ISPR Presence News

Monthly Archives: January 2011

Call: Embodied, Distributed and Extended Cognition: Philosophical Perspectives Workshop

Embodied, Distributed and Extended Cognition: Philosophical Perspectives Workshop

Department of Philosophy, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
March 24-25, 2011
Organized by TECNOCOG Research Group

Note: Call for Posters/Best Student Poster Competition (supported by Cognitive Science Society)

http://tecnocogworkshoponcognition.wordpress.com//

The workshop aims at discussing philosophical issues in post-cognitivist cognitive science, especially recent approaches such as embodied cognition, the extended mind and socially distributed cognition.

Participation is free, but please register by sending an email to saray.ayala@uab.esread more. “Call: Embodied, Distributed and Extended Cognition: Philosophical Perspectives Workshop”

Posted in Calls | Comments closed

Game-changing narratives, or: How social media is changing reality

[From OpEdNews.com]

January 27, 2011

Game-Changing Narratives, Or: How Social Media is Changing Reality

By Bud Goodall (about the author)

Lately there has been a convergence of news narratives that coalesce into a series of otherwise disparate nouns: reality, gaming, social media, Tunisia, avatar envy, emotion, college-students-aren’t-learning-anything, the Internet, and revolution. For academics studying communication, the merger of these nouns spells good times, fascinating times, times that promise cool science and thought-provoking essays. For entrepreneurs, they provide investment opportunities. For the world beyond the academy and entrepreneurs, however, this new series of nouns creates life possibilities that are at once true, bizarre, and maybe even frightening.

Let’s begin with the basics of this first new grammar of the 21st century. Which is to say, appropriately, let’s begin with you. With the reality, and virtual reality, of you. For you are always and forever at the center of this unfolding many-storied story, because whether you are you in the flesh; or you are you in the sexier, sleeker avatar that represents and evokes a version of yourself that you’d often rather be; or whether it’s the you that creates friends on a Facebook page or surfs the “Net or the you who exchanges endless texts and tweets 24/7, the end result is the same: your pleasure in these texts, which is also to say the pleasure you give to yourself and others in and through engaging in these texts, is central to the choices about stories, and the lives, you make out of them.… read more. “Game-changing narratives, or: How social media is changing reality”

Posted in Presence in the News | Comments closed

Call: 2nd International Workshop on Evaluating Player Experience in Games (epex11)

2nd International Workshop on Evaluating Player Experience in Games (epex11)

Bordeaux, 28 June 2011

Workshop in conjunction with the Foundations of Digital Games (FDG) Conference 2011

There is a rapidly growing interest in evaluating player experience in games context, as well as other forms of digital interactive entertainment, for example via applying psychophysiological signals and user telemetry to obtain data on the user experience and the interaction between user and game, Developing useful methods for evaluating player experience in games is paramount for the design of interfaces that can better account for the user experience while interacting with different media (i.e., games, social media, pervasive marketing).

This workshop aims at presenting and discussing quantitative and qualitative methods for evaluating player experience in games. The workshop focuses especially on novel evaluation techniques such as psychophysiological measures and behavioral game metrics that supplement user experience evaluation methods, which can be used to e.g.… read more. “Call: 2nd International Workshop on Evaluating Player Experience in Games (epex11)”

Posted in Calls | Comments closed

3 universities and Singapore’s MDA partner for telepresence R&D at new BeingThere Centre

[A press release from The Media Development Authority of Singapore]

New S$23 million research centre by NTU, ETH Zurich and University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill will make virtual communication a reality

This Singapore-Swiss-American partnership that spans three continents will revolutionise human communication in the 21st century

Singapore, 26 January 2010 – Need to have a conference with others thousands of kilometres away? A glass-walled room lets all parties interact as if you were all together at one location.

Can’t be physically present for a meeting? Send your avatar which will take on your appearance as well as gestures and even give you a report of the meeting at the end.

Sounds like science fiction? Not at all. These are some of the advanced and sophisticated forms of interactive real-time 3-D communication, known as “telepresence” and “telecollaboration” that we can look forward to in the near future.… read more. “3 universities and Singapore’s MDA partner for telepresence R&D at new BeingThere Centre”

Posted in Presence in the News | Comments closed

Job: 1 year Human-Robot Interaction post-doc at Mobile Life Centre, Stockholm, Sweden

1 Year Human-Robot Interaction Post-doc, Mobile Life Centre, Stockholm, Sweden

When:  Available immediately, 1 year. start date March 1st.

Where:  The researcher will be employed at SICS, Swedish Institute of Computer Science and will work within the Mobile Life Centre (MobileLifeCentre.org)

We are pleased to announce the availability of a one-year post-doc position in the area of human-robot interaction at SICS and the Mobile Life Centre. We are looking for recent Ph.D. graduates from all over the world with a strong interest in robotic artefacts and interaction design, who want to work in a dynamic research environment in Sweden.

You will work within the LIREC project at the Mobile Life Centre’s Future Applications Lab. The project’s work at Mobile Life/SICS has focused on understanding robot technology in everyday environments, and understanding existing social practices, routines and experiences that a robot designer should consider.… read more. “Job: 1 year Human-Robot Interaction post-doc at Mobile Life Centre, Stockholm, Sweden”

Posted in Jobs | Comments closed

Living on the edge of virtual reality

[From The Nevada Appeal; a detailed article about Brock Enright’s “Videogames Adventure Services” is available in The New York Times here]

[Larger image available here]

Opinion

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Living on the edge of virtual reality

By Ursula Carlson
For the Nevada Appeal

I like the words “virtual reality” because they suggest an alternate world, one that is not real, but that seems almost real. To me it’s like the world we encounter whenever we read a novel, watch a movie, recall scenes from the past or imagine scenes that might occur in the future.

