Mobile apps take centre stage at SIGGRAPH Asia

Hong Kong – The Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center was bustling with activity last week as it played host to Asia’s premier graphics, animation, art, and technology event. Held over four days, the 4th ACM SIGGRAPH Asia Conference and Exhibition brought together more than 7,500 computer graphics professionals, researches and enthusiasts, hailing from 53 countries across the globe.

Echoing analysts’ predictions on the robust growth of mobile applications, mobility and mobile devices were a key theme in many conversations this year. Zeyneb Ahmet of Stockholm University, one of the panelists at the Mobile 2.0 The Future of Mobile Apps: Mashing It Up and Getting It Out There session at the Symposium on Apps, said, “It is truly an exciting time to be working with applications and services for the consumer markets.”

The newly conceived Symposium on Apps programme made its debut at the exhibition, featuring presentations and displays on leading-edge works relating to mobile application development, as well as the computer graphics software and hardware to support today’s mobile devices. Notably, several sessions at the programme were focused on mobile augmented reality applications, in tandem with increasing interest in how mobile devices are opening up new opportunities for merging real and virtual worlds.

This year’s event once again provided a major platform for computer graphics and interactive techniques, featuring renowned pioneers including Bill Buxton, Principal Researcher at Microsoft Research; Ken Perlin, Director of the New York University Center for Advanced Technology; and Robert Neuman, Stereoscopic Supervisor at Walt Disney Animation Studios.

In all, more than 300 presentations, panel discussions and talks were held across the programmes, generating robust conversations and deep insights on current and future developments in the field of computer graphics and interactive techniques.

The next edition of SIGGRAPH Asia will take place in Singapore from 28 November to 1 December 2012. SIGGRAPH Asia 2012 will be chaired by Professor Susanto Rahardja from the Institute for Infocomm Research, Singapore.