AfriGraph 2007
AfriGraph 2007 (the 5th International Conference on Virtual Reality, Computer Graphics, Visualization and Interaction in Africa) was hosted by the Department of Computer Science from 29–31 October 2007. This international conference was a great success, attracting participants from 13 different countries, as far afield as Canada and Japan. There was also a very good mix of academic and industry presentations.
The
keynote speaker was Professor Tom Furness, the founder of the Human
Interface Technology Lab (HIT Lab) at the University of Washington.
Referred to as the "Grandfather of Virtual Reality" due to his outstanding
contribution to the advancement of this field, Tom Furness was responsible for
the development of a new family of virtual interfaces that evolved into what we
know today as virtual reality. He pioneered the development of both
virtual displays and head-mounted tracking systems, 3D sound systems and other
interfaces. Professor Furness has been widely recognized for his
outstanding career, he received the Satava Award (with the HIT Lab) for advances
in medical technology and in 1998 he also received the Discover Award for
Technological Innovation for his ground-breaking technology: the Virtual Retinal
Display (the award is considered the equivalent of an Oscar for Science and
Engineering).
There were a number of exciting new activities at Afrigraph 2007. Two top-class tutorials were given, the first by Dave Shreiner, OpenGL expert and co-author of the famous "Red Book" for OpenGL programming. The second tutorial was given by Gladimir Baranoski and Aravind Krishnaswamy from the University of Waterloo, Canada, on light interaction with human skin.
Also new to Afrigraph this year was participation from the Animation industry in South Africa. In particular, Mike Buckland from Triggerfish studios, and Jess Giles and Antony Steel from Firefly Animation presented talks on their work, and technical problems they face regarding computer animation. In addition, demo reels from a number of South African animation studios were presented during the conference. This year also saw the first Art and Animation gallery, which displayed 18 artworks and animations submitted by students in the field.
Two prizes were awarded for outstanding contribution to the conference. The Best Paper award was presented to Olivier Clément from École de Technologie Supérieure in Montreal Canada for his paper entitled "Efficient Editing of Aged Object Textures". The Best Artwork award was presented to Mashaole Makwela on behalf of Adrian Burger and his team of animators from AFDA Animation School for the short film entitled "He will fly".
 Olivier Clément |
 Mashaole Makwela |
The overall conference chair was Dr. Hannah Slay, while Prof. Shaun Bangay acted as the programme chair, and Kevin Glass arranged the art and animation exhibitions and poster presentations.
 Conference Game Drive |
 Art and animation display |