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Call for Participation: EGSR 2019

Jun 18, 2019 |

EGSR 2019 Call for Participation

The program of the Eurographics Symposium on Rendering (EGSR) 2019 is now online: 

This year’s program gathers research papers in 

  • Materials & Reflectance
  • High-Performance Rendering
  • Spectral Effects
  • Light Transport
  • Sampling
  • Interactive & Real Time Rendering 
  • Deep Learning

as well as an industry session. 
Three keynotes will structure the event, given by:

  • Jaakko Lehtinen from Aalto University & NVIDIA  
  • Natalya Tatarchuk from Unity  
  • Ali Eslami from Google DeepMind  

Come join the rendering research community in Strasbourg, France, July 10th-12th, 2019

In Your Face: Academy Award Celebrates the Innovative Tech Behind Digital Faces

In Your Face: Academy Award Celebrates the Innovative Tech Behind Digital Faces

Jun 18, 2019 |

Photo by: Cyrill Beeler

If you were one of the millions of moviegoers who contributed to the worldwide success of Avengers: Infinity War—the highest-grossing film of 2018—then you also got to witness the Medusa Performance Capture System in action. The team of computer scientists responsible for bringing to life characters like Thanos and the Hulk on the big screen was honored this year with a Sci-Tech Academy Award for the conception, design and engineering of Medusa.

Marvel Studios’ AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR..Thanos (Josh Brolin)..Photo: Film Frame..©Marvel Studios 2018

Medusa, a comprehensive hardware and software system which has been developed, tweaked and expanded upon over the last 10 years, enables the precise digital replication of human faces, including detailed expressions and super fine physical details at high resolution. The Academy presented Sci-Tech Award certificates to the Medusa team, Thabo Beeler, Derek Bradley, Bernd Bickel and Markus Gross, at its Feb. 9, 2019, ceremony held at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel.

Credited for the initial concept, Gross, who is a professor of computer science at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zürich (ETH), vice president for research at The Walt Disney Studios and director of DisneyResearch|Studios, worked with Bickel, then a doctoral student in his lab at ETH, to overcome this grand challenge in computer graphics: to create digital human faces that are indistinguishable from reality. Bickel is currently an assistant professor of computer science at the Institute of Science and Technology Austria. In 2017, he received the ACM SIGGRAPH New Researcher Award.

“Medusa is the culmination of many years of research on digital human faces and digital facial animation that we’ve been working on as part of the ongoing work in my lab and in collaboration with Disney Research,” says Gross, a longtime member of ACM SIGGRAPH and a 2012 ACM Fellow. “We got connected much more deeply with the arts and technology of special effects through our partnership with the Walt Disney Company. It gave us the insights to steer the research in such a way that we could make the best progress for advancement of facial technologies for film.”

Marvel Studios’ AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR..Thanos (Josh Brolin)..Photo: Film Frame..©Marvel Studios 2018

Gross notes that at the time, researchers did not have a lot of success in bridging the so-called “uncanny valley”, which is a known phenomenon in the field that refers to the digital duplication of human faces that are not quite realistic, almost disturbingly fake in appearance.

With this Oscar honor, Medusa has staked its claim as an industry standard in special effects, achieving digital characters with highly realistic human features. This year, three out of the Oscar nominated films for best visual special effects used the Medusa system, and in recent years it has been used in numerous productions, including  Star Wars: The Last Jedi and Spider-Man: Homecoming.

“The methods are really tuned into highly accurate measurement of human faces. As such our technology is not generic per se,” explains Gross. “One of the insights we’ve had in exploring facial performance is that human facial expressions usually go from a neutral state into some deformed state and then go back to that neutral-rest state. There are cycles, and examining these cycles has allowed us to build methods to track the facial surface reliably over time. We further use the randomness of the pigmentation of facial skin as invisible landmarks to reference points across consecutive frames.”

Gross is also proud of the research and development that went into the analysis of facial microgeometry, such as facial pores, which eventually allows Medusa to capture the complex geometry of human faces including minute facial details. This is essential for re-creating realistic facial expressions.

Shortly following their early partnership with Disney, Gross and Bickel were joined by Beeler and Bradley, now both research scientists at Disney Research. Developing the 3D face scanner component of the capture system became Beeler’s master thesis at the time. When Bradley, then a post-doc, joined the team, he began working on the motion capture piece and helped develop the stable face-tracking technology. Together with Beeler, the duo invented the method for separating the rigid and non-rigid components of the face performance, and they have also spent a lot of time productizing the research into an artist-friendly system.

