Prof. Schwartz's notes from SIGGRAPH 2009

After a great pre conference experience attending NPAR and seeing some amazing work and meeting artists who's perfferred medium is math- yes! its true! I was amazed by the new things that math minded artists are developing( imaging for medicine and animation) and how they related to traditional crafts where math is essential- (quilts, fabric and paper crafts). Design is design regardless of medium!

Monday started out with a visit to the emerging technologies area and some great finds- among them;

Yotaro was a fascinating interactive baby simulator- from the University of Tsukuba

My personal award for most unusual haptic device idea goes to "Oh Dear!" from Kajimoto Laboratory- Which uses clips on the ear to pull your movement in one direction or the other as you walk.. wow.

Nice interface web site of news and location - similar to the "brain " interface from the lovely people from Milan. take a look at NOLA citymurmur.org
"citymurmur- mapping the media attention in the geographical space of a city"

Then there was the game that you played by eating certain foods and blowing into tubes that sensed your breath to fight evil villains such as the evil nose man- !?! It's called " Back to the Mouth"- Wow. Gaming changed since pong eh? VERY COOL Kosaka Laboratory!

Today I "held" a dancing pink elephant hologram in my hand and actually "felt " it dance with pinpoint sound technology.. The dancing pink elephant tickles people! It's true. I also "felt" virtual raindrops and held a red holographic sphere.

Hirotawa Osawa's "Anthropomorphization of a Space with Implemented Human-like features" was fun! The Anthropomorphized Electric Oven was reminiscent of one of my students superheros when I taught at Gentilly Terrece- "Toaster-Oven Man!"

The artspace was great- amazing work for interactive immersive environments for autistic children. bravo!- Finally read more below about ASU's work.

The interactive sweater that conforms to the breathing and body temperature of its user was fantastic- wish they came in Plus sizes. alas, no.

The FJORG! folks were enthusiastic and all modeling and animating in MAYA. Go FJORG! It was sponsored also by DISNEY and the Princess and the Frog is coming soon. Can't wait to see New Orleans.

Verena Freidrich's TRANSDUCERS presented the sounds of human hair vibrating was a great installation piece- very unexpected. I wonder what my hair would sound like? Do curls and grey make a difference??

The rest of the week is a whirlwind of technical Immersion into 3D space, animation,and 3D printing- modeling- and Haptic interfaces- and remote viewing...

The Keynote with Steve Duenes from the NY Times was a great. He expressed the process of designing information for both the the web and print using statistical analysis and " whatever program works" along with multiple references and experts in a very clear way. I also very much appreciate that he mentioned Tufte's envisioning information as part of the study of informational graphics. Well, yes- that's what we learned in art school! Gotta have it. Also I asked him at the Q & A how long it will be until people "watch" the news channels via remote cameras placed all over the cities via goggle earth, His response was interesting and I'll discuss that in class this fall.

Also very exciting was the MASS ANIMATION presentation-CROWD SOURCES CREATIVITY- basically using Facebook as an interface to animate a short "LIVE MUSIC" with Maya on a global level. Yes the animators got paid and how cool is that - I asked them when was the first time that they had all met- The panel and the first time that all parties had met in person was right there at SIGGRAPH- it was all done via the web- through facebook and video conference- most excellent. The animation was great too. It will be released in theatres this fall .

Most exciting thing from Louisiana,is the new BCFXGAME-

Black college football BCFX the experience. I got to drum along with the Grambling and Southern Bands- The games, the legacy and the music and halftime shows. All 3D - runs on Xbox- releases in September- IT IS AWESOME!!!

Also exciting is the new Moonbot studios in Shreveport. Nice iconic logo and the young man in charge can draw. Which is essential in this arena.

turbosquid was there of course as was LSU- both in their own booths and not part of the Louisiana display/ showcase.

I still think that the most beautiful thing that I saw come from Mr. Lee- his glass etched working Zoetrope in the emerging technologies- the corning museum of glass needs one for its collection. Just transcendent.

Synchronous objects for One Flat Thing- was a beautiful cross disciplinary piece between the dance and math departments visualized in 3d Graphics. The piece would not have been so beautiful without the talented dancers and the choreography- which was very compelling.

Photo elastic touch- was interesting in its process- drawing or animating with light bent by squeezing clear rubber. They had signs all over that said DO NOT EAT! I asked them if you could use the interface with Gummy candy- They had some gummy lifesavers- took them out and to their surprise- YES! You can!! it was great fun and I enjoyed painting with their interface and encouraging them to use objects that would be less toxic and more "child- friendly".

The STUDIO area this year had a great layout- lots of 3D models and a mo-cap demo with live dancers available to dance for you. Also a great claymation and stop action animation set up. The best visuals though came form Giga-pan- to be used with both Macro and micro lenses to achieve breathtaking panoramic images.

One of the most socially conscious interfaces was SMALL lab out of the School of Arts and Engineering at ASU- a mixed reality environment for students to collaborate with sonic and visual media. 4 years- 38,000 students worth of interactivity already- nicely done. smooth and soothing interface- not the usual frenetic jumping aliens and monsters and such. They are doing it the right way for their audiences.

Another sound interface that was simple but effective and shows tremendous promise is the Scratch input- Chris Harrison at Carnegie Mellon- It seems a natural for those with impaired vision and also for games.

Kumiko Kushiyama's FUR FLY the most pleasing piece in the BIO Logic space. and the most responsive.

Natural Interactive Walking on snow and breaking ice was not really clear until I experienced it for myself. I really felt like I was walking on snow- the sounds and feel was the same. It was fantastic- from Mc Gill University Shared Reality Environments Lab.

Also very thought provoking was " I'm not there; extending he range of human senses to benefit wildlife corridors" from Texas A & M. an immersive environment designed to map animal senses so that humans can "see" as birds "see and hear" - It was great. has tremendous educational potential.

Overall it seemed smaller than the last two times that I attended - a bit calmer- more focus on 3D and animation than web and interactivity- and more emphasis on haptic and remote viewing and access, rather than creative designs. also more modeling and 3d printing rather than 2D printing. Of course there were much fewer women than men as usual- but there were also less Blonde "chick-babe" spokespersons and more animators that you could talk to one on one than before.

The new Poser 2D manga and animator software bundles are the best new app. tools that I saw.

Of course the Blender crew rocked. They seemed one of the happiest groups there.

There is so much more that I could write about and share with you- but that will have to wait for classes this fall. Send me an email if you have any questions. See you soon!

Prof. Schwartz