Decoding Design Party Reminder!

Maggie is getting good notices (and lots of speaking engagements including the annual HOW conference) for her new book "Decoding Design" -- really both an artistically and intellectually engaging piece of work.  Join her and the folks from AIGA this Thursday at the One Up Club (formerly the Carom Club) at the NW corner of Central and 3rd Ave. in downtown Albuquerque.  More details below.

AIGA New Mexico and Maggie Macnab present (please join us!): Decoding Design Book Launch Party Design with the power of natural law. "Decoding Design: Understanding and Using Symbols in Visual Communication," written by longtime local designer Maggie Macnab, is a design theory book that explores the significance of symbols, numbers and shapes we encounter in everyday life. A handful of simple patterns shape our understanding and relationship with a complex world, and design that references this symbolic information creates an immediate and intuitive relationship with the viewer. This is increasingly crucial for designers and businesses to understand in a globally branded world.   By integrating interdisciplinary genres of philosophy, math and physics presented in lay terms, Maggie crosses and connects "specialized" boundaries to provide the designer with a powerful and eclectic approach to process. Books will be available at the party and Maggie will be signing copies. Decoding Design is also available on Amazon.com and at most retail booksellers. For more information on the book please visit: www.decodingdesign.com.
	Thursday, March 20, 2008 5:30-7pm   The One Up Club (formerly The Carom Club) 301 Central Ave NW, downtown Albuquerque Free AIGA event for members and special guests Please RSVP to events@santafe.aiga.org

GFX Cafe Seminar Friday March 14: Dome Interactivity

GFX Café Seminar Friday March 14, 2008
12noon, ARTS Lab Dome Theatre  ** Note change of venue **

Food will be served

TITLE:
Real-Time Rendering and Interactivity in 'Fulldome' Immersive Digital
Dome Theater: An Introduction, Demonstration and Discussion of
UNM Research Projects and Goals
by David Beining, UNM ARTS Lab


ABSTRACT:

Large-format, immersive digital dome theater--fulldome--is a young
powerful medium with a high rate of diffusion in planetariums and
other venues.  It's also a medium in which UNM is an internationally
recognized center for research, production and education.

Based in tiled projectors and PC clusters, fulldome theaters allow
for very high-resolution, immersive digital video presentation --
pre-rendered for linear cinematic experiences as well as real-time
interactive presentations based on 3D models, data tables, and adapted
game engines and shaders used in proprietary, open-architecture fulldome
software.

The medium's origins in planetariums has largely limited tools, data
and stories to astronomy, but fulldome has enormous potential for
visualizing other sciences for research and education, serving the arts
as new creative and performance space, and entertainment as immersive
gaming and experiential venue.

The author will demonstrate the medium's tools and current uses as well
as UNM-based early research.   New UNM research agendas and possibilities
for future work will also be discussed.


BIO:
David Beining serves as director of immersive medium at the University
of New Mexico's ARTS Lab and is the founder and executive producer of
"DomeFest," a global festival for the fulldome medium.  Beining founded
and directed UNM's LodeStar Astronomy Center, one of the world's first
fulldome theaters, from 2000-2007.

[Gfx-cafe] GFX Cafe Seminar Friday March 14, 2008

GFX Café Seminar Friday March 14, 2008
12noon, ARTS Lab Dome Theatre ** Note change of venue **

Food will be served

TITLE:
Real-Time Rendering and Interactivity in 'Fulldome' Immersive Digital
Dome Theater: An Introduction, Demonstration and Discussion of
UNM Research Projects and Goals
by David Beining, UNM ARTS Lab

ABSTRACT:

Large-format, immersive digital dome theater--fulldome--is a young
powerful medium with a high rate of diffusion in planetariums and
other venues. It's also a medium in which UNM is an internationally
recognized center for research, production and education.

Based in tiled projectors and PC clusters, fulldome theaters allow
for very high-resolution, immersive digital video presentation --
pre-rendered for linear cinematic experiences as well as real-time
interactive presentations based on 3D models, data tables, and adapted
game engines and shaders used in proprietary, open-architecture fulldome
software.

The medium's origins in planetariums has largely limited tools, data
and stories to astronomy, but fulldome has enormous potential for
visualizing other sciences for research and education, serving the arts
as new creative and performance space, and entertainment as immersive
gaming and experiential venue.

The author will demonstrate the medium's tools and current uses as well
as UNM-based early research. New UNM research agendas and possibilities
for future work will also be discussed.

BIO:
David Beining serves as director of immersive medium at the University
of New Mexico's ARTS Lab and is the founder and executive producer of
"DomeFest," a global festival for the fulldome medium. Beining founded
and directed UNM's LodeStar Astronomy Center, one of the world's first
fulldome theaters, from 2000-2007.