“Bringing this research into production entailed a lot of development work, but we got a lot of input regarding potential research topics in return, one of which ended up in a publication on rigid stabilization, published at SIGGRAPH,” says Beeler. “In this work we explore the relationship between the skin surface and the underlying bone structure to separate the rigid head motion from the non-rigid face deformation, an essential step when building facial rigs and an integral part of the Medusa system.”

In fact, all of the major milestones in the development of Medusa were showcased in SIGGRAPH papers. One of the team’s images had also been used on the front page of proceedings at SIGGRAPH 2011, for which Beeler was very proud.

“We’re constantly improving Medusa through new research, and simultaneously developing the next generation performance capture technology,” says Bradley. “We can’t say much, but the future is very exciting in this field.”

This Sci-Tech award marks the second Academy Award for Gross, who won a Technical Achievement Award in 2013 for the technology that more efficiently simulates smoke and explosions in films. For Gross, this current award win is very special as it both rewards years of academic research and marks the first recognition of this kind for Disney Research.

“We worked on Medusa for literally 10 years, and I’ve been working on digital human faces since I was a post-doc, which has been some 30 years,” says Gross. “It was a beautiful experience to get recognition from the Academy for all of this work.”

Still, there is more to come. “I often compare my work to a rabbit hole,” says Beeler. “We are making great progress but the deeper we go and the more we solve, the more we realize that we are far from done. My ultimate goal is to provide technology to digitize humans holistically, with minimal effort and at maximal quality—and every day we are getting a step closer to this vision.”

By Melanie A. Farmer

Call for Participation SETECEC 2020

Jun 18, 2019 | 

8th International Conference on Software and Emerging Technologies for Education, Culture, Entertainment, and Commerce ( SETECEC 2020 )

Venice, Italy  March, 10 - 13, 2020
 
SETECEC 2020 will be composed of research presentations, keynote lectures, invited presentations, research-in- progress, workshops, doctoral consortium, demo session and poster presentations.

The works must be submitted following the instructions found on the submission of papers section. All accepted works will be published in the respective conference proceedings (in printed book form, CD/DVD and magazine) by international and prestigious publishing houses in America and Europe.
 
http//www.alaipo.com/setecec-2019/conference_SETECEC_2019_publications.html
 
Post-conference publishing Handbook of Research. IGI Global --www.igi-global.com Hershey, Pennsylvania - USA (Publications have been indexed in a number of prestigious indices such as Thomson Reuters, DBLP, ACM Digital Library, ERIC, and the Australian Education Index).
 
An academic CD proceedings version --not commercial (distribution in the room), with ISBN 978.88.96.471.81.4  DOI 10.978.8896471/814 (Blue Herons Editions --www.blueherons.net).
 
International Scientific Journal in Europe with IEEE format guidelines.
 
The contributions are will be submitted for indexation by EI Compendex, Thomson Reuters, Scopus, IET Inspec Amerindex, etc.
 
All contributions –papers, workshops, demos and doctoral consortium, research-in-progress, etc., should be of high quality, originality, clarity, significance and impact. In the current international conference it is demonstrated how with a correct integration among professionals of formal and factual sciences interesting research lines in the following subjects Augmented Reality and Mixed Reality, Computer Arts and Creativity, Computer Graphics, Communicability, Cross-Cultural Design and Content for the Aged Population, Cultural Modeling, Design, Education, Emerging Interactive Technologies, Environment and UX, HCI, Interaction, Design, Mobile Computing, New Media, Quality Evaluation, Network Security, Social and Human Factors, Software Engineering, and other computational areas are solicited on, but not limited to (alphabetical order)
 
http//www.alaipo.com/setecec-2019/conference_SETECEC_2019_topics.html
 
All submitted works will be reviewed by a double-blind (at least three reviewers), non-blind, and participative peer review. These three kinds of review will support the selection process of those that will be accepted for their presentation at the international conference. Authors of accepted works who registered in the conference can have access to the evaluations and possible feedback provided by the reviewers who recommended the acceptance of their works, so they can accordingly improve the final version of their contributions.
 
Very Important Information
 
1) Deadlines
 
Works Submissions Open. Consequently, as they are received, they will be evaluated. It is a way to speed up the process to make up the final program of the international conference, visa requirements, should plan travel well in advance, etc. In other words, it is not necessary to wait until the deadline to send them for the evaluation process. 
 
