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August 04, 2003
SIGGRAPH Recap + Pics
I had a good time in San Diego last week attending the big annual graphics conference known as <a href="http://www.siggraph.org/s2003/">SIGGRAPH</a>. The weather was great and I kept myself busy running from meetings, courses, receptions and the expo floor. And, I was hosting three sessions myself. They all went relatively well: The <a href="http://www.siggraph.org/s2003/conference/special/index.html">Behind the Game</a> "special session" panel attracted upwards of 1000 attendees. Our <a href="http://www.siggraph.org/s2003/conference/bof/index.html">Game Developers Birds of Feather</a> informal gathering session was jam packed, pulling in far more developers than anticipated. And finally, our game <a href="http://www.siggraph.org/s2003/conference/edu/forums.html#buchanan">curriculum session</a> was a nice Jerry Springer style discussion of challenges and opportunities facing academics teaching game development.
On the whole, SIGGRAPH 2003 was an enjoyable event and full of good content. Things did seem a bit busier all around, and rumor has it that their attendance numbers were considerably higher than last year (when it was in blistering hot San Antonio). In particular, I like all the crazy far out stuff on display. The <a href="http://www.siggraph.org/s2003/conference/etech/index.html">Emerging Technologies</a> section is filled to the brim with just cool stuff.
Anyway, I'll be making several more S2003 inspired posts in the coming week. In the meantime, enjoy the <a href="http://www.igda.org/blogs/realitypanic/archives/000030.html#more">following pics</a>...
<div align="center"><img src="../../../events/images/s2003_01_mods.jpg" width="400" height="300"><br>A perplexed Rob Nideffer and crew <a href="http://www.siggraph.org/s2003/conference/courses/pearce.html">discuss game mods and art</a>.</div>
<div align="center"><img src="../../../events/images/s2003_02_chairs.jpg" width="400" height="300"><br>A lot o' chairs were in place for our Behind the Game panel. We only filled about 1000 of them ;)</div>
<div align="center"><img src="../../../events/images/s2003_03_sake.jpg" width="300" height="400"><br>At the annual sake barrell-opening party. Don't ask...</div>
<div align="center"><img src="../../../events/images/s2003_04_awards.jpg" width="400" height="300"><br>Mathieu Desbrun of USC receives the Significant New Researcher Award during the <a href="http://www.siggraph.org/s2003/conference/keynote/index.html">keynote/awards session</a>.</div>
<div align="center"><img src="../../../events/images/s2003_05_lego.jpg" width="400" height="300"><br>As if you weren't busy enough, the <a href="http://www.siggraph.org/s2003/conference/vortechs/index.html">Vortechs pavillion</a> welcomed you to build with Lego...</div>
<div align="center"><img src="../../../events/images/s2003_06_tube.jpg" width="400" height="300"><br>...as well as navigate a 3D space with your body.</div>
<div align="center"><img src="../../../events/images/s2003_07_bof.jpg" width="400" height="300"><br>Mark DeLoura (Sony), ?, Doug Twilleager (Sun), Katherine Isbister (Stanford U.) and Athomas Goldberg (Sun) enjoy casual chit-chat during our Game Developers BOF.</div>
<div align="center"><img src="../../../events/images/s2003_08_paint.jpg" width="400" height="300"><br>More fun artsy activities at the <a href="http://www.siggraph.org/s2003/conference/studio/index.html">Guerilla studio</a>.</div>
<div align="center"><img src="../../../events/images/s2003_09_brush.jpg" width="300" height="400"><br>This guy didn't quite seem to understand the mechanics of the <a href="http://www.siggraph.org/s2003/conference/etech/body.html">body brush</a>.</div>
<div align="center"><img src="../../../events/images/s2003_10_jp.jpg" width="400" height="300"><br>Tetsuya Matsui (in orange) of Konami Japan enjoying food and drink with friends at the <a href="http://www.dcaj.or.jp">Digital Content Association of Japan</a> reception.</div>