But this is not the way we understand the words today, nor was it the meaning Antonin Artaud had in mind when he coined the phrase in his 1938 book, “The Theater and Its Double.”

Artaud, a poet, actor, director and theorist, decried theater’s dependence on the “text,” the words and language.… read more. “Living on the edge of virtual reality”

Posted in Presence in the News | Comments closed

Call: Special issue of Ergonomics on “Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) and Ergonomics”

Call for Papers – Special Issue of Ergonomics

Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) and Ergonomics

You are cordially invited to make a contribution to a special issue of Ergonomics (http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/title~db=all~content=g931448109), entitled “Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) and Ergonomics.” The primary goal of this special issue is to explore human factors and ergonomics issues involved in designing, developing, evaluating and implementing brain-computer interface (BCI) systems for users with and without severe motor disabilities by including contributions from researchers in different disciplines.

As a valuable augmentative communication system, BCI has recently gained considerable research interest, especially for those who have lost all voluntary muscle control. BCI applications should allow for increased independence and hence, improved quality of life for people with severe neuromuscular disorders. However, there has been a general lack of understanding of, or inattention to, ergonomics/human factors issues such as interface design, usability, inclusive design, user-BCI interaction, etc.… read more. “Call: Special issue of Ergonomics on “Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) and Ergonomics””

Posted in Calls | Comments closed

Inside Lockheed Martin’s out-of-this-world virtual reality lab

[From The Denver Business Journal; more information including a 3:09 minute video is available here]

[Image: A demonstration of what an engineer sees inside Lockheed Martin’s Collaborative Human Immersive Laboratory]

Inside Lockheed Martin’s out-of-this-world virtual-reality lab

Denver Business Journal – by Greg Avery
Date: Monday, January 24, 2011 – Last Modified: Tuesday, January 25, 2011

The newest advance at Colorado’s Lockheed Martin Space Systems Co. campus isn’t as out-of-this-world as some of what’s made there, but it’s not exactly of this world, either.

The Littleton-based division of Lockheed Martin Corp., the Bethesda, Md.-based defense and aerospace giant, this week publicly unveiled a virtual reality lab where its engineers can test and improve satellite and space vehicle designs before they physically exist.

In the company’s Collaborative Human Immersive Laboratory, teams of engineers can virtually walk around their creation, look at it from every angle, virtually add parts to it and interact with it as if it were in the room.… read more. “Inside Lockheed Martin’s out-of-this-world virtual reality lab”

Posted in Presence in the News | Comments closed

Call: 11th conference on Humans&Computers 2011

CALL FOR PAPERS

aboutMEDIA ABOUTtomorrow – überMEDIEN ÜBERmorgen

11th conference on Humans&Computers 2011 – Mensch&Computer 2011
by the Gesellschaft für Informatik (Society of Computer Science)
and the German UPA.

Conference languages: German and English

Web: http://english.uebermedien.org/

Types of Contributions:

  • Long papers
  • Short papers (posters)
  • Visions beyond tomorrow
  • Exhibition with accompanying short-and long contributions
  • Workshops
  • Tutorials

Timeline

  • March 20th 2011: Submission deadline
  • End of May 2011: Author notification
  • June 12th 2011: Camera ready copy must be received (The proceedings are going to be published under open access by Oldenbourg Wissenschaftverlag)
  • June 12th 2011: Workshop paper submission deadline / deadline for submitting tutorials
  • July 1st 2011: Notifications for workshop papers / tutorials
  • September 11th to 14th 2011: Conference

Venue: Chemnitz, Germany

Media increasingly define our lives. Their growing diversity produces chances and risks. At the same time their use is becoming increasingly complex.… read more. “Call: 11th conference on Humans&Computers 2011”

Posted in Calls | Comments closed

Disabled virtual athletes experience reality of playing baseball

[From ESPN’s The Gamer blog]

[Image: Hans Smith’s Association for Disabled Virtual Athletes will be featured in “MLB 11: The Show.”]

Association for Disabled Virtual Athletes debuts in ‘The Show’

By Jon Robinson
Jan 24, 2011

Hans Smith pitched his way through an up-and-down rookie year for the Cardinals last season.

Don’t recognize the name? That’s because Smith is a virtual athlete who spent an entire season playing as himself in “MLB 10: The Show.”

But Smith is anything but your average gamer.

The 25-year-old baseball fanatic suffers from cerebral palsy, making it impossible for him to play the game he loves in real life.

But that didn’t stop Smith from making the Majors.

You see, a few years ago, Smith wrote a letter to Sony’s San Diego studio, the developers of the top-rated “MLB: The Show” series, and the producers were so moved by Smith’s passionate words about the sport of baseball, the Cardinals, and their video game, that Sony went ahead and created Smith’s character in “MLB 10: The Show.”… read more. “Disabled virtual athletes experience reality of playing baseball”

Posted in Presence in the News | Comments closed
  • Find Researchers

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

    A | B | C | D | E | F| G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z