ISPR Presence News

Monthly Archives: December 2016

Call: 7th Irish Conference on Game-Based Learning (iGBL 2017)

Call for Participation

iGBL 2017
The 7th Irish Conference on Game-Based Learning
Cork City, Ireland
22nd – 23rd June 2017
http://www.igbl-conference.com/

Abstract submission deadline: 22nd of February

The 7th Irish Conference on Game-Based Learning (iGBL2017) will be hosted in Cork City at the Clayton Hotel on the 22nd and 23rd June 2017.

Contributions are welcomed from a wide range of topics and may be research or practitioner-based.

We welcome abstracts from a wide range of stakeholders, including researchers, instructors, or students, who will have the opportunity to conduct workshops, present research results, or provide insights on how they managed to design or use games for educational or motivational purposes.

THEMES FOR THE CONFERENCE

The symposium will include (but is not restricted to) the following topics:

Pedagogy, Educational and Social issues

  • Pedagogical/learning theories for game-based learning
  • Evaluation of game-based learning
  • Assessment in game-based learning
  • Integrating games into the curriculum
  • Games to teach arts, science, or business
  • Social and collaborative aspects of game-based learning
  • Multi-modal aspects of game-based learning (e.g.
read more. “Call: 7th Irish Conference on Game-Based Learning (iGBL 2017)”
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The Kissenger lets you smooch a loved one from afar

[If you’re away from loved ones this holiday weekend, there’s always the Kissenger (!). This story is from IEEE Spectrum, where it features a second image. By the way, don’t confuse this Kissenger with the closely related Lovatics robot Kissenger. Here’s wishing all of us a healthy, safe, productive, and most of all, happy 2017. –Matthew]

[Image: With the Kissenger, video chats could be sealed with a kiss. Photo: Emma Yann Zhang.]

Robotic Kiss Transmitter Lets You Smooch a Loved One From Afar

By Eliza Strickland
Posted 23 Dec 2016

If you can’t be with your loved ones this holiday season, perhaps you’ve told them that you’re sending a kiss. But if you could really do just that—send a kiss by smashing your lips against a rubber pad that’s attached to your smartphone—would you want to?

The Kissenger (so named because it’s a “mobile kiss messenger”) could give you that awkward option.… read more. “The Kissenger lets you smooch a loved one from afar”

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Job: Research Associate for WeDraw HCI project at UCL Interaction Centre

Please find information below about a Research Associate position on Human-Computer Interaction at the UCL Interaction Centre. (WeDraw project). Please forward to anyone who may be interested – the deadline is 6th Jan 2017.

Research Associate in Human-Computer Interaction – Ref:1614112
Division of Psychology and Language Sciences

University College London (UCL) Interaction Centre

Grade 7
Hours – Full Time
Salary (inclusive of London allowance) – £34,056 – £36,923 per annum

Applications are invited for a Postdoctoral Research Associate to work as part of a multidisciplinary group within the EU-funded project weDraw. WeDraw is a 2-year research project that brings together European partners from industry and university to explore how multi-modal and multi-sensory technology can support the learning of mathematical and geometrical concepts in children.

The position is based at the UCL Interaction Centre UCLIC: https://uclic.ucl.ac.uk/. UCLIC is a Centre of Excellence in Human-Computer Interaction drawing its members from both UCL’s Computer Science Department and the Division of Psychology and Language Sciences.… read more. “Job: Research Associate for WeDraw HCI project at UCL Interaction Centre”

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Dimitri Williams: Community is the ‘killer app’ missing from virtual reality

[Dimitri Williams argues that social presence is more important than spatial presence in this opinion column from the Los Angeles Times. –Matthew]

[Image: Mark Zuckerberg on a Facebook Messenger phone call with his wife Priscilla Chan while in VR. From the October 2016 story “Facebook Shows Us The Future of Social VR” in 3D VR Central.]

Op-Ed

Community is the ‘killer app’ missing from virtual reality

By Dmitri Williams (Associate Professor at the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism specializing in games, communities and data)
December 27, 2016

I have played with several virtual reality systems over the last few years, but just recently bought my own PlayStation VR headset for my family. It’s pretty whiz-bang. Although VR still has kinks (including motion sickness for many users), it’s impressive how well even these first-generation consumer products convey what researchers call “presence,” the feeling of truly being transported somewhere else.… read more. “Dimitri Williams: Community is the ‘killer app’ missing from virtual reality”

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Call: eNTERFACE’17 – 13th International Summer Workshop on Multimodal Interfaces

Call for Papers

eNTERFACE’17 – 13th International Summer Workshop on Multimodal Interfaces
Porto, Portugal
July 3rd to 28th, 2017
http://artes.ucp.pt/enterface17/

Submission deadline: 13 January 2017

Following the success of the previous eNTERFACE workshops held in Mons (Belgium, 2005), Dubrovnik (Croatia, 2006), Istanbul (Turkey, 2007), Paris (France, 2008), Genova (Italy, 2009), Amsterdam (Netherlands, 2010), Plzen (Czech Republic, 2011), Metz (France, 2012), Lisbon (Portugal, 2013), Bilbao (Spain, 2014), Mons (Belgium, 2015), Twente (Netherlands 2016), the Digital Creativity Centre (CCD) of the Portuguese Catholics University have the pleasure to host eNTERFACE’17, the 13th Summer Workshop on Multimodal Interfaces, in Porto, Portugal from July 3rd to 28th, 2017.

