ISPR Presence News

Monthly Archives: August 2011

Job: National University of Singapore – HCI and Interactive Digital Media Design

TENURE TRACK POSITION IN HCI AND INTERACTIVE DIGITAL MEDIA DESIGN

The Communications and New Media Department (CNM) at the National University of Singapore has an opening for a tenure track position in the area of HCI and interactive digital media design.

CNM’s interactive “Interactive Media Design” area includes researchers and teachers concentrating on theoretical and production issues at the intersection of HCI concerns (usability, interface) and interactive arts/entertainment design (game design, cyberarts). Faculty normally teach three courses per year and supervise honours and graduate research students. Compensation at NUS is highly competitive and includes eligibility for annual salary increments, performance bonuses, heavily subsidized housing, and other benefits, as well as generous research support.

We are seeking someone who conducts research, does creative work, and has teaching and/or industry experience in one or more of the following areas of arts/entertainment HCI: interaction design, experience design, cognitive/social science methods, games, serious games, computer supported cooperative work/play, or cyberarts (e.g.,… read more. “Job: National University of Singapore – HCI and Interactive Digital Media Design”

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Rob Enderle on why video conferencing sucks

[From TechNewsWorld]

OPINION

Why Video Conferencing Sucks

Understanding human interaction isn’t easy. We tend to be complex and very different. The reason we aren’t doing video conferencing calls regularly is partially because these systems don’t interoperate, but it is mostly because these systems don’t embrace the way we actually like to communicate.

By Rob Enderle
TechNewsWorld
08/15/11

I’ve been covering video conferencing (now often called “telepresence”) products since the late 80s and saw my first offering in the mid-60s as a child at Disneyland. Over the years, product wave after product wave has come to market with the promise of the next big thing in telecommunications only to fail to meet even reasonable expectations for deployment in a market where users are measured in billions.

Andy Grove, one of the smartest people I’ve ever met, referred to Intel’s (Nasdaq: INTC) axed video conferencing effort as his biggest mistake while running that company.… read more. “Rob Enderle on why video conferencing sucks”

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Call: International Journal of Role-Playing (IJRP)

The International Journal of Role-Playing (IJRP) is now accepting submissions for the 3rd issue, due out in winter 2011. Deadline for submissions is September 15, 2011.

The International Journal of Role-Playing invites researchers, designers, developers, academics, artists and others involved in the growing field of research related to role-playing to submit articles. The IJRP is a peer-reviewed journal, and welcomes submissions from any sphere of interest, knowledge network, research field or development sector that directly or indirectly relates to role-playing interests.

Potential topics include but are certainly not limited to the following:

  • Role-playing games, e.g. frameworks, storytelling and graphics; art, design and creative industry
  • Role-playing culture, psychology, media, economics, and sociology
  • Role-playing technology, surveys, vocabulary, training and education
  • Other aspects of role-playing and related research and development
read more. “Call: International Journal of Role-Playing (IJRP)”
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How gaming will change business conferencing

[From Humans Invent, where the story includes additional images]

You’re fired: How gaming killed the boardroom

By Ben Sillis
15th August 2011

Need to get someone out to New York for a crucial business meeting next week? It’ll cost you. At a week’s notice, a business class return trip on British Airways from Heathrow to JFK International will set your company back upwards of £3,800.

As stock markets plunge, and the wait for this “bounce back” continues, that’s money few can afford – but you can’t put a value on being in the same room as a potential client.

Unless of course, you opt for the cheaper solution: a £200 little black box and camera accessory, that you can use again and again. In love with the in-flight perks? They may soon be no more: read on and discover how the humble Xbox Kinect has given the meeting room its P45.… read more. “How gaming will change business conferencing”

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Call: Staging Illusion: Digital and Cultural Fantasy

Call for Papers:
Sussex Centre for Cultural Studies and the Centre for Material Digital Culture present:
Staging Illusion: Digital and Cultural Fantasy

Abstract submission deadline 19th August 2011

November 4th 2011, University of Sussex

Confirmed keynote speakers: Professor Vanessa Toulmin (Director of the National Fairground archive) and Dr Sarah Kember (Goldsmiths). Confirmed plenary speakers: Dr Astrid Ensslin (Bangor), Dr Melanie Chan (Leeds Met), Professor Nick Till (Sussex), and Dr Jo Machon (Brunel).

From magicians to immersive media and from the circus to cyborgs, the celebration and/or mistrust of illusion has been a central theme across a range of cultures. Notions of fakery and deception stand in opposition to fantasy and escape; our identities are performative and we learn to present ourselves as masked; and postmodern thinkers have criticised ‘hyperreality’ for its capacity to entice consumption. Yet whilst ideas pertaining to ‘cultural dupes’ have long since been dispelled in academia, the figure of the ‘mark’ of the fairground scam remains culturally ubiquitous, perhaps more so than ever, in an era of (post) mechanical reproduction.… read more. “Call: Staging Illusion: Digital and Cultural Fantasy”

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Future augmented reality to dissolve boundaries with digital world

[From SmartPlanet]

Video: How ‘augmented reality’ will make boring cities beautiful

By Christopher Mims | August 10, 2011

In the near future, as you stroll down the street, billboards and street signs will change to suit your interests. Ghostly arrows will float in the air, pointing you toward your destination. Buildings, vehicles, the apparel of those you pass, and the very fabric of the reality you perceive will all be as changeable as your wardrobe.

