Preview of Wolfram Visualization Technologies at SIGGRAPH 2006

July 31, 2006--Wolfram Research is exhibiting at SIGGRAPH 2006 in Boston, Massachusetts, from July 30 through August 3. Wolfram's Mathematica has long been known for its sophisticated visualization functionality and prototyping environment, but new technologies currently under development will solidly establish the company as a key provider of interactive graphics and visualizations. Wolfram representatives will demonstrate current and upcoming features in booth #1501 in the main exhibit hall, and Director of Research and Development Roger Germundsson will also give a presentation on Tuesday, August 1, at 2 p.m. EDT in the AMD booth (#806).

Wolfram's presence at SIGGRAPH signifies the onset of a new era in technical visualization. Mathematica has always allowed users to do analytic explorations, but now it highly improves the visual experience and expands the possibilities for technical visualization in mainstream applications. Upcoming technologies enable users to harness all Mathematica's renowned symbolic and numeric capabilities to create high-quality, interactive graphics and images.

Mathematica's ability to adopt virtually any format--including companies' own custom extensions--for multidimensional printing and post-processing is what attracted the attention of 3D-printer Z Corporation, which is also exhibiting at SIGGRAPH this year. The upcoming advancements in Mathematica also include optimization and implementation of features in products from other Wolfram partners, including 3Dconnexion (a Logitech company), NVIDIA Corporation, Scalable Display Technologies, and SensAble Technologies. All these companies will be exhibiting at SIGGRAPH 2006, and event attendees may see some Wolfram technologies on display in their booths as well.

With Mathematica, what was previously impossible will now be possible for the everyday user, as many complex visualizations can be accomplished with a single command. "By figuring out how to incorporate adaptive methods into surface plotting algorithms, Mathematica has allowed users to generate spectacular renditions of both familiar and unfamiliar surfaces. I speak from experience when I say it can take months to develop the proper coordinate system for a particular surface. Wolfram's new adaptive approach gets the same result using very general methods that are very robust, for standard coordinate systems and for parametrically defined surfaces as well, which widens the scope tremendously," said Dr. Stan Wagon, an award-winning mathematical sculptor, author, and professor.

"We are very excited by the features we've currently got in development, and we know users will be as well," said Germundsson. "We've had a lot of interest in our new functionality and formats, so we encourage people to come see us at SIGGRAPH and look for us at other venues. We think everyone--especially those working with active content, peripheral extensions, and post-processing techniques--will be very pleasantly surprised to find out what Mathematica is capable of, and to realize the resultant productivity boost."

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