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Welcome to Graphics Newsletter No 7! This contains information on current graphics activities. If you have not seen this Newsletter before and wish to get on the mailing list. please send your name and address (preferably by e-mail) to me. New readers are always welcome! New contributors are also always welcome!
This month seems to have been one of spreading the word about the activities of the AGOCG. I have talked about the activities at the IUCC management conference at Aberystwyth (a sea view from my hall of residence room at no extra charge!) and at the Eurographics UK conference at Bath. People seem positive about the first moves of the group and I hope the optimism will be justified. The next few months should see the start of the output from some of our first initiatives.
In a couple of weeks I am going to talk to the Computer Graphics Suppliers Association about our work and (with Julian Gallop from Rutherford Appleton Laboratory) about graphics standards. We hope to build up a good relationship with the CGSA who aim to set standards of practice for the industry in the UK.
Graphics standards are an important focus of the AGOCG. The need to integrate a wide range of packages and the need to ease support problems for an ever rising range of applications, hardware and users makes standards something to use where applicable. The latest thing we are looking at in this area is a CGM tool for the Macintosh which can output CGM by selecting the option from the Chooser menu and can convert CGM to PICT. We are hoping to get a deal set up for this software. The advantage of this is that it can interface to any Mac product.
The LUT-CGM Toolkit, developed under Computer Board funding, is still available from Loughborough. This is a Fortran library for generating and interpreting CGMs which can be linked to other applications using drivers. The software and manuals can still be obtained by mailing cgm@lut.multics. If anyone wishes to take the software please do so before the middle of June. After that date it will be mounted for collection at an appropriate site but will no longer be supported.
A few packages I have recently tested have been added to the PC Graphics Survey Table. These are Freelance Plus from Lotus, Applause II from Ashton-Tate and SigmaPlot from Jandel Scientific. These packages offer a wide range of functionality with very good user interface and support (pop-up menus, on-line help, extended/expanded memory support, huge number of drivers plus CGM, etc.).
The first two are presentation type packages offering screen presentation with animation effects and also well supported picture libraries and backdrops. Applause II can also generate hierarchical organisation charts. Freelance Plus is in my view the better package as it has much better curve fitting facilities and it is very easy to use.
Sigma Plot is more suitable for scientific applications as it can perform complicated mathematical operations and statistical analysis on the data set, it can also perform nonlinear curve fitting and solve nonlinear equations. It has a very well designed user interface similar to that used in Microsoft Windows. However, as it is a scientific oriented package features such as 3D effects and a picture library are not supported.
If anyone requires more information I would be happy to send them the fully updated survey table.
Twelve US graphics experts will be visiting Edinburgh during the first week in July to participate in the ACM/BCS International Summer Institute on State of the Art in Computer Graphics. The Institute will be held at the Edinburgh Conference Centre, Riccarton, Edinburgh, 2-6 July 1990.
Dr James Clark, Chairman of Silicon Graphics Inc, Mountain View, California, formerly Professor at Stanford University and inventor of the Geometry Engine, will speak on the future of computer graphics. Prof Michael Cohen, University of Utah, will discuss realistic image synthesis with particular reference to the radiosity method. Dr Frank Crow, Xerox PARC, will address parallel processing techniques and computer graphics. Nick England, Director of SUN Visualization Products, and Mary Whitton, Director of Marketing, SUN Microsystems Inc, will review current trends and developments in graphics hardware. Prof Jim Foley, George Washington University (and co-author with A. van Dam of "Fundamentals of Interactive Computer Graphics") will give a presentation on the next generation of user interface tools. Prof Alain Fournier, University of British Columbia, and Director of Imager, will discuss the use of fractals and other random processes for modelling in computer graphics. Some of the most spectacular images have been created using these techniques. Prof Roy Hall of Cornell University, and formerly Director of Software Development at Wavefront Technologies Inc in Santa Barbara, California, will speak on the complexity and conceptual design of modelling tools. Paul Heckbert of the University of California at Berkeley, and formerly of MIT's Architecture Machine Group will address the topic of texture mapping. Prof Alistair Kilgour, Heriot Watt University, will examine the relationship between computer graphics and HCI issues. Michael Muuss, Ballistic Research Lab, will give presentations on the state of the art in solid modelling. Prof Leslie Piegl will discuss the use of B-splines for curves and surfaces in Computer Aided Design (CAD). Finally, Craig Upson of Stardent will give presentations on scientific visualisation and the way these techniques are being currently exploited in various application areas in the USA.
