ISPR Presence News

Monthly Archives: April 2015

Call: Discovering Collections, Discovering Communities 2015: Exploring new digital destinations for heritage and academia

CALL FOR PAPERS

Discovering Collections, Discovering Communities 2015 (DCDC15): Exploring new digital destinations for heritage and academia

When: Monday 12th – Wednesday 14th October 2015

Call for papers deadline: 1st May 2015

Where: The Lowry, Pier 8, Salford Quays, Manchester, M50 3AZ

Conference fee: Registration for DCDC15 will open soon. There is no fee to attend the conference, however, a modest fee applies for the networking drinks reception on Monday 12 October and the conference evening reception on Tuesday 13 October.

This year’s conference will look at the varied and innovative ways in which archives, museums, libraries and academia can engage with audiences in the digital age.

The last two decades have witnessed a flourishing of digital content across the heritage and academic sectors. Whether through the creation of digital discovery tools, mass digitisation and online delivery of content, or the creation of new virtual user interfaces; digital technology has come to complement traditional analogue formats to create an altogether richer user experience.… read more. “Call: Discovering Collections, Discovering Communities 2015: Exploring new digital destinations for heritage and academia”

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Would you board a plane piloted remotely or by a robot?

[This story from The New York Times (where it includes another image) sets the stage for rich discussions about different types of presence: Technology marches on, “But will passengers ever set foot on [a] plane piloted by robots, or humans thousands of miles from the cockpit?” –Matthew]

Robot pilot graphic by Harry Campbell

Planes Without Pilots

By John Markoff
April 6, 2015

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — Mounting evidence that the co-pilot crashed a Germanwings plane into a French mountain has prompted a global debate about how to better screen crewmembers for mental illness and how to ensure that no one is left alone in the cockpit.

But among many aviation experts, the discussion has taken a different turn. How many human pilots, some wonder, are really necessary aboard commercial planes?

One? None?

Advances in sensor technology, computing and artificial intelligence are making human pilots less necessary than ever in the cockpit.… read more. “Would you board a plane piloted remotely or by a robot?”

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Jobs: Four Research Fellows at Microsoft Research Centre in Social Natural User Interfaces at University of Melbourne

Research Fellows (PostDocs) (4 positions)
Microsoft Research Centre in Social Natural User Interfaces
The University of Melbourne, Australia

Full-time & Fixed Term (till Dec 2017)
Salary: AU$89,955 – AU$106,817 p.a. plus 17% superannuation

We are seeking high quality applicants for four (4) research fellow positions. Successful applicants will become key contributors to the Microsoft Research Centre in Social Natural User Interfaces at the University of Melbourne (http://www.socialnui.unimelb.edu.au/)

The SocialNUI centre addresses social consideration arising from new forms of human-computer interactions beyond those in the keyboard and mouse, in particular those supporting human gesture and voice. The SocialNUI centre operates as an autonomous research centre within the Department of Computing and Information Systems, at the University of Melbourne.

The research within SocialNUI will broadly address four domains of human activities: the home, public spaces, education and health. It is expected that the centre will grow to a research team of more than 20 people over the next three years.… read more. “Jobs: Four Research Fellows at Microsoft Research Centre in Social Natural User Interfaces at University of Melbourne”

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Augmented and virtual reality to hit $150 billion, disrupting mobile by 2020

[Looking for evidence that presence-evoking technologies are ‘important’? This story from TechCrunch, which includes another chart, presents new forecast analyses for the AR and VR markets from Digi-Capital. –Matthew]

AR and VR forecast chart

Augmented And Virtual Reality To Hit $150 Billion, Disrupting Mobile By 2020

Posted April 7, 2015 by Tim Merel (@DigiCapitalist)
Editor’s note: Tim Merel is the managing director of Digi-Capital.

Virtual reality and augmented reality are exciting – Google Glass coming and going, Facebook’s $2 billion for Oculus, Google’s $542 million into Magic Leap, not to mention Microsoft’s HoloLens. There are amazing early-stage platforms and apps, but VR/AR in 2015 feels a bit like the smartphone market before the iPhone. We’re waiting for someone to say “One more thing…” in a way that has everyone thinking “so that’s where the market’s going!”

A pure quantitative analysis of the VR/AR market today is challenging, because there’s not much of a track record to analyze yet.… read more. “Augmented and virtual reality to hit $150 billion, disrupting mobile by 2020”

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Call: Crossing the Game-Art Boundary – DiGRA 2015 preconference workshop

You are invited to participate at a one-day workshop on games and art with guests Lindsay Grace and Perola Bonfanti. The workshop will take place on May 13th in Lüneburg, Germany, the day preceding the DiGRA conference (http://digra2015.org).

The workshop is organised by the team of the Gamification Lab (organiser of the DiGRA conference) in conjunction with the Leuphana Arts Program. The event should be particularly convenient for those who are coming for DiGRA and expect to reach Lüneburg before the actual conference begins. Participation is free, although seats are limited. If you are interested please contact me at paolo.ruffino@inkubator.leuphana.de Thank you.

