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Report on the Fifth International Conference in Central Europe on Computer Graphics and Visualization, 1997
From February 10 - 14, 1997 I attended the Fifth International Conference in Central Europe on Computer Graphics and Visualization (WSCG), held in cooperation with the IFIP working group 5.10 on Computer Graphics and Virtual Worlds. The University of West Bohemia, Plzen, capital of West Bohemia and home to the infamous Czech beer, Pilsen Urquell, hosted the conference. International participants arrived over a two-day period, filling both Hotel's Slovan and Central. Many were old hands at the WSCG, but this year Plzen had attracted far more participants than ever. Conference organizer, Professor Vaclav Skala, had disseminated information about it via the Internet, which took his original postings further than he had anticipated. Of the 100 or so participants to the conference, I discovered I was the only, and perhaps the first artist to not only attend, but present a paper at the WSCG. By the time I arrived and had met some of the other participants I soon realized that I was surrounded by some of the most talented scientists working in the field of computer visualization. Of the 100 or so participants to the conference, I discovered I was the only, and perhaps the first artist to not only attend, but present a paper at the WSCG. By the time I arrived and had met some of the other participants I soon realized that I was surrounded by some of the most talented scientists working in the field of computer visualization. Topics covered at the WSCG included research in: fundamental algorithms; rendering and visualization; virtual reality; animation and multimedia; medical imaging; geometric modeling and fractals; graphical interaction; object-oriented graphics; standards; computer vision; parallel and distributed graphics; computational geometry; computer aided geometric design; CAD/CAM; DTP and GIS systems; educational aspects of related fields; and usage of graphics within mathematical software in education. Although many of the presentations covered topics that were far too esoteric for me, I was able to learn a great deal about the machinations of visualization technologies, in particular their application within the arts. Day one opened with a paper on a Realistic Rendering Algorithm for an Intuitive Interpretation of 3D Scalar Fields. It ended with a paper from Dr Roni Yagel, Department of Computer and Information Science, Ohio State University, titled, Towards Virtual Surgery: Goals and Achievements. This presentation provided an informative insight to developments in remote surgery and haptic feedback - a system that will "deliver appropriate forces and torque's to a surgical tool, in order to simulate the physical sensations associated with performing an operation". Popular amongst leading otolaryngologists, Dr Yagel and his colleagues are particularly interested in the development of such tools for Endoscopic Sinus Surgery. During the course of his presentation, I asked whether remote surgery would be compulsory or elective. Dr Yagel made it clear that in most instances, it would be elective, but it would depend on geographical circumstances, the condition of the patient and whether reliable bandwidth is available. He suggested that we are at least 2 decades or more away from this kind of scenario, although remote actuation of the body is not uncommon amongst a handful of artists. Haptic feedback tools are also being created at MIT. Safety devices, a VRML Plug-in and Haptic Rendering for virtual environments are part of a new suite of projects being developed in collaboration with the US based company, Triptych Design. On the following day, Assistant Professor, Bedrich Benes, Department of Computer Science, Czech Technical University, opened the late morning session with an engaging description of his research, Fast Estimation of Growth Direction in Virtual Plants Simulation. Benes described development in imaging software that could be used to grow 3 dimensional organic objects such as plants or trees, and render them according to the conditions of their environment. In short, "a new method for evaluation of amount of light for the artificial plants." It was envisaged that such software could be applied to urban planning and design - finding the most suitable location for plant life to thrive. I wondered whether this could be applied to humans as well. Before we broke for lunch, it was my shift at the lectern. Billed as a "special presentation", I presented my paper, Towards Collaborative Development of Interactive Sound and Image, along with generative (music that mutates and is never heard the same twice) soundscapes, a web browser based presentation and animation. Although impossible to find a single computer on campus with a Wave Table sound card (required for the demonstration of generative music software) I managed to pull off a convincing and entertaining lecture, finishing off with a sequence from Troy Innocent's Psy Vision. During the course of the presentation, I identified specific projects where the development of multimedia imaging is occurring in concert with interactive music technologies - a brief insight into the contribution being made to multimedia research by these artistic endeavors. My talks tend to be lively, but no more lively than the outburst from a gentleman who, almost immediately after I had finished, proceeded to accuse me of "killing [his] imagination", that all the effort gone into the development of imaging software added up to zilch if what I showed was all artists could muster. This evolved into the liveliest debate of the entire week, finishing up with unanimous support for further collaboration between artists and computer scientists. It is within the tradition of research where science and art often co-exist. Artists such as Stelarc work with medical practitioners, robotics engineers and more recently, specialists in distributed networking, multimedia and sound artists. He has created a series of installation and performance pieces that are interactive, that engage the use of both state-of-the-art muscle and sensory stimulation devices and remote user interaction. The collaboration, in the case of Stelarc, is an ongoing research environment between a number of specialist science and arts practitioners. It was clear that both artist and computer scientist often work in isolation from each other, infrequently finding opportunities to work on software or image development. My heckler, bless him, wasn't so much frustrated by the work that I presented, but by what he perceived as an inadequate realization of his vision. He knew what his own research was capable of producing, but had no vehicle through which his knowledge could be channeled through to users of his work. The bridge between his world and ours is a tenuous one, one that is rarely crossed unless a commercial environment is there to encourage it (i.e. Hollywood). For example, the WSCG broke an unspoken convention by allowing me to present a paper, the first draft of which was rejected by the review committee for not being technical enough. The final version was accepted but was published as a poster exhibit in the conference proceedings. The entire week in Plzen saw many of us trudging to and from the conference venue through snow and icy winds. The wind was so cold at times I thought it would stick to my face, like a sheet of ice. No transport arrangements had been made for any of the delegates. Unless you took one of the afternoon tours to the brewery, many participants, including myself found ourselves lost between the University campus and the city of Plzen. A trip to the brewery assured one of a warm and direct route back to the city, but seats were limited.
Overall, I spent two months in Europe, mostly in the Czech Republic and Austria.
WSCG '97, The Fifth International Conference in Central Europe on Computer Graphics and Visualization, University of West Bohemia, Department of Computer Science, Plzen, Czech Republic,
Fifth International Conference in Central Europe on Computer Graphics and Visualization
Haptic Interface for Virtual Exploration of Computational Data
Triptych Design: Force Feedback Projects
An Efficient Estimation of Light in Simulation of Plant Development
Multimedia Imaging and Sound
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