Microsoft Research : KinÊtre at SIGGRAPH 2012 - A Novel Way To Bring Computer Animations To Life

Posted by Andreas Christodoulou

Description :

Imagine you are asked to produce a 3D animation of a demonic armchair terrorizing an innocent desk lamp. You may think about model rigging, skeleton deformation, and keyframing.   

Depending on your experience, you might imagine hours to days at the controls of Maya or Blender. But even if you have absolutely no computer Graphics experience, it can be so much easier : grab a nearby chair and desk lamp, scan them using a consumer depth camera, and use the same camera to track your body, aligning your virtual limbs to the chair’s geometry. 

At one spoken command, your limbs are attached to the chair model, which follows your movements in an intuitive and natural manner. 

KinÊtre is such a system. A research project from Microsoft Research Cambridge that allows novice users to scan physical objects and bring them to life in seconds by using their own bodies to animate them. 

Rather than targeting professional animators, it brings animation to a new audience of users with little or no CG experience. It allows realistic deformations of arbitrary static meshes, runs in real time on consumer hardware, and uses the human body for input in conjunction with simple voice commands. 

KinÊtre lets anyone create playful 3D animations.This system has a multitude of potential uses for interactive storytelling, physical gaming, or more immersive communications.

If you liked this topic feel free to discover more interesting stories from Microsoft Research.

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*by andreascy*

Intel Launches SDK for OpenCL Applications at SIGGRAPH 2012

Posted by Andreas Christodoulou

Description :

Los Angeles - SIGGRAPH 2012, the World's Premier Conference on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques, welcomed 21,212 Artists, Research Scientists, Gaming Experts and Developers, Filmmakers, Students, and Academics from 83 Countries around the globe to Los Angeles this week. 

In addition, 161 Industry Organizations exhibited at SIGGRAPH 2012 representing 44,750 sq. ft. of exhibit space - approximately a 5,000 sq. ft. increase over 2011. 

A total of 19 Countries where represented on the show floor. “As SIGGRAPH 2012 draws to a close, I’m incredibly proud of the body of work that represents thousands of hours of effort from hundreds of volunteers,” said Rebecca Strzelec, SIGGRAPH 2012 Conference Chair from Penn State Altoona. 

SIGGRAPH 2012 was the launch pad for Computer Graphics and Animation Development, including the Beta release of the Intel® SDK for OpenCL. 

We caught up with Ryan Tabrah from the Intel Visual Computing Software group and asked him for a Demo of the new Software. 

He grabbed an Ultrabook and showed us the difference between an in-body Simulation running on a CPU versus the Intel HD Graphics. He then used them both, demonstrating how Developers can optimize their performance for Intel architecture. 

Watch the video below to see the increased performance with the new Intel SDK for OpenCL.

For news on Open CL, Cross Platform Mobile Development, and Ultrabook, you can subscribe to Intel Software Adrenaline here.

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*by andreascy*