Announcing Siggraph 2000 Emerging Technologies: Point of Departure; New Research in Display Technologies See 3D Objects Without Glasses.

Business Editors/High Tech Writers

SIGGRAPH 2000

CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 26, 2000

ACM SIGGRAPH has announced the content of the Emerging Technologies: Point of Departure venue for SIGGRAPH 2000, the 27th International Conference on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques, being held 23 - 28 July 2000, at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center, New Orleans, Louisiana. The Emerging Technologies program, called Point of Departure this year, showcases visionary, creative, and provocative interactive installations. One of the highlights of this venue is new research in display technologies. This research enables the viewing of 3D objects without special glasses or other intrusive devices.

The display technologies research that can be experienced in the Emerging Technologies: Point of Departure are:

HoloSpace
Emilio Camahort
University of Texas at Austin

       Enter the space of digital holograms, the display medium for the
new century. The HoloSpace contains research examples of future
applications of digital holograms: collaborative design and
engineering examples, advertising and commercial applications, and 3D
portraits that require no goggles or intrusive devices, and even allow
the subject to move!
       HoloSpace demonstrates full-color, full-parallax holographic
stereograms with a horizontal field of view of 110 degrees and a
vertical field of view of 98 degrees. They are as large as 3 meters x
1.2 meters and as deep as 1.2 meters. Viewers look at them from
different vantage points: above, below, and inside. Are these 3D
displays containing 4D data, or is it the other way around?

Autostereoscopic Display for an Unconstrained Observer
Ken Perlin
New York University

       In this display, observers can freely change position, rotate
their heads, and maintain a true stereoscopic view without using
special eyewear. Since no fixed parallax barrier geometry could
accommodate arbitrary observer position and orientation, the system
creates a dynamically varying parallax barrier that continually
changes the width and positions of its stripes as the observer moves.
Large stripes would be easily seen by the unaided eye, so the system
rapidly animates them in a lateral direction. Each stripe is composed
from some number of very slender microstripes, each of which is a
switchable LCD element. The result: a stereoscopic display that is
continually exact for one moving user, as long as their eye position
is tracked.

Autostereoscopic 3D Workbench
Hideki Kakeya
ATR Media Integration & Communications Research Laboratories

       In this reality-enhanced autostereoscopic 3D workbench, viewers
without special glasses, can perceive 3D images within their reach
with little sense of incongruity. A real image is presented in the
middle of the workspace; artificial parallax is narrowed to display 3D
objects without interfering with normal motion. Viewers can manipulate
virtual objects in the 3D workspace directly, with their own hands.

In addition to the display technologies, the SIGGRAPH 2000 Emerging Technologies: Point of Departure features the latest research in human-computer interfaces, augmented reality, collaborative computing, and robotics.

If you would like more information on the SIGGRAPH 2000 Emerging Technologies: Point of Departure, see http://www.siggraph.org/s2000. Or contact Ann Kilhoffer-Reichert, SIGGRAPH 2000 Media Relations, phone [phone], email: [e-mail].

SIGGRAPH 2000 will bring over 25,000 computer graphics and interactive technology professionals from six continents to New Orleans for the week-long conference. A comprehensive technical program and special events focusing on research, art, animation, and interactive technologies are planned. SIGGRAPH includes a three-day exhibition of products and services for the computer graphics and interactive marketplace from 25 - 27 July 2000.