ISPR Presence News

Monthly Archives: November 2009

Call: Chapters for Multiple Sensorial Media Advances and Applications

CALL FOR CHAPTERS
Proposals Submission Deadline: 12/20/2009

Multiple Sensorial Media Advances and Applications:
New Developments in MulSeMedia
A book edited by Dr. George Ghinea (Brunel University), Dr. Frederic Andres (CVCE/NII), and Dr.
Stephen Gulliver (University of Reading)

Introduction

Traditionally, multimedia applications have primarily engaged two of the human senses – the audio and the visual – out of the five possible. With recent advances in computational technology, it is now possible to talk of applications that engage the other three senses, as well: tactile, olfaction, and gustatory. This integration leads to a paradigm shift away from the old multimedia towards the newmulsemedia – multiple sensorial media.

Recommended Topics

Mulsemedia brings with itself new and exciting challenges and opportunities in research, industry, commerce, and academia. This book solicits chapters dealing with mulsemedia in all of these areas.… read more. “Call: Chapters for Multiple Sensorial Media Advances and Applications”

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Cyberpets: All creatures great and virtual

[From the UK’s Independent]

Cyberpets: All creatures great and virtual

They’re cleaner, tamer and more obedient than real animals – and the newest cyber-pets are more ‘life-like’ than ever, says Toby Green

Wednesday, 4 November 2009

They don’t bite, they don’t make a mess on the carpet and they don’t cost anything to feed. The appeal of virtual animals is clear. Both cute and attentive, they treat you as if you are the centre of their world – without any vet’s fees. Video games involving animals are perfect family fun, and come in many forms.  Virtual pets have been particularly popular – over 70 million Tamagotchi toys, the Japanese handheld digital pet, have been sold, while the Nintendogs series, in which the player looks after a virtual puppy on their DS, has been a major seller for Nintendo since its launch in 2005.… read more. “Cyberpets: All creatures great and virtual”

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Second Life steps into the enterprise

[From InformationWeek]

Second Life Steps Into The Enterprise

Companies can now run their own, private version of the virtual world in their data centers, for added security and control.

By Mitch Wagner
InformationWeek
November 4, 2009 10:10 AM

Second Life is attracting a cult following among businesses, who say the virtual world gives them richer collaboration than teleconference calls or video conferences. But Second Life still has limitations that pose barriers to enterprise adoption.

One of the major limitations is that Linden Lab, which developed and operates Second Life, runs the service on its own server farms. This software-as-a-service model creates problems for user control and confidentiality of sensitive conversations.

But Linden Lab is working to change that. The company plans on Wednesday to launch open beta for Second Life Enterprise, a $55,000 hardware appliance that enterprises can install in their data centers. … read more. “Second Life steps into the enterprise”

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Birthing mannequins help students prepare

[From The Orlando Sentinel via PostStar.com]

Birthing mannequins help students prepare

By Fernando Quintero The Orlando Sentinel | Posted: Sunday, November 15, 2009

ORLANDO, Fla. — The group of University of Central Florida nursing students stood at a laboring mother’s bedside, their eyes glued to laptop screens that monitored both her and her baby’s heartbeats.

“I feel really strange. There’s something pulsating between my legs,” she said, her chest rising and falling. Then, she screamed. “The baby’s coming!”

Moments later, a baby boy cried and kicked, his umbilical cord still pulsating.

The day’s lesson was on mother and child pre- and post-delivery assessment following natural childbirth. The patients, however, were quite unnatural.

Meet Birthing Noelle and Baby Hal, the newest addition to UCF College of Nursing’s growing group of simulated patients. The life-sized, computerized mannequins have pulses, breathe, move, speak and cry.… read more. “Birthing mannequins help students prepare”

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AR now and in the future

[From The Lubbock (Texas) Avalanche-Journal]

Columnists

Duff: Augmented Reality may be next big thing, but it’s still science fiction

Lubbock Avalanche-Journal
Friday, November 13, 2009
Story last updated at 11/13/2009

Today’s buzzword is Augmented Reality.

The technical definition is, “a display in which simulated imagery, graphics, or symbology is superimposed on a view of the surrounding environment.”

In plain English, Augmented Reality allows you to view things in the real world with computer graphics and text added to it.

There are already a variety of AR applications in development. iPhone application developers are working on apps that can help you find friends, taxis, bathrooms, restaurants and dating prospects by overlaying information over the view captured by the phone’s camera.

