SIGGRAPH , the premier conference on computer graphics education, held its 50th event last week in Los Angeles. Back in 1974 a group of 25 experts of the ACM Special Interest Group SIGGRAPH developed the specifications of the first computer graphic standard, Core and it became a foundation for many future developments in the field of Computer Graphics. SIGGRAPH became a conference that is held every year in mid-summer and is well known for showcasing cutting edge computer graphics research and education. This year, AI and quantum computing are effecting and reshaping both computer graphics and our culture, it is important to understand these technologies.
I have attended many SIGGRAPH conferences over the years but I hadn’t been able to attend the last few years because of Covid, so it was wonderful to see and experience everything SIGGRAPH has to offer again. There were more than 14,000 attendees from 78 countries.
Unlike conferences such as GDC, Comicon, and E3, SIGGRAPH takes graphics education seriously so this article will focus on the computer graphics research and education that was showcased at SIGGRAPH.
This year, the Technical Papers Fast Forward showcased a lot of cutting edge ideas related to computer graphics.
The best papers were :
“Split-Lohmann Multifocal Displays” by Yingsi Qin, Wei-Yu Chen, Matthew O’Toole, and Aswin C. Sankaranarayanan of Carnegie Mellon University
“Differentiable Stripe Patterns for Inverse Design of Structured Surfaces”
Juan Sebastian Montes Maestre, Yinwei Du, Ronan Hinchet, Stelian Coros, Bernhard Thomaszewski, ETH Zürich
“Globally Consistent Normal Orientation for Point Clouds by Regularizing the Winding-number Field“
By Rui Xu, Shandong University; Zhiyang Dou, The University of Hong Kong; Ningna Wang, The University of Texas at Dallas; Shiqing Xin, Shandong University; Shuangmin Chen, Qingdao University of Science and Technology; Mingyan Jiang, Shandong University; Xiaohu Guo, The University of Texas at Dallas; Wenping Wang, Texas A&M University; Changhe Tu, Shandong University
“3D Gaussian Splatting for Real-time Radiance Field Rendering”
By Bernhard Kerbl, Inria, Université Côte d’Azur; Georgios Kopanas, Inria, Université Côte d’Azur; Thomas Leimkuehler, Max-Planck-Institut für Informatik; George Drettakis, Inria, Université Côte d’Azur
“DOC: Differentiable Optimal Control for Retargeting Motions Onto Legged Robots”
By Ruben Grandia, Disney Research Imagineering; Farbod Farshidian, ETH Zürich; Espen Knoop, Disney Research Imagineering; Christian Schumacher, Disney Research Imagineering; Marco Hutter, ETH Zürich; Moritz Bächer, Disney Research Imagineering
One of the highlights of SIGGRAPH is Emerging Technologies. Here experts from various fields including computer graphics, artificial intelligence, robotics, and VR show off their cutting edge applications. Emerging Technologies has laid the groundwork for advancements in display, capture, and interaction technologies. Attendees are treated to interactive demonstrations that enable them to engage directly with cutting-edge prototypes and experiences, providing an immersive preview of the transformative technologies that will shape our digital landscape in the years to come.
This year, the Best in Show award went to :
“Reprojection-free VR Passthrough”
Grace Kuo, Eric Penner, Seth Moczydlowski, Alex Ching, Douglas Lanman, Nathan Matsuda, Reality Labs Research, Meta
Dr. Darío Gil, IBM Senior Vice President and Director of Research, gave a keynote “What’s next for Quantum Computing” which was a fascinating look at the problems that will be solved with the next generation on quantum computer.
Also this year, as a part of the 50th anniversary, Autodesk sponsored a look back at 50 years of computer graphics education with a fantastic display called History Time Tunnel, sponsored by Autodesk, was an immersive and interactive experience that showcased the history of SIGGRAPH conferences and computer graphics.
The 2023 SIGGRAPH Conference served as a testament to the resilience and creativity of the computer graphics community. According to Erik Brunvand, the SIGGRAPH 2023 Conference Chair, “One of SIGGRAPH’s most powerful strengths is that it’s a gathering of a wide variety of people in the computer graphics and interactive techniques community. We’ve been a driving force for the expansion and growth in computer graphics for the last 50 years. SIGGRAPH is successful because it’s a place to appreciate and make connections across a variety of disciplines.”
If you are interested, SIGGRAPH 2024 is taking place 28 July-1 August 2024 in Denver, Colorado.