html.
From the people of the IBM T. J. Watson Research Center, specifically Claudio Pinahnez came a very interesting exhibit, one of the most promising in functionality. It utilized physical space to provide information. In other words, it was a system that enabled augmented reality (create "touch screens") on any surface or space. The surface can be any kind or any color. The prototype of the Everywhere Displays projector is composed of an LCD projector and a motorized rotating mirror that will project the interface. There is also a camera attached which looks for motion data and tracks over and detects hand interaction (pointing and clicking) with the projected image. The exhibit featured collaborative picture making with M&Ms. A visitor would choose the color of M&Ms they wished to add to the picture that was in progress. The computer would then direct them to the can that was full of M&Ms of the right color and ask them to pick up a few. With M&Ms in hand, they would return to the picture assembling table and be given instructions on exactly where to place the M&Ms on the table. An example of real world use would be warehouse storage with boxes. Let's say you need to find out what is in a box. Using this technology as an augmented display system you could wipe your hand over the box and you would get an image of what is inside the box. Let's say on the other hand you need to know where a specific item is in the warehouse, you could search for the item and then the location of box where it is stored would be shown to you. That would make searching for things so much easier. I would love to have this in my house for those times when I have no clue where I put something. I'm really hoping that they do perfect this. For more information on Everywhere Displays visit: http://www.research.ibm.com/people/p/pinhanez/%20cp_research_ed.htm.
Unfortunately, the first time I saw An Interface for Touching the Interface much was lost in translation. The second time I went by I was fortunate enough to get someone that spoke English and he described this wonderful and astonishing emerging technology to the crowd of people there. This knocked my socks off! Imagine a surgeon could program what tissues he could and couldn't cut into. Let's say that he would only want cut through tissue that is cancer infested and not cut into any organ tissue. A scalpel that is equipped with this haptic "smart tool" technology would give him the ability to do so. The exhibit featured a container with oil and water. One would dip the "smart tool" in and as soon as you would touch the water level the stylus would stop. Wow! You would be able to cut the egg white without touching the yolk. Their website has pictures and videos of "Smart Tools". You can check it out at: http://www.star.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp/projects/SmartTools/
Below are the names of a few other exhibits that were very interesting. For a complete list of what was featured this year visit: http://helios.siggraph.org/s2001/conference/etech/index.html. Alpha wolf: Bill Tomlinson, Massachusetts Institute of Technology In this exhibit you become part of a wolf pack social group through voice interface. The wolf reacts to user's voice and allows participants to interact socially with a pack of autonomous wolves. For more information (and very cute screenshots) check out: http://badger.www.media.mit.edu/people/badger/alphaWolf.html. Origami Desk: Wendy Ju, MIT, MIT Media Lab This enhanced desk exhibit guided visitor to create either of two featured origami projects: a box or a crane. It had a variety of ways of showing you how to fold the origami paper: video, animation and diagrams under your sheet. The sheets themselves contained sensors that let the desk know if the user was following along correctly. For some reason it was a mission to finish the crane. I had to restart the session about 6 or 7 times to get through the whole project. It would just shut down on me even if I was creasing or folding the right piece. Finished with the two projects, I had a box and questionable looking crane to bring home as keepsakes. Overall it was an enjoyable experience but I don't think this desk will make me an expert origami folder anytime soon. For more information please visit: http://www.media.mit.edu/%7Ewendyju/origami/paper.html i-ball: Interactive Information Display Like a Crystal Ball: Hiromi Ikeda, The University of Tokyo I didn't interact with this one but did see it: and it did seem cool. It enables both interactive displays and image communication. It is a collaborative 3D display…remember the Princess Leia effect...that gives you an idea of what this came close to. It works with mirrors and cameras. For more information on this please visit: http://www.hc.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp/i-ball/. Informative Art: Tobias Skog, PLAY, Interactive Institute This was a different approach to presenting information to users. They combined art with information, for example using a Mondrian to show the weather around the world. For more information please visit: http://www.viktoria.informatik.gu.se/groups/play/projects/slowtech/installations.html Here are some facts about this year's computer animation festival: - A total of 679 pieces were submitted to the festival. - Out of those only 118 selected. - 74 were playing in the animation theaters during the conference. - 44 were playing in the Shrine Auditorium in the Electronic Theater. - The works selected were 40% international works and 20% student works. If you were unable to attend this year's SIGGRAPH, you should definitely plan to attend next year. SIGGRAPH 2002 will be held in San Antonio Texas at the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center. The conference will be July 21-26, 2002 and the exhibition will be July 23-25. About 25,000 people, 6,000 from 75 countries, are expected to attend the 29th International Conference on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques. For the first time Web Graphics will be a full program within SIGGRAPH. Please take a moment to visit the SIGGRAPH 2002 website when you have a chance and learn more about how you can participate or even contribute to next years conference. See you at San Antonio! Margarita Benitez, Media Rep for the Fort Lauderdale ACM SIGGRAPH Professional Chapter