<div align="center"><img src="../../../events/images/s2003_11_relic.jpg" width="400" height="300"><br>Vincent Brisebois (Discreet), Ian Thomson (Relic), Erin Olorenshaw (Relic) and Jodi Vetterl (Discreet) chilling at the Discreet party.</div>
<div align="center"><img src="../../../events/images/s2003_12_invisible.jpg" width="400" height="300"><br><a href="http://www.siggraph.org/s2003/conference/etech/thermo-key.html">Crazy Japanese dissappearing invisible paddle thing!</a></div>
<div align="center"><img src="../../../events/images/s2003_13_keys.jpg" width="400" height="300"><br>Kim Pallister (Intel) playing with the cool-as-hell <a href="http://www.canesta.com/products.htm">light keyboard</a>.</div>
<div align="center"><img src="../../../events/images/s2003_14_sofa.jpg" width="400" height="300"><br>Dan Rosenfeld (NYU) with his neat mini-bot smart sensing <a href="http://www.siggraph.org/s2003/conference/etech/planar.html">planar manipulator display</a>. It was really cool to see it in action.</div>
<div align="center"><img src="../../../events/images/s2003_15_et.jpg" width="400" height="300"><br>Lots of people in to watch the awesome <a href="http://www.siggraph.org/s2003/conference/caf/et.html">Electronic Theater</a>. Sorry, no bootlegging allowed.</div>
<div align="center"><img src="../../../events/images/s2003_16_volts.jpg" width="400" height="300"><br>The High Voltage crew (Eric Nofsigner, Lorraine Huck, Kerry Ganofsky, Cory Bloyd, Jesse Helton, Matt Corso) hanging out at the Art Institutes party.</div>
<div align="center"><img src="../../../events/images/s2003_17_expo.jpg" width="400" height="300"><br>A justifiable booth babe? T-shirt drawing contests seem to be a growing tactic for booth traffic...</div>
<div align="center"><img src="../../../events/images/s2003_18_ea.jpg" width="300" height="400"><br>The EA presence. Hmm, seems a tad smaller than their E3 booth.</div>
<div align="center"><img src="../../../events/images/s2003_19_dome.jpg" width="400" height="300"><br>Cool domed displays.</div>
<a name="bots"></a>
<div align="center"><img src="../../../events/images/s2003_20_bots1.jpg" width="400" height="300"><br>(sorry, hard to see) Sony robot control software on the left screen, bot in action kicking a ball on the right.</div>
<div align="center"><img src="../../../events/images/s2003_21_bots2.jpg" width="400" height="300"><br>Close up of the above robotics session. Several bots in action.</div>
<div align="center"><img src="../../../events/images/s2003_22_anvil.jpg" width="400" height="300"><br>Sean Dunn and Aaron Otstott of Digital Anvil hunting for food during SIGGRAPH's reception party.</div>
Posted by della at August 4, 2003 03:15 PM
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Comments
Cool! I wish I were there only for the light keyboard! =-)
Posted by: Sylvain at August 5, 2003 10:57 AM
Now all we need are little force-feedback thimbles for each finger!
Looks like it was a barrel of fun. Nice blog, thanks.
Posted by: Robert at August 6, 2003 08:09 PM
Aha, good point. I am sure they had a word with the Japanese researchers next to them ;)
SmartTouch: A New Skin Layer to Touch the Non-Touchable
<a href="http://www.siggraph.org/s2003/conference/etech/smarttouch.html">http://www.siggraph.org/s2003/conference/etech/smarttouch.html</a>
Posted by: Jason Della Rocca at August 7, 2003 12:29 AM
I was one of the ~1000 to see the "Behind the Game" special session and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It provided material for plenty of conversations and debate thereafter.
If San Antonio was blistering, then San Diego was freezing! ;-)
Thanks for the pics and presentations!
proud Texan,
Jacob Foshee
Posted by: jacobf at August 7, 2003 05:21 PM
Jason,
Good to meet ya [at the BoF].
Side note: don't try the fake skin.. Zapping your finger feels nothing like touching anything and only keeps your finger buzzing for 20 minutes later :)
Other side note: I'm surprised you didn't mention the Virtual Snack machine, with its virtual chips and virtual soda!
Posted by: Maz at August 19, 2003 12:58 AM