SIGGRAPH New Technology: From Enhancing Facial Attractiveness to Virtual Maps
For Immediate Release
30 April 2008

For further information:
Brian Ban
+1.773.454.7423 cell
+1.773.915.5050 fax

(Chicago, IL) - 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 who do not attend the Papers Committee meeting)."

Select highlights from the SIGGRAPH 2008 Papers Program:

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, Berkeley

Robert Sumner
Mark Pauly
ETH Zürich

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
Trinity College Dublin

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

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.

Available soon: complete details on the SIGGRAPH 2008 Technical Papers Program.

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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

About ACM
ACM, the Association for Computing Machinery, 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.