ISPR Presence News

Monthly Archives: May 2012

Call: First International Workshop on ‘Understanding Delight in Design: User Experience, Technologies and Tools’ (BCS HCI 2012)

Dear Colleagues

We would like to invite paper submissions to the

First International Workshop on “Understanding Delight in Design: User Experience, Technologies and Tools”

BCS HCI People and Computers XXVI, 12-14th September 2012

University of Birmingham on 10th September 2012.

Paper Submission Deadline: June 18th 2012

Website: http://www.serena.ac.uk/delight-in-design-workshop/

Aim of the workshop:

Drawing on the established fields of usability, user experience and interaction design, this workshop aims to bring together people to discuss the concept of ‘delight’ in interface, product and interaction design. ‘Delight’ or ‘delightful’ design is, we argue, an aspirational quality that the HCI community would do well to consider when designing and evaluating interfaces. Open-mindedness and designing for emotion seem critical aspects of a broader call or desire for design which is ‘delightful’; an experience which engages the user more fully, an experience which provokes ‘ensoulment’, a term coined by Nelson and Stolterman to describe an emotional response to a product which results in a deeply moving feeling of being significantly changed.… read more. “Call: First International Workshop on ‘Understanding Delight in Design: User Experience, Technologies and Tools’ (BCS HCI 2012)”

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Beer pong at Philadelphia Science Festival uses glyphs on mugs as paddles

[From Philly Tapped (see  pp. 89-94); thanks to Liudi Wang]

[Image: Eric Welch and Kyle Stetz square off at “Beer Pong”]

Beer Goggles

Philadelphia Science Festival

By Brendan Clay
April 30, 2012

[snip]

This is the second year that Yards [Brewing Company] has released a beer for the Science Festival, a 10-day celebration of science and innovation held at locations all over Philadelphia.

[snip]

Besides debuting Atom Blonde, the Science Fair mixer hosts exhibits and tech demos. The big hit of the night is “Beer Pong,” which is not the college drinking game, but a variation of the videogame Pong played with beer mugs as paddles.

Eric Welch, Kyle Stetz, and Brian Kelly, who work in The Franklin Institute’s prototype lab, designed the game for the festival. “We’re using glyphs,” says Stetz, pointing to the placard attached to his mug. It displays a random-looking pixelated symbol enclosed in a square.… read more. “Beer pong at Philadelphia Science Festival uses glyphs on mugs as paddles”

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Call: Alt-HCI at BCS HCI 2012

Alt-HCI
BCS HCI 2012
Birmingham, UK. September 12th-14th
Deadline for Submissions: 15th June 2012

Does your work push the bounds of HCI? Do you find mentioning it amongst your colleagues sparks endless debate? Are you working with a group of users that are in some way extreme or exploring conceptions of technology that do not fit or standard models? Do you have a weird finding or observation you would like to share, but that does not seem to fit into traditional ways of talking about HCI? Are you simply revisiting and area that was once mainstream and is now out of fashion, or dismissed? Or reproducing an old result and finding it not quite as expected?

Perhaps you are investigating methods for inducing negative user experience, or for not getting things done (or is that Facebook?). Maybe you would like to argue for the importance of Taylorism within HCI, or explore user interfaces for the neonate.… read more. “Call: Alt-HCI at BCS HCI 2012”

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Leap Motion allows precise control of a PC with hand gestures

[From Information Week; a 1:12 minute video is available here]

Leap Motion: Control PC With Hand Gestures

Gesture-based computer interaction, as depicted in “Minority Report,” looks like it will soon become commonplace. “The Leap” peripheral lets you control UI elements using gestures made in the air.

By Thomas ClaburnInformationWeek
May 22, 2012 09:00 AM

The mobile revolution has prompted not only new forms of computers but also new ways to interact with them.

Apple brought touchscreens to the masses. Google introduced voice-based and image-based search in Android and iOS, and is presently working on augmented reality glasses. Nintendo reinvented video game interaction with its Wii controller and then Microsoft upped the ante with its Kinect gesture tracking system, first for Xbox and more recently for PCs.

On Monday, Leap Motion made its bid to change the way people interact with traditional desktop devices.… read more. “Leap Motion allows precise control of a PC with hand gestures”

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Call: Ludic Simulations – Special issue of International Journal of Gaming and Computer-Mediated Simulations

The International Journal of Gaming and Computer-Mediated Simulations (http://www.igi-global.com/ijgcms) announces a call for papers for a special issue dedicated to the topic of Ludic Simulations, co-guest edited by Patrick Coppock (University of Modena & Reggio Emilia, Italy) and IJGCMS Editor-in-Chief Rick Ferdig (Kent State University, USA).

Ludic here refers to Latin definitions of ludus, referring to fun, play or playfulness.  It might also widened to include the notion of entertaining facilitation, ease or pleasure of use.  Simulations are computer-mediated environments that provide opportunities for users to explore a world, an occupation, a task, etc..  We are making a broad assumption that all electronic games are simulations, but not all simulations are games.