Deadline Works Submissions January, 12th, 2020 – local time in Hawaiian Islands 
 
Authors Notification Two weeks after the submission/s 
 
Camera-ready, full papers March, 5th 
 
 
2) THE AUTHORS CAN PRESENT MORE THAN ONE WORK WITH ONLY ONE REGISTRATION (maximum 3 contributions).
 
More information: http//www.alaipo.com/setecec-2020/conference_SETECEC_2020_paper.html
 
3) Keynote speakers and relaters with human and professional - super 'High Quality'
 
4) Certificate of participation and conference proceedings.
 
5) Participation for the selection of the best paper and best research awards (certificates and a vouchers).
 
6) Discounts in official hotels.
 
7) Free excursions in Venice, Italy ... and not folk dacing, hypocritical parties, etc. (it is a serious conference).
 
The international conferences are organized by ALAIPO  Latin Association of Human-Computer Interaction (Asociacion Latina de Interaccion Persona Ordenador)  www.alaipo.net, and AInCI  International Association of Interactive Communication (Asociacion Internacional de la Comunicacion Interactiva)  www.ainci.net

Call for Participation CCGIDIS 2020

Jun 18, 2019 |

10th International Symposium on Communicability, Computer Graphics and Innovative Design for Interactive Systems ( CCGIDIS 2020 )

Madrid, Spain  May 5 – 8, 2020

http//www.ainci.com/CCGIDIS-2020/symposium_CCGIDIS_2020.html

CCGIDIS 2020 will be composed of research presentations, keynote lectures, invited presentations, workshops, doctoral consortium, demo session, research-works-in-progress and poster presentations.

Proposals must be submitted following the instructions found on the submission of papers section. All accepted works will be published in the respective symposium proceedings (in printed book form, CD/DVD and magazine) by international and prestigious publishing houses in America and Europe

1) Post-conference publishing book. IGI Global Hershey, Pennsylvania – USA

2) An academic CD proceedings version –not commercial (distribution in the room), with ISBN 978.88.96.471.95.1  DOI 10.978.8896471/951

3) International Scientific Journal in Europe with IEEE format guidelines

4) The works are will be submitted for indexation by EI COMPENDEX, INSPEC, THOMSON REUTERS, AMERINDEX and DBLP.UNI-TRIE.DE

The authors can present more than one works into symposium with only one registration (maximum 3 works).

All contributions should be of high quality, originality, clarity, significance, impact and not published elsewhere or submitted for publication during the review period. In the current international symposium it is demonstrated how with a correct integration among professionals of formal and factual sciences interesting research lines in the following subjects 2D, 3D Modeling and Reconstruction, Advances in Software and Hardware for 3D Printer, Audio-Visual, Archeology, CAD, Communicability, Computer Animation, Computer Graphics, Computer Vision, Creativity and Original Design, Education, Face and Gesture Recognition, Human-Computer Interaction, Industrial Design, Imaging, Intelligent User Interface, Interactive Systems Engineering, Internet of Things, Low-level Vision and Image Processing, Medical Image Processing, Mixed Reality, Modelling, Quality Design, Rendering, Scientific Visualization, Smart City, Ubiquitous Computing, UX, Video Games, Virtual Agents, Vision for Robotics and other computational areas are solicited on, but not limited to

http//www.ainci.com/CCGIDIS-2020/symposium_topics_2020.html

All submitted proposals will be reviewed by a double-blind (at least three reviewers), non-blind, and participative peer review. These three kinds of review will support the selection process of those that will be accepted for their presentation at the international symposium. Authors of accepted works who registered in the symposium can have access to the evaluations and possible feedback provided by the reviewers who recommended the acceptance of their works, so they can accordingly improve the final version of their contributions.

Very Important Information

1) Deadlines

Proposals Submissions Open. Consequently, as they are received, they will be evaluated. It is a way to speed up the process to make up the final program of the International Symposium. It is a way to speed up the process to make up the final program of the international Symposium, visa requirements, should plan travel well in advance, etc. In other words, it is not necessary to wait until the deadline to send them for the evaluation process.

Papers Submissions January,31th –-local time in Hawaiian Islands Authors Notification Two/three weeks after the submission/s Camera-ready, full papers April, 25th 2020

2) The authors can present more than one work with only one registration (maximum 3 contributions). More information

http//www.ainci.com/CCGIDIS-2020/symposium_registration_2020.html

3) Keynote speakers and relators with human and professional – super ‘High Quality’

4) Certificate of participation and symposium proceedings.