Best,

Paolo Ruffino
http://paoloruffino.com

 

Workshop: Crossing the Game-Art boundary
Lüneburg, Germany, May 13th 2015, 13:00-19:00 hrs
Room: TBA

The workshop intends to stimulate a debate about the increasing mutual influence and contaminations between the artistic context and the production of game environments.… read more. “Call: Crossing the Game-Art Boundary – DiGRA 2015 preconference workshop”

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‘Fake food’ expands from restaurants to fashion (and phone cases)

[Here’s an unusual context for presence: ‘Fake food’ is apparently common in Japan’s restaurants, and now it’s expanded into fashion; this story from Munchies includes several more pictures. See also “Japan’s newest trend: Bacon n’ eggs on the iPhone” from CNBC (!). –Matthew]

Fruit necklace by Norihito Hatanaka

This Japanese Fake Food Artist Makes Ramen and Bacon Wearable

By Hilary Pollack
April 1, 2015

In Japan, fake food is more than a menu enhancer or a quirky decoration: It’s a straight-up artform. Making an egg appear gelatinous, a bowl of noodles appear still-warm, or a piece of bacon appear juicy requires more than just a steady hand, but a true dedication to culinary replication—in plastic, that is.

Japanese artist Norihito Hatanaka is elevating this appetite-whetting tradition one step further, and playing on its tactility, by making highly realistic fake food into wearable accessories. Are they kitschy?… read more. “‘Fake food’ expands from restaurants to fashion (and phone cases)”

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Call: Human Interaction with Artificial Advice Givers – Special issue of ACM Transactions on Interactive Intelligent Systems

Call for Papers

Special Issue of the
ACM Transactions on Interactive Intelligent Systems
on HUMAN INTERACTION WITH ARTIFICIAL ADVICE GIVERS

Main submission deadline: June 23rd, 2015

http://tiis.acm.org/special-issues.html

AIMS AND SCOPE

Some types of system that support people in making choices and decisions can be viewed as artificial *advice givers*: They propose options and help to evaluate them while involving their human user in the decision making process. These systems differ in terms of their degree of autonomy and the extent to which users can influence reasoning processes and conclusions. For example, a system that supports exploratory search for products will in general leave much of the judgment and decision making to the user, whereas a system that executes semiautonomous maneuvers in a car may offer the driver only the possibility of overriding the system’s choices. In all such situations, there can be benefits and challenges to keeping the human decision makers in the loop, enabling them not only to understand the system’s advice and reasoning but also to call it into question and to influence the system’s reasoning.… read more. “Call: Human Interaction with Artificial Advice Givers – Special issue of ACM Transactions on Interactive Intelligent Systems”

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Google patents cloud-based customizable robot personalities

[This story from Newsweek only begins to raise some of the implications – for presence and otherwise – of customizable robot personalities stored in the cloud. –Matthew]

MIT's social robot Nexi

[Image: MIT’s social robot Nexi; from Popular Science]

Google Patents Customisable Robot Personalities

By Luke Hurst 4/2/15 at 12:02 PM

Google is preparing for a world in which robots possess human-like personalities after filing a patent for the technology in the United States.

Quartz, a tech and business news website, reports that the patent, awarded this week to the technology giant, will allow for the downloading and customization of robot personalities which could be stored in the cloud, and could even be programmed to resemble deceased family members.

The patent lays claim to a method for “providing a robot apparatus with a personality”, and details how the robot’s personality could change over time, how the robot’s mood could be affected by certain events, and how the memory of events could be incorporated into the development of a robot’s personality.… read more. “Google patents cloud-based customizable robot personalities”

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Call: Workshop on ‘Developing Partnership and Advancing Driving Research’

Call for Participation

Workshop on “Developing Partnership and Advancing Driving Research”
Michigan Tech, USA, May 28, 2015

For further information, visit: http://sites.google.com/a/mtu.edu/engin

Michigan Tech Transportation Institute (MTTI) hosts the first workshop on “Developing Partnership and Advancing Driving Research”. We would like to invite researchers and practitioners interested in in-vehicle user interfaces and applications. This workshop aims to (1) identify plausible research projects and collaborators for each identified project, (2) introduce possible funding agencies and proposal submission logistics, and (3) plan and schedule activities that will culminate in competitive proposal submission.

After the keynote speech, each participant will briefly introduce his or her research areas and specialties. All participants will also have a chance to discuss collaborations and ideas with every other participant in short conversations. Then, we will have subgroups and discuss plausible research topics and ideas. After the workshop, we will follow up each special interest group with competitive proposals to secure external funding.… read more. “Call: Workshop on ‘Developing Partnership and Advancing Driving Research’”

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Move over, virtual reality: Literal reality is the next big thing

[Interesting take (note the date) on first order (biology) and second order (technology) mediation, i.e., presence and telepresence; this is from Tom’s Hardware, where the story includes more pictures. –Matthew]

Literal Reality (LR) glasses

Move Over, Virtual Reality: Literal Reality Is The Next Big Thing

By Seth Colaner, Fritz Nelson, Niels Broekhuijsen, Lucian Armasu, Rexly Penaflorida II
April 1, 2015

Move over, Oculus Rift. Get lost, HTC Vive. Don’t even bother, Microsoft’s Hololens. There’s an unbelievable new tech in town called literal reality (LR) that completely blows away the best VR or AR experience you’ve ever had or could hope to have.

An entity called Sclera has developed literal reality (LR) technology, and it’s light years ahead of anything we’ve seen to date. Not only do these LR glasses offer an unbelievable resolution per eye, there are absolutely no motion sickness or headache-inducing issues to be had here.… read more. “Move over, virtual reality: Literal reality is the next big thing”

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