We expect electronic games to be fun.  Games that are not fun are not played, understanding that “fun” is unique to each player.  However, we do not often expect simulations to be fun. … read more. “Call: Ludic Simulations – Special issue of International Journal of Gaming and Computer-Mediated Simulations”

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Joseph Hyde’s ‘me and my shadow’ international telepresence experience

[From body>data>space, where the post includes a 1:23 minute video and many other images]

me and my shadow

by Joseph Hyde

10 – 26 June 2012 @ National Theatre, London

Teleport yourself into a deeply poetic experience. Connect and interact in a shared virtual space with people across Europe.

Co-produced by in the UK by body>data>space and National Theatre as part of the EU project MADE, and connecting real-time audiences between London, Paris, Brussels and Istanbul, me and my shadow, by UK artist Joseph Hyde in collaboration with Phill Tew will premiere at the National Theatre from 10 – 26 June 2012 as part of National Theatre Inside Out.

A deeply immersive experience consisting of four separate portals in London, Paris, Istanbul and Brussels, me and my shadow is an international telepresence experience that connects participants through a shared online environment. … read more. “Joseph Hyde’s ‘me and my shadow’ international telepresence experience”

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Call: 2012 EmTech MIT

EmTech MIT
October 25-26, 2012
MIT Media Lab
Cambridge, MA

REGISTRATION NOW OPEN
Register by May 31, 2012 and save up to $800 on any full-conference registration.
Click here to register online.

WHAT IS EmTech?

Technology Review’s annual Emtech MIT is the premier conference focused on emerging technologies and their impact.

Emtech is a place where technology, business, and culture converge. It is an access point to the most innovative people and companies from around the world. Most of all, it is a place of inspiration: a place to glimpse the future of technology and begin to understand how it is going to impact the world and your business.

Emtech is a community, a network, and a meeting place for business leaders, innovators, entrepreneurs, investors, and change makers worldwide who are passionate about turning ideas into solutions and addressing major global issues.… read more. “Call: 2012 EmTech MIT”

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TeleHuman 3-D video pod delivers 360-degree, holograph-like projections

[From Wired’s GadgetLab blog, where the post includes a 1:46 minute video]

[Image: A concept image of the Human Media Lab’s TeleHuman pod. Photo: University of Queens]

3-D Video Pod Delivers 360-Degree, Holograph-Like Projections

By Alexandra Chang
May 7, 2012

Imagine walking up to a tall, cylindrical pod, and talking to a life-size, 3-D projection of a faraway friend, family member, or colleague. And not only do you see the person in 3-D, you can walk a full 360 degrees around the pod, and see your conversation partner from every angle — just as if the person was actually standing inside the cylinder.

It may sound like the science fiction of Star Trek or Star Wars, but this is exactly what a team of researchers at Queen’s University have developed in the Human Media Lab. Grandly dubbed TeleHuman, the life-size cylindrical pod allows users to conduct real-time, 3-D and 360-degree video conferences.… read more. “TeleHuman 3-D video pod delivers 360-degree, holograph-like projections”

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Call: Special issue of PsychNology on “Cool”

PsychNology invites authors to submit papers for a theme issue on “Cool”. This issue follows the Cool aX Continents, Cultures and Communities Workshop (see http://www.chici.org/cool2012/), but we welcome all contributions, whether they build on work presented at the workshop or not. The focus of the theme issue will be on designing for cool in the context of new and emerging technologies. Current literature and work on cool predominantly focuses on specific demographics of society without exploring its broader application.

This theme issue aims to explore and discuss the notion of cool and how it crosses the boundaries of continents, cultures and communities. Papers should contribute to a deeper understanding of the different facets and contexts of cool, and whether cool as a concept can be globally defined.

Areas relevant to the call include:

  • Designing Cool Products/Technologies
  • Measuring Cool
  • How do artefacts become cool?
read more. “Call: Special issue of PsychNology on “Cool””
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Brain chip helps quadriplegics move robotic arms with their thoughts

[From MIT’s Technology Review]

[Image: Reach out: In a clinical trial, a woman used a brain-chip system to control a robotic arm with her thoughts and reach for a drink of coffee.  The BrainGate Collaboration (braingate2.org) and Nature]

Brain Chip Helps Quadriplegics Move Robotic Arms with Their Thoughts

It’s the first study to show that brain chips can assist paralyzed people to perform complex real-world tasks.

Wednesday, May 16, 2012
By Susan Young

A paralyzed patient equipped with an implanted brain chip has been able to use a robotic arm to reach for and pick up a bottle of coffee, bring it close enough to her face so she could drink from a straw, and then place the bottle back on the table.

The quadriplegic patient was outfitted with an electronic brain implant that can drive a robotic arm to reach and grasp objects (see video).… read more. “Brain chip helps quadriplegics move robotic arms with their thoughts”

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