ISPR Presence News

Monthly Archives: January 2018

Job: Faculty position in Interaction Devices at University of Glasgow

Lecturer / Senior Lecturer / Reader in Interaction Devices
University of Glasgow – School of Computing Science
http://www.jobs.ac.uk/job/BHC976/lecturer-senior-lecturer-reader-in-interaction-devices/
Job Ref: 019891

Closes: 28th February 2018

Salary will be on the University’s Research and Teaching Grade, level 7/8/9, £34,520 – £38,833 / £42,418 – £49,149 / £50,618 – £56,950 per annum.

JOB PURPOSE

To pursue a world-class research programme in Computing Science within the topics of the Glasgow Interactive Systems (GIST) Section; to teach related topics in Computing Science at all undergraduate and postgraduate levels; to carry out allocated administrative tasks.

The research topics covered by GIST include:

  • human-computer interaction;
  • social robotics;
  • visualisation;
  • ubiquitous computing.

The School seeks applications from outstanding candidates to develop and lead research of international standard in these or related topics.

Further information can be found at: http://www.glasgow.ac.uk/computing/worldchangerswelcome.

STANDARD TERMS & CONDITIONS… read more. “Job: Faculty position in Interaction Devices at University of Glasgow”

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Physicists advance volumetric display tech to make Star Wars-style 3D projections a reality

[As this story from Futurism does, all or nearly all the press coverage of this technology advance with implications for presence begin by referring to science fiction portrayals (e.g., in Star Wars, Iron Man, and Avatar). The original Futurism story includes links to coverage in Nature News, the Nature article and the BYU press release as well as a 2:24 minute BYU video. –Matthew]

[Image: One of Smalley’s students, wearing a lab coat and posed like Princess Leia. Image Credit: Smalley et al., Nature]

Physicists Just Made Star Wars-Style 3D Projections a Reality

By Dom Galeon
January 26, 2018

IN BRIEF

Physicists from Brigham Young University may have just created the best technology for projecting 3D images, but they’re not calling these images a hologram. It’s still in its earliest stages, but once perfected, its applications could be varied.

NOT A HOLOGRAM

For many sci-fi fans, a truly working hologram is Princess Leia asking Obi Wan Kenobi for help.… read more. “Physicists advance volumetric display tech to make Star Wars-style 3D projections a reality”

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Call: MobileHCI 2018 – 20th International Conference on HCI with Mobile Devices and Services

Call for Papers for MobileHCI 2018 – “The next 20 years: beyond mobile”

The 20th International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction with Mobile Devices and Services
3th – 6th September, Barcelona, Spain
http://mobilehci.acm.org/2018/

Important deadlines for the main paper track (due not later than 17:00 hrs PST on the dates indicated.):

  • Submissions: February 9th, 2018
  • Notification: April 25th, 2018
  • Camera-ready: May 29th, 2018
  • Early July 2018: Early registration ends

In 2018 we are celebrating the 20th anniversary of the conference. Mobile HCI seeks contributions in the form of innovations, insights, or analyses related to human computer interaction and experiences with mobility. The conference series has shaped research, development and practice in mobile devices and services for nearly two decades.

In this call for submissions we invite your contributions to the field and according to this year’s theme look beyond to the next twenty years of MobileHCI.… read more. “Call: MobileHCI 2018 – 20th International Conference on HCI with Mobile Devices and Services”

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Inside South Korea’s Space 360 spherical projection theater

[The new Space 360 spherical theater in Gwangju, South Korea (about 3 hours by train south of Seoul) is designed to evoke a strong sense of spatial presence. The original version of this story from urdesignmag includes 7 more images and a 3 minute video; more information is available from the Front Pictures blog, including this from the (admittedly biased) sponsor: “The feedback from the audience is great. They say that they have never experienced anything like this before. And they feel like they have travelled into another dimension!” –Matthew]

Inside South Korea’s First Spherical Projection Theater

The Gwangju National Science Museum has recently opened South Korea‘s first spherical projection theater Space 360.

January 10, 2018

In 2006, famous movie director Steven Spielberg outlined his idea on what movie theaters of the future could look like. “Some day in the not too distant future you’ll be able to go to a movie and the movie will be all around you.read more. “Inside South Korea’s Space 360 spherical projection theater”

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Call: Reconceiving Cognition conference

CALL FOR PAPERS

RECONCEIVING COGNITION
Antwerp, June 27-29
https://www.uantwerpen.be/en/rg/filop/reconceiving/

Deadline for abstracts: February 13, 2018

The cognitive sciences, including its neural branches, continue to flourish. But what exactly is cognition? Recent developments in Embodied, Embedded and Enactive approaches to cognition, or E-cognition, have drawn attention to the numerous ways in which embodied situated interaction might be more intimately related to cognition than previously acknowledged. E-cognition is often taken to raise concerns about the tenability of a conception of cognition according to which in-the-head representational and/or computational mechanisms breathe cognitive life into organismic activities that would otherwise be mere bodily motion. But do E-factors call for a replacement or merely a reform of standard conceptions of cognition?  And what exactly should be the new concept of cognition? Relatedly, the arrival of E-cognition leads to such questions as whether or not we need to reconsider the relation between cognition (including perception) and behavior, what explanations of cognition consist of, and what role the brain should play in such explanations.… read more. “Call: Reconceiving Cognition conference”

