Just came back from Siggraph 2007 Exhibition in beautiful San Diego, CA. Having attended before I would say it was a significant show. Great new technology and existing technology as well as a handful of real innovation. Here are some points of interest:
1) Been there done that
3D TV…Yes, 3D video without any extra gear (glasses, HMD, etc) is a great idea, why hasn’t it taken off? This is something I saw back at my first Siggraph in 2004! It looks as good as it did then, yet I wonder why, still, nobody is using it? I even saw a Toshiba laptop a couple years ago with the technology built-in. Neat to see it again, but curious as to why it hasn’t caught on.
2) Where did they go?
Back in 2004 at my first Siggraph in LA there was a company that presented a virtual crime scene. They a recorded 2D and 3D representation of the original crime scene so the room could be explored at a much later date in Virtual Reality. This was a great product, with great potential, I’m sure if I tried, I could find their web site, however, I did miss them at this show, would have liked to see how far they’d come.
3) Like before…but more
In the last few years 3D printing has become more popular and as a result the process has become relatively more affordable. Therefore, where in years past we saw a 1 or 2 3D printing vendors, at Siggraph 2007 there were quite a few. Using different techniques including color prototyping which I hadn’t seen before.
4) Best Presentation
Autodesk had a wonderful booth and presentation. With experts from ILM, Condor, CafeFX and more demonstrating how actual effects we’ve seen in movies and on tv were done. This was very entertaining and educational. Thanks for the great demonstration Autodesk, Maya 08 rocks!
5) Most innovative
In the Emerging Technology pavilion amongst many abstract new convolutions of creativity and ingenuity lay the star of the show. The most promising but not so obvious technology at the show was e-ink. I had read articles about the progress of the technology but did not expect the quality to be so dead-on accurate.
E Ink Corporation has shown ultra flat, and ultra “paper-like” e-ink displays. As I first approached their booth, I honestly did think what I was looking at was a printed piece of paper mounted between plastic. I thought it was some ‘theoretical prototype’ then, before my very eyes, the INK on the paper changed to something else. A very sharp, highly detailed image. I heard these e-ink displays looked like print on paper, but I must say…from what I viewed…IT REALLY DOES.
Then I look to my right and see a COLOR version! That really looked like color print on paper! But it was an electronic display.
E-ink is my BEST OF pick for Siggraph 2007.
http://www.eink.com
If you have any experiences, opinions or technologies from Siggraph 2007 please reply to this topic!
http://www.siggraph.org/events/s2007/s2007