ISPR Presence News

Monthly Archives: October 2015

Job: Tenure-track faculty position in Digital Games and Interactive Media at University of California, Irvine

Job Opportunity: University of California, Irvine Tenure-Track Faculty Position in Digital Games and Interactive Media

The Department of Informatics at the University of California, Irvine is seeking exceptional candidates for a tenure-track position in digital games and interactive media. We recognize the importance of digital games and interactive media to society and the economy, and wish to complement our existing areas of excellence with a strong presence in these emerging areas.

The department is strongly interdisciplinary, with faculty backgrounds in anthropology, computer science, engineering, humanities, media arts, organizational studies, and psychology. This, in no small measure, contributes to our strong international reputation as an innovative site for research and education on information technology and its applications. We wish to add a similarly interdisciplinary perspective on digital games and interactive media, their role in society, and new possibilities for innovative design.

Our search is intentionally broad.… read more. “Job: Tenure-track faculty position in Digital Games and Interactive Media at University of California, Irvine”

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9/11 Oculus Rift simulator raises ethical issues

[Our increasing ability to produce compelling presence experiences raises important ethical issues; this story from Gothamist includes different images and the two videos mentioned. –Matthew]

[08:46] 9/11 simulation screenshot (looking down from Tower)

[Image: Fusion]

Videos: There’s An Oculus Rift 9/11 Simulator For Everyone Who Wants To Relive September 11th

by Ben Yakas on Oct 29, 2015

There have been a lot—and we do mean A LOT—of cringeworthy, ill-considered tributes to September 11th that have made us stop in our tracks. From the 8-bit videos to the UES boutique sales (and those were just this year), it’s generally a bad idea to try to tie in your product with one of the worst days in American history. That doesn’t mean there isn’t room for actual educational and/or artistic expressions about the attack—but even so, there’s no way in hell you could convince us to strap into an Oculus Rift 9/11 simulator.… read more. “9/11 Oculus Rift simulator raises ethical issues”

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Call: DiGRA/FDG 2016 (1st Joint Conference of Digital Games Research Assoc. and Foundation of Digital Games)

DiGRA/FDG 2016: 1st Joint International Conference of DiGRA and FDG
August 1-6, 2016
Dundee, Scotland, UK

http://www.digra.org/145807/

For the first time, the Digital Games Research Association (DiGRA) and the Foundation of Digital Games (FDG) will partner in an unprecedented gathering of games researchers. We invite researchers and educators within game research, broadly construed, to submit their work.

More information will soon be available from the conference’s official website (TBA).

TRACKS

DiGRA/FDG aims at being a venue for game research from all research disciplines. In line with this, it accepts and encourages submissions in the following six tracks, on a wide range of subjects including, but not limited to:

  • Game design: Design techniques, practices, methods, post mortems, etc.
  • Game criticism and analysis: Close readings, ontologies and frameworks, historical studies, philosophical explorations, and other humanities-informed approaches
  • Play studies + Interaction and player experience: studies of play, observations and interviews of players, and research based on other methods from the social sciences; game interfaces, player metrics, modeling player experience
  • Artificial intelligence: agents, motion/camera planning, navigation, adaptivity, procedural content generation, dialog, authoring tools, general game playing
  • Game technology: engines, frameworks, graphics, networking, animation
  • Game production: studies of game production processes, studio studies, software studies, platform studies and software engineering

Due to the interdisciplinary nature of the DiGRA/FDG conference, authors and reviewers alike will be required to describe their research background and field of study as part of the submission process.… read more. “Call: DiGRA/FDG 2016 (1st Joint Conference of Digital Games Research Assoc. and Foundation of Digital Games)”

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Epic’s ‘Sense of Presence’ VR documentary available now

[As this story from Road to VR notes, the makers of the new four-part “Sense of Presence” video series take an optimistic view on VR and presence so it’s not the complete picture, but the short segments (only the final one is over 5 minutes) feature interesting “commentary from the leadership of Oculus, NVIDIA, Weta Digital, Oculus Story Studio, Three One Zero, Magnopus and MatterVR, to name a few”; watch all four parts on Epic’s Unreal Engine blog. -Matthew]

Sense Of Presence video title screenshot

4th Part of Epic’s ‘Sense of Presence’ VR Doc Focuses on the ‘Future of VR’

By Paul James – Oct 28, 2015

Epic, the company behind the popular Unreal Engine, has released the fourth part of it’s series of films looking at virtual reality technology and the industry. It’s been an interestingly positive journey thus far and this latest instalment focuses on where VR technology may take us in the future, beyond gaming.… read more. “Epic’s ‘Sense of Presence’ VR documentary available now”

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Academic conference on ‘Love and Sex with Robots’ abruptly cancelled after being declared illegal

[As Matt Jones and I have argued, the topic of presence and sexuality raises complex but important issues; this story is from TechRepublic. –Matthew]

Art: male robot-carries woman

Academic conference on ‘Love and Sex with Robots’ abruptly cancelled after being declared illegal

Malaysian authorities deemed the second annual Love and Sex with Robots Conference, slated for November, illegal. TechRepublic talked to co-founder, Adrian David Cheok, for the story.