--
Pradeep Sen
Assistant Professor
Advanced Graphics Lab
Dept. of Electrical & Computer Engineering
University of New Mexico
_______________________________________________
gfx-cafe mailing list
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http://lists.eece.unm.edu/mailman/listinfo/gfx-cafe

[Gfx-cafe] GFX Cafe Seminar Friday March 7, 2008

GFX Café Seminar Friday March 7, 2008
12noon, ARTS Lab Black Box Theatre ** Note change of venue **

Food will be served

TITLE:
Adapting compositing software from motion picture production
to analysis of live macrophage cells
by Carl Diegert, Sandia National Laboratories

ABSTRACT:
Technology for producing motion pictures by combining visual elements
from separate sources has enabled new creativity in storytelling. Amazing
advances in this technology have arguably directly contributed to
profitability of films that innovate in use of advances in this
technology. A byproduct of this market pull is a robust and capable
breed of commercial software products for node-based, digital compositing.

A difficult analysis of fluorescent microscopy images of dynamic response
of live macrophage cells to a pathogen was on my plate last month, and
will be the basis for the case study I will present in this talk. The
approach I will review was to adapt Fusion, a node-based, compositing
product from Eyeon Software, Inc., to the qualitative and quantitative
analysis of these cells. While video products are helpful in presenting
and discussing our scientific results, I will report that the power of
interaction with the scientific imaging in Fusion has motivated us to
build a rich Internet application (RIA) to make some of this interaction
available to everyone with a web browser and an interest in our cell
observations.

For the hands-on case study, we will:

1. Watch live macrophage cell behavior results presented as video products
that integrate motion-graphics and motion-imaging. Show interaction
using multiple instances of typical personal-computer, video-viewer
software.

2. Discuss and demonstrate motion tracking, optical flow estimation, and
rotoscoping using commercial products Fusion and PF Track. After an
example with a conventional, perspective-camera capture, apply the
techniques to the imaging from Sandia's compound microscope, a
telecentric system.

3. Show my code that adapts the Fusion product to doing the quantitative
cell analysis task.

4. Return to a more critical analysis of (1), and point out that viewing
with typical video playback software is less than helpful in guiding
the analysis.

5. Show a powerful A/B Wipe interaction with the live-cell video results
that I have found powerful in doing the analysis.

6. Demonstrate an RIA that makes the helpful A/B Wipe interaction from
Fusion available to collaborators equipped with only mundane personal
computers.

Sandia is a multiprogram laboratory operated by Sandia Corporation, a
Lockheed Martin Company, for the United States Department of Energy's
National Nuclear Security Administration under contract DE-AC04-94AL85000.

BIO:
Carl Diegert is a scientist at Sandia National Labs.

--
Pradeep Sen
Assistant Professor
Advanced Graphics Lab
Dept. of Electrical & Computer Engineering
University of New Mexico
_______________________________________________
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Animation Group Meeting, March 11th

Hey everyone...

We're really excited about AniMotion NM, and the work Becky Padilla, Elaine Montoya and Teri Farley have been doing to help move New Mexico's animation community to the next level. If you're a professional or aspiring animator -- or have plans to work with animators and motion graphics specialists, please check this out.

For more information, visit the NM Adobe Users Group site

AniMotion NM: Real World Production

Where: ARTS Lab
When: Mar 11, 2008 07:00 PM –08:30 PM

Join us for the launch of AniMotion NM March 11th! The concept has been in the works for a while, but it all came together at the MISP conference this past January. It's time for the launch of AniMotion NM! AniMotion NM will serve as a community for New Mexico's animators, motion graphic artists, VFX artists, sound designers, and broadcast designers. Meetings will serve to educate and as a means to network.

The launch event takes place, Tuesday, March 11, from 7:00pm-8:30pm at the ARTS Lab, 131 Pine NE. The topic for the event will be Animation: Real World Production. Join animator Jeff LaFlamme as he takes us through the process of creating an animated spot. From concept to delivery, discover the process, what was involved in working with the agency and client, to final delivery of the VOZ Online Commercial - his 3D animated Telly award-winning spot.

Looking for a job? Wanna show your work? Bring your reel! At the close of each meeting, we will play any reel up to 5 minutes in length. Reels must be on DVD.

Thanks to all involved in making AniMotion NM happen! Special thanks to Teri Farley, Eric Whitmore, Hue Walker, Becky Padilla and Elaine Montoya.

Animation: Real World Production
Presenter: Jeff LaFlamme

To Register, visit the NM Adobe Users Group site

--
"Death is a primitive concept; I prefer to think of it as battling evil - in another dimension!" -- Grig

For more information about NM Media-related Events, visit: http://nm-media.blogspot.com/
--

Eric Renz-Whitmore, Program Coordinator
ARTS Lab
MSC04 2570
1 University of New Mexico
Albuquerque, NM 87131
505-277-2253
http://artslab.unm.edu

Ruby on Rails at InfoByte this Tuesday

Hey... we've heard and seen a lot of good work done with Ruby on Rails.
What is that exactly? Visit the InfoByte series at UNM's Continuing
Education this Tuesday to find out.
___
Hello, World:

I was asked to forward this to a list on campus and thought that some
of you might be interested.

InfoByte - Ruby on Rails
Presented by Mariano Paglayan
IT Pro Instructor

12:00 pm - 1:15 pm
Tuesday, March 4
UNM Continuing Education
1634 University NE

This open source web framework is optimized for programmer happiness and
sustainable productivity, and **lets you write beautiful code** by
favoring convention over configuration.

Everyone from startups to non-profits to enterprise organizations is
using **Rails** — be it software for collaboration, community,
e-commerce, content management, statistics, management, you name it.

