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Monthly Archives: March 2014

Call: 36th Annual Humanities and Technology Conference

CALL FOR PAPERS

36TH ANNUAL HUMANITIES AND TECHNOLOGY CONFERENCE
St. Thomas University, Miami Gardens, Florida
06 – 08 November 2014

Deadline: August 1, 2014

http://htronline.weebly.com/hta-conference-2014.html

We are happy to announce the call for papers for the 36th annual Humanities and Technology Association Conference. The main track for this year’s conference will be Technology and Politics. Papers are particularly welcome that address the democratization of science and technology; political ecology and digital activism; hyperobjectivities and technological mediations; biopolitics, including macro- and micro-biopolitics; technology of subjectivities, including the techno-politics of sexuality; surveillance technologies; digital policing and technologies of warfare (cyber, drone, etc.); gene technology and human engineering; GMOs, food security, and food sovereignty; the politics and polities of transhumanism and posthumanism; postmodern techno-science.

To allow for as broad of a range of scholars as possible, however, papers and panel suggestions that examine other issues in science and technology will also be arranged according to the following tracks:

TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIAL LIFE: topics will deal with questions such as: does technology enable new/destroy old forms of social life; advance/hinder gender equality; raise/diminish standards of living and economic well-being; suggest/force human adaptations to technological environments?… read more. “Call: 36th Annual Humanities and Technology Conference”

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Japanese rockstar Yoshiki engages in piano battle with hologram of himself

[From GizMag, where the story includes additional pictures]

Yoshiki and his hologram on stage

Japanese rockstar Yoshiki engages in piano battle with hologram of himself

By Nick Lavars
March 20, 2014

Following in the virtual footsteps of Tupac Shakur, at the SXSW festival last weekend Japanese musical icon Yoshiki used a hologram not just in an attempt to add a little flair to his performance, but to indulge those fans who can’t quite get enough of him.

Yoshiki, a musician, songwriter, composer, record producer, front man of heavy-metal band X Japan and classical soloist, appeared on stage at the music and technology festival to a rousing reception and proceeded to sit himself at one end of a double piano.

All appeared normal as Yoshiki began stroking the keys, but when a more clearly defined and life-like Yoshiki emerged from the left of stage, the audience began to grasp they had a one-of-a-kind piano battle on their hands.… read more. “Japanese rockstar Yoshiki engages in piano battle with hologram of himself”

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Call: 14th International Conference on Intelligent Virtual Agents (IVA 2014)

CALL FOR PAPERS

Fourteenth International Conference on Intelligent Virtual Agents (IVA 2014)

August 27-29, 2014, Boston, Massachusetts, USA

Intelligent virtual agents (IVAs) are interactive characters that exhibit human-like qualities and communicate with humans or with each other using natural human modalities such as facial expressions, speech and gesture. They are capable of real-time perception, cognition and action that allow them to participate in dynamic social environments.

IVA 2014 is an interdisciplinary annual conference and the main leading scientific forum for presenting research on modeling, developing, and evaluating intelligent virtual agents with a focus on communicative abilities and social behavior. In addition to presentations on theoretical issues, the conference encourages the showcasing of working applications. Researchers from the fields of human-human and human-robot interaction are also encouraged to share work with a relevance to intelligent virtual agents.

SPECIAL TOPIC: “Virtual Agents in Healthcare”.… read more. “Call: 14th International Conference on Intelligent Virtual Agents (IVA 2014)”

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3-D display offers chilling look at Nagasaki after A-bomb attack

[From The Asahi Shimbun, where the story includes additional images]

Virtual Nagasaki 1945

3-D display offers chilling look at Nagasaki after A-bomb attack

March 05, 2014
By Miyuki Kanno / Staff Writer

NAGASAKI–A new 3-D imaging display system allowing viewers to experience the devastation of Nagasaki immediately after the 1945 atomic bombing opened here on March 3.

Virtual Genshiya (Virtual atomic wasteland), developed by Takashi Fujiki, a professor of technology education at Nagasaki University, uses computer graphics to give viewers a panoramic view of a 500-meter radius of ground zero just after the blast.

The system is on display at the Art and Tech Exhibition Lab Sosokan, an art gallery that opened on the Nagasaki University campus on March 3.… read more. “3-D display offers chilling look at Nagasaki after A-bomb attack”

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Call: Arts,Design & Virtual Worlds – Special session at Cyberworlds 2014

Calls for Papers: ARTS,DESIGN & VIRTUAL WORLDS SPECIAL SESSION
http://artsvirtualworlds.artsmachine.org

at CYBERWORLDS 2014 INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE
http://www.cw2014.unican.es/home

6-8 OCTOBER 2014, SANTANDER, SPAIN
University of Cantabria, Spain

Chair: Dr. Gianluca Mura, Politecnico di Milano University, Italy

SUBMISSION DEADLINE: 15 MAY, 2014

Send your paper to: gianluca.mura@polimi.it

More information from http://artsvirtualworlds.artsmachine.org/

Submissions include full paper (up to 8 pages), short paper (up to 4 pages) and poster (1 page, abstract). The papers must be written in English, carefully proofread, and formatted to Conference Publishing Services Manuscript Formatting Guidelines from http://www.computer.org/portal/web/cscps/formatting

Please use the following template for preparing your papers from:
http://www.artsmachine.org/web/docs/IEEECS_CPS.zip or
http://www.artsmachine.org/web/docs/IEEECS_CPS_LaTeX.zip

By submitting a paper the authors confirm that their papers represent original previously unpublished work, and if accepted, the author will register for the conference and present the papers.

