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Monthly Archives: January 2017

Call: Special Issue on Cognitive Assistants – International Journal of Human-Computer Studies

Call for Papers

Special Issue on Cognitive Assistants
International Journal of Human-Computer Studies
ELSEVIER
JCR Impact Factor: 1.476
SCImago Journal Rank (SJR): 0.815

https://www.journals.elsevier.com/international-journal-of-human-computer-studies/call-for-papers/cognitive-assistants

Manuscript submissions due: April 30, 2017

INTRODUCTION

Cognitive Assistants (CA) are a relatively new concept, advancing the Cognitive Orthotics concept that is only focused on direct assistance, to people with cognitive or physical disabilities, and expanding the area to include complex platforms that include sensors, actuators, monitoring abilities and decision processes. CA is an area containing technologies such as cognitive assistants, multi-agent systems, robotics and applications (such as e-health and e-learning), among others. Essentially, CA is focused on people and their disabilities, providing tools that best fit them using personalization methods. CA can range from a medication reminder to a messaging system that connects its users with their relatives. New developments like the IOT (Internet of Things) and the increasing amount of computing power in handheld devices have allowed the development of environments that were until now unavailable through embedded systems.… read more. “Call: Special Issue on Cognitive Assistants – International Journal of Human-Computer Studies”

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Trump at 2AM: The new Oval Office in virtual reality

[You can observe the new U.S. president in an eerie up-close experience in the Oval Office in the new (free) virtual reality creation Wide Awake; this first person report on the experience is from TechStack247; for more information including images and videos, see the MacInnes Scott website. You can download Wide Awake from Viveport. –Matthew]

Trump at 2AM: The new Oval Office in virtual reality

By Temidayo — January 21, 2017

Donald Trump stands before me with a grim look on his face, lightly leaning against the Oval Office’s Resolute desk. Moonlight pours in through the office’s rear windows as a phone quietly rings. It’s 2am, and something has happened — and a new President holds the weight of the world on his shoulders. I’m looking at this surreal, frozen scene through the lens of an HTC Vive.… read more. “Trump at 2AM: The new Oval Office in virtual reality”

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Call: Wearable Robotics for Assistance and Rehabilitation (WRAR) at CLAWAR 2017

Call for Papers

Wearable Robotics for Assistance and Rehabilitation (WRAR)
A Special Session within the coming
CLAWAR 2017 – 20th International Conference on Climbing and Walking Robots and the Support Technologies for Mobile Machines
Oporto, Portugal, September 11-13, 2017
https://clawar.org/clawar2017/

Theme: Rehabilitation and assistive robotics

Submission deadline: 01 February 2017

ABOUT THE SPECIAL SESSION:

The adoption of novel active wearable devices, either for daily assistance or clinical rehabilitation, requires new approaches to ultimately enable efficient treatments and better facilitation of movement for individuals who present loss of motor abilities. In particular, since these devices interact directly with humans there are major challenges that still need to be addressed such as acceptance, effectiveness, safety and functionality. Thus, there is a need to consider further the knowledge from complementary disciplines such as neuronal sciences, human-centered design, computer science, biomechanics, neuroscience, and psychology. This will enable to design the wearable devices as a natural extension of the human body, a fundamental feature for sustainability of such system.… read more. “Call: Wearable Robotics for Assistance and Rehabilitation (WRAR) at CLAWAR 2017”

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‘MasterpieceVR’ enables cross-platform real-time collaborative creativity

[Real-time collaborative virtual environments like ‘MasterpieceVR’ have exciting potential to evoke presence and enable creativity and other positive outcomes; this story from Upload VR features several more images and two videos; an update includes another image and video and notes that the software is “available for download on Steam — entirely for free for a limited time” and that “the player count will increase to 4 in the next few weeks and grow steadily over the life of the platform.” –Matthew]

‘MasterpieceVR’ Brings Cross-Platform Multiplayer Painting And Sculpting To Rift And Vive

By Danny Bittman
December 23rd, 2016

Creating art with several people at once can be a crowded experience. But not in MasterpieceVR.

MasterpieceVR from Brinx Software mends the gap between design applications, like Quill and Oculus Medium, by letting users 3D sculpt and 2D paint in environments like an apartment, or a floating island above the clouds.… read more. “‘MasterpieceVR’ enables cross-platform real-time collaborative creativity”

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Call: VISion Understanding and Machine intelligence – visum 2017 Summer School

VISion Understanding and Machine intelligence – visum 2017
7 – 14, July 2017
Porto, Portugal
visum.inesctec.pt

Application deadline: 06 March 2017

VISion Understanding and Machine intelligence – visum 2017 is the fifth edition of the Summer School that aims to gather Ph.D. candidates, Post-Doctoral scholars and researchers from academia and industry with research interests in computer vision and machine intelligence.

visum is organized by INESC TEC in the scope of the FourEyes project. FourEyes aims to make critical and tangible advances in the digital media sector and transform the means by which multimedia content is created, distributed and consumed. It will provide the means for scientific, creative and industrial communities to understand how new forms of multimedia content in a symbiotic relation with intelligent processing can improve our way of life and can be used to produce innovation.… read more. “Call: VISion Understanding and Machine intelligence – visum 2017 Summer School”

