The event (in Vila Real) brought together national and international experts in the field of computer graphics; it’s worth highlighting the keynote speech by Augusto de Sousa, INESC TEC researcher, and the presentation of the Professor José Luís Encarnação Award, which acknowledged the Institute’s research.
For two days, the University of Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro (UTAD), welcomed a discussion on recent developments in computer graphics – with the participation of INESC TEC researchers. Organised annually by the Grupo Português de Computação Gráfica, the International Conference on Graphics and Interaction explored the latest research in the area, with 22 presentations, two poster sittings and two sessions with guest speakers.
Some of the topics discussed included AI for graphics and interaction, serious games, computer visualisation, digital arts, virtual and augmented reality, etc. Several NESC TEC researchers who authored some of the works presented during the conference explored these questions. INESC TEC was also represented by Augusto de Sousa, a researcher at the institution and founding member of the Grupo Português de Computação Gráfica.
The creation of this group was discussed during the session “Origin and Path of GPCG”, in which Augusto de Sousa, together with João Cunha, a retired researcher from the Laboratório Nacional de Engenharia Civil (LNEC), presented the history of the group, highlighting what motivated its creation and evolution, and the activities carried out for more than 35 years. The International Conference on Graphics and Interaction also welcomed Sylvia Xueni Pan, a virtual reality expert and professor at the University of London, with the presentation “Virtual Social Interaction”.
During the event, with close to 50 participants and European, Asian and American representatives, there was also an opportunity to grant the Professor José Luís Encarnação Award – established in 2010 to acknowledge the best scientific work in computer graphics developed by a student. This year’s winner was Diogo Almeida, with the work SIT6: Indirect touch-based object manipulation for DeskVR, supervised by Rui Rodrigues and Daniel Mendes, researchers at INESC TEC.
The work, dedicated to the application of virtual reality to professional contexts, explores the manipulation of objects to overcome the difficulties associated with the development of adequate movement techniques to this type of environment. The Scaled Indirect Touch 6-DOF was the solution introduced by this work – which consists of an object manipulation technique based on indirect touch that incorporates the mapping of received information to solve precision and out-of-range element problems in the manipulation process.
The researchers mentioned in this news piece are associated with INESC TEC and UP-FEUP.
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