2020-08-13

SIGGRAPH 2020 to Spotlight 20 Transformative, Emerging Technologies

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
13 August 2020

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Emily Drake
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SIGGRAPH 2020 to Spotlight 20 Transformative, Emerging Technologies

Preview What’s Next in Haptics, Holograms, Headsets, and More

CHICAGO—SIGGRAPH 2020 announces its Emerging Technologies program lineup, which offers virtual participants a glimpse at the technology of the future. Think beyond everyday consumer technology as researchers present 20 new advances in everything from headsets to haptics during the first-ever online SIGGRAPH conference. The event will run 17–28 August, with content available online and on-demand through 27 October.

“This year, Emerging Technologies will definitely be offering a new experience that goes beyond our typical format,” noted SIGGRAPH 2020 Emerging Technologies Chair Dani Belko, of Facebook. “While virtual demos and discussions are unchartered territory for SIGGRAPH contributors and participants, everyone is excited to embrace the new world we’re living in…and eager to showcase the technologies that might shape its future.”

Usually a physical space where minds meet at the mid-point between inception and adoption, the SIGGRAPH conference Emerging Technologies program is known for showcasing groundbreaking research with an emphasis on superhuman hardware and software applications. With projects hailing from seven countries worldwide, discover how technology can help humans do the impossible and enhance the ways we interact with the world. In addition to projects from Stanford University, Nvidia, and Tokyo Institute of Technology, some of our 2020 highlights include:

  • ThinVR: VR Displays With Wide FOV in a Compact Form Factor
    On-demand: 17–28 August; Live Q&A: Wednesday, 26 August, 10 am PDT
    From Intel Labs, ThinVR is a new approach that simultaneously addresses the bulk and limited FOV of today’s head-worn VR displays. The team’s approach replaces traditional large optics with a curved microlens array of custom-designed heterogeneous lenslets and places these in front of a curved display. Details.
  • Photo-Chromeleon: Re-Programmable Multi-Color Textures Using Photochromic Dyes
    On-demand: 17–28 August; Live Q&A: Wednesday, 26 August, 10 am PDT
    Photo-Chromeleon is a technology from MIT CSAIL designed to create re-programmable, multi-color textures that are made from a single material only. Details.
  • Feel It: Using Proprioceptive and Haptic Feedback for Interaction With Virtual Embodiment
    On-demand: 17–28 August; Live Q&A: Monday, 24 August, 4 pm PDT
    From University of South Australia, Keio University, and CSIRO, this research is intended to suggest techniques for providing virtual embodiment using haptic and proprioceptive feedback. Details.
  • The Tight Game: Implicit Force Intervention in Interpersonal Physical Interactions on Playing Tug of War
    On-demand: 17–28 August; Live Q&A: Wednesday, 26 August, 4 pm PDT
    The Tight Game system — by researchers out of the University of Tokyo, Sony Computer Science Laboratories, and France’s Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique — includes four force sensors and two hidden, high-torque motors to provide real-time physical assistance. One pair of players pulls the tug, and they believe they are playing a well-balanced tight game, but another person actually mediates the game with implicit physical intervention. Details.

Emerging Technologies is open to Ultimate and Enhanced pass holders. Register for SIGGRAPH 2020, the 47th international conference and exhibition on computer graphics and interactive techniques, at s2020.SIGGRAPH.org/register.

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About ACM, ACM SIGGRAPH and SIGGRAPH Conferences
ACM, the Association for Computing Machinery, is the world’s largest educational and scientific computing society, uniting educators, researchers, and professionals to inspire dialogue, share resources, and address the field’s challenges. ACM SIGGRAPH is a special interest group within ACM that serves as an interdisciplinary community for members in research, technology, and applications in computer graphics and interactive techniques. SIGGRAPH conferences, held in North America and Asia, are the world’s leading annual interdisciplinary educational experiences showcasing the latest in computer graphics and interactive techniques.