Computer graphics in Brazil

Computer graphics in Brazil is entering a mature era, wi th well-established and successful research and commercial initiatives ongoing.The best results in both areas can be seen in the Brazilian Conference for Computer Graphics and Image Processing (SIBGRAPI), and in video productions for "IV. Some of the most prestigious Brazilian universities have excellent computer graphics programs for graduate courses, and also offer basic courses in this area for undergraduate study. Historically, the first Brazilian initiatives in computer graphics have been related to computer-aided design (CAD) and, therefore, to modeling and rendering. Nowadays, diverse fields from computer graphics and related areas are being studied in universities and applied by the industry and service bureaus. The Web, in particular, has been experiencing a great explosion in our country. The combination of multimedia and networking technologies, along wi th strong design concepts, has led to a large number of Web site providers and end users.The majority of large and medium-sized Brazilian companies have their own Web sites, while an increasing number of small companies and personal accounts are setting up on the Internet.There are currently more than 500,000 Inrernet users in Brazil, with projections showing char this number may reach one million by the end of 1998. With a population of approximately 160 million, Brazil needs to use computer graphics to better serve society. This can be achieved through the exploitation of technological advances applied to the most diverse types of areas. Computer graphics will be used as a support for all types of human-computer interaction, an example being graphical interfaces for diagnosis in relemedicine allowing better service to remote communities. Another metric of the Brazilian involvement with computer graphics is our participation in SIGGRAPH, with a few hundred Brazilians attending every conference the last few years. Furthermore, some papers, courses and developments have also been presented by outslanding research groups at this conference.