eNTERFACE workshops aim at establishing a tradition of collaborative, localized research and development work by gathering, in a single place, a team of senior project leaders in multimodal interfaces, researchers, and (undergraduate) students, to work on a pre-specified list of challenges, for 4 weeks.… read more. “Call: eNTERFACE’17 – 13th International Summer Workshop on Multimodal Interfaces”

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Florida pediatrician using VR, presence to offer ‘flinch free vaccine experience’

[This story from WPTV is about a variation on the increasingly well-regarded idea of using distraction via presence to ease the experience of pain (e.g., see Kenney and Milling’s recent meta-analysis). The original story features two videos including the 2:35 minute news report, which is also available on YouTube. –Matthew]

Boca Raton pediatrician’s office offers ‘flinch free vaccine experience’

Stephanie Susskind
Dec 27, 2016

BOCA RATON, Fla. – Imagine being transported off the ground or even out of this world, all while sitting in your doctor’s office.

That’s what one Palm Beach County pediatrician is doing for his patients to ease their fears about getting a shot.

Dylan Perlin, 11, got a booster shot and didn’t even know it, because he was wearing virtual reality goggles.

“It was really weird, I felt like I was between outer space and the earth’s atmosphere.… read more. “Florida pediatrician using VR, presence to offer ‘flinch free vaccine experience’”

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Job: Reader/Senior Research Lectureship at Knowledge Media Institute at The Open University, UK

[Follow the link for information on other available positions. –Matthew]

Reader / Senior Research Lectureship
Knowledge Media Institute (KMi)
The Open University, UK
Ref: 13175 – Based in Milton Keynes
Permanent position
http://kmi.open.ac.uk/jobs/#13175

Closing date for applications: Thursday 26 January 2017

The Knowledge Media Institute (KMi) is one of the top research centres in the world in the area of knowledge and media technologies – see details of our work at http://kmi.open.ac.uk.  The role of this new position is to strengthen KMi’s international research reputation and in particular we expect the successful applicant to pursue a robust and innovative research agenda in one or more of these strategic research areas:

  • Data Science – Machine Learning, Analytics, Big Data, Data Visualization, Blockchain Technologies;
  • Internet of Things – Smart Objects, Wearable Computing, Ambient Intelligence, Sensor Networks, Smart Cities;
  • New Media Technologies – New Media for Collaboration and Learning, Interfaces, Augmented Reality, Novel Interaction Techniques.
read more. “Job: Reader/Senior Research Lectureship at Knowledge Media Institute at The Open University, UK”
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Perils of presence: VR allows the most detailed, intimate digital surveillance yet

[As much potential as they have for good, the diffusion of VR and other presence-evoking technologies in society raises critically important ethical issues; this story is from The Intercept and includes a quote from our colleague Andrea Stevenson Won; the original version features a series of eerie animations. –Matthew]

[Image: From an animation by Scott Gelber for The Intercept]

THE DARK SIDE OF VR

Virtual Reality Allows the Most Detailed, Intimate Digital Surveillance Yet

December 23 2016
Joshua Kopstein (additional research: Jeremiah Johnson)

“WHY DO I look like Justin Timberlake?”

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg was on stage wearing a virtual reality headset, feigning surprise at an expressive cartoon simulacrum that seemed to perfectly follow his every gesture.

The audience laughed. Zuckerberg was in the middle of what he described as the first live demo inside VR, manipulating his digital avatar to show off the new social features of the Rift headset from Facebook subsidiary Oculus.… read more. “Perils of presence: VR allows the most detailed, intimate digital surveillance yet”

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Job: Full professor in Technologies for Games at Utrecht University, the Netherlands

Full professor in Technologies for Games (0.8­1.0 FTE)
Utrecht University, the Netherlands

http://www.cs.uu.nl/vacatures/en/876896.html

Application deadline: January 15, 2017

JOB DESCRIPTION

The Faculty of Science at Utrecht University is seeking to appoint a full professor in Technologies for Games to complement and reinforce existing strengths in Game Technology within the faculty. The appointee should have significant expertise in game technology, specifically in any of the fields of animation, simulation, rendering/visualization or modelling. She/he will develop new initiatives, aiming at research programs in Game Technology and play a significant role in the strongly established international scientific communities in this domain. She/he will lead the acquisition of external research funds, both at the national and international levels, and the dissemination, of research results and its applications, to the relevant research communities. The Full Professor has a leading role in teaching and supervision. She/he will contribute to the department’s curriculum development at BSc, MSc and PhD levels.… read more. “Job: Full professor in Technologies for Games at Utrecht University, the Netherlands”

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After exploring a virtual world, some can’t shake sense the actual world isn’t real either

[This story from The Atlantic explores a fascinating after-effect of VR and presence (or possibly of an incomplete presence illusion) akin to Timmins and Lombard’s concept of inverse presence; following Frederick Aardema’s 2006 finding that “VR increases dissociative experiences and lessens people’s sense of presence in actual reality,” it’s described as “post VR sadness” and “derealization.” Have you ever had anything like the experiences described here? Let us know in the online comments or let me know directly (at lombard@temple.edu). –Matthew]

[Image: Credit: Eugene Hoshiko / AP]

Virtual Reality Can Leave You With an Existential Hangover

After exploring a virtual world, some people can’t shake the sense that the actual world isn’t real, either.

Rebecca Searles
Dec 21, 2016

When Tobias van Schneider slips on a virtual reality headset to play Google’s Tilt Brush, he becomes a god. His fingertips become a fiery paintbrush in the sky.… read more. “After exploring a virtual world, some can’t shake sense the actual world isn’t real either”

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