ISPR Presence News

Monthly Archives: July 2012

Call: International Conference on Narrative 2013

Call for Papers

International Conference on Narrative

Manchester Metropolitan University, 27-29 June 2013

Plenary Speakers:
Catherine Belsey – Swansea University
Diane Negra – University College Dublin
Nicholas Royle – University of Sussex

Sponsored by the International Society for the Study of Narrative and hosted by Manchester Metropolitan University, the International Conference on Narrative is an interdisciplinary forum addressing all dimensions of narrative theory and practice. We welcome proposals for papers and panels on all aspects of narrative in any genre, period, discipline, language, and medium.… read more. “Call: International Conference on Narrative 2013”

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Project Holodeck aims to make Star Trek gaming a reality

[From Eurogamer.net, where the story includes a 2:08 minute video]

Project Holodeck aims to make Star Trek gaming a reality

Uses Oculus Rift, PlayStation Move and the Razer Hyrdra

By Wesley Yin-Poole Published 23 July, 2012

A team at the University of Southern California is trying to make the Holodeck from Star Trek a virtual reality.

Project Holodeck aims to create full 360 degree, full body virtual reality in an accessible consumer gaming platform.

It fuses head tracking, body tracking and button inputs with vehicular locomotion and in-place locomotion (jogging on the spot to run). This, the team said, means players can move around a personal “micro” space while moving around a larger “macro” space.

Project Holodeck uses the Oculus Rift headset for head mounted video feedback, the PlayStation Move for head tracking and the Razer Hydra for body tracking.… read more. “Project Holodeck aims to make Star Trek gaming a reality”

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Job: Faculty position in Computer Science (HCI, graphics, vision) at University of Bristol

Lecturer/Senior Lecturer in Computer Science (ref. 17344)
Department of Computer Science
University of Bristol

Contract: Permanent; rank equivalent to US Assistant Professor
Salary: £33,884 – £52,706
Grade: Level b – Level d in Pathway 1
Closing date for applications: 9:00am 17 Aug 2012

DESCRIPTION

The Merchant Venturers School of Engineering would like to appoint a talented individual to join the Department of Computer Science. We are interested in candidates who have demonstrated potential in areas related to two or more of the School’s current research groupings, especially in computer vision, computer graphics and human-computer interaction.… read more. “Job: Faculty position in Computer Science (HCI, graphics, vision) at University of Bristol”

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Glasses-free 3-D TV looks nearer

[From MIT News, where the story includes a 3:23 minute video]

[Image: A new glasses-free 3-D video system uses three layered LCD panels displaying bizarre patterns (first three images) that collectively produce a coherent, high-resolution, multiperspective 3-D image. The bottom-right image illustrates, roughly, the composite image that would reach one eye at one viewing angle. Images courtesy of the Camera Culture group.]

Glasses-free 3-D TV looks nearer

A new method for producing multiple-perspective 3-D images could prove more practical in the short term than holography.

Larry Hardesty, MIT News Office
July 12, 2012

As striking as it is, the illusion of depth now routinely offered by 3-D movies is a paltry facsimile of a true three-dimensional visual experience. In the real world, as you move around an object, your perspective on it changes. But in a movie theater showing a 3-D movie, everyone in the audience has the same, fixed perspective — and has to wear cumbersome glasses, to boot.… read more. “Glasses-free 3-D TV looks nearer”

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Call: ICCE 2012 Workshop On ‘Real Education in Virtual Worlds: Foreign Language Learning and Teaching’

CALL FOR PAPERS:
ICCE 2012 Workshop On “Real Education in Virtual Worlds: Foreign Language Learning and Teaching”

Date: November 26, 2012 (Monday) ~ November 30, 2012 (Friday), Singapore. Held in conjunction with The 20th International Conference on Computers in Education (ICCE2012)

Description: The practices of educational applications in virtual worlds have obtained many concerns among educators and researchers over the past few years. To respond the increasing demands of practitioners applying virtual worlds in educational settings, the first workshop on Real Education in Second Life was held in conjunction with The 18th International Conference on Computers in Education (ICCE2010). To expand the participations and influences, the second workshop on Real Education in Second Life was renamed as Real Education in Virtual Worlds on 19th ICCE2011. We had a fruitful harvest in the workshop last year. The theme of this year will focus on foreign language learning and teaching (FLLT).… read more. “Call: ICCE 2012 Workshop On ‘Real Education in Virtual Worlds: Foreign Language Learning and Teaching’”

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The Avatar Economy: Are remote workers the brains inside tomorrow’s robots?