INTRODUCTION

Virtual Worlds are information spaces and communities that immensely augment the way we interact, participate and receive information throughout the world.… read more. “Call: Arts,Design & Virtual Worlds – Special session at Cyberworlds 2014”

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Zuckerberg on the future of Oculus VR and “feeling truly present”

[There has been lots of coverage of Facebook’s purchase of Oculus VR, including predictions and concerns about the implications (e.g., see stories at Fast Company and Time). Here’s how Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg describes the future of VR and presence in his announcement on Facebook]

Oculus-Facebook logo

Mark Zuckerberg
March 25 near Palo Alto, CA

I’m excited to announce that we’ve agreed to acquire Oculus VR, the leader in virtual reality technology.

Our mission is to make the world more open and connected. For the past few years, this has mostly meant building mobile apps that help you share with the people you care about. We have a lot more to do on mobile, but at this point we feel we’re in a position where we can start focusing on what platforms will come next to enable even more useful, entertaining and personal experiences.… read more. “Zuckerberg on the future of Oculus VR and “feeling truly present””

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Call: Symposium on Emotional AI at BICA 2014

Call for Participation
Symposium on Emotional AI at BICA 2014 (International Conference of the Biologically Inspired Cognitive Architectures Society)
MIT, Boston, MA, Nov 7-9 2014

This symposium will focus on emotions in artificial intelligence, a topic of increasing interest in many areas of research and development.

We invite submissions in the form of papers or presentations reviewing recent/ongoing original work, and especially software demonstrations of different aspects of emotions in AI. Suggested topics include:

  • Advancing taxonomies and models of emotion
  • Generating emotions in AI
  • AI recognition of emotions in humans
  • Emotional content and tone in AI conversation
  • Uses for emotion in AI in training, games, social, or other applications
  • Do AI emotions need to look like human emotions?
  • Are emotions in AI “real” or only simulated?

Papers or presentations covering new work and results are preferred over philosophical work about emotions in AI, but submissions in the latter area will be considered.… read more. “Call: Symposium on Emotional AI at BICA 2014”

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Sulon Technologies enters VR race with new kind of immersive experience

[From VentureBeat, where the story includes an additional image]

Dhanushan Balachandreswaran of Sulon Technologies

[Image: Dhanushan Balachandreswaran of Sulon Technologies. Image Credit: Dean Takahashi.]

Sulon Technologies enters the virtual reality race with a new kind of immersive experience

March 19, 2014
Dean Takahashi

Sulon Technologies is unveiling a new kind virtual reality platform that will turn any room into a fanciful virtual space.

Sulon is showing off its demo of The Cortex virtual reality “spatial gaming” platform at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco. In doing so, the company is trying to win over the hearts of game developers in what is becoming a fierce competitive battle to define the next generation of gaming. Competitors include Oculus VR and new entrant Sony, which announced its Project Morpheus at the GDC on Tuesday evening.

The Toronto company has taken a different approach from other kinds of virtual reality, said Dhanushan (Dhan) Balachandreswaran, chief executive of the firm.… read more. “Sulon Technologies enters VR race with new kind of immersive experience”

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Call: Authenticity – Theme issue of Rethinking History: The Journal of Theory and Practice

Call for Publications

Theme: Authenticity
Publication: Rethinking History: The Journal of Theory and Practice
Date: Theme Issue 21:2 (2017)
Deadline: 1.1.2016

Rethinking History: The Journal of Theory and Practice seeks paper proposals for a theme issue devoted to the topic of ‘Authenticity’.

‘Why’, the New Statesman asked in March 2013, ‘are we so obsessed with the pursuit of authenticity?’ Phenomena as diverse as snobbish hipster lionising of artisan coffee and organic food, the craze for vintage clothing and scandals over James Frey’s fake misery memoir or Beyoncé’s lip-synching at Barack Obama’s inauguration in 2013 all seem to testify to pervasive contemporary anxieties over reality, sincerity and truth. Of course, fretting over authenticity has a venerable lineage in western culture, from Plato through to the existentialists, and creative artists have long interrogated and toyed with our hunger for the real (so, Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe in 1719 was not truly ‘written by himself’).… read more. “Call: Authenticity – Theme issue of Rethinking History: The Journal of Theory and Practice”

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iRobot’s Colin Angle on why people build strong attachments to robots

[From New Scientist via Slate; more information about AVA 500 is available from TechWeekEurope]

Roomba

[Image: The Roomba iRobot. Courtesy of Jing a Ling/Flickr]

My Roomba’s Name Is Roswell

Why people build strong attachments to robots

By Celeste Biever

Colin Angle is co-founder and CEO of iRobot in Bedford, Mass. The company recently created a brushless version of the Roomba vacuum, and this week released a telepresent robot called Ava 500. Its Packbots will also look for bombs at the football World Cup in Brazil this year.

Celeste Biever: People dress up Roomba vacuum cleaners. Soldiers mourn bomb-disposal Packbots. Are these responses to your robots a surprise?
Colin Angle:
If you ask people who doesn’t own Roombas if they would name them, they almost violently say, “No, why would I name my vacuum cleaner?” Yet once they own one, more than 80 percent of people do.… read more. “iRobot’s Colin Angle on why people build strong attachments to robots”

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