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AI writes music, fools listeners and raises questions

[This short piece from Open Culture is about how experts were fooled into thinking that music composed by artificial intelligence in the style of Bach was composed by Bach himself (i.e., they experienced presence, misperceiving the role of technology in the experience). The story references a more detailed article on the project from December 2016 and comes as “Hello World, the first album composed with AI,” is being released. For an interesting discussion of the implications of all of this, see a September 2017 article in Playboy titled “Will Artificial Intelligence Elevate Pop Music or Pervert It? (The Answer is Yes).” –Matthew]

Artificial Intelligence Writes a Piece in the Style of Bach: Can You Tell the Difference Between JS Bach and AI Bach?

by Colin Marshall
January 24th, 2018

This week, the artificial intelligence community Botnik published a 2018 Coachella Lineup poster composed entirely of performer names generated by neural networks.… read more. “AI writes music, fools listeners and raises questions”

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Call: ISMAR 2018 – 17th IEEE International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality

CALL FOR PAPERS

ISMAR 2018
17th IEEE International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality (ISMAR)
in Munich (Germany)
October 16-20, 2018
http://ismar2018.org/

ISMAR 2018, the premier conference for Augmented Reality (AR) and Mixed Reality (MR), will be held in Munich, Germany.

ISMAR is responding to the recent explosion of commercial and research activities related to AR and MR and Virtual Reality (VR) by continuing the expansion of its scope over the past several years. ISMAR 2018 will cover the full range of technologies encompassed by the MR continuum, from interfaces in the real world to fully immersive experiences. This range goes far beyond the traditional definition of AR, which focused on precise 3D tracking, visual display, and real-time performance.

We specifically invite contributions from areas such as Computer Graphics, Human-Computer Interaction, Psychology, Computer Vision, Optics, and in particular VR, and how these areas contribute to advancing AR / MR / VR technology.… read more. “Call: ISMAR 2018 – 17th IEEE International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality”

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Sex dolls, live models make ‘virtual intercourse’ feel real

[I often hesitate to post stories on this topic, despite its obvious relevance to presence, in part because of the juvenile and prurient tone of the press coverage, but this story from CNET that describes the latest fascinating but ethically murky step toward effective presence illusions in the context of sexuality stands out as responsible and thoughtful. See the original story for many more photos, a video and links to related information. –Matthew]

Sex dolls, live models make ‘virtual intercourse’ feel real

Camming site CamSoda calls itself a “virtual strip club.” Now new integrations with VR, connected toys and sex dolls will take users into the back rooms to “do it without doing it.”

By Ry Crist
January 25, 2018

Editors’ note: Some of the language and descriptions in this story are not suited for younger readers.

CamSoda is an adult-oriented live “camming” site dubbed “a virtual strip club with no cover” by its creators.… read more. “Sex dolls, live models make ‘virtual intercourse’ feel real”

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Call: European Conference on Cognitive Ergonomics (ECCE 2018)

Call for papers

ECCE 2018 – European Conference on Cognitive Ergonomics
Theme: Modeling, simulation, and games
4-7 September 2018, Utrecht, The Netherlands
http://ecce2018.eace.net

IMPORTANT DATES:

  • February 15, 2018, 5 pm (CET): Deadline submission long and short papers, including workshop proposals, doctoral consortium papers, posters and demonstrations.
  • May 2, 2018: Reviews of submissions are sent
  • June 15, 2018, 5 pm (CET): Camera-ready version of accepted contributions
  • July 16, 2018, 5 pm (CET): Early registration deadline
  • September 4, 2018: ECCE 2018 Doctoral Consortium and Workshops
  • September 5-7, 2018: ECCE 2018 Main conference

GENERAL INFORMATION:

ECCE 2018 is the 30st annual conference of the European Association of Cognitive Ergonomics (EACE). This leading conference in human-media interaction and cognitive engineering provides an opportunity for both researchers and practitioners to exchange new ideas and practical experiences from a variety of domains. This year’s special theme is modeling, simulation, and games.… read more. “Call: European Conference on Cognitive Ergonomics (ECCE 2018)”

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Will virtual AI assistants create real relationship troubles?

[This column from Forbes suggests that as the technology of virtual assistants like Alexa and Siri evolves and they become more capable of evoking effective medium-as-social-actor presence, they’ll take on bigger roles in our lives and disrupt the mundane but important interactions of our human-human relationships (a prospect thoughtfully expanded on in the film Her). ––Matthew]

[Image: An Amazon Echo. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)]

Will Virtual AI Assistants Create Real Relationship Troubles?

Kalev Leetaru, Contributor – I write about the broad intersection of data and society.
January 9, 2018

As they say in relationship counseling, communication is everything in nurturing a successful happy marriage. Thus, it was with considerable fascination the other day that I listened as a colleague offhandedly mentioned that his spouse was “jealous” of his new Google Home, to which she promptly replied that it was true and that he now asked the home device all of the casual questions he used to ask her, from tomorrow’s weather to today’s headlines to what time the grocery store closed tonight.… read more. “Will virtual AI assistants create real relationship troubles?”

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