ISPR Presence News

Monthly Archives: February 2011

Call: Entertainment Interfaces track at Mensch & Computer 2011

Entertainment Interfaces Track at Mensch & Computer 2011
Chemnitz, Germany, 11.-14. September 2011
http://entertainmentinterfaces.uebermedien.org/

SUBMISSION DEADLINE: 20th March 2011

ORGANIZERS

  • Maic Masuch, University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany
  • Matthias Rauterberg, Technical University Eindhoven, the Netherlands
  • Joerg Niesenhaus, University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany

AIMS AND SCOPE

The track “Entertainment Interfaces” offers researchers, developers, and designers a platform to present innovative ideas in the area of interactive entertainment with a focus on interaction in games and other entertainment products and to discuss design challenges and the evaluation of entertainment interfaces. The aims of the track are to strengthen the awareness of the relevance of user-friendly and innovative interfaces for entertainment applications in the research community and in the public, to encourage the research activities and the education in this field, and to foster the knowledge transfer between researchers and developers. We like to emphasize the interdisciplinary background of the “Entertainment Interfaces” track and welcome contributions from the areas of computer science, psychology, design and engineering sciences as well as contributions from developers and designers working in the field of interactive entertainment.… read more. “Call: Entertainment Interfaces track at Mensch & Computer 2011”

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The Oscars to use projections to ‘enter the world of virtual reality’

[From The Hollywood Reporter]

Details of Dramatic Changes for Oscars Telecast

Oscar producers Bruce Cohen and Don Mischer explain to The Hollywood Reporter that they are taking a radical departure from past shows.

2/18/2011 by Gregg Kilday

The Oscars are entering the world of virtual reality.

This year’s Academy Awards telecast is taking a radical departure from past years. Producers of the Feb. 27 show are abandoning the concept of a traditional set. Instead, they will rely on a series of “projections” to give the show a constantly changing look.

“Our design this year is actually going to reflect more content than you would usually expect of an awards show of this type,” producer Don Mischer tells The Hollywood Reporter in an interview with fellow producer Bruce Cohen in the Kodak Theater. “We’re using our environment to take us to different places, different times, and it will change dramatically.… read more. “The Oscars to use projections to ‘enter the world of virtual reality’”

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Call: Workshop on Cultures in Game/worlds

Workshop on Cultures in Game/worlds

Call for Participation

at the Cultural Studies Association Conference in Chicago, Illinois
24th-26th March
Location: Building S, Room 1306
Hour: March 26th, 9 am and later if scheduling allows

RSVP March 5, 2011

We call the virtual environments that constitute the topic of this workshop “game/worlds.” Game/worlds are 3d virtual environments developed for play and other entertainment, social interaction, cultural exploration, and virtual design/exchange. These worlds have captured the attention of researchers from around the world from a variety of disciplines. This workshop aims to improve the understanding of game/worlds as environments for cultural studies and cultural analyses. It will bring researchers together to collaborate and discuss diverse topics related to the unique problems of researching in game/worlds. We will pursue a schedule integrating workshop participants where they will discuss their work and interests related to four different topics: research methods for game/worlds, histories of game/worlds, cultures of game/worlds, and ethics of research in game/worlds.… read more. “Call: Workshop on Cultures in Game/worlds”

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Researchers use virtual-reality avatars to create ‘out-of-body’ experience

[From The Guardian; more information is available in an article in The Financial Times, which includes a 2:37 minute long video, and at the web site of EPFL Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience]

[Image: Olaf Blanke conducts experiment to understand the way the brain represents the body by combining VR induced illusions and brain signal readings to better understand the cognitive basis for spatial representation.]

Researchers use virtual-reality avatars to create ‘out-of-body’ experience

Volunteers experienced the virtual bodies as if they were their own, with possible applications in computer games or to transport people digitally to other locations

Alok Jha, science correspondent
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 17 February 2011

In the film Avatar, explorers on the planet Pandora transmit their minds into alternative bodies. Now scientists have come a step closer to recreating the experience in the lab.… read more. “Researchers use virtual-reality avatars to create ‘out-of-body’ experience”

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Call: Re-Thinking Technology in Museums 2011: Emerging Experiences

“Re-Thinking Technology in Museums 2011: Emerging Experiences”

Hosted by the UL Interaction Design Centre and the Irish Museums Association, with the support of IxDA Limerick

University of Limerick, Ireland
May 26-27, 2011

http://www.idc.ul.ie/techmuseums11

New Deadline for paper submissions: 20th of February

Themes of the Conference

in 2005 “Re-Thinking Technology in Museums” brought together a group of academics and practitioners discussing novel ways of conceptualizing the museum experience in light of the presence of interactive technologies. The second edition of this conference on the theme of “Emerging Experience” will further the discussion on novel approaches for understanding people¹s experiences in museums and galleries, and for designing interactive technologies to support these experiences. In recent years, the increased presence of mobile smart appliances such as smart phones, and the growth of social media and social networks have impacted on the strategies deployed by museums and exhibition sites to invite, engage and connect with visitors and stakeholders.… read more. “Call: Re-Thinking Technology in Museums 2011: Emerging Experiences”

