ISPR Presence News

Monthly Archives: March 2015

Call: The Borders of Digital Art

The Borders of Digital Art
The Digital Arts Project

Tuesday 15th September – Thursday 17th September 2015
Mansfield College, Oxford, United Kingdom

Call for Presentations:

The digital arts are constantly developing with an ever growing number of new branches (i.e. hybrid art, digital musics, interactive art, animation/FX, game production, curating creative communities, urban gaming, application design, bioart, hacktivism, generic architecture, urban hacking, big data visualisation, etc.). Many of these enter and change the entertainment and media industry and often promote the exploration of various aspects of human life, philosophical issues, anthropological, social, political and judicial problems. Consequently they are strongly connected with the processes around the merging of boundaries between the humanities, sciences (biotechnology, genetics, physics, chemistry, product fabrication, engineering, robotics, neurosciences etc.) and technology. The influence of information and telecommunication technologies and computer mediated communication on various aspects of our everyday life and resulting problems are often presented in aesthetically appealing, shocking or hardly understandable form in digital artworks.… read more. “Call: The Borders of Digital Art”

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Experiencing ‘Deep,’ the VR game that relieves anxiety attacks

[Most of the coverage of the anxiety-treatment VR experience Deep refers to this story from VICE, which includes other images. For more information, including many more images and videos, be sure to visit Owen Harris’ website. –Matthew]

Deep screenshot

Experiencing ‘Deep,’ the Virtual Reality Game That Relieves Anxiety Attacks

March 24, 2015
By Joe Donnelly

From the column ‘VICE Vs Video Games’

I remember the first time I realized my anxiety had become a problem. I was with friends in a popular Glasgow bar watching Sunday afternoon soccer. It was quiet, and alongside our table stood three vacant chairs: two with sturdy wooden panels fixed to the space between the top of the backrest and the cushion, and one without. I was sat closest to the seat missing the support and could see that, although otherwise identical to the others, there were no screw holes or any obvious signs that this chair ever had a support panel, or was supposed to have one attached at all.… read more. “Experiencing ‘Deep,’ the VR game that relieves anxiety attacks”

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Call: The Videogame Cultures Project: 7th Global Meeting

The Videogame Cultures Project: 7th Global Meeting

Friday 11th September – Sunday 13th September 2015
Mansfield College, Oxford, United Kingdom

Call for Presentations:

Videogames have probably become one of the most progressive mediums in the 21st century. The videogame genres and sub-genres are rapidly diverging and many concepts are merging with those from other media and even with the environment of the ‘real’ world (alternate reality games). Consequently the scope of the project is not limited to videogame studies only, but many other disciplines such as philosophy, psychology, sociology, economics, information science, criminology, military studies or ethology, to name but a few. All have found play, game, game-model, player behaviour, game design and players’ relation to the virtual environment as a high priority within their own fields of research. The result of all these influences is that the discourse on videogame cultures is constantly evolving giving it an ever wider range of influence and an increasingly a inter-, multi-, and trans-disciplinary character.… read more. “Call: The Videogame Cultures Project: 7th Global Meeting”

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Occipital’s mobile 3D scanning sensor enhances mobile mixed reality

[This looks like another step toward effective mobile/wearable augmented reality (I like the heading “Mixing Virtual Reality and Reality Reality”)… The article is from ReadWrite, where there’s a 0:41 minute video; more coverage, including more videos, is available from 3D Printing Industry. –Matthew]

Star Ops 3D game for Structure sensor on iPad

 

Here’s A New Way To Step Into A Virtual World

Occipital’s mobile 3D-scanning sensor goes virtual.

Signe Brewster
Mar 27, 2015

When you strap on an Oculus Rift virtual-reality headset, you’re free to look up, down and around. But as soon as you try to explore the virtual world further, you’re stuck. You can’t interact with your surroundings or walk across the room.

New controllers and sensors hitting the market are built to solve this problem, whether by tracking the precise location of your fingers so you can grab that virtual gun or giving you a simple joystick so you can “walk” from place to place.… read more. “Occipital’s mobile 3D scanning sensor enhances mobile mixed reality”

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Call: HaPoC 3: Third International Conference for the History and Philosophy of Computing

Call For Papers

HaPoC 3: Third International Conference for the History and Philosophy of Computing
8-11 October, 2015, Pisa

http://hapoc2015.di.unipi.it

The DHST commission for the history and philosophy of computing (www.hapoc.org) is happy to announce the third HAPOC conference. The series aims at creating an interdisciplinary focus on computing, stimulating a dialogue between the historical and philosophical viewpoints. To this end, the conference hopes to bring together researchers interested in the historical developments of computing, as well as those reflecting on the sociological and philosophical issues springing from the rise and ubiquity of computing machines in the contemporary landscape. In the past editions, the conference has successfully presented a variety of voices, contributing to the creation of a fruitful dialogue between researchers with different backgrounds and sensibilities.

