SIGGRAPH New Technology: From Enhancing Facial Attractiveness to Virtual Maps

CHICAGO--(Business Wire)--
The SIGGRAPH 2008 Technical Papers Program is the premier
international forum for presenting the world's best research
innovations within the computer graphics industry. Technical papers
presented in this forum have had a dynamic impact on the entertainment
and film industries. This year's elite jury of industry experts and
innovators sorted through a record-breaking 518 submissions from
around the globe before selecting 90 papers for presentation at
SIGGRAPH 2008.

This year the conference is expanding the technical program by
including conference presentations for each paper published this year
in the journal ACM Transactions on Graphics (TOG).

In addition to the core topics of modeling, animation, rendering,
and imaging, several presentations will highlight groundbreaking
research in scientific visualization, information visualization,
computer-aided design, human-computer interaction, computer vision,
robotics, and applications such as film special effects and computer
games. Countries represented span the globe from Germany to Hong Kong.

"These presentations give us a glimpse into a future with highly
realistic computer games, stunning feature film special effects,
intelligent cameras, and rich photo manipulation tools," stated Greg
Turk, SIGGRAPH 2008 Technical Papers Chair from the Georgia Institute
of Technology. "Although the review process for SIGGRAPH Technical
Papers is already a model of fairness, each year we try to improve the
process. This year, we increased the participation in decision making
of the tertiary reviewers (those that do not attend the Papers
Committee meeting)."

Select highlights from the SIGGRAPH 2008 Papers Program:

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Data-Driven Enhancement of Facial Attractiveness
In this work, a data-driven approach to enhancing the attractiveness
of human faces in frontal photographs is explored while maintaining
close similarity with the original image.

Tommer Leyvand
Daniel Cohen-Or
Tel-Aviv University

Gideon Dror
Academic College of Tel-Aviv-yaffo

Dani Lischinski
The Hebrew University

Automatic Generation of Tourist Maps
This paper introduces an automated system for designing tourist maps
that select and highlight important tourist information using a
combination of multi-perspective rendering and cartographic
generalization.

Floraine S.M. Grabler
Maneesh Agrawala
University of California - Berkley

Robert Sumner
Mark Pauly
ETH Zurich

Clone Attack! Perception of Crowd Variety
When simulating large crowds, the models and motions of many
characters are inevitably cloned. This paper considers the perceptual
impact of this trade-off.

Rachel McDonnell
Micheal Larkin
Simon Dobbyn
Steven Collins
Carol O'Sullivan
Graphics, Vision & Visualisation Group

Self-Animating Images: Illusory Motion Using Repeated Asymmetric
Patterns
This paper presents an automatic method of generating self-animating
images, that is, still images that appear to move due to the
properties of human visual perception.

Ming-Te Chi
Tong-Yee Lee
National Cheng-Kung University

Yingge Qu
Tien-Tsin Wong
Chinese University of Hong Kong
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As was done in 2007, the Technical Papers will be presented using
a system of per-paper discussants to promote a lively exchange of
ideas and provide coverage of the industry and all its many facets.
Each paper in the program will be allotted 25 minutes, 20 minutes for
presentation and five minutes for discussion of the paper, with the
session chair serving as discussant.

More details on the SIGGRAPH 2008 Technical Papers Program will be
available soon at www.siggraph.org/s2008.

About SIGGRAPH

SIGGRAPH 2008 will bring an estimated 30,000 computer graphics and
interactive technology professionals from six continents to Los
Angeles, California, USA for the industry's most respected technical
and creative programs focusing on research, science, art, animation,
gaming, interactivity, education, and the web from Monday, 11 August
through Friday, 15 August 2008 at the Los Angeles Convention Center.
Celebrating its 35th year, SIGGRAPH 2008 includes a three-day
exhibition of products and services from the computer graphics and
interactive marketplace from 12-14 August 2008. More than 250
international exhibiting companies are expected. Registration for the
conference and exhibition is open to the public. More details are
available at www.siggraph.org/s2008.

About ACM

ACM, the Association for Computing Machinery www.acm.org, 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 strengthens the
computing profession's collective voice through strong leadership,
promotion of the highest standards, and recognition of technical
excellence. ACM supports the professional growth of its members by
providing opportunities for life-long learning, career development,
and professional networking.

SIGGRAPH 2008
Brian Ban
+1.773.454.7423 cell
+1.773.915.5050 fax
media@siggraph.org

Copyright Business Wire 2008