Computer Graphics
Compute Vision
Image/Video Processing 
Visualization 
Non-Photorealistic Rendering 
Animation 
Multimedia 
Virtual Reality/Augmented Reality 
Digital Art 
E-Heritage 
Video Game 
Content Design 
Affective Computing

July 9 (Fri.)

Keynote: Social Robots: a Dream or a today Reality?

Presenter: Prof. Nadia Magnenat-Thalmann, MIRALab, University of Geneva, Switzerland

Biography: Professor Thalmann is the Director of the interdisciplinary Institute for Media Innovation. She has authored dozens of books, published more than 700 papers on virtual humans/virtual worlds and social robots (jointly with her PhD students), organised major conferences as CGI, CASA, IEEE, and delivered more than 300 keynote addresses, some of them at global events such as the World Economic Forum in Davos.
During her illustrious career, she also established MIRALab at the University of Geneva in Switzerland, a ground-breaking interdisciplinary multimedia research institute. She participated in more than 50 European research projects, helping MIRALab to develop revolutionising interdisciplinary research in computer graphics, computer animation, and virtual worlds and producing impactful work that synergises art, fashion, computer graphics. Her work is regularly displayed at museums, galleries and fashion shows. Herhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nadia_Magnenat_Thalmann recent work includes the 3D virtual patient, including a case study on visualizing the articulations of ballerinas while dancing or soccer players.
In NTU, Singapore, recently, she revolutionized social robotics by unveiling the first social robot Nadine that can have mood and emotions and remember people and actions. (See wikipedia: social Nadine robot).
Besides having bachelor's and master's degrees in disciplines such as psychology, biology, chemistry and computer science, Professor Thalmann completed her PhD in quantum physics at the University of Geneva. She has received honorary doctorates from Leibniz University of Hannover and the University of Ottawa in Canada and several prestigious other awards as the Humboldt Research Award in Germany.
She is Editor-in-Chief of The Visual Computer, co-Editor-in-Chief of Computer Animation and Virtual Worlds, and editor of many other scientific journals. She is a life member of the Swiss Academy of Engineering Sciences. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nadia_Magnenat_Thalmann

Abstract: Since very early time, people were dreaming of automating human functions. Some examples date out of the antiquity and this dream towards automation went on during all the time, particularly in the middle age with Leonardo da Vinci who developed its mechanical automatons. Very early on time, philosophers were asking what is typically human, particularly what is really intelligence and if animals could think. At the beginning of the 19th Century, we have seen quite a lot of beautiful automatons, that were able to play piano, or write text or sing. In the middle of the fifties, the Turing test proved that a machine can think. Nowadays, with the large use of deep learning algorithms, machines are able to mimic the human intelligence. But is it really the case and what is missing ?
In fact, intelligence is more than logic intelligence. In real life, we use emotional and social intelligence, memory, recall and motivation, multiparty interaction, self-awareness, etc. But the difficulty is how can we model these various aspects of behaviour in a machine and in which context. This presentation will show the state of the art in social robotics, how we model various functionalities. In this presentation, we will show what a social robot can do today, and what is still missing to have a real companion robot. We will show some examples of our social NADINE in a Museum, working in an insurance company and even in an elderly home. We will also discuss how these social robots will live with us in the future and how they need to be empowered to be our truly social companion.

July 10 (Sat.)

Keynote: JIZAI: Beyond Human Limits

Presenter: Prof. Masahiko Inami, Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology, the University of Tokyo

Biography: Dr. Masahiko Inami took up his current position as professor at the University of Tokyo after working at the University of Electro-Communications and Keio University. His interests include “JIZAI body editing technology,” the Augmented Human, and entertainment engineering. He has received several awards, including TIME Magazine’s “Coolest Invention of the Year” award and the Young Scientist Award from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology (MEXT). He is also the co-representative of the Superhuman Sports Society, a director of the Virtual Reality Society of Japan, and a member of the Science Council of Japan. His latest book is called “Theory of JIZAI Body" (NTS Publishing, Inc).

Abstract: The social revolutions have accompanied innovation of the view of the body. If we regard the information revolution as establishment of a virtual society against the real society, it is necessary to design a new view of body "JIZAI body (Virtual Cyborg)", which can adapt freely to the change of social structure, and establish a new view of the body.
In this talk, we discuss how we understand of basic knowledge about the body editing for construction of JIZAI body (Virtual Cyborg) based on VR, AR and Robotics. Superhuman Sports: Applying Human Augmentation to Physical Exercise. This talk will also present Superhuman Sports, a form of "Human-Computer Integration” to overcome somatic and spatial limitation of humanity by merging technology with the body.