This is kind of a clumsy way to do AR, but it’s the best we can do until we make the leap to goggles or contacts.… read more. “AR now and in the future”

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Advanced 3D avatars

[From the Spring 2009 issue of Brain Matters on the web site of the UT Dallas Center for BrainHealth]

Face Reality in the Virtual World

T. Boone Pickens stood in front of a large computer monitor and smiled. On the screen, a 3D model of a character (called an avatar) that extraordinarily resembled him returned the identical smile, down to the slight tilt of the head, in real time. Then the renowned entrepreneur, philanthropist, and generous supporter of the UT Dallas Center for BrainHealth frowned. His computerized doppelganger flashed him the exact scowl in return. The prescient businessman with the proven ability to recognize true innovation left the high-tech presentation mightily impressed.

BrainHealth researchers striving to help individuals who struggle with the processing of social information, specialists from UT Dallas and its Arts and Technology program, Ph.D.s from UT Arlington, and a handful of energetic freelance computer geniuses joined forces to create a brave new world of virtual reality technology actively employing computer-based face recognition.… read more. “Advanced 3D avatars”

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Virtual reality games could help bullying victims

[From the News & Events section of the web site of The University of Warwick]

Virtual reality games could help bullying victims

Monday November 9, 2009

Virtual reality games could help children to escape victimisation and bullying at school, according to researchers at the University of Warwick.

Children who took part in a three-week anti-bullying virtual learning intervention in schools in the UK and Germany showed a 26% decrease in victimisation.

In the study, published in The Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, Maria Sapouna and Professor Dieter Wolke from Warwick Medical School and the Department of Psychology at the University of Warwick led a team of researchers to examine the effects of an anti-bullying virtual learning intervention called FearNot!

The team recruited 1,129 children aged between eight and nine from 27 primary schools across the UK and Germany. They split the children into intervention and control groups.… read more. “Virtual reality games could help bullying victims”

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Playing Stravinsky with a full orchestra

[From The Financial Times]

Playing Stravinsky with a full orchestra

By Hannah Nepil
Published: November 6 2009 22:50

I brandish a stick and wallop a bass-drum 11 times in quick succession. “Very good,” remarks David Corkhill, principal percussionist of the Philharmonia. This would be encouraging, were my mentor not merely a recorded image on a flat screen.

Re-Rite: Be the Orchestra, an installation-cum-exhibition that opened last Tuesday, offers the chance, according to its creator Esa-Pekka Salonen, “to understand the physical reality of being inside an orchestra”. Since becoming principal conductor of the Philharmonia in September 2008, the Finnish maestro has barely paused for breath. Vienna, City of Dreams – his exploration of the early 20th- century cultural upheaval in the Austrian capital – concluded in October with a semi-staged production of Berg´s Wozzeck.

Re-Rite, conceived with the help of Richard Slaney, the Philharmonia´s head of digital projects, and the backing of the Paul Hamlyn Foundation, makes for an ambitious follow-up.… read more. “Playing Stravinsky with a full orchestra”

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Call: Improving Learning, Motivation through Educational Games: Multidisciplinary Approaches

Call for Chapters

Proposal Submission Deadline: November 15th, 2009

Handbook of Research on Improving Learning and Motivation through Educational Games: Multidisciplinary Approaches

A book edited by Dr. Patrick Felicia (Waterford Institute of Technology, Ireland)

The book is scheduled to be published by IGI Global (formerly Idea Group Inc.),

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Introduction
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Game-Based Learning is becoming increasingly popular thanks to its ability to both motivate and teach a new generation of learners frequently referred as the ‘digital natives’. This new breed of learners use computers on a regular basis, play video games frequently and are often driven by emotionally-charged material. Many of these video games implicitly implement well-known educational theories and, as a result, have been used for learning purposes. However, despite encouraging examples on the application of digital games to teach, there is still a need for more rigorous experiments in order to define frameworks that guarantee systematic learning through video games.… read more. “Call: Improving Learning, Motivation through Educational Games: Multidisciplinary Approaches”

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Fourmation VR Wii game wins award

[From Delmarva Now; more information about the Fourmation project is available here]

Web designer’s college work wins award

By Brian Shane, Staff Writer, November 5, 2009

OCEAN CITY — A local graphic designer was part of a design team that won an international award recognizing an innovative project completed using Wii video game controllers.

Nick Deimler, 22, and four of his fellow Drexel University digital media majors created a video game for their senior project. It uses infrared technology inherent in the Nintendo Wii video game system to create a new game that immerses the player in a 3-D virtual reality environment.

The game took first place in the category of non-browser based design at the prestigious 2009 Adobe Design Achievement Awards, a global design competition that saw 3,243 submissions among a dozen design categories. Deimler and his fellow designers split a $3,000 prize, and the team leader won a free trip to Beijing for the awards ceremony.… read more. “Fourmation VR Wii game wins award”

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