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Webcast funerals: Convenient, dehumanizing

[From The Daily Titan, student newspaper of California State University, Fullerton; the New York Times story mentioned is available here]

Opinion

Webcast funerals are dehumanizing

By Amy Leadbetter
Published: February 16, 2011

The progression of technology and its dehumanizing effects has hit an all-time low.

An article published last week in The New York Times titled, “For Funerals Too Far, Mourners Gather on the Web” by Laura Holson, addressed the recent popularity of funerals broadcast online.

Holson’s article informs the reader that this is seen as a blessing for those who live too far or who are unable to make it to the service. Hence, webcast funerals are seen as a convenience.

All the technological advances our lives are now consumed with (email, text, the Internet, social networks, etc.) began as conveniences.

Our culture has become so complex that these “conveniences” have necessitated their way into our everyday lives.… read more. “Webcast funerals: Convenient, dehumanizing”

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Call: Perceiving Others’ Minds

Perceiving Others’ Minds

Friday 1st July 2010
Boardroom, Arthur Lewis Building
University of Manchester
M13 9PL

http://www.socialsciences.manchester.ac.uk/disciplines/philosophy/events/pom/

Speakers:

Attendence is free but please register by e-mailing Joel Smith.

The event is funded by the Royal Institute of Philosophy.

We know a lot about each others’ mental lives. There’s a question about how we know what we do. There’s no doubt that perception plays a role in securing us some of this knowledge. It is often by seeing and hearing others that we come to know that they have minds or what is on their minds.

Traditionally, however, perception was thought to give us information only about other bodies and their bodily behaviours. Such evidence had then to be turned in to knowledge of others’ minds and mental features.… read more. “Call: Perceiving Others’ Minds”

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$US500 iRobot hack lets you be two places at once

[From Gizmodo]

$US500 iRobot Hack Lets You Be Two Places At Once

By Kit Eaton – FastCo on February 12, 2011

A hacker has put together a viable home-brew telepresence robot using easily available components that’s good enough (if not pretty enough) to rival much more expensive peers like Anybot’s QB. More than anything this suggests telepresence virtual working is an imminent phenomenon.

The enterprising chap in question is Johnny Chung Lee. Temporarily separated from his partner after a work-driven relocation, he wanted to create a simple way to maintain a presence in their previous home. Telepresence droids would be the ideal tool, but Lee decided to go the DIY route. … read more. “$US500 iRobot hack lets you be two places at once”

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Call: Designs on eLearning Conference: Creative learning spaces of the future

The 7th International Designs on eLearning Conference
DeL 2011: Creative learning spaces of the future

Aalto University
September 13 -16 2011

http://www.designsonelearning.net/conferences/face_to_face/sept2011/del_sept2011.htm

Aalto University is a new multidisciplinary university, where science and art meet technology and business. The University is located in Espoo and Helsinki in Finland.

Call for papers

The notion of space regains fresh momentum every time we interact with the world around us. As mobile devices weave into the fabric of everyday life, we are no longer confined to a specific location, time and place in accessing and interacting with communications technologies. Interfaces become more adaptable and fluid according to the user’s needs; capable of switching seamlessly between augmented, real and virtual information and communication techniques and practices.

In educational contexts, however, we are still largely entangled in the three-dimensional space of Euclidian geometry which we commonly associate with the institutional space of action.… read more. “Call: Designs on eLearning Conference: Creative learning spaces of the future”

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Transmedia of future to engage the populace in an immersive and interactive way

[From The Scavenger]

[Large image available here]

Transmedia: The experience of the future?

With the former glory of old, linear media fading, Melody Ayres-Griffiths examines just what the new media artform known as ‘transmedia’ is, and how it will engage an increasingly discerning yet time-starved populace in an immersive and interactive way.

13 February 2011

Late in January, 2011, I attended a conference regarding just what exactly ‘transmedia’ is, and perhaps where it’s going. Although the meaning of the phrase changed somewhat depending upon who you talked to, the core of the explanations I received was simply this: transmedia engages an audience across multiple platforms, such as television, film and the internet.

The key word here is ‘engage’.

From one speaker‘s point-of-view, as a producer you need to engage your audience in an almost immersive experience, where your property – factual or fictional – melds itself into your audiences’ lives as seamlessly as a mobile phone.… read more. “Transmedia of future to engage the populace in an immersive and interactive way”

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