Announcing SIGGRAPH 99 Emerging Technologies: The Millennium Motel An Interactive Journey Into the Future   For immediate release 21 June 1999   For further information: Ann Kilhoffer-Reichert +1.619.581.3330 media-s99@siggraph.org   (June 21, 1999 - Chicago, IL) At SIGGRAPH 99, the 26th International Conference on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques, attendees will take an interactive journey into the future at Emerging Technologies: The Millennium Motel. On the journey, they will be able to draw 3D figures with their hands, interact and communicate with artificial life forms, play in a human-scale interactive maze, and more.   "Attendees who check-in to the SIGGRAPH 99 Emerging Technologies: The Millennium Motel will be able to checkout interactive works from the world's leading research labs, colleges, and universities. This unique interactive experience will give them a glimpse into our collective future," said Kathryn Saunders, Emerging Technologies Chair, from the Royal Ontario Museum, Digital Media Services.   Emerging Technologies: The Millennium Motel interactive projects include:   Life Spacies Christa Sommerer, ATR Media Integration and Communications Research Lab Interact and communicate with artificial life forms. Life Spacies is an interactive installation where a visitor's text message is transformed into a digital creature with a life of its own.   Shared Space: Collaborative Augmented Reality Mark Billinghurst, University of Washington Imagine if ornaments sitting on your desk could interact and pictures of your friends could talk. Shared Space: Collaborative Augmented Reality takes you into a world of mixed reality in which virtual characters come alive, eliciting various behaviors and sounds when they are placed in close proximity to each other.   Surface Drawing Steven Schkolne, California Institute of Technology Move your hands through space and create polygonal surfaces. Surface Drawing uses an intuitive gesture interface to create 3D models in a semi-immersive environment.   (void*): A Cast of Characters Bruce Blumberg, Massachusetts Institute of Technology In this interactive installation, participants use unique interface devices to interact with intelligent, synthetic characters in a virtual environment.   SIGGRAPH 99 is being held 8 - 13 August 1999 at the Los Angeles Convention Center, Los Angeles, California. It includes a comprehensive exhibition of products and services for the computer graphics and interactive marketplace from 10 - 12 August 1999.   If you would like more information on Emerging Technologies: The Millennium Motel projects discussed in this release or would like to review the entire SIGGRAPH 99 program, please contact Ann Kilhoffer-Reichert, SIGGRAPH 99 Marketing and Media, +1.619.581.3330 or email: ann_reichert@siggraph.org.   For news from SIGGRAPH 99 exhibitors, please see the PR Newswire.   # # #