If you were n’t among the attendees atSIGGRAPHin Boston this workweek , do n’t feel ill for missing one of the things in abundance at the one-year computer graphics and interactive proficiency trade show : the city ’s skyrocketing temperatures . Thankfully , the Boston Convention & Exposition Center maintain its cool , a benediction to those of us plod the show floor , heavy bag in towage .

And there was a lot of show floor on which to trudge . This year ’s SIGGRAPH boasted a somewhat hefty display hall , courses , panels , and more special upshot than Steve Jobs has turtlenecks . The swop show give to Boston for the first fourth dimension since 1989 , bringing with it 25,000 attendees .

Here are some highlights from the past week of graphic body process .

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married couple made in heaven ?

My hope of an all - vocalizing , all - trip the light fantastic Sharks - vs.-Jets - style face-off between rival graphics makersnVidiaandATIwere woefully dashed . And the only wave coming off of chip - Godhead AMD ’s $ 5.4 billion purchase of ATI seemed to be solace wave of felicity . At the passing event for its newQuadro Plex ocular computing system , nVidia seemed quite contented to bill itself as “ the only remain main GPU - maker , ” while on the show floor , reps at AMD were modestly pleased about the acquisition .

Apple MIA ?

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I did discover that Apple was present at the SIGGRAPH Job Fair , but the company was absent on the show storey itself . Nevertheless , Mac hardware was out in full force-out , both behind the scene and on display , though I saw more than one booth using Apple monitor link to Windows machine , let in the booth define up by — pant — Walt Disney . To top that off , a video clip at the Disney display also showed the villain from the upcoming animated featureMeet the Robinsonsprofessing his hero worship of Steve Jobs . Careful guys , or you ’ll have an angry stockholder on mitt at the next board meeting .

Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories DiamondTouch table interface

Bright son

I got a opportunity to seeNEC’smonitor lines up close and personal , and I have to say that its raw mannequin , the first backlit by white LEDs alternatively of established fluorescent fixture twinkle , is plausibly the shining LCD monitor I have ever see . The colors pop off the screen , so pictorial they ’re almost artificial . Other display that look beautiful when regard alone , including NEC ’s own professional product line offerings , seem gray and wan in a side - by - side comparison . Then again , double the power consumption and a $ 7,000 price - shred are sizeable tradeoff to make .

Putting the ‘ touchy ’ in ‘ touchy - feely ’

TheEmerging Technology sectionof the conference have Jeff Han ’s Multi - Touch Screen , which looks like something straight out of Minority Report . ( Macworldcovered Jeff Han ’s work before at the O’Reilly Emerging Technology 2006 conference and in a Macworld Podcast episode . ) In fact , spot interfaces were everywhere at SIGGRAPH . Mitsubishi was showing off its DiamondTouch table video display on the show storey , but there was also a large speck - raw flat - screen display in one of the lobbies that you could expend to control your flight status . Touch - silver screen technology is hardly Modern , but it ’s one of those things that I always find myself wondering why it is n’t in wider use .

Putting the ‘ feely ’ in ‘ touchy - feely ’

Even check your flight position could be done by tactual sensation in the SIGGRAPH lobby .

certain , touching - base interfaces are red-hot than a Core Duo processor , but what ’s even effective ? Interfaces that touch back . I ’ll admit it , I had no idea what the word “ haptics ” mean prior to attending SIGGRAPH , but now I ’m convinced that it ’ll likely be the next major revolution in computing . Even though our mitt are an crucial part of computing , we totally neutralize their usefulness as sensing element . The highlight here was plausibly the Virtual Open Heart Surgery , which appeared real enough that I quail when one gammon - handed drug user jabbed his tweezers rather harshly into the electronic organ ’s outside . Somewhat stranger was a machine that could generate a directive “ tugging ” force by moral excellence of an electric motor . The developer hint it could be used in cellular telephone phones to provide direction by touch , or on an iPod to “ show&38221 ; the user how much of its capacity has been used by simulate weight . I retrieve ’ ’ll stick with a screen for that , thanks .

The human race ’s largest Etch A survey

The topper for the conference was the two - hr show of the twelvemonth ’s best in computer artwork . Even well than that were the pre - show festivities , which pitted one side of the auditorium against the other in a jumbo Pong - corresponding game , then made them wreak together to suck condition on the world ’s largest Etch A Sketch .

[ Dan Moren is a freelancer writer who lend toMacUserandMacworld ’s Gadgetbox Blog . ]