Celebration at the Fraunhofer Institute SteveCunningham California State University Stanislaus On October 28-30, 1997, the Fraunhofer Institut f~ir Graphische Datenverarbeitung (IGD) celebrated the opening of its new building in Darmstadt, Germany as well as the 10th birthday of the Institut.The celebration included a workshop -- "Agents, Assistants, Avatars," a symposium -- " C o m p u t e r Graphics in the Next 50Years of Computing," a presentation of the SIGGRAPH traveling art show and a display of the new portraits in computer graphics. Interactive demonstrations were located throughout the building. The impact of the IGD on c o m p u t e r graphics, particularly in Europe, is so large that an unexpectedly large number of people -- more than 900 -- attended the official opening. The event exceeded the capacity of the IGD facility and had to be moved to a larger auditorium on the campus of the Technische Universitiit Darmstadt. SIGGRAPH was represented by Chair Steve Cunningham, who congratulated IGD on its success on behalf of all the computer graphics professional societies. Participants enjoyed professional interactions with their international colleagues and the gracious hospitality of the Director of IGD, Jose Encarnaq~o, and his staff. The new building is the world's largest facility dedicated entirely to computer graphics. It includes four floors of laboratories, classrooms, lecture rooms and offices. Some of the rooms are named for computer graphics luminaries (including Wolfgang Gilloi and Andries van Dam), and one of the highlights of the celebration was the naming of a room for Bert Herzog, a Iongtime supporter of the Institut. The w o r k s h o p , "Agents, Assistants, Avatars," was chaired by Detlev Kr6mker of the IGD, and included six sessions: Agents and Avatars in M u l t i u s e r Environments, A n t h r o p o l o g i c a l Avatars, Visualization Agents, User Interface Agents and Agents in M o b i l e and D i s t r i b u t e d Environments I and II.The sessions included 14 presentations, in German, for the 33 workshop participants. The symposium, "Computer Graphics in the N e x t 50 Years of Computing,', was chaired by Bob H o p g o o d and Matthias Unbescheiden.The symposium included five sessions: Education & Profession,Virtual E n v i r o n m e n t s , Design and M o d e l i n g , Networked Computer Graphics and User Interface. The sessions were presented in English and included 21 speakers from Europe, North America and Australia. Steve Cunningham Computer ScienceDepartment California State University Stanislaus 801W. MonteVista Turlock, CA 95382 Tel:+ 1-209-667-3176 Fax:+ 1-209-667-3333 Email:steve_cunningham@siggraph.org IEEE International Symposium on Wearable Computers Joan Truckenbrod S I G G R A P H 9 8 A r t Show Chair An interesting symposium at MIT on wearable computers offers exciting possibilities for the SIGGRAPH 98 A r t Show and Emerging Technologies, as well as for panels, courses and papers. (Editor's note: Also see VisFiles byT.Todd Elvins on page I I.) The first IEEE International Symposium on Wearable Computers, held October 13-14, 1997, was presented at the MIT Media Lab. Opening remarks were by Nicholas Negroponte and Charles Vest, president of MIT. Kazuhiko Nishi, President of ASCII Corp., gave a short history of the computer -- from the floor to the desktop, and into the pocket or onto the skin by 2000. Currently, the major applications of wearables are being developed for medical purposes, specifically preventative medicine. Alex Pentland raised the issue of contextualizing computers as tools that disappear into clothing, augmenting one's senses and memory.They can also give us and others information about how we are feeling.We can construct clothing and body accessories, such as wigs, that transform or mutate depending upon how we feel. The VR headset has been transformed by Steve Mann into a pair of glasses called a WearCam with a small display in the lens. Wrist devices and computers on a belt are available. There also exist devices like the handheld mouse-keyboard, called the Twiddler, which can operate up to 50 feet 40 February Computer Graphics 1998 from a computer. Pentland concluded his presentation with a picture of a fingernail keyboard from Dilbert! Rosalind Picard discussed emotions as an active part of one's intelligence -- playing an essential role in decision making, perception, rational thinking, learning and other cognitive functions. She postulates that in order for computers to be genuinely intelligent, and to interact naturally, we must give them the ability to recognize, understand and to have and express emotions -- emotional intelligence. In 1985, Marvin Minsky wrote in his book, The Society of Mind, .."the question is not whether intelligent machines can have any emotions, but whether machines can be intelligent without emotions." Picard has recently published an interesting book entitled Affective Computing with MIT Press, 1997. Ted Selker, IBM Fellow, discussed intelligent fabrics that remind us how to take care of our bodies -- such as telling us when we need to drink water on a high altitude climb. Jim Page from Motorola envisions the pager as a wireless architecture that provides access to information anywhere, anytime, in fact pushed on demand -- a layered two-way transport of voice and data. Interactive paging will be self-installing, self-programming with invisible dynamic virtual local networks. For instance when you enter a city, your pager will accept a software download of maps, information about the area and current events and a local directory of your friends and contacts, etc. John Wyatt presented his research on the use of computers inside of the body. He is developing a tiny computer to be implanted in the eye to compensate for the degeneration of the photo-receptors in the eye due to disease. He is optimistic about restoring some level of sight to these patients. Clothes are a natural site for wearables as discussed by Michael Hawley. A wearable music jacket is a creation ofTod Machover.A small synthesizer is sewn into the pocket of a jeans jacket. A numeric keyboard or number pad is machine embroidered into the front of the jacket using conductive thread, and connected to the synthesizer. Touching the number pads creates sounds, chords or notes.A group of jacket musicians created a composition on stage! A violin can be a software app on the body. For more information, access http://wear- ables.www.media.mit.edu/projects/wearables/. Another book of potential interest is The Soft Edge: A Natural History and Future of the Information Revolution by Paul Levinson, Routledge, 1997.This symposium followed a two-day IEEE conference on wearables. Joan Truckenbrod Art andTechnologyDepartment The Schoolof the Art Institute of Chicago I I 2 S.MichiganAve. Chicago,IL 60603 Email:truckenbrod@niuhep.physics.niu.edu

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