That’s the vision of futurists and science fiction authors like Vernor Vinge, and increasingly, it’s the reality brought to us by ever-more-powerful mobile devices. Some day soon, when our cell phones are connected to display systems compact enough to project images on the inside of eyeglasses, the boundaries between the digital and the real world will simply dissolve.

September 26, technologists will gather in Munich, Germany to demonstrate the progress they’ve made toward this vision at the annual insideAR augmented reality conference.… read more. “Future augmented reality to dissolve boundaries with digital world”

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Call: Design and Evaluation of Innovative Interactive Systems: Interdisciplinary and Trans-sectorial Training (DEVISE II)

Design and Evaluation of Innovative Interactive Systems:
Interdisciplinary and Trans-sectorial Training (DEVISE II)
(COST-IC0904 TwinTide Training School)*

VENUE: Bertinoro international Center for informatics (http://www.bici.eu/) [BiCi]
DATE:  30th October 2011 (Sun) – 3rd November 2011 (Thur)
WEBSITE: http://www.tik.ee.ethz.ch/~law/DEVISEII/

DEADLINE FOR APPLICATION SUBMISSION: 8th September 2011

SPONSOR:

The Training School is organized under the auspices of COST-IC0904 TwinTide (http://www.twintide.org), an international European project researching on design and evaluation of interactive systems.

MOTIVATION:

Third-wave human computer interaction (HCI) is characterised by a diversifying user base and use contexts, new emphasis on user experience and new interaction styles (Bødker, 2006). This implies a need for informed method choice sensitive to domains, user groups and system objectives.  Effective method use requires complex judgments about applicability across applications and genres, with failure implying significant financial and human costs.  The adoption of ICT across ages and abilities has further increased the need for effective design and evaluation (D&E) methods, which bring about useful, usable, desirable computing artefacts that improve life quality.… read more. “Call: Design and Evaluation of Innovative Interactive Systems: Interdisciplinary and Trans-sectorial Training (DEVISE II)”

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A new approach to creating high-fidelity, 3-D images of the human face

[From Microsoft Research]

A New Window to the Face

By Douglas Gantenbein

August 8, 2011 9:00 AM PT

The human face is a complicated thing—powered by 52 muscles; contoured by the nose, eyebrows, and other features; and capable of an almost infinite range of expressions, from joy to anger to sorrow to puzzlement.

Perhaps that is why realistic animation of the human face has been what Microsoft Research Asia scientist Xin Tong calls a “holy grail” of computer graphics. Decades of research in computer graphics have developed a number of techniques for capturing three-dimensional moving images of the human face. But all have flaws, capturing insufficient detail or failing to depict accurately a changing expression.

Now, researchers at Microsoft Research Asia, led by Tong and working with Jinxiang Chai, a Texas A&M University professor, have developed a new approach to creating high-fidelity, 3-D images of the human face, one that depicts not only large-scale features and expressions, but also the subtle wrinkling and movement of human skin.… read more. “A new approach to creating high-fidelity, 3-D images of the human face”

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Call: 3rd International Symposium on Ambient Intelligence – Software and Applications (ISAmI 2012)

ISAmI 2012 :: CALL FOR PAPERS
3rd International Symposium on Ambient Intelligence – Software and Applications
28th-30th March, 2012 :: Salamanca, Spain

http://isami.usal.es

Ambient Intelligence (AmI) is a recent paradigm emerging from Artificial Intelligence (AI), where computers are used as proactive tools assisting people with their day-to-day activities, making everyone’s life more comfortable. Another main concern of AmI originates from the human computer interaction domain and focuses on offering ways to interact with systems in a more natural way by means user friendly interfaces. This field is evolving quickly as can be witnessed by the emerging natural language and gesture based types of interaction. The inclusion of computational power and communication technologies in everyday objects is growing and their embedding into our environments should be as invisible as possible. In order for AmI to be successful, human interaction with computing power and embedded systems in the surroundings should be smooth and happen without people actually noticing it.… read more. “Call: 3rd International Symposium on Ambient Intelligence – Software and Applications (ISAmI 2012)”

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The modern meeting — not a place we go, but a thing we do

[From The Huffington Post]

The Modern Meeting — Not a Place We Go, But a Thing We Do

Brett Caine
President, Citrix Online
Posted: 8/9/11

I recently had the honor of writing the foreword for a new book, Read This Before Our Next Meeting, by Al Pittampalli, who offers a very interesting perspective on meeting culture in today’s workplace. Throughout the book, Pittampalli suggests that many of the meetings we attend throughout the day are a waste of time and prevent us from doing the real work at hand. To solve this problem, Pittampalli proposes the “Modern Meeting,” with seven principles to serve as a guideline for today’s workers.

According to the author, the Modern Meeting:

1. Supports a decision that has already been made.
2. Moves fast and ends on schedule.
3. Limits the number of attendees.
4.… read more. “The modern meeting — not a place we go, but a thing we do”

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