Press release from ACM SIGGRAPH:

Chicago, IL – The SIGGRAPH 2012 Technical Papers program is the premier international forum for disseminating new scholarly work in computer graphics and interactive techniques. The 39th International Conference and Exhibition on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques, 5–9 August 2012 at the Los Angeles Convention Center, features Technical Papers that detail new advances across many fronts, including 3D display technology, photographic prints for HDR images, textile design, and more.

“This year’s program features papers that propel the field forward as rapidly and vibrantly as possible, while at the same time keeping us well-grounded academically, ensuring that SIGGRAPH remains a breeding ground for significant new areas of research,” said Hanspeter Pfister, SIGGRAPH 2012 Technical Papers Chair from Harvard University.

The papers to be presented were chosen by a distinguished committee of academia and industry experts. Out of 449 submissions, 94 papers were accepted to SIGGRAPH 2012, representing an acceptance rate of 21 percent.

This year’s Technical Papers program also includes conference presentations for 38 papers published this year in the journal ACM Transactions on Graphics (TOG).

Highlights from the SIGGRAPH 2012 Technical Papers program:

Tensor Displays: Compressive Light Field Synthesis Using Multilayer Displays with Directional Backlighting
Authors: Gordon Wetzstein, Douglas Lanman, Matthew Hirsch, and Ramesh Raskar, MIT Media Lab

Practical application as suggested by the Technical Papers Chair: Glasses-free stereo display.

This paper presents a new display technology for glasses-free stereo viewing. Combining multiple layers of LCD, directional back-lighting, temporal modulation, and a new mathematical formulation allows for greater depths of field, wider fields of view, and a thinner display. 

Printing Spatially-Varying Reflectance for Reproducing HDR Images
Authors: Yue Dong, Microsoft Research Asia; Xin Tong, Microsoft Research Asia; Fabio Pellacini, Dartmouth College and Sapienza University of Rome; and Baining Guo, Microsoft Research Asia

Practical application as suggested by the Technical Papers Chair: Printing HDR images, keeping brightness fidelity.

When traditional photographs are printed, the range of brightness can be heavily compressed, and the result can look flat. This paper presents a solution for viewing high-dynamic-range (HDR) images using a reflective sheet of paper, glossy ink, and a torch light illuminating the paper. With the proposed technique, one can get a better sense of the range of brightness in the scene and adjust it by moving the light or the paper.

Structure-Aware Synthesis for Predictive Woven Fabric Appearance
Authors: Shuang Zhao, Wenzel Jakob, Steve Marschner, and Kavita Bala, Cornell University