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Sex in VR is getting even more immersive in 2017

[Matt Jones and I have argued that sexuality represents an important context for studying presence experiences and this story from Upload VR (where it includes more images) provides a progress report that illustrates why. For example, one industry figure notes that current technology “brings us one step closer (essentially the closest) to feeling the person on the other end without actually being in the same physical space – a heightened level of intimacy” and another says “The adult industry is undergoing a seismic shift as we transition away from the traditional towards a more immersive experience that is delivering a heightened level of intimacy unlike anything before … This heightened experience will only continue to evolve and mimic real life interactions.” The story author concludes that “while fully immersive virtual sex might not be here just yet, it looks like we got a whole lot closer in 2016, and with the amount of money and interest at play, we’re likely to see a lot more interesting – and some downright wacky – stuff continuing to pop up 2017.”… read more. “Sex in VR is getting even more immersive in 2017”

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Call: MICI 2017: Mixed-Initiative Creative Interfaces (CHI 2017 Workshop)

CALL FOR PARTICIPATION

MICI 2017: Mixed-Initiative Creative Interfaces
Workshop at CHI 2017
May 7, 2017, Denver, CO
http://mici2017.org

Submit by Jan 31, 2017

Enabled by artificial intelligence techniques, we are witnessing the rise of a new paradigm of computational creativity support: mixed-initiative creative interfaces (MICIs) put human and computer in a tight interactive loop where both take turns suggesting, producing, evaluating, modifying, selecting creative outputs. This paradigm could broaden and amplify creative capacity for all, but is today mostly developed and studied in game AI. This one-day workshop at CHI 2017 therefore convenes CHI and game researchers to advance mixed-initiative approaches to creativity support.

TOPICS OF SPECIAL INTEREST

  • User experience and engagement in MICIs
  • Interaction, design and evaluation challenges of MICIs
  • Future scenarios of human-AI co-creativity and MICIs in and beyond creative practice
  • MICIs for accessibility, inclusion, participation, and user-generated content
  • MICIs and models of creativity and collaboration

We invite participants to submit 2-6pp.… read more. “Call: MICI 2017: Mixed-Initiative Creative Interfaces (CHI 2017 Workshop)”

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Mobile ads with haptic feedback increase viewer engagement with ad and brand

[Simple haptic cues increase presence and a variety of effects sought by advertisers; this story (which I’ve lightly edited for typos) is from MediaPost, where it includes the short video mentioned; for more information see the press release from Immersion Corporation via Business Wire (also excerpted below). –Matthew]

[Image: Source: Immersion Corporation]

Interpublic Tests Ads That Reach Out And Touch Someone, Finds Lift

by Joe Mandese
January 25, 2017

Sight, sound and motion have long been the Holy Trinity of Madison Avenue’s sensory perception — and of TV’s and video’s dominance of advertising formats — but new research from Interpublic’s Media Lab and Magna units touches on a fourth sense that may be an even more effective and engaging one: touch.

The research, which was based on tests of a series of “touch-enabled” video ads — ads that produced tactile haptic feedback enabling users to literally feel them — found that they generated a 50% lift among consumers for the brands participating in the study.… read more. “Mobile ads with haptic feedback increase viewer engagement with ad and brand”

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Call: HRI 2017: 3rd Workshop on Child-Robot Interaction

Call for Submissions to HRI 2017: 3rd Workshop on Child-Robot Interaction

Growing-Up Hand in Hand with Robots: Designing and Evaluating Child-Robot Interaction from a Developmental Perspective
06 March 2017, Vienna, Austria

Website: https://childrobotinteraction.org/
Twitter: #workshopCRI
Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/CRIresearch/

Please send your paper through the following submission link:
https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=wpcri2017

IMPORTANT DATES

Jan 31st 2017: Submission deadline
Feb 6th 2017: Notification of acceptance
Feb 20th 2017: Final version due
Mar 6th 2017: Workshop in Vienna, Austria

ABSTRACT

Robots are becoming part of children’s care, entertainment, education, social assistance, and therapy. A steadily growing body of Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) research shows that child-robot interaction (CRI) holds promises to support children’s development in novel ways. However, research has shown that technologies that do not take into account children’s needs, abilities, interests, and developmental characteristics may have a limited or even negative impact on their physical, cognitive, social, emotional, and moral development.… read more. “Call: HRI 2017: 3rd Workshop on Child-Robot Interaction”

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Google’s Virtual Reality short film earns an Academy Award nomination

[Even though it’s the 2D version that’s been nominated, this is big news for VR; this short story is from Adweek and you can watch the short film by following the first link in it below. For more details about Pearl see earlier coverage in Variety, The Hollywood Reporter and especially USA Today. –Matthew]

Google’s Virtual Reality Short Film Earns an Academy Award Nomination

First VR film ever to be up for an Oscar

By Marty Swant
January 24, 2017

Google is now competing with the Ryan Goslings and Emma Stones of Hollywood.

Today, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences named Pearl, an animated short created by the tech company, among its nominees for best animated short film of 2016. But Pearl isn’t just any animated short—it was created for virtual reality, making it the first of its kind to be considered for an Oscar.… read more. “Google’s Virtual Reality short film earns an Academy Award nomination”

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