[From MIT’s Technology Review, where the story includes an additional image]

The Avatar Economy

Are remote workers the brains inside tomorrow’s robots?

Matt Beane
Wednesday, July 18, 2012

In our economy, many of the jobs most resistant to automation are those with the least economic value. Just consider the diversity of tasks, unpredictable terrains, and specialized tools that a landscaper confronts in a single day. No robot is intelligent enough to perform this $8-an-hour work.

But what about a robot remotely controlled by a low-wage foreign worker?

Hollywood has been imagining the technologies we would need. Jake Sully, the wheelchair-bound protagonist in James Cameron’s Avatar, goes to work saving a distant planet via a wireless connection to a remote body. He interacts with others, learns new skills, and even gets married—all while his “real” body is lying on a slab, miles away.… read more. “The Avatar Economy: Are remote workers the brains inside tomorrow’s robots?”

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Call: Responsible Innovation 2012

CONFERENCE ANNOUNCEMENT AND CALL FOR ABSTRACTS

RESPONSIBLE INNOVATION 2012
13-14 December 2012, The Hague, the Netherlands
Responsible Innovation and entrepreneurship
http://www.responsible-innovation.nl
info@responsible-innovation.nl

KEYNOTE SPEAKERS

To be announced soon.

CALL FOR ABSTRACTS:

We invite you to submit abstracts for the Second Annual International Conference on Responsible Innovation organized by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO). NWO has launched an interdisciplinary research program that brings together researchers from ethics, applied science and the social and behavior sciences in research projects that aim at designing solutions to urgent societal problems. We encourage submissions from an interdisciplinary spectrum, including but not limited to philosophers, engineers, natural scientists, social scientists, and those involved in public or private policymaking.… read more. “Call: Responsible Innovation 2012”

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Siri’s new smarter cousin works as a bank teller

[From MIT’s Technology Review]

Siri’s New Cousin Works as a Bank Teller

Spanish bank BBVA taps the team that invented the iPhone assistant to build technology that can converse with bank customers.

Tom Simonite
Friday, July 13, 2012

The research group that invented Siri, the virtual assistant built into Apple’s iPhone, has built her a smarter relative that could help banks cut staffing costs. Known as Lola, the new assistant can carry on more complex conversations than Siri and help with tasks that involve multiple back-and-forth steps with customers, such as opening a bank account.

Lola is going to be tested as a feature in the website of BBVA Compass, the U.S. subsidiary of Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria, the second-largest bank in Spain. The assistant appears as a small chat window at the side of the site. Users can type questions to Lola or speak to her via their computer’s microphone.… read more. “Siri’s new smarter cousin works as a bank teller”

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Call: 1st Workshop on Games and Natural Language Processing (GAMNLP-12)

1st Workshop on Games and NLP (GAMNLP-12)
23 October 2012, Kanazawa, Japan
at JapTAL 2012 (the 8th International Conference on Natural Language Processing)

OBJECTIVES

This workshop aims at promoting and exploring the possibilities for research and practical applications involving Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Games. The main objective is to provide a forum for researchers and practitioners to discuss and share ideas regarding how the NLP research community can contribute to games research and vice versa. For example, the use of NLP techniques can help the formal study and understanding of games as well as the design and development of novel and engaging game experiences. On the other hand, games provide interesting challenges to NLP in the linguistic characteristics of the domain and its user culture in addition to being a medium which facilitates interactive dialogues. The workshop welcomes the participation of both academics and industry practitioners interested in the use of NLP in games or vice versa.… read more. “Call: 1st Workshop on Games and Natural Language Processing (GAMNLP-12)”

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Choosing the virtual reality experience that’s right for you

[From io9; for more on this topic see this article (pdf) in PsychNology Journal]

Choosing the virtual reality experience that’s right for you

George Dvorsky
Jul 11, 2012

We’re still several decades away from developing completely immersive computer simulations, but it’s not too early to dream about the ways we’ll be able to use them. Today we’re exploring the tremendous potential with new gadgets like Glass, Google’s computer glasses. But that’s just the beginning.

So, in preparation, given all the different options soon to be available, what kind of virtual reality experience will you choose?

Will it be a partial soft simulation? Or perhaps you would prefer an active communal experience? Confused? No worries, we’ll go over all your options. And in the end, you may even find that you’ll want to mix and match.

Indeed, when considering the all the different possibilities that could come about through the advent of advanced simulation technologies, it becomes obvious fairly quickly that there will be a wide number of interactive possibilities.… read more. “Choosing the virtual reality experience that’s right for you”

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