Come learn more about how **Ruby programming can work for you.**

Please RSVP to cewebster@lxdce.unm.edu.

This Friday @ UNM

Four different events of interest this Friday @ UNM:

1. GFX Cafe continues its SIGGRAPH series (Major presentations from
SIGGRAPH with talk and discussion in the room), this time from Valve
-- which produced some of the hottest games of 2007.
(more info below)

2. When DomeFest 2008 hits the road, it will be the best opportunity
yet for animators and visual artists creating 'fulldome content' to
have their work seen by more people than ever before. Not sure what
fulldome content is? Come visit the ARTS Lab Garage (131 Pine Street
NE @ the Wooden Steps) from 2-4PM when we'll discuss creating artistic
content for planetariums, and help find ways to get more New Mexicans
into the show. More info at: http://artslab.unm.edu

3. Interested in Time Travel?
HOW TO BUILD A TIME MACHINE, a free public talk by internationally
recognized scientist, author and speaker Dr. Paul Davies, will be held
Friday, Feb. 29 at 7 p.m. in Regener Hall 103 on UNM's main campus.
Davies will examine time travel from the physicist's perspective. The
talk is sponsored by the UNM Dept. of Physics and Astronomy and the
College of Arts and Sciences. For more information call 277-2616.

4. NM PROFESSIONAL FILMMAKERS SHOWCASE
FRIDAY FEBRUARY 29TH 6 to 9 pm
Contact: Anne Stirling www.filmvideoarts.org or 505-277-0077 Ext. 1
UNM Continuing Education 1634 University Blvd. NE Albuquerque Tickets
$19 at the door
Premieres and showings of 8 short works by local filmmakers. Film
listings and details below.
___

GFX Café Seminar Friday Feb 29, 2008
12noon, ECE118

Food will be served

TITLE: SIGGRAPH @ UNM
Advanced real-time rendering at Valve
by Chris Green and Jason Mitchell, Valve

ABSTRACT:
We celebrate the leap year by bringing you three talks by Valve, first
presented at SIGGRAPH 2007. First, Chris Green will talk about using
surface detail maps to create soft self-shadowing effects, which are
important to give games the photorealism more often seen in feature
film. Next, he will talk about a problem we have also been working on
here at UNM, that of magnifying vector textures for first-person shooters
using fast shading algorithms. Finally, Jason Mitchell discusses
cartoon shading for real-time illustrative effects in the new game
release Team Fortress 2.
___

NM PROFESSIONAL FILMMAKERS SHOWCASE FRIDAY FEBRUARY 29TH 6 to 9 pm
Contact: Anne Stirling www.filmvideoarts.org or 505-277-0077 Ext. 1
UNM Continuing Education 1634 University Blvd. NE Albuquerque Tickets
$19 at the door

Presented by Friends of Film Video and Arts, an international group of
independent filmmakers. Theater
seating, refreshments, and a chance to meet some of the most creative
and talented filmmakers in New
Mexico. Seven Filmmakers discuss their work and answer your questions
in this timely and provocative
kaleidoscope of films! Introduced by Anne Stirling, independent
filmmaker and director of FoFVA.

The Art of Storytelling, Director's Cut New Mexico (Documentary, US.,
2007, 26:44 m, video)
What makes a story a good story? Successful documentary filmmakers
Beverly Singer, Arcie Chapa, KNME's
Executive Producer Michael Kamins, Chris Schueler, and Dale Kruzic
discuss their passion for storytelling.
Produced by Rebecca Dakota and FoFVA. Dakota's work includes "Pie
Crust 101", a Pies for Peace Project.

Klebanoff (Biography, US., 2007 6:21m, video)
In this stylish and beautiful bio on international artist Susan
Klebanoff, talented UNM graduate Anton
Kozikowski shows off his award-winning expertise in cinematography.

Black Eagle, Flying Free (Music Video, US., 4:00m, video)
Music video of the Grammy Award winning drum group Black Eagle from
Jemez Pueblo, beautifully shot and
edited by award-winning writer, director, editor, and teacher Brad Stoddard.

Cycling (Sports Documentary, US., 2008 8m, video)
Focusing on a young man who used cycling to lose 300 pounds, this
video is an exciting look at the growing
sport of international cycling in New Mexico. Kenneth Segura Knoll is
a native New Mexican who has over 30
years experience in film, television, and the internet streaming business.

The Truth By Walden Matussey (Humor, US., 2006 7:39m video)
In this humorous short, a man battles for his voice to be heard and to
expose the government for the obvious
liars that they are. Tim Boughn's second feature length script, The
Truth By Walden Matussey, has been
optioned by Adams House Productions.

Climate Change, What It Means for New Mexico (Documentary, US., 2007
24:44m video)
Also by producer, director, and composer Anton Kozikowski, this
cutting edge environmental documentary was
commissioned by the state of New Mexico, featuring NASA satellite
tracking and the country's top scientists.

Teardrop (Love Story US., 2007 7m, video)
In this charming love story, a young girl, delightfully played by
Elise Eberle, thinks she's found the answer for
two lonely people. Produced for the 48 Hour Film Festival, the film
also stars Betsy Burke and Wayne
Wilkinson. This is Fritz Eberle's first narrative work, which he also
filmed and co-directed. Betsy Burke cowrote
(with Ric Eberle) and co-directed Teardrop.