The material presented will review current developments, address state of the art issues, and provide a comprehensive and detailed update on current trends and developments in the hardware and software for computer graphics and CAD. Registration includes attendance at all lectures and printed versions of the lecture notes. Conference accommodation is provided at the Conference Centre for those requiring it. The Institute Banquet will be held at a Scottish Castle.
The Institute will be preceded by an intensive 2-day tutorial introduction to computer graphics presented by Prof David F Rogers, US Naval Academy, on 30 June - 1 July 1990 in the same venue. This will be especially valuable to those delegates new to the field of computer graphics and who would like an informative and dynamic introduction to this exciting field.
This international Institute will attract delegates from the US and Europe and will provide a forum for the exchange of ideas and information on current trends and developments. An Exhibition will display current state of the art products available in the market place. Places are limited so delegates are encouraged to apply early.
We are developing a book of articles on computer graphics development and applications using object-oriented programming languages and systems. The goal of this book is to seed the ideas of object-oriented programming widely in the graphics community, leading to an increased use of these techniques in graphics. This project has been submitted to a publisher for consideration, and we hope for rapid progress and a timely publication.
Authors are invited to submit three- to five-page abstracts of projected chapter-length articles describing concrete computer graphics work using object-oriented programming. This work can be in research, systems development or applications. The projected articles should describe the computer graphics itself, discuss the object-oriented design used and the objects and methods created for modelling and rendering, describe any interactive features of the software and their implementation and suggest directions for future work. We hope to have papers that describe a range of systems and applications built with a number of different object-oriented languages and systems and run on a variety of platforms. However, we do not want papers that deal specifically with graphical user interface toolkits, since these are already well described in the literature.
Interested persons are invited to send an abstract by June 15, 1990 or to contact the editor, listed below, for more information. By July 15 we will invite selected authors to develop articles from their abstracts, and will have more specific guidelines for these articles at that time. Articles will be invited based on their general fit with the topics of the book, but we will not make final decisions on the contents of the book until finished articles are received. However, we will have short timelines and will move quickly to choose the final set of articles so we can get this project out in a timely fashion. Authors of published articles will share in whatever advance the book receives.
We would like to hear as soon as possible from persons planning to submit abstracts so we may keep you informed of the progress of this project. Contact the project editor or send abstracts to him at:
Steve CunninghamThis project also has an Editorial Board of:
We look forward to hearing from you!
The EG UK Conference was this year held at Bath for the second time, from the 9th -11th April.
The themes of Geographical Information Systems and Computer Aided Art and Design proved to be popular and timely. The 140 people who attended the conference went away in a positive mood following this well organised event.
The theme of Geographical Information Systems was picked up in the tutorial by Ian Bracken who addressed the role of graphics in handling geographic information. This theme was also the area of interest of the opening speaker, Professor Mike Batty from Cardiff. He looked at the use of fractals in geography with particular reference to his own research interest of modelling urban growth and land use. The GIS theme was also the subject of the final paper by Neil Wiseman of Cambridge University who looked at the subject of hardware components for GISs.
The other tutorials were on Sculpting and Painting by computer by Stephen Todd, William Latham and Tunde Cockshot and on the Visualisation of Scientific Data by Mikael Jern.
For many people one of the highlights of the conference was the paper by John Halas (of Halas and Batchelor) who talked about creativity with computer graphics. He let pictures emphasise the points he was making particularly the point that animation using computer has not progressed since 1985 (he did say that this was a point many would disagree with). Many of us were perhaps left wondering if the beauty of his Butterfly Ball could be superseded by computers!
The papers at the conference addressed aspects of the conference themes, but also touched on other areas of current interest. The new structure of the event allowed for the presentation of a wide range of papers including research, applications and commercial developments. This format proved to be popular, giving attendees a choice of sessions in parallel streams.
The Ken Brodlie Prize (£50 and a bottle of Glenfidich for the best paper) was awarded to Rob Fletcher and John Local from the University of York for their paper on Graphics that Speak.
No event would be complete without the chance to chat with people informally and a visit to the Exhibition of photographs and artefacts by Lord Snowdon at the Royal Photographic Society and the conference dinner at the Pump Rooms (including a visit to the Roman Baths) were very much enjoyed.
The conference next year is in Sheffield (10-12th April) where the themes of the conference will be Computer Imaging and Image Processing and also Computer Graphics and Sports Science (tying in with the World Student Games which are in Sheffield in July 1991 and which are the largest sporting event outside the Olympics).