By Hope Reese | October 21, 2015

TechRepublic has written a lot about the introduction of robots and artificial intelligence in the workplace. But while many of these issues revolve around whether or not robots will replace humans in offices, on the battlefield, in air and deep undersea, the new promise of artificial life in “caring” forms requires new conversations about the ethical dimensions of living with machines that can “feel.”

Humanoid robots are now being introduced into nursing homes, and as therapists, for example.… read more. “Academic conference on ‘Love and Sex with Robots’ abruptly cancelled after being declared illegal”

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Futurist Ian Pearson predicts sex with robots

[Another provocative set of predictions about the future of presence and sexuality; the story is from The Daily Dot and includes two other images. See the related second post today. –Matthew]

Female robot face

[Image: Yahoo! News]

By 2050, we’ll all be having sex with robots

By Dylan Love
Oct 2, 2015

If you’re not having sex with a robot by 2050, you might be the minority.

With VR porn and connected sex on the rise, theorists and ethicists are weighing in on the near-future implications of high-tech human sexuality. A paper titled “The Rise of the Robosexuals,” co-created by futurist Ian Pearson and Internet sex shop Bondara, proposes that virtual reality sex will be commonplace by 2030, and that just 20 years later, a majority of people will be having sex with robots. At a time when the notion of sex with robots is being met with heavy concern, he takes the contrary position: robot sex will not harm human intimacy, but add to it.… read more. “Futurist Ian Pearson predicts sex with robots”

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Call: IDC 2016 – Interactive Design & Children

Call for Participation

IDC 2016 – Interactive Design & Children
21st 24th June
Media City
Manchester
UK

http://www.idc2016.org/

Digital technologies have brought a whole range of opportunities and experiences to children. Information is available within seconds, digital games can be played anywhere, social activity can be organised with two or three text messages or social media posts; yet, more than half of the world’s children cannot participate.

Exclusion from a digital childhood comes in many guises. Children may have cognitive, physical or sensory difficulties that prevent access to otherwise commonly available experiences, children may live in environments where financial and infrastructure constraints limit their ability to participate in rapidly evolving digital cultures. By developing technologies that promote social inclusion and personal accessibility we can encourage and support creativity in all children.

IDC 2016 seeks to provoke the community to consider how best to create digital technologies that bring children together, feed their creativity and erode the barriers to participation.… read more. “Call: IDC 2016 – Interactive Design & Children”

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3D Photoworks allows the blind to experience presence with artworks

[This is an inspiring story from People about the ability of new 3D printing technology to create presence experiences for the blind (see the quote in the second paragraph); the story includes more images and a 4:27 minute video, and see the 3D Photoworks website for more information and a series of videos. And see the website for Sonic Paintings for a complimentary technology. –Matthew]

3D Photoworks: Man with Mona Lisa

3D Creations Allow the Blind to Experience the World’s Greatest Artworks in a New Way

By Cathy Free
10/26/2015

As he traced his fingers across a copy of the painting, “George Washington Crossing the Delaware,” at a convention for the blind last year, Luc Gandarias was astonished to feel a sword hanging at Washington’s side and a river swimming with chunks of ice. He could even tell that the soldiers in the boat were determined to reach shore by the intense expression in their eyes.… read more. “3D Photoworks allows the blind to experience presence with artworks”

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Call: CHI UX Indonesia Conference 2016 (CHIuXiD 2016)

Call for Participation in CHI UX Indonesia Conference 2016 (CHIuXiD 2016)
“Bridging the Gaps in the HCI and UX World”
Jakarta, 13-15 April 2016

W. chiuxid.org | F. chiuxid | T. @chiuxid | I. #chiuxid

CHIuXiD 2016 is the 2nd International Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and User Experience (UX) Conference to be held in Indonesia that has achieved the in-cooperation status with the Association for Computer Machinery (ACM) for the second year in a row. This is the probably the biggest ACM SIGCHI event in Southeast Asia. Continuing the success of the first conference, CHIuXiD 2016 aims to bridge the gaps in the Human-Computer Interaction and User Experience world. As the only event in the region dedicated for leaders, experts, academics, and professionals in HCI and UX, CHIuXiD 2016 is a platform to gain and share the latest HCI and UX insights in diverse vertical industries, including finance, healthcare, banking, and telecommunication.… read more. “Call: CHI UX Indonesia Conference 2016 (CHIuXiD 2016)”

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Adawarp lets you inhabit the body of a robotic teddy bear

[This invention produces presence as transportation into a social actor; the story from MIT Technology Review includes another picture and a 30 second video (the last image of which reads “Telepresence – Bear; Coming Soon”). -Matthew]

Adawarp bear

[Image: You take control of this bear by donning a virtual reality headset to see through its eyes and control its head.]

Inhabit This Teddy Bear’s Body Using Virtual Reality

Japanese startup Adawarp thinks teleporting inside the body of a robotic stuffed animal could be a good way to keep in touch with loved ones.

By Signe Brewster on October 26, 2015

Companies inventing things to do with virtual reality headsets like the Oculus Rift, which launches next year, mostly use them to transport you into imaginary worlds. Tatsuki Adaniya has a different idea—teleporting you into the body of a robotic teddy bear.

Adaniya has built software that lets you strap on an Oculus Rift headset and peer out through the bear’s eyes.… read more. “Adawarp lets you inhabit the body of a robotic teddy bear”

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  • Find Researchers

    Use the links below to find researchers listed alphabetically by the first letter of their last name.

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