SPECIAL PREMIER of "Time Assassins" (Humorous Satire, U.S., 2008, 5m, HD)
In this very funny satire, Lee Harvey Oswald and John Wilkes Booth are
sent back in time to stop a maniacal
priest who plans to sign a Pro Gay Marriage Proclamation allowing
homosexuals to corrupt the wholesome
fabric of the USA. Can they stop this insidious plan? Director Reuben
Finkelstein is a graduate of the CNM
film program. His short, "Time Cougars", just won the National 48 Hour
Film Competition. Executive producer
and DP David Garcia trained at the Academy of Art College in San
Francisco and at Boston University School
for the Arts. He is co-owner of the local production company halflife* digital.

[Gfx-cafe] GFX Cafe Seminar Friday Jan 29, 2008

GFX Café Seminar Friday Feb 29, 2008
12noon, ECE118

Food will be served

TITLE:
SIGGRAPH @ UNM
Advanced real-time rendering at Valve
by Chris Green and Jason Mitchell, Valve

ABSTRACT:
We celebrate the leap year by bringing you three talks by Valve, first
presented at SIGGRAPH 2007. First, Chris Green will talk about using
surface detail maps to create soft self-shadowing effects, which are
important to give games the photorealism more often seen in feature
film. Next, he will talk about a problem we have also been working on
here at UNM, that of magnifying vector textures for first-person shooters
using fast shading algorithms. Finally, Jason Mitchell discusses
cartoon shading for real-time illustrative effects in the new game
release Team Fortress 2.

BIO:
Jason Mitchell is a Software Engineer at Valve, where he works on real-time
3D graphics techniques across all of Valve's projects. Prior to joining
Valve, Jason was the lead of the 3D Application Research Group at ATI
Research for eight years.

Chris Green is a software engineer at Valve and has worked on titles
such as Half Life 2: Episode 2, Portal, Zoo Tycoon, and MechAssault.

--
Pradeep Sen
Assistant Professor
Advanced Graphics Lab
Dept. of Electrical & Computer Engineering
University of New Mexico
_______________________________________________
gfx-cafe mailing list
gfx-cafe@lists.eece.unm.edu
http://lists.eece.unm.edu/mailman/listinfo/gfx-cafe

[Gfx-cafe] GFX Cafe Seminar Friday Feb 22, 2008

GFX Café Seminar Friday Feb 22, 2008
12noon, ECE118

Food will be served

TITLE:
Autostereoscopic displays for a simple 3D experience
by Hao He, Advanced Graphics Lab

ABSTRACT:
Most display devices show images in 2D, which loses infomation for
humans to recognize 3D structures. Researchers have been working on 3D
display technology for many years, and many approaches have been
proposed. However, each method has its own constraints.

Autostereoscopy is a type of method that displays 3D images that can be
viewed without the use of special headgear or glasses. These methods
produce depth perception in the viewer even though the image is produced
by a flat device. Several different classes of basic autostereoscopic
technologies will be introduced. We will also illustrate ideas in
implementing a simple autostereoscopic display system which we are
currently investigating at the Advanced Graphics Lab at UNM.

BIO:
Hao He is a first-year graduate student in Advanced Graphics Lab with
interests in 3D modeling, light field and 3D display. He got his
Bachelor's Degree from Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China in 2007.

--
Pradeep Sen
Assistant Professor
Advanced Graphics Lab
Dept. of Electrical & Computer Engineering
University of New Mexico
_______________________________________________
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UNM Game Projects Getting out in the World

UNM Game Projects Getting out in the World

ECE/CS 433 students who presented their newly created video games during the fall course's daylong gaming extravaganza on December 6 caught the camera's eye at KRQE Channel 13, as did some of the students who came by to have a little fun and test-play the games. The TV station aired a two-minute report that evening.

To watch the newscast, here is a 7.5 MB .wmv clip: KRQE news clip.

The story, reported by KRQE's Mike Paluska, aired later the same evening on affiliate KASA Channel 2.

A 2:30-minute videotaped report about the event was also produced by UNM Communications & Marketing for YouTube and can be seen on UNM's site here or on YouTube.

For more information about the event, go here.

Archimedes Palimpsest Project today and tomorrow at UNM

An interesting exploration of history, science and the nature of 'text' is going on here at UNM today and tomorrow with the Archimedes Revealed event at Woodward Hall...

UNM's Institute for Medieval Studies Hosts Colloquium on Acclaimed Archimedes Project

Leading team members from the famous Archimedes Palimpsest Project—which has hit the headlines in news outlets across the United States and in Europe—will gather in Albuquerque Friday and Saturday, Feb. 15–16, for "Archimedes Revealed," a public colloquium hosted by the University of New Mexico Institute for Medieval Studies.

The event, which takes place in rm. 101 of Woodward Hall on UNM's main campus, will include five illustrated presentations covering the key aspects of this most remarkable project. All sessions are free and open to the public.

For a complete list of the lectures visit: Archimedes Revealed.

