SIGGRAPH 2006 – Day 4 – Live from SIGGRAPH

SIGGRAPH 2006 – Day 4

Hey all – day 4 here. I was asked how I do this and I figured I would start by saying it does take time. Most years when I get back to the hotel I download the pictures from the camera to the computer, delete the bad ones, sort the good ones, rotate, crop, color correct, resize, upload, and hand code the html. This takes a while. This year I decided to use the University’s blog system to make my life faster UNTIL I got home at which point I would put them back onto the web site.

This is not quite the case as I forgot my compact flash reader. First I am not doing ANY post on the images. That includes rotation. Also I have my camera set to ‘gasp’ 640×480 and a medium JPG level. So I upload the CD card directly from my handheld via FTP to my site. This is pretty fast as the only editing I do is to delete via the camera which ones I am not using.

I am writing this document in Word because I am trying to minimize spelling errors. Also I have this trick I like to use to make my life go faster. I look at the thumbnails and I write my text and then [Picture#]. Once I have all of that in the correct order I do a global search and replace on the [ and then the ] and replace it with the proper HTML code for the in-lined image. I’ve used word to hand code html before and sometimes I have used the mail-merge function and sometimes search and replace. This way I can do it on most machines.

Process aside – Monday was fun.

The first person I saw was Dave Sulik a grad student at CIA (The Cleveland Institute of Art) he has some ‘interesting’ ideas about VR that we talk about from time to time.

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This would have been a GREAT picture but I was too slow – the sign read ‘Interactive Holographic Windows” and it was this just carrying the sign – alas I was too slow.

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Jenny and I had to man the Chapters Booth for 2 hours each so instead we spent the time together from 8am till noon saying hi to people and giving out party information and telling people how to join or form a chapter. Jenny really got into it!

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Here we have Brian from Orlando – he teaches at Full Sail and is a Mel Junky (his words not mine). Mel is a scripting language for those who don’t know.

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I met Rob Rothfarb from the Exploratorium and we ended up talking for some time – he is really cool and in my work in virtual environments over the years I have seen and used some of his work (without knowing it). I hope to talk to him more – he has a poster and is doing work in Second Life. One of the highlights of the show! (not his poster – I haven’t seen it yet – I meant the conversation).

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So this guy asks for my picture so I took his!

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Kristin and Amanda from CIA – they are having a booth this year with a really cool piece of swag. They rock individually and also as a pair.

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Emily Fernandez her card simply reads: Expert. She was there at lunch with her collaborators from “Perceivable Bodies” they used to be called Palindrome but wanted me to put down they are now: XPalindrome. It was like a walking joke. A computer scientist, a musician, and a dancer walk into a bar… [insert funny here]

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So I am going down an escalator and I see Barclay Shaw going up the other side and I ask, “So did you kid decide to go to Case?” he tells us to wait for him and he told us that he thought it was funny that I could pick him out of the crowd and how I remembered meeting him at the Wacom booth last year and talked about his kid coming to Case. He is coming to Case BTW and perhaps we might hire him at the center.

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We met up with Knut the Game Prof from CIA who looks like he needs textured mapping he is so white in one of these photos. We took a bunch and its just amazing.

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So I was quickly running out of business cards so I printed up website information slips to give out and the guy from the Kinkos Fed Ex place let us use his cutter and scissors. It was very funny cause its like .30 per copy there and someone said is there another copier and he said “We are the only copier in the building” and also added that “it was more expensive next door.” He knows his trapped audience well!

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Goldy! In her red vest for the last time (she is no longer a student).

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Helpful red vest guy wants to be blue vest guy. The blue vest guys tell the red vest guys what to do – but since he will no longer be a student either he can only aspire to the blue vest (or the be the blue vest guys’ boss).

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I hate when people use the term holographic. I know it will change eventually but holography implies a certain technology and this was another. The “Interactive Holographic Window” is and Autostereoscopic Display that can combine 8 live camera feeds for live viewing on a display. This was in front of the Guerilla Studio. It was interesting – I wouldn’t say great. They guy doing the demo was friendly but he didn’t have all the technical information I would expect from a guy at a SIGGRAPH booth. He did hook me up with contact info and they already contacted me – so kudos for that.

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We saw the Painting Machine yesterday but got to try it. These guys are slick – nice interface – nice presentation – fast workflow (no lines) and a very nice product. I was very pleased to watch it really paint with brush strokes the painting.

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The Guerilla Studio is as always a zoo!

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Turntable turned into zoetrope – clever idea!

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Stop motion with Skittles – another clever idea. It even inspired me to look into stop motion again.

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Cyberfasion – the show was at the Chapters party later that night.

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Rapid prototypers – still want one – still have no use for one.

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New laser scanner – looks interesting. Still expensive would really need to play with one before I could see how useful it would be in my work at the Museum.

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Its Sean Novack!

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Ken from Hash!!! Now it’s a party but alas there is no party. But they still rock and I’m going to hang with them and everyone should buy Animation Master!

www.hash.com

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The guys from MIT are very funny. But very nice I would love to see their lab with teddy bear bits all over.

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The sound ballet guys again.

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So we went to the Autodesk party and I went to the Media reception where I got this lovely wine kit and met:

The Boys of Media and Entertainment

I also interviewed them for an article I am writing.

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The DJ getting ready for Autodesk party

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The Autodesk Demo. So we are waiting in this little corridor for like 1000 people to get done with the demo and I kept tell Jenny they are never going to fit in this room and there is like no places for food and how crappy it all looks when someone tells me that the food is outside!

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Great outdoor party! It was huge – we were waiting indoors and the party had already started! DOH!

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Randy and Maya from Detroit. We had booth duty with Randy and Maya says her name was Maya before the software so I can’t make any jokes.

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The German guys including the very nice, very talented and very influential – Hermann Engesser from Springer (please can I write a book now): And for Birgit back home – Marco says Hi!

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The Swedish guys.

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MMM Bacon wrapped scallops. Someone put a tray of them down in front of me! Or as Jenny likes to say I put myself down in front of a tray of them.

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The line to Chapters Party

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Sebastian and his fiance dressed to the 9s.

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Marco and Oliver – they really do know all the party spots! He gave me pointers for the rest of the week.

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Fran looking like he really was having a good time!

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Big dance party!

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The Fashion Show – I will not be able to verbally do it justice. Each of these has a technology or a geeky factor (such as the mobius dress). Just enjoy the photos I didn’t take notes!

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Aaron came to the party and was close to use on the balcony for a while before we saw him.

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The lower dance club. Very big very fun club (though the $7 beer and $4 coke was a bit much). They kept people moving in one direction to keep the flow going.