Face tomorrow.(editor's note)(Editorial)

SIGGRAPH 2007, held early this month in San Diego, marked the 34th year for this international conference and expo on computer graphics and interactive techniques. Much has changed since the early days of the show, but one thing that remains constant is SIGGRAPH's focus on the future. This year, that concept remained in the forefront, as the conferences, papers, sessions, Art Gallery, Computer Animation Festival, exhibits, and more featured content that adhered to the theme "Face Tomorrow."

As you might imagine, to summarize the entire event would require far more space than I have available on this page. Yet, there is one segment of the conference that I would like to highlight: Emerging Technologies. I have been to a number of SIGGRAPHs, and in my opinion, this year's Emerging Technologies program contained far more installations with potential for "real-world" applications than ever before. Indeed, the focus of this show segment is, and has always has been, on experimental technologies that offer a look at future capabilities of computer graphics. Yet in the past, Emerging Technologies has been a showcase of interesting, but not very practical, installations. Not so this year, as the program contained a record amount of curated content.

As show-goers stepped inside the e-Tech area, the first installation they saw was Buzz, which measured and visualized conference crowds for understanding the movement of groups at trade shows. This Ambient Intelligence project at the Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories is focused on creating sensing platforms and perceptual software that will relay information to the building systems of the future. During my visit, Buzz visually displayed an extremely active area within the Emerging Technologies space--the Microsoft Surface display.

The belle of e-Tech, Surface turns ...