The colloquium will focus on the Archimedes Palimpsest, a 10th century manuscript that includes the only surviving copies of three key works by Archimedes, the greatest scientist of the ancient world. These works reveal that Archimedes was familiar with the concept of infinity—previously thought to have been unknown to the Greeks—that he anticipated the discovery of the calculus by almost 2,000 years, and that his contributions to science foreshadowed those of Galileo and Newton, the founders of modern scientific method.
So why have these texts by Archimedes remained unknown until now? A "palimpsest" is a book in which the original text has been erased from the parchment leaves and new text substituted in its place. In the 13th century, Greek-speaking monks erased the Archimedes texts from the manuscript and substituted for them a collection of monastic prayers. Early in the 20th century, the Danish scholar Johan Heiberg was able to read parts of the erased text, but he had to leave significant portions unread—including those that reveal most about Archimedes' mind and methods.

The manuscript went missing for much of the 20th century. It resurfaced in 1998, when purchased at auction by an anonymous buyer who deposited it at the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore so that conservation work could be carried out on its leaves and scientists could attempt to make the text legible again.

The story of those scientists' efforts is an epic of modern technological achievement. Advanced digital imaging techniques developed at the Rochester Institute of Technology—one of the leading centers in the United States for this kind of work—recaptured significant portions of text that was previously illegible. Yet not even those techniques could penetrate the secrets of certain pages that, in an unscrupulous and misguided effort to give the book greater value, had been painted over in the mid-20th century with forged pictures in medieval Byzantine style.

Reading these pages required taking the manuscript to Stanford University, where scientists at Stanford's Linear Accelerator Center—which specializes in accelerating atomic particles to nearly the speed of light—developed a special, purpose-built scanner that submitted the pages to x-ray fluorescence that succeeded in penetrating the paint and reading faint traces of original letters beneath. As a result, about 85 percent of the original text may now be read—and progress continues to be made, with hopes of rendering the entire text legible.

The Archimedes Palimpsest Project is an epic that brings together ancient science, a medieval manuscript, and some of the brightest achievements of modern technology. It is not surprising that it has attracted huge public interest.

The project has been the subject of a PBS Nova documentary, a BBC documentary, and major articles in the Smithsonian and the Economist; it has been written up in the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, in England's Daily Telegraph and Independent and in Spain's El País; it has been featured on NPR, on Fox News, on ABC News and on BBC News.

The New Mexico public has an extraordinary opportunity to hear leading members of the project present on key aspects. The event should appeal to a broad spectrum of the public: those interested in the ancient and medieval past just as much as those interested in the possibilities opened up by modern technology developed in some of the country's leading scientific centers.

[Gfx-cafe] GFX Cafe Seminar Friday Feb 15, 2008

GFX Café Seminar Friday Feb 15, 2008
12noon, ECE118

Food will be served

TITLE:
Virtual Environments: a multi-disciplinary research tool
by Betty Mohler, Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics

ABSTRACT:
Virtual environments (VEs) are computer-simulations of real or fictional
environments with which users can interact. Potential applications of VEs
include training, visualization, entertainment, design, rehabilitation,
education, and research. The ultimate goal of VEs is to provide the full
sensory experience of being in a simulated world. VEs are a very powerful
tool to answer scientific research questions from many disciplines. In
this talk, four specific projects will be described which use virtual
environments to investigate human behavior and also provide suggestions
to improve upon the current technology used for VEs.

First, an empirical study of space perception within immersive VEs will
be presented. Second, results which demonstrate the visual influence on
human locomotor behavior will be discussed. Third, a project that analyzes
the illusion of self-motion within a large-screen projection VE will be
presented. Finally, the implementation of fully articulated full-body
avatars within a VE in real time will be described. My research
vision is to use virtual environments as a multi-disciplinary tool to
provide scientists from various research backgrounds with a rich
collection of data on human behavior and interaction. My goal as a
scientist has always been to simultaneously investigate human perception
while gaining insight from the user in order to improve virtual
environments hardware and applications.

BIO:
Betty Mohler received her PhD in computer science from the University of
Utah in 2007. She is now in her second year of a post-doctoral research
position at the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics in
Tübingen, Germany. Her main research interest is in understanding the
human observer towards the aim of improving virtual environment
applications. Her approach has always been a multi-disciplinary one and,
therefore, she currently collaborates with engineers, neuroscientists
and psychologists.

--
Pradeep Sen
Assistant Professor
Advanced Graphics Lab
Dept. of Electrical & Computer Engineering
University of New Mexico
_______________________________________________
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[Gfx-cafe] GFX Cafe Seminar Friday Feb 8, 2008

GFX Café Seminar Friday Feb 8, 2008
12noon, ECE118

Food will be served

TITLE:
Sensitivity Analysis for Classification
by Joe Kniss, Advanced Graphics Lab

ABSTRACT:
The principal goal of visualization is to create a visual representation
of complex information and large datasets in order to gain insight and
understanding. Our current research focuses on methods for handling
uncertainty stemming from data acquisition and algorithmic sources. Most
visualization methods, especially those applied to 3D data, implicitly
use some form of classification or segmentation to eliminate unimportant
regions and illuminate those of interest. The process of classification
is inherently uncertain; in many cases the source data contains error and
noise, data transformations such as filtering can further introduce and
magnify the uncertainty. More advanced classification methods rely on
some sort of model or statistical method to determine what is and is not
a feature of interest. While these classification methods can model
uncertainty or fuzzy probabilistic memberships, they typically only
provide discrete, maximum a-posteriori memberships. It is vital that
visualization methods provide the user access to uncertainty in
classification or image generation if the results of the visualization
are to be trusted.

