INVITED SESSIONS
A number of Keynotes, Invited Special Sessions as well as Invited Speakers Panel are being planned. CGI 2019 has an exciting line up of invited session talks from internationally recognized experts in the fields of Computer Graphics, Human Centered Computing, Social Robots, Virtual and Augmented Reality, Geometric Processing, Biometrics, Machine Intelligence and Medicine and Art. List of confirmed invited speakers for June 17th 2019 is provided below. Each talk will be 30 minutes long. Exact presentation times will be found in the final version of the conference program.
CGI is pleased to confirm Invited Keynotes:
KEYNOTE 1

Prof. Junsong Yuan
University at Buffalo, State University of New York, USA
Title: Hand Sensing for Augmented Interaction
Abstract: Hands are crucial for humans to interact with physical world and virtual environments. In social interactions, we also rely on our hand gestures to communicate with each other. In this talk, I will discuss real-time human hand sensing using various cameras. Neural network based approaches are proposed to address the high-dimensional regression problem of articulated hand pose estimation and hand shape estimation. The resulting systems can facilitate intelligent interactions in virtual and real environments using bare hands. Moreover, with the understanding of hand gestures, robots can better sense the intentions of humans, and communicate with them in a more natural way. Applications in virtual/augmented reality, tele-operation, human-robot interaction will also be discussed.
Bio: Junsong Yuan is an Associate Professor and Director of Visual Computing Lab at Department of Computer Science and Engineering, State University of New York at Buffalo, USA. Before that he was an Associate Professor at Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore. He received his PhD from Northwestern University and M.Eng. from National University of Singapore. He is currently Senior Area Editor of Journal of Visual Communications and Image Representation (JVCI), Associate Editor of IEEE Trans. on Image Processing (T-IP), IEEE Trans. on Circuits and Systems for Video Technology (T-CSVT), and The Visual Computer (TVC). He also served as Area Chair for CVPR, ICIP, ICPR, ACCV, ACM MM, WACV etc. He received 2016 Best Paper Award from IEEE Trans. on Multimedia, Nanyang Assistant Professorship from NTU, and Outstanding EECS Ph.D. Thesis award from Northwestern University. He is a Fellow of International Association of Pattern Recognition (IAPR).
KEYNOTE 2

Prof. Nadia Magnenat Thalmann
University of Geneva, Switzerland and NTU, Singapore
Title: Social Humanoid Robots: What for, What next?
Abstract: Since more than a decade, researchers have started to produce realistic social humanoid robots. The early pioneers have produced robots similar to themselves as Professor Hishiguro in Japan, Others as David Hanson have represented their wife or companion. There was a willingness since the beginning of producing humanoid robots to clone the face of a well- known person and produce it most of the time as a selfie robot. Now we are moving on and social humanoid robots start to be used in various settings as receptionist or customer agent. In our talk, we will show the research done around Nadine and the AI modules that allow her to perceive her environment as well as those who allow her to understand the language and gestures and also use a memory. We will show how we build new 3D robots from scan to 3D modelling, 3D fabrication and the production of motors. Concrete Case studies will be shown of Nadine at the ArtScience Museum and Nadine working in an insurance company in Singapore. Ethical part and what is expected in the behaviour of a robot will be also be discussed and presented as future interdisciplinary research.
Bio: Professor Thalmann joined NTU in August 2009 as the Director of the interdisciplinary Institute for Media Innovation. She has authored dozens of books, published more than 600 papers on virtual humans/virtual worlds and social robots (jointly with her PhD students), organized major conferences as CGI, CASA, 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 in Switzerland, a ground-breaking interdisciplinary multimedia research institute. She participated in more than 50 European research projects, helping MIRALab to develop revolutionizing interdisciplinary research in computer graphics, computer animation, and virtual worlds and producing impactful work that synergizes art, fashion, computer graphics. Her work is regularly displayed at museums, galleries and fashion shows. Her most 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. 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.
Dr. Dietmar Hildenbrand, Technical University of Darmstadt, Germany
Introduction to Geometric Algebra Computing
Prof. Hiroshi Ishikawa, Waseda University, Japan
Higher-Order Random Fields for Image Segmentation
Prof. Christian Jacob, University of Calgary, Canada
LINDSAY Body Universes: Immersive Story Telling about the Human Body
Prof. Xiaoyang Mao, University of Yamanashi, Japan
Arriving light Control for Optical See-Through Head-Mounted Display
Prof. James Parker, University of Calgary, Canada
Generative Art: Randomness as an Artistic Tool
Prof. Khalid Saeed, Bialystok University of Technology Poland
Medical Aspects in Biometrics: Prospects and Challenges
Prof. Daniel Thalmann, EPFL, Switzerland
Living and Playing in Virtual Reality: A Few Case Studies
Prof. Franz-Erich Wolter, Leibniz University of Hannover, Germany
Differential Geometric Instruments for Power Flow Computing and Beyond
Prof. Xiaosong Yang, Bournemouth University, UK
Computer Animation Techniques for Surgery Simulation
Prof. Svetlana Yanushkevich, University of Calgary, Canada
Smart Environments: from Machine Learning to Machine Reasoning
Invited CGI Panel will take place on Wednesday June 19th.
Moderator: Prof. Marina Gavrilova, University of Calgary
Invited Speakers: Prof. Jian Chang, Prof. Hiroshi Ishikawa, Prof. Nadia Magnenat Thalmann, Prof. Daniel Thalmann and Prof. Franz-Erich Wolter.