SIGGRAPH 2011

So this August in Vancouver, Canada was SIGGRAPH 2011. SIGGRAPH (Special Interest Group on GRAPHics and Interactive Techniques) is the annual conference on computer graphics (CG) convened by the ACM SIGGRAPH organization and this was the first time it was held in Canada. The conference was attended by tens of thousands of computer professionals and had a strong presence of Canadian companies, developers, and schools (go figure).

As usual, it had great sessions and a busy exhibit floor. I am thrilled to report that the Web3D Consortium BoFs were standing room only with people packed deep and spilling out the doors as there was a huge amount of interest in X3Dom and the current state of X3D for augmented and mixed reality. The WebGL sessions also presented to a full house. Truly a great event for web3D in general.

As a fan of digital fabrication, I was happy to see companies like Shapeways, and 3D printer machine sellers there showing off their services and products. There were also a lot more international augmented reality vendors there than I have seen before even though none were companies from the AR industry, e.g. Metaio, Layar, etc.

I will say that the show was smaller than it usually is both in exhibit floor size and attendance, which I attribute to it being outside the U.S, and if one has been to SIGGRAPH in the past few years, there really wasn't too much 'new' to see. A great time nonetheless and I look forward to next year's event.