In this talk, I'll cover some basic definitions of visualization and
highlight some of our on going work here at UNM. Specifically, I'll
discuss a new approach for assessing uncertainty stemming from algorithmic
or computational sources called sensitivity analysis. I'll also take a
few detours to cover topics volume rendering, the method we use to make
pictures of 3D datasets.

BIO:
Joe is an Assistant Professor in Computer Science an member of the Advanced
Graphics Lab at UNM. His research focuses on interactive visualization of
large datasets, light transport, and computer graphics. His current
research investigates methods for capturing and displaying uncertainty
introduced by the data processing pipeline, and frameworks for representing
non-linear features in band-limited raster image data.

--
Pradeep Sen
Assistant Professor
Advanced Graphics Lab
Dept. of Electrical & Computer Engineering
University of New Mexico
_______________________________________________
gfx-cafe mailing list
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[Gfx-cafe] GFX Cafe Seminar Friday Feb 1, 2008

GFX Café Seminar Friday Feb 1, 2008
12noon, ARTS Lab Black Box Theater ** Note change of venue **

Food will be served

TITLE:
SIGGRAPH @ UNM
A Poor Man's Palace, Special Effects in the Real World
by Ramesh Raskar, Mitsubishi Electric Research Labs (MERL)

ABSTRACT:
In our second of our SIGGRAPH @ UNM series, we present Ramesh Raskar's
talk on spatial augmented-reality displays presented at SIGGRAPH 2007.

Novel approaches have taken augmented reality beyond traditional eye-worn
or hand-held displays - enabling additional application areas. New
display paradigms exploit large spatially aligned optical elements, such
as mirror beam-splitters, transparent screens or holograms, as well as
video-projectors. Thus, we call this technological variation "Spatial
Augmented Reality (SAR)".

In many situations, SAR displays are able to overcome technological and
ergonomic limitations of conventional AR systems. Due to the fall in cost
and availability of projection technology, personal computers and graphics
hardware, there has been a considerable interest in exploiting SAR systems
in universities, research laboratories, museums, industry and in the art
community.

Parallels to the development of virtual environments from head-attached
displays to spatial projection screens can be clearly drawn. We believe
that an analog evolution of augmented reality has the potential to yield a
similar successful factor in many application domains. Thereby, SAR and
body-attached AR are not competitive, but complementary.

BIO:

Ramesh Raskar joined MERL as a Research Scientist in 2000 after his
doctoral research at U. of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he
developed a framework for projector based displays. His work spans
a range of topics in computer vision and graphics including projective
geometry, non-photorealistic rendering and intelligent user interfaces.
He has developed algorithms for image projection on planar, non-planar
and quadric curved surfaces that simplify constraints on conventional
displays and has proposed Shader Lamps, a new approach for projector-based
augmented reality. Current projects include composite RFID (RFIG),
multi-flash non-photorealistic camera for depth edge detection,
locale-aware mobile projectors, high dynamic range video, image fusion
for context enhancement and quadric transfer methods for
multi-projector curved screen displays.

Dr. Raskar received the Mitsubishi Electric Information Technology
R&D Award 2003, Global Indus Technovator Award 2003, instituted at
MIT to recognize the top 20 Indian technology innovators on the
globe, Mitsubishi Electric Valuable Invention Award 2004 and
TR100 Award, Technology Review's 100 Top Young Innovators
Under 35, 2004. His papers have appeared in SIGGRAPH, Eurographics,
IEEE Visualization, CVPR and many other graphics and vision conferences.
He has taught courses and has served as a member of international
program committees at major conferences. He is a member of the ACM
and IEEE.

--
Pradeep Sen
Assistant Professor
Advanced Graphics Lab
Dept. of Electrical & Computer Engineering
University of New Mexico
_______________________________________________
gfx-cafe mailing list
gfx-cafe@lists.eece.unm.edu
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AIGA NM "Business of Design" This Saturday @ UNM DCE

Hey everyone...

Incorporating Design Principles into media and other business has always seemed like a good idea, but the way designers do business -- often small firms and freelancers -- has a lot of value to share with our small media companies as well. If you're interested in design, business, and the local chapter of AIGA, please check this out...

The Business of Design
Workshops for Creative Professionals

Saturday, February 2, 2008

AIGA New Mexico presents two workshops on
the business of design with guest speakers
Shel Perkins and Linda Joy Kattwinkel, Esq.

10 to 11:30 am
Intellectual Property Basics: A Designer's Guide to Copyrights, Trademarks and Patents

12 to 1:30 pm
An Introduction to the New AIGA Standard Form of Agreement for Design Services


WHERE
Continuing Education Conference Center at UNM Room G,
North Building, 1634 University Blvd NE, Albuquerque

COST
AIGA members: $15 for one workshop or $25 for both
Non-members: $25 for one workshop or $45 for both
Students: $10 for one workshop or $20 for both

RSVP
Space for these workshops is limited. Reserve now by emailing events@santafe.aiga.org or by calling Mandy Otter at 505.822.5516.
Visit the http://santafe.aiga.org web site for workshop descriptions and for more information about our guest speakers.
 

