SensiMARInsights of Eurographics 2019 in Genoa
Between 6 and 10 of May, the Porto Antico of Genoa received the 40th Annual Conference of the European Association for Computer Graphics. Very well known among computer graphics community as a great opportunity to share, learn and explore the latest works and ideas, Eurographics 2019 edition was also the right event to find some interesting topics to bridge with SensiMAR prototype.
SensiMAR prototype intends to study a multisensory approach among cultural heritage and it will embrace several topics. My participation in Eurographics 2019, as a student volunteer, has brought several benefits for my research and, of course, for my personal experience.
The overall Conference
It matters to refer that this was my first time attending to an Eurographics conference. As any other big conferences, there are several sessions happening at the same time. However, the various topics presented among the several sessions, depending on subject dicussed, were perfectly organizaed in a way that they did not overlap each other. Thus, I never felt the will to be in two different rooms at the same time, which was great. As a student volunteer, I had some duties that didn’t allow me to attend to every single session I wanted, but I am very satisfied in the overall experience and with the acquired knowledge.
The program included several types of sessions, such as Full Papers Presentations, Short Papers Presentations, Tutorials, Think Tank Presentations, Keynote Speakers - including an industrial keynote speaker, among many others.
The following picture was taken during one of the keynote speakers, namely, Mr. David Morin, the Head of the Los Angeles Lab for Epic Games and Executive Director of the Academy Software Foundation. A number of great use case of Unreal Engine in Film, Television and Location Based Entertainment was presented, as well as an overview of the Academy Software Foundation, a new non-profit organization that was created less than a year ago to promote the development of open source software in the motion picture industry.
Figure 1 - Industrial Keynote speaker, Mr. David Morin, during his presentation “Unreal Engine in Film and Television + Academy Software Foundation”
My collaboration in this conference was extremely fulfilling and, among acquirements, it was useful to make some bridging points regarding to the SensiMAR study.
Bridging some topics to SensiMAR
Taking the risk of having missed some other interesting topics that could have been talked among other sessions - as a student volunteer I had some duties which included some work out of the sessions -, this topic presents some insights that can be useful for the conception of SensiMAR prototype.
The several sessions took place in different rooms, according to the schedule, such as the room Maestrale, the bigger room.
A short timelapse created in Room Maestrale, in Porto Antico Conference Center at Magazzini del Cotone. This view only covers the front seats
Think Tank session
One of the Think Tank session, entitled “The future of avatar-human interaction in VR, AR and mixed reality applications” triggered some possible connections for the SensiMAR. Among this session, conducted by Nuria Pelechano, several virtual humanoids studies were presented and interesting results were here presented by herself, Julien Pettré, Michael Neff, and by Yiorgos Chrysanthou.
Not only focusing on avatar’s virtual representation, their behaviour and responses to the environment was the main discussed topic. Having immersion, presence, and social presence in VR and AR as target, different issues and limitations were also highlighted, opening and calling the attention for further research.
The presentation made by Yiorgos Chrysanthou, who invited us to think about the modelling process, behaviour and animation, and rendering processes among AR solutions, was particularly interesting in relation to the SensiMAR study. He also invited us to think about ethical issues regarding to the VR and AR usage. In particular, asking if we could isolate further users from real humans and what consequences this could have. This also can lead to a very commonly referred topic related to emotional attachment to virtual characters. Consequently, depending on the level of involvement that people could get into these avatars, if these “friendships” could lead to disclosure of personal information.
State of the Art of Near-Eye Display and Tracking Technologies
A State of the Art related to Near-Eye Display and Tracking Technologies for Virtual and Augmented Reality was presented by several researchers. Among this interesting presentation, Christian Richardt focused his presentation in contact-less tracking techniques. Among his literature review, he classified tracking technologies as 1. Mechanical (e.g. physical linkage as the first HMD for AR invented by Sutherland in 1968), 2. Electromagnetic (e.g. magnetic sensing), 3. Inertial (e.g. accelerometers, MEMs), 4. Acoustic (e.g. ultrasonic), 5. Optical (e.g. computer vision), and 6. Hybrid (combination of technologies).
Regarding to tracking modalities, Christian referred the head tracking, the eye tracking, the full-body tracking, the hand tracking, the face tracking, and the multimodal tracking - an emerging area which tracks simultaneously multiple modalities to obtain more reconstruction of the user.
The vergence conflict, caused because the plane of focus is fixed whereas eye vergence movements occur continuously, was pointed as one of the most significant ergonomic issue to viewer’s fatigue.
Industrial Track
In the industrial track, some companies presented their actual solutions applying VR and AR among several fields. Among these, cultural heritage was specially focused by Giorgio Genta, from EET solutions (website here ), which presented virtual, mixed and augmented reality applications for cultural heritage. Giorgio showed us their successful AR mobile solution applied in Museo dell’Ara Pacis (Rome), using Samsung Gear VR wearable. Among their visit, visitants can observe the painted versions of the actual exhibited panels (figure 2).
Figure 2 - Museo dell’Ara Pacis (Rome), where part of the panel is being coloured. This illustrates what users would see when using the AR app.
In a similar context, they also provide a solution using VR, with reconstructed scenarios related to the Roman times. The sound they provide is not 3D, neither spatial. According to the speaker, the referred museum sold out due to these new solutions.
Electronic Theatre
Electronic Theatre, a showcase animated feature and short films, scientific visualization, visual effects, making-of shorts of the latest blockbusters, real-time graphics, game excerpts, among others. Each year, the SIGGRAPH Computer Animation Festival Jury reviews films from the past 12 months and selects the best work, presented in the Electronic Theatre on 9th of May.
This event started with a briefly overview of SIGGRAPH and its strong support and connection to Eurographics. Some research was presented exhibiting resume amazing results regarding to simulation, animation, deformations, and others.
Almost 20 short films were presented, showing an incredible diversity of themes, techniques and styles. Some short films are presented bellow.
Twin Islands
One Small Step
Animation General
Hybrids
Despite the fact of this topic not being related to SensiMAR prototype, this was an event that included the final result of very good works regarding to storytelling and computer graphics.
Concluding Remarks
Attending to Eurographics 2019 was an enriching and rewarding experience. The information presented only covered topics that could be more strictly related to the SensiMAR study. Naturally, this conference provided much more useful information to computer graphics area. Storytelling, rendering, simulation, deformation, and many other subjects were covered among the several sessions.
The next Eurographics, together with EuroVis, will be held in Norrköping, Sweden, from 25th to 29th May, 2020.
