Date:    Mon, 5 Jun 2000 09:57:02 -0400 (EDT)
From:    Colin Godfrey <cgodfrey@cs.umb.edu>
Subject: SIGGRAPH/Boston at MERL, Wed 14 June

                 SIGGRAPH/Boston Meeting Announcement
                     including chapter elections

                       Wednesday, 14 June 2000
       Mitsubishi Electric Research Labs, 201 Broadway, Cambridge MA


          Surfels - Surface Elements as Rendering Primitives
                      by Hanspeter Pfister, MERL


Abstract

  This project is motivated by the desire to render complex three
  dimensional objects as efficiently as possible.  The fundamental
  approach of this research is to use surfels (or surface elements)
  as an alternative display primitive.  Surfels are point samples of
  a graphics model.  In a preprocessing step, we sample the surfaces
  of complex geometric models along three orthographic views.  At the
  same time, we perform computation-intensive calculations such as
  texture, bump, or displacement mapping.  During rendering, a
  hierarchical forward warping algorithm projects surfels to the
  screen.

  Surfel objects offer complex shape, low rendering cost and high
  image quality, which makes them specifically suited for low-cost,
  real-time graphics, such as games.  By moving rasterization and
  texturing from the core rendering pipeline to the preprocessing
  step, we dramatically reduce the rendering cost.  From a modeling
  point of view, the surfel representation provides a mere
  discretization of the geometry and hence reduces the object
  representation to the essentials needed for rendering.  In a sense,
  a surfel relates to what has been called the ``lingua franca'' of
  rendering.

  Images and more information: http://www.merl.com/projects/surfels/


About the Speaker

  Hanspeter Pfister is a Research Scientist at MERL - A Mitsubishi
  Electric Research Laboratory in Cambridge, MA.  He is the chief
  architect of VolumePro, Mitsubishi Electric's real-time volume
  rendering system for PC-class computers.  His research interests
  include computer graphics, scientific visualization, computer
  architecture, and VLSI design.  Hanspeter Pfister received his PhD
  in Computer Science in 1996 from the State University of New York
  at Stony Brook.  In his doctoral research he developed Cube-4, a
  scalable architecture for real-time volume rendering.  He received
  his Dipl.-Ing.  degree in electrical engineering from the
  Department of Electrical Engineering at the Swiss Federal Institute
  of Technology (ETH) Zurich in 1991.  He is a member of the ACM,
  IEEE, the IEEE Computer Society, and the Eurographics Association.
  More details at http://www.merl.com/people/pfister/.


Chapter Elections

  Every two years chapter officers are elected for a two year term at
  the last meeting of the season, and this is it.  The elected
  positions are chair, vice chair, treasurer, and secretary.  As of
  today (5 June) only one person has announced candidacy for each of
  chair, vice chair, and treasurer, and none for secretary.  There
  will be opportunities for members to make nominations at the
  meeting, and yes, you can nominate yourself.  To nominate a
  candidate before the meeting, please contact any member of the
  nominating committee:

    Olin Lathrop, olin@cognivis.com, (978) 772-3129
    Randall Warniers, warniers@ll.mit.edu
    Mark Anderson, mark.w.anderson@autodesk.com, (603) 428-5043


When

  Networking time will start around 6:15pm.  The meeting will start
  at 7:00 with brief announcement followed by elections.  The feature
  presentation should start around 7:30 - 7:45.


Directions to Mitsubishi Electric Research Labs, 201 Broadway:

  Via T

    Get off the T at the Kendall Square stop on the Red Line.  Exit
    from the subway and then walk directly into the lobby of the
    Marriott hotel, which is on a courtyard adjacent to the subway
    exit.  Walk straight through the lobby and out the opposite side
    of the building.  The street you are facing is Broadway.  Turn
    left.  Walk through 3 traffic lights.  201 broadway is the first
    building on your right after the third light.  We are on the 8th
    floor.

  Driving

    From the intersection of Storrow Drive and Cambridge Street, take
    the Longfellow bridge over the Charles river to Cambridge.  Drive
    straight on away from the river.  You are on Broadway.  Go
    through one traffic light (the Marriot hotel is now on your
    left).  Continue straight through two more traffic lights (you
    are now passing over some railroad tracks).  (Between the first
    and second of these traffic lights is a parking garage open to
    the public.  Depending on the time of day there may also be on
    street parking availabe near MERL.)  Continue straight through
    one more light (Mitsubishi is the first building on your right
    after this light).  It says 201 in large numbers on the corner of
    the building.  MERL is on the eighth floor.

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