[Gfx-cafe] GFX Cafe Seminar Friday Jan 25, 2008

GFX Café Seminar Friday Jan 25, 2008
12noon, ECE118

Food will be served

TITLE:
SIGGRAPH @ UNM
Computational Cameras: Convergence of Optics and Software
by Shree Nayar, Columbia University

ABSTRACT:
This week, we are proud to present the first of our SIGGRAPH @ UNM series,
where we bring actual SIGGRAPH presentations to the UNM community. This
week, we present Shree Nayar's talk from the popular SIGGRAPH course on
computational photography.

Computational cameras use unconventional optics and software to produce
new forms of visual information, including wide field-of-view images,
high dynamic range images, multispectral images,and depth images. Using
a controllable optical system to form the image and a programmable light
source as the camera's flash can further enhance the capabilities of
these cameras.

BIO:
Shree K. Nayar is the T. C. Chang Chaired Professor in the Department
of Computer Science at Columbia University. He received his PhD
degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the Robotics
Institute at Carnegie Mellon University. At Columbia, he is co-director
of the Columbia Vision and Graphics Center and heads the Computer Vision
Laboratory (CAVE), which is dedicated to the development of advanced
computer vision systems. His research is focused on three broad areas,
namely, the creation of novel vision sensors, the design of physics based
models for vision, and the development of algorithms for scene
interpretation. The work conducted by his research team is motivated by
applications in the fields of digital imaging, computer graphics,
human-machine interfaces and robotics.

--
Pradeep Sen
Assistant Professor
Advanced Graphics Lab
Dept. of Electrical & Computer Engineering
University of New Mexico
_______________________________________________
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Games, Adobe & Screenwriting, here at ARTS Lab

Hi everyone...

Been a busy year already.  Another big and exciting year for the state's Media Industries, and there are lots of things going on here at UNM's ARTS Lab.

R U GAME ?  UNM Game Design Class starts this week!

Game Development today brings together programmers, designers, artists and creative thinkers in a digital medium that's changing the world.  During this hands-on production class, student teams will learn game design and production essentials from game industry pros, and build a playable demo using Microsoft's XNA tools for XBox game development.

Topics in Game Development
Course #'s: ECE 495/595   CS 491/591
Times: T/TH 9:30 - 10:45
Location: ME 300
For more information on the class and how to sign up through other departments, contact Ed Angel ( angel@cs.unm.edu) or Tom Caudell (tpc@ece.unm.edu)

ADOBE AIR TOUR
Thursday 1/24
Location: ARTS Lab
This Thursday from 6-8 PM, ARTS Lab continues to work with the people of New Mexico's Adobe Users Group to bring Kevin Hoyt of the Adobe Flex / AIR team to New Mexico. For more information, visit our events site at: http://artslab.unm.edu/newsevents/index.htm#air

SCREENWRITING: ABOVE THE LINE ($)
Saturday 1/26
Location: ARTS Lab
This workshop with professional screenwriter Matt McDuffie is designed to create scripts for the emerging New Mexico film market.  To get more information and reserve your space, call 265-2569 or write buzzblanco@comcast.net

Where is ARTS Lab?  What else is going on?  Visit us at:
http://artslab.unm.edu/contact/index.htm
http://artslab.unm.edu/newsevents

--
For more information about NM Media-related Events, visit: http://nm-media.blogspot.com/
--

Eric Renz-Whitmore, Program Coordinator
ARTS Lab
MSC04 2570
1 University of New Mexico
Albuquerque, NM 87131
505-277-2253
http://artslab.unm.edu

[Gfx-cafe] GFX Cafe Seminar Friday Jan 18, 2008

The GFX Café is back to kickoff another exiting semester!

GFX Café Seminar Friday Jan 18, 2008
12noon, ARTS Lab Black Box Theatre ** Note change of venue **

Food will be served

TITLE:
Advanced Digital Hair/Fur Pipeline at Sony Pictures Imageworks
by Armin Bruderlin, Sony Imageworks

ABSTRACT:
A practical animal fur and human hair pipeline for digital
characters has been in development at Sony Pictures Imageworks
since its initial implementation in 1998. To date, our hair/fur
pipeline has been successfully utilized in 14 motion pictures,
both live-action and computer animated. The system has proven
capable of producing a wide range of looks requested by our
clients, from short animal fur to long human hair, and, most
challengingly, the accurate reproduction of the hair of real
actors.

In this talk, I will introduce the core building blocks that
make up the pipeline. Some of the more recent features are
presented in more detail.

BIO:
Armin Bruderlin is currently a senior software engineer and the
3D-tools lead at Sony Pictures Imageworks in Culver City,
California. Since joining in 1997, he has been working in the
software department while supporting the production of movies
such as "Surf's Up", "Open Season", the "Spiderman" movies,
"The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe",
"The Polar Express", "The Chubb Chubbs", and "Stuart Little".