5) Participation for the selection of the best paper, short-paper, demo, research-in-progress, poster, etc. awards (certificates and a vouchers).

6) Discounts in official hotels.

7) Free excursions in Madrid, Spain.

The international symposium is organized by ALAIPO Latin Association of Human-Computer Interaction (Asociacion Latina de Interaccion Persona Ordenador)  www.alaipo.net, and AInCI  International Association of Interactive Communication (Asociacion Internacional de la Comunicacion Interactiva)  www.ainci.net

Call for Participation ADNTIIC 2019

Jun 18, 2019 |

10th International Conference on Advances in New Technologies, Interactive Interfaces and Communicability ( ADNTIIC 2019 )  Cordoba, Argentina  November 13 – 16, 2019

http//www.ainci.com/ADNTIIC-2019/conference_

ADNTIIC 2019 will be composed of research presentations, courses, keynote lectures, invited presentations, workshops, doctoral consortium, demo session, posters presentations, and research works-in-progress.

Papers/demos/posters, etc. must be submitted following the instructions found on the submission of papers section. All accepted works will be published in the respective conference proceedings (in printed book form, CD/DVD and magazine) by international and prestigious publishing houses in America and Europe

1) Post-conference publishing book. IGI Global (USA)

2) An academic CD proceedings version –not commercial (free distribution in the room), with ISBN and DOI.

3) International Magazine in Europe with IEEE format guidelines

4) The contributions are will be submitted for indexation by EI Compendex, INSPEC, Thomson Reuters, Amerindex and DBLP.UNI-TRIE.DE

 Very Important  The authors can present more than one work with only one registration (maximum 3 works)

All contributions should be of high quality, originality, clarity, significance, impact and not published elsewhere or submitted for publication during the review period.

More information: http//www.ainci.com/ADNTIIC-2019/conference_ADNTIIC_2019_registration.html

All contributions should be of high quality, originality, clarity, significance, impact and not published elsewhere or submitted for publication during the review period. In the current conferences it is demonstrated how with a correct integration among professionals of formal and factual sciences interesting research lines in the following subjects and other main areas are solicited on, but not limited to (alphabetical order)

http//www.ainci.com/ADNTIIC-2019/conference_ADNTIIC_2019_topics.html

All submitted papers will be reviewed by a double-blind (at least three reviewers), non-blind, and participative peer review. These three kinds of review will support the selection process of those that will be accepted for their presentation at the international conferences. Authors of accepted works who registered in the conferences can have access to the evaluations and possible feedback provided by the reviewers who recommended the acceptance of their contributions, so they can accordingly improve the final version of their papers/demos/research-in-progress/poster, etc.

 Important Dates and Information

Works Submissions Open. Consequently, as they are received, they will be evaluated. It is a way to speed up the process to make up the final program of the conference. In other words, it is not necessary to wait until the deadline to send them for the evaluation process.

Deadline Works Submissions September, 30th – local time in Hawaiian Islands
Authors Notification Two weeks after the submission/s
Camera-ready, full papers October, 20th

Conference November, 13 – 16.

See special links with 8th Argentine Conference on Human-Computer Interaction, Telecommunications, Informatics and Scientific Information (HCITISI 2019)  Córdoba, Argentina  November 19 – 22, 2019

http//www.ainci.com/ADNTIIC-2019/conference_ADNTIIC_2019_registration.html

or

http//www.alaipo.com/HCITISI-2019/IPCTIIC-HCITISI.html

Keynote Speakers and Relators (5 = five) with Human and Professional – super ‘High Quality’ (confirmed)

Courses Free for All Participants Higher Education, Computer Animation, ICTs, Tourism, Interactive Design, Communicability, IoT, etc.

Certificate of participation and conference proceedings.

Participation for the selection of the best paper and research awards.

Discounts in official hotels (for example, at Casa Serrana –www.casaserrana.com.ar, the room rate (59 u$s) includes breakfast, lunch and dinner).

Cultural Events (i.e., local excursions in Cordoba, Argentina –UNESCO cultural and natural heritage province) free for all authors and participants.

The international conferences are organized by ALAIPO  Latin Association of Human-Computer Interaction (Asociacion Latina de Interaccion Persona Ordenador)  www.alaipo.net, and AInCI  International Association of Interactive Communication (Asociacion Internacional de la Comunicacion Interactiva)  www.ainci.net