ISPR Presence News

Monthly Archives: April 2016

Call: MHMC 2016 – International Workshop on Multimodal Interaction in Industrial Human-Machine Communication

Call for Papers

MHMC 2016 – International Workshop on Multimodal Interaction in Industrial Human-Machine Communication
In connection with the 21st IEEE International Conference on Emerging Technologies and Factory Automation
September 6, 2016, Berlin

http://etfa2016.org/images/track-cfp/MHMC_CfP.pdf

Deadline for submission of workshop papers: May 20

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES

Nowadays, industrial environments are full of sophisticated computer-controlled machines. In addition, recent developments in pervasive and ubiquitous computing provide a further support for advanced activity control. Even if the exploitation of these technologies is very often committed to specialized workers, who have been purposely trained to use complex equipments, easy and effective interaction is a key factor that can bring many benefits – from faster task completion to error prevention, cognitive load reduction and higher employee satisfaction.

Multimodal interaction means using “non-conventional” input and/or output tools and modalities to communicate with a device. The main purpose of multimodal interfaces is to combine both multiple input modes – usually more “natural” than traditional input devices, such as touch, speech, hand gestures, head/body movements and eye gaze – and solutions in which different output modalities are used in a coordinated manner – such as visual displays (e.g.… read more. “Call: MHMC 2016 – International Workshop on Multimodal Interaction in Industrial Human-Machine Communication”

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3D ‘zebra crossings’ stop drivers in their tracks

[Some relatively simple uses of presence can save lives; this story is from The Architects Newspaper, where it features other images; coverage in Mashable notes that India’s transport minister tweeted on April 27 that the country will be trying out the 3D paintings, and that the use of optical illusions as speed breakers was first pioneered in Philadelphia. For more on the use of road design illusions created to increase safety, see a 2014 story from BBC News. –Matthew]

Side and driver view of 3D zebra crosswalk in India

3D “zebra crossings” stop drivers in their tracks

By Jason Sayer
April 21, 2016

Earlier this year, it was reported that Saumya Pandya Thakkar and Shakuntala Pandya, two women from Ahmedabad in East India, had come up with an imaginative solution to stop cars and let pedestrians cross the road without the aid of traffic lights. Their “zebra crossing”— rectangular volumes drawn in perspective—appeared to do the trick.… read more. “3D ‘zebra crossings’ stop drivers in their tracks”

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Call: International Workshop on Emotion Representations and Modelling for Companion Technologies (ERM4CT 2016)

International Workshop on Emotion Representations and Modelling for Companion Technologies (ERM4CT 2016)
in conjunction with ACM ICMI 2016, Tokyo
www.erm4ct.cogsy.de

Submission deadline: August 28, 2016

The major goal in human computer interaction (HCI) research and applications is to improve the interaction between humans and computers. As interaction is often very specific for an individual and generally of multimodal nature, the current trend of multi-modal user-adaptable HCI systems arose over the past years. These systems are designed as companions capable of assisting their users based on the users’ needs, preferences, personality and affective state. Companion systems are dependent on reliable emotion recognition methods in order to provide natural, user-centred interactions.

In order to study natural, user-centred interactions, to develop user-centred emotion representations and to model adequate affective system behaviour, appropriate multi-modal data comprising not just audio and video material must be available.… read more. “Call: International Workshop on Emotion Representations and Modelling for Companion Technologies (ERM4CT 2016)”

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Report forecasts more telepresence robots for more uses

[It looks like in addition to the many other telepresence technology formats from phones to rooms, telepresence robots will become increasingly common; this story is from Inverse, where it includes a very short video of the early Greenman Teleperated Humanoid system mentioned. –Matthew]

Hospital patient Cookie Topp attends school via VGo telepresence robot

[Image: From VGo: “Despite a diagnosis of lymphoma resulting in a bone-marrow transplant that’s left her bed-bound in the Children’s Hospital, 13-year-old Cookie Topp is going to school, doing her homework and meeting with her friends.”]

Telepresence Robots May Be Awkward Now, but Expect More of Them by 2020

Research group Tractica projects a 50 percent increase in telepresence in four years.

Lauren J. Young
April 15, 2016

By 2020, instead of Skyping with colleagues or distant friends and relatives, you may be chatting through a mobile, interactive robot. At least that’s what a new report suggests.… read more. “Report forecasts more telepresence robots for more uses”

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Call: Simulation Based Training – The Key to Military Operational Capability Conference

Simulation Based Training – the Key to Military Operational Capability
Tuesday, 22 November 2016 – Wednesday, 23 November 2016
Royal Aeronautical Society, London, UK

http://www.aerosociety.com/FSGNOV16

Abstracts due: 6 May 2016

Military planners and policy makers, in addition to dealing with ongoing operations of various levels of intensity, face an increasingly unpredictable world which poses an unprecedented range of potential conflicts. Threats come from state and non-state actors, and emerge from breakdown and chaos in which there are not only ‘good guys’ and ‘bad guys’. International alliances are temporarily formed for specific campaigns and may consist of both well integrated allies and of more loose cooperation with the enemy’s enemy. Threats may come in many forms including conventional, irregular, and terrorist forces.