For HaPoC 2015 we welcome contributions from historians and philosophers of computing as well as from philosophically aware computer scientists and mathematicians.… read more. “Call: HaPoC 3: Third International Conference for the History and Philosophy of Computing”

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Virtual noses keep real-world VR sickness at bay

[As a commenter notes, it’s surprising this hasn’t been investigated sooner; the story is from Ars Technica and more information, including the article abstract, is available from Purdue University’s coverage. –Matthew]

Simulator with virtual nose

Virtual noses keep real-world VR sickness at bay

Simulation sickness solution may have been sitting right in front of our faces.

by Kyle Orland – Mar 25, 2015

As the new wave of virtual reality headsets barrel ever closer to consumer reality, the effects of “simulator sickness” on a significant portion of the population remain a concern. A group of researchers at Purdue University say they’ve found an easy way to mitigate this effect by adding one bit of reality that most VR simulations leave out: a virtual nose sitting persistently at the corners of your vision.… read more. “Virtual noses keep real-world VR sickness at bay”

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Call: Designs on eLearning (DeL) 2015: Technology, Culture, Practice

Call for Papers

Designs on eLearning (DeL) 2015: Technology, Culture, Practice
16-17 September 2015
London

http://www.designsonelearning.net/

Application deadline: 15 April 2015
Accepted applicants will be notified by late May

The DeL 2015 conference is now accepting applications for panel discussions, workshops or short paper presentations on the following themes (see below):

  • Cross-disciplinarity
  • Understanding practice & culture
  • Engaging students in digital spaces
  • Digital identity
  • Digital scholarship

As digital technologies continue to transform the creative and pedagogic landscape, we face exciting possibilities and new challenges for the future of education. Titled “Technology, Culture, Practice,” DeL 2015 aims to explore forms of learning that take place in digital contexts within and beyond HE institutions.… read more. “Call: Designs on eLearning (DeL) 2015: Technology, Culture, Practice”

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Walk through the belly of a tornado in virtual reality

[As the second headline in this story from Popular Science suggests, we could recreate the experiences of, and learn about and prepare for, a variety of natural disasters using presence-evoking technology. You can watch the Weather Channel segment on MSNBC’s website and read detailed information about the tornado recreation in Virginia Tech’s coverage. –Matthew]

Moore, OK tornado recreation

[Image: Tornado recreation in the Cube: Re-creating the storm in the Cube at the Moss Arts Center enables researchers to see the entire storm in 3-D, which offers great potential for research into how storms form. Credit: Virginia Tech]

Walk Through The Belly Of A Tornado In Virtual Reality

Seeing natural disasters unfold from the inside out

By Mary Beth Griggs Posted March 24, 2015

On May 20, 2013, a massive tornado slammed into Moore, Oklahoma, killing 24 people and leaving 353 injured, and causing nearly $2 billion in damage.… read more. “Walk through the belly of a tornado in virtual reality”

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Call: Examining the Evolution of Gaming and Its Impact on Social, Cultural, and Political Perspectives (Book chapters)

Call for Chapters: Examining the Evolution of Gaming and Its Impact on Social, Cultural, and Political Perspectives

EDITORS

Dr. Keri Duncan Valentine (West Virginia University)
Lucas John Jensen (The University of Georgia)

Proposals Submission Deadline: March 30, 2015
Full Chapters Due: June 30, 2015

INTRODUCTION

The maturing field of video games offers unparalleled narrative complexity, experimentation with new game mechanics, and avenues for in-game creativity. Can the interactive nature of video games shift a player’s perspective on sociopolitical and cultural topics by placing them in unique and challenging situations, characters, and/or points of view?

As video games grow in popularity, ambition, scope, and technological prowess, they also mature as an art form, shedding old definitions tethered to video games as competitive exercises with simple sets of mechanics. Over the last four decades, video games have made great narrative strides, from the rather simple days of Pong and Mario Bros.… read more. “Call: Examining the Evolution of Gaming and Its Impact on Social, Cultural, and Political Perspectives (Book chapters)”

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Immersive Telepresence: New systems for a declining market

[This informed view of the market for high-end telepresence systems is from NoJitter, where the story includes the mentioned video and two more images. –Matthew ]

Cisco IX 5000 at Cisco Collaboration Summit 2014

[Image: Rowan Trollope’s IX 5000 demo at Cisco Collaboration Summit 2014]

Immersive Telepresence: New Systems for a Declining Market

Super big video conferencing systems may only serve a niche in the enterprise, but that hasn’t stopped ongoing development from Cisco, Polycom, and Huawei.

Brian Riggs | March 02, 2015

When it comes to video conferencing these days, virtual meeting rooms, mobile and desktop clients, cost-effective cloud services, and similarly democratizing solutions are in. Super big systems that deliver a super quality experience at super crazy prices are out. Or are they?

If you go by the numbers, things look pretty gloomy for immersive telepresence solutions, those high-end systems that use HD video, life-size images, just-so lighting, and custom furniture to create the illusion that all participants are in the same conference room.… read more. “Immersive Telepresence: New systems for a declining market”

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