Siggraph 2017: machines, people and tools get smarter The flash points for Siggraph this year, were the flash points for last year: rendering, cloud-based workflows, workstations, VR/AR, AI, engines, and tools. What’s different is that the technology has taken leaps forward and even more fascinating new applications are emerging. The cloud in pictures For five years we have used our … Read more
Just sit on The Bench Disney has The Bench, an AR experience for many, simultaneously, without the need for any head gear, developed by Disney Research Pittsburgh. The viewer(s) sit on a bench and look forward at a monitor or screen. It has a camera on/in it that looks at the you and the bench. Behind you is a flat … Read more
JPR at a lunch At its core level, the subject of Siggraph is human human creativity. Increasingly though, we're seeing machine creativity get more attention as AI breaks out of the labs and gets into the everyday work of artists and creators. That was a major theme at Siggraph this year and the annual JPR luncheon was a reflection of … Read more
The real danger of AI may be that it takes all the fun out of life A bot stole the show at The International Dota 2 Championship. Developed using OpenAI on Microsoft Azure and the specially designed bot got good by playing itself thousands of times instead of analyzing champion gamers, which is kind of interesting. It suggests that machines … Read more
With mixed concepts, marketing hype, and general confusion you need some definitions To say the purveyors and wannabe purveyors of consumer-oriented VR stuff (headsets, controllers, components, and content) are not in sync on what the stuff used in VR is called is an understatement. It gets a little confusing (and annoyingly time consuming) to sort out what’s being offered or … Read more
New gains in subscriptions and ARR bolster the company Autodesk had a good first quarter for their fiscal year 2018 and in fact saw several unexpected milestones. This was the last quarter overseen by the dueling CEOs, Amar Hanspal and Andrew Anagnost. Since that announcement Anagnost is in (as of June 19) and Hanspal left to seek his fortunes elsewhere. … Read more
Hovermap’s technology developed by Australia’s CSIRO enables RPAS CSIRO (Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization) is Australia’s national research lab with wide ranging interests including robotics, agriculture, communications, mining, and much more. Their Robotics and Autonomous Systems group has developed Hovermap, which combines LiDAR and 360×360 degree sensor capabilities to capture and map surroundings. It was developed to be mounted … Read more
Giving its video production tools new power for VR Adobe announced the acquisition of the SkyBox plug-ins developed for Premiere and After Effects by Mettle. The SkyBox Suite of plug-ins offers transitions, titles, and effects for immersive content including VR. One of the earliest tools created by Mettle for After Effects was FreeForm, which brought the team to the attention … Read more
The shows have gotten smaller, the machines have gotten smaller, but the advances have been huge. Siggraph continues to be an enormously influential conference even as it has shrunk in physical size. In general, conference audiences are smaller (with CES being the mindnumbing exception). But it's not just that conferences have become smaller, there really are fewer people. Productivity advances … Read more
Office 365 reaches parity with traditional Office products and LinkedIn adds $1 billion in revenue Microsoft made the financial world sit up and take notice. The company reported revenue of $23.3 billion, a 13% increase over last year, with net income coming in at $6.5 billion, a shocking 105% increase. Satya Nadella told investors, “innovation across our cloud platforms drove … Read more
Boulder Graphics has just release its SuperD for the Apple iPad, a 3D modeling app for conceptual design that runs on an iPad. The app is based on recursive subdivision (SubD), but according to developer Alyn Rockwood, it produces superior surfaces in terms of smoothness and efficiency. In their Siggraph paper about the modeler entitled SuperD: SubD Modeling without Subdivision, … Read more
Exciting new technologies like AR, VR, MR surely are going to change the world, but inhibitors like glasses and headsets are definitely going to slow the revolution.