Countering such threats requires conceptual and operational agility, and demands high levels of operational capability, flexibility, and readiness, including the ability to act in concert with ad-hoc alliance partners and other government and international organizations.… read more. “Call: Simulation Based Training – The Key to Military Operational Capability Conference”

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Two Chernobyl VR interactive documentaries take you to the disaster

[This story from The Verge describes two projects that use presence to take us to Chernobyl, with likely powerful impact; the original story includes a 3:40 minute interactive trailer for The Chernobyl VR Project and a 0:57 minute interactive trailer for Chornobyl 360. For more on the former, see coverage in Raw Story and YouTube for a 4:47 minute video; for more on the latter, see coverage in U.S. News. –Matthew]

Chernobyl VR poster

Watch the trailers for two Chernobyl VR interactive documentaries

By Adi Robertson
on April 26, 2016

Today marks the 30th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster in Ukraine — the date that a nuclear power plant outside the town of Pripyat melted down, releasing deadly amounts of radiation into the surrounding area. The disaster killed 31 people in the immediate aftermath, afflicted many more with cancer or birth defects, and turned an 18-mile radius around the plant into an abandoned “Exclusion Zone.”… read more. “Two Chernobyl VR interactive documentaries take you to the disaster”

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Call: Behavior Analysis and Multimedia for Children – Focus theme at Workshop on Human Behavior Understanding (HBU 2016)

Call for Papers: 7th Int. Workshop on Human Behavior Understanding (HBU 2016)
to be held in conjunction with ACM Multimedia, 16 October 2016, Amsterdam

“Focus Theme: Behavior Analysis and Multimedia for Children”

http://www.cmpe.boun.edu.tr/hbu/2016/

Short Description:

The Seventh International Workshop on Human Behavior Understanding, organized as a satellite to ACM Multimedia’16 will gather researchers dealing with the problem of modeling human behavior under its multiple facets (display of complex social and relational behaviors, recognition of individual or joint actions, personalization, etc.), with the focus topic of “Behavior Analysis and Multimedia for Children”.

The minimum age of computer usage is steadily getting lower, yet there are many issues open in children’s use of computers and multimedia. This workshop will solicit human behavior analysis solutions that clearly advance the field, and also to meet challenges of designing solutions with children in mind, which brings its own issues and challenges.… read more. “Call: Behavior Analysis and Multimedia for Children – Focus theme at Workshop on Human Behavior Understanding (HBU 2016)”

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What’s virtual reality without a headset?

[Headset-based VR is becoming a ‘hot’ medium in Marshall McLuhan’s use of the term, but as discussed in this story from The Verge (which has more pictures), it’s not the only, or necessarily the most effective, way to evoke intense presence illusions. –Matthew]

'Famous Deaths' installation at Tribeca Film Festival

[Image: Person being helped into the Famous Deaths installation at the Tribeca Film Festival.]

What’s virtual reality without a headset?

Tribeca Film Festival installations push our definitions of VR

By Adi Robertson
on April 21, 2016

My first thought, when I see someone roll into the Famous Deaths morgue freezer, is I’m sure glad they don’t lock you in. It’s not until I’m about to try it out myself that I realize they actually do.

Famous Deaths is one of the Tribeca Film Festival’s most morally ambiguous, potentially offensive, and arrestingly weird interactive installations. Originally exhibited in Amsterdam, it’s a pair of stainless steel boxes plugged into a system of speakers and scent tubes.… read more. “What’s virtual reality without a headset?”

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Call: Central and Eastern European Games Studies conference

Central and Eastern European Games Studies conference
20-22 October 2016
Lublin, Poland

http://ceegs.eu

THEME AND SCOPE: LUDIC RHIZOMES

Much of the recent history of game studies, both in Central/Eastern Europe and elsewhere, has been invested in the construction of the field’s unique identity that sharply distinguishes it from other disciplines. Between the narratology/ludology wars of the early 21st century, the debates of the artistic status of the medium, and the predictions of cultural dominance in the years to come, game critics have devoted an extraordinary amount of discursive energy to firmly establishing the singularity of their medium, often with fervency that is both understandable given the relative youthfulness of the medium and autarkic in its overprotectiveness against incursions by scholars from other fields.

But now, the number of dedicated academic journals can already be counted in tens; the number of book volumes and conferences in hundreds; and the number of articles and reviews in thousands.… read more. “Call: Central and Eastern European Games Studies conference”

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VR in the music industry needs to be a tool, not just an experience

[Presence isn’t referenced explicitly in this interesting piece from Forbes about the role of VR in the music industry, but both applications discussed – VR as an experience and a tool – involve evoking compelling presence illusions. –Matthew]

Stubhub VR for ticket buyers

[Image: A screenshot of StubHub’s immersive virtual-reality content that gives ticket buyers a full, 3D preview of available seats. (Photo courtesy of Re/code)]

Virtual Reality In The Music Industry Needs To Be A Tool, Not Just An Experience

Cherie Hu, Contributor
April 23, 2016

Last month, I found myself at the Made in NY Media Center in Brooklyn, testing a prototype of content management platform AudioSalad’s VR player for music streaming. The product intrigued me because it seemed to challenge how the real estate for music consumption has shrunken dramatically over the past few decades, from a 12-inch vinyl record to a 375×559-pixel phone screen (or, to be more extreme, an iPod shuffle, with its meager volume of 0.48 cubic inches).… read more. “VR in the music industry needs to be a tool, not just an experience”

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