SIGGRAPH 1998
Page 2

Well today was the day the real fun began. It started with Doug getting to see stacks of his wonderfully popular book.

I was very pleased with the first thing I got to see which was a stereoscopic viewing assembly with motion control. It has a fixed base with dual LCD screens and was very affordable at about $10k per unit.

I headed over to Barco like I do every year and they were not as rude as usual maybe had something to do with having a smaller booth. Anyways this unit had a unique feature of having a motorized control mechanism to go completely vertical and raised to be used as a desk or a wall display.

Another tradition is the glove devices. I can't think of any good use for them. Not because they don't work or even seem kewl, it's look at all these wires. I am really impressed by the streamlined technology more than anything else these days.

Another amazing product and I hope he gets the local partners he needs to get his business running. They take 2 lasers and where they intersect in the leaded crystal they make a small crack. They can take any model and create these wonderful works of art and quite reasonably. He only wanted $200 for these models.

This guy was here last year with this thrown together device. It was a great concept way below even prototype using touchpads on a cube to control rotation and movement of an object in 3-space. He was very nice last year and even let me take pictures. This year he was back with this very slick prototype he says it may be out next year.

They are not getting much larger but the desktop size LCD flat panel displays are dropping in price and this is the one I check out every year. Maybe I will find bigger ones tomorrow.

This surprised me. Wacom whose pen and tablet I have been using since last SIGGRAPH has integrated their tablet technology with an active matrix LCD screen. I want one and it wasn't that expensive at under $3000.

I peak at them because they are kewl looking but these terabyte Raid arrays are out of my price range. I would love the storage space and it is fun to watch the motorized arm grab and move the drives around. What I need is that arm with my video tapes so I don't have to get up when changing movies.

I don't know whose booth this was. I look all over and saw a logo and a giant screen but it is a good example of the spectacle a company will put on to attract business. I just don't know what business.

It was not as hokey as you might think a company hired these professional Blues Brothers to come and perform for their booth. I have not seen their act yet but they were very nice and we talked for a while. A friend of theirs came up and I took a group shot for them. She was modeling for a motion capture system which explains all the wiring.

ILM (Industrial Light & Magic) always has some models and production stuff on display so I grabbed a shot of the dog from The Mask.

Under the category of HOLY SHIT comes this amazing device off in the corner for the last hall. It is a prototype display that uses prisms and a plasma display to produce 3-D images without glasses of any type. It is meant for one person and even tracks where the head is to keep the image correct. Imagine those lenticular movie posters that are 3-D but on a computer screen and with motion. AMAZING, this is the future of viewing technology.

These people and I have to talk. They make the multimedia domes rooms and the giant multimedia halls. I have an appointment tomorrow and this is the display they show. It is hard to see but it is a very large sort of cylinder of viewing area. Very nice.

Every year they also have these game chairs. Most are just vibrating chairs and look cheap. This was sleek gave a lot of motion and I want to go back tomorrow and try it. Also I saw a man in a wonderful workstation chair/couch thing but I didn't get a picture of it yet.