Going abroad to attend SIGGRAPH

Visitors from 75 different countries are here.

Anders Frick from Sweden

More than 15 percent of all visitors has went abroad to be able to visit SIGGRAPH. Simply, because they are foreigners from other countries. At the Emerging Technologies 12 of 24 presented projects are from other countries than the USA. SIGGRAPH 2001 is really an international event in many senses.

In northern Europe, Scandinavia, some hundred years ago there were the Vikings who ruined, sack and plundered on the sea. Nowadays it seems to be pirates coming from the north. We met some of them at SIGGRAPH. But instead of seeking for others to plunder them, they tend to sink each other vessels, virtually.

Yes, we have developed a kind of social game, where you must be near the harbor or near other ships to be able to battle with them, says Jennica Falk.

Jennica is a girl with a degree in informatics and she is now working with cross discipline things at PLAY Research in Göteborg, Sweden. PLAY have together with Nokia Research Center from Tampere, Finland, developed a way for the modern human being to exercise his barbarian Viking-style needs.

- Well, it is a game and you would probably not get physical hurt, anyway.

What PLAY and Nokia actually has been doing is that they took a small Hewlett Packard PDA, put in a 802.11b-network card and developed their own software, the game "Pirates". The player starts in the home harbor and gets a mission to be completed. Then he must physically go around in the area to find other players or islands where he can complete the given mission.

- That is the good thing with the game. To be able to sink someone's ship, you must physically meet him out on the course and that is exactly our idea - to make a computer game with a social touch, and which is supported by the real world.

"Pirates" is shown at the Emerging Technologies, and 12 of the 24 different projects there are actually from other countries than USA. And the people are in general happy to be here.

- This is my second time on SIGGRAPH, but the first as exhibitor. It is hard to be selected and we are really happy to be here, says Jennica Falk.

The Vikings came to SIGGRAPH 2001, disguised as pirates. And who knows - maybe they will show up next year too. Watch out!

For the rest of the international people who are visiting SIGGRAPH there is an international resources center that can be visited. They provide a large range of services to the international participants; everything from information about how to obtain a visa to prevent Americanism.