Armin received a B.Sc. in Informatik from the Fachhochschule
Furtwagen in Germany, and an M.Sc. and Ph.D. in Computer Science
from Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, Canada. Armin's
interests in computer graphics include all aspects of making
believable computer animated characters.

--
Pradeep Sen
Assistant Professor
Advanced Graphics Lab
Dept. of Electrical & Computer Engineering
University of New Mexico
_______________________________________________
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NM Economic (& Media Community) Development (@ UNM)

Hey everyone...

This is a big week for Economic Development -- and for getting involved with New Mexico's media scene.

THE 2008 NEW MEXICO Economic Outlook Conference will be held Wednesday, Jan. 9, at the Embassy Suites Hotel, located just west of Lomas Blvd. NE
and I-25, in Albuquerque. Registration and breakfast will be held from 7:30 to 9 a.m., while the conference runs from 9 a.m. to 12 noon. The third annual conference will present a morning devoted to the assessment of and outlook for the United States and New Mexico economies.
http://www.unm.edu/~market/cgi-bin/archives/002495.html#more
http://abqchamber.com/economicoutlook/outlookconf.htm

The BBER Economic Outlook Conference is always an interesting -- and valuable -- event, especially if you have an interest in the conditions and trends affecting New Mexico's business climate.  It's also a nice prelude to...

MEMBERS OF NEW MEXICO'S media-related worlds - including film, animation, games, education, research and technology development - will
converge at the Fourth Annual N.M. Media Industries Conference: Media 4 New Mexico's Future, hosted by the University of New Mexico ARTS Lab on Saturday, Jan. 12, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the UNM Student Union Building. The event is free, but registration is required. More information, including a complete schedule, is available at: http://artslab.unm.edu .

There's a lot going on Saturday, including a session with local Writers Guild of America members discussing the Writer's Strike, sessions on Animation basics and getting involved in New Mexico's animation community, using New Mexico's world-renowned media production rebate program, Symbology and Design with Maggie Macnab, highlights of new software from NM Adobe Users Group's Elaine Montoya and Apple's Bill Hanson... and much much more.

Please join us!



--
For more information about NM Media-related Events, visit: http://nm-media.blogspot.com/
--

Eric Renz-Whitmore, Program Coordinator
ARTS Lab
MSC04 2570
1 University of New Mexico
Albuquerque, NM 87131
505-277-2253
http://artslab.unm.edu

Media for New Mexico's Future

MEDIA 4 NEW MEXICO'S FUTURE

Each year, over 300 participants from New Mexico's media related worlds (including film, animation, games, education, research and technology development) come together for the annual media industries conference at UNM's Student Union Building in Albuquerque, New Mexico. This year's conference features presentations and workshops on Digital Media 101, Indie Filmmaking Essentials, Making New Mexico's Incentives work for You, Animation and Game Development, along with a special presentation from Symbol and Design Expert Maggie Macnab of Macnab Design. Join representatives from AIGA, Albuquerque IGDA, DFI, NMAUG, NMFO, NMITSA, and more for the latest in New Mexico media, and strategizing ways to continue to move New Mexico's Media Industries Strategic Plan forward (For more information about MISP, visit: http://www.altmedianm.org ).

WHEN: Saturday, January 12th 9:00AM - 5:00PM

WHERE: UNM's Student Union Building (Main Campus, near Central & Cornell)

REGISTER: The Event is free, but registration is required. Visit our REGISTRATION PAGE to sign up.

For more information, email artslab@unm.edu or call us at 505-277-2253.
INTRODUCTORY SESSION (9:00 - 9:30 | Ballroom A)

Introduction & recap of the state's Media Industries Strategic Plan, update from the Media Industries Summit, and Overview of the day's events.
MORNING SESSION I (9:35 - 10:30 AM)

Digital Media 101: An overview of Digital Media Production Today

Supercomputing, Advanced Graphics & Visualization

Making New Mexico's Film Rebate Program Work For You: Overview and Q&A with the NM Film Office

MORNING SESSION II (10:35 - 11:30 AM)

Animation 101: Intro to 2D Character Animation and 3D Animation (Presented by the Art Center Design College)

Modeling, Simulation & Serious Games

Indie Filmmaking Essentials (Presented by DFI, producers of the Duke City Shootout)

MORNING SESSION III (11:35 AM - 12:30 PM)

Understanding and Using Symbols in Visual Communication
with Maggie Macnab (Macnab Design)
This presentation explores natural patterns and the energetic principles they are associated with, how they relate to number and shape, and how incorporating these qualities can create more effective, enduring and aesthetic visual communications—particularly in the area of identity design, but relative to anyone who works within the visual arts. Communicating deeply with substance rather than superficial style increases a communication’s life span and value, is widely and immediately understood to a cross-cultural audience, and supports creative professionals by actively using the time-tested template of nature.

AFTERNOON SESSION I (1:45 - 3:00 PM)

Education & Media: Summer and After School Programs

Trends in Web and Software Development

WGA & The Writers' Strike: What's at Stake

AFTERNOON SESSION II (3:15 - 4:30 PM)

Games, Training & Education

Building New Mexico's Animation Community

TBD