ISPR Presence News

Monthly Archives: January 2020

Call: IEEE Ro-Man 2020, International Conference on Robot and Human Interactive Communication

By Matthew Lombard | Published: January 24, 2020

Call for Papers

IEEE Ro-Man 2020
29th IEEE International Conference on Robot and Human Interactive Communication
Naples, Italy
August 31 to September 4, 2020
http://ro-man2020.unina.it/

Submission Deadline: March 15, 2020

The 29th IEEE International Conference on Robot and Human Interactive Communication, Ro-Man 2020, will be held In Naples, Italy, from August 31 To September 4, 2020. This conference is a leading forum where state-of-the-art innovative results, the latest developments as well as future perspectives relating to robot and human interactive communication are presented and discussed.

The conference covers a wide range of topics related to Robot and Human Interactive Communication, involving theories, methodologies, technologies, empirical and experimental studies. Papers related to the study of the robotic technology, psychology, cognitive science, artificial intelligence, human factors, ethics and policies, interaction-based robot design and other topics related to human-robot interaction are welcome.

The main conference will host presentations of original contributions including new methods, studies, designs, theories, and applications of Human-Robot Interactive Communication systems and technologies surrounding it.… read more. “Call: IEEE Ro-Man 2020, International Conference on Robot and Human Interactive Communication”

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ParadropVR is a paragliding experience that lets you soar through the skies

By Matthew Lombard | Published: January 24, 2020

[Abundary reports on an interesting presence experience that can be customized for consumers in different locations. Earlier coverage by VRFocus adds these details:

“For that immersive feeling guests are strapped into a paragliding harness where they can hold onto two handles to control their direction, moving up and down depending on air currents. A sense of speed is created as jets blow air into the face of the rider as they steer their paraglider around the buildings.”

For more information see the 1:05 minute video in the Abundary story or via YouTube, and the Frontgrid website, which features a different 1:10 minute video (also available via YouTube). –Matthew]

ParadropVR is a paragliding experience that lets you soar through the skies

By Henry Bewicke
January 23, 2020

VR experiences come in all shapes and sizes. Not only can you enjoy thoroughly convincing VR in the comfort of your own home, there are all sorts of bespoke VR experiences available elsewhere.… read more. “ParadropVR is a paragliding experience that lets you soar through the skies”

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Call: Fourth European Tangible Interaction Studio (ETIS 2020)

By Matthew Lombard | Published: January 23, 2020

Fourth European Tangible Interaction Studio (ETIS 2020)
25-29 May 2020
Siena, Italy
http://www.congressi.unisi.it/etis2020/

Paper submission deadline: February 10, 2020

The aim of this event is to gather young European researchers in the field of tangible interaction, to get them in touch with internationally renowned researchers and to establish networks for their future. This summer school is a unique opportunity to train in the field of tangible interaction, enjoy practical activities for designing and developing tangible user interfaces and to discuss your research with professors and other young researchers.

ETIS 2020 is hosted by the Santa Chiara Lab of the University of Siena (Italy).

CALL FOR PAPERS

ETIS invites papers and workshop proposals about Tangible Interaction including mixed/augmented reality, organic user interfaces, or physical computing.

We welcome submissions in the form of theoretical foundations and frameworks of Tangible User Interfaces (TUI); design guidelines and methods; prototypes, tools and toolkits for TUI; design cases, and TUI applications in different domains including, but not limiting to:

  • Food
  • Education
  • Cultural Heritage
  • Industry 4.0
  • Health

Short papers (2-4 pages including references) for oral presentation and workshop proposals have to be submitted to Easychair.… read more. “Call: Fourth European Tangible Interaction Studio (ETIS 2020)”

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How the next decade’s technological tsunami will change life as we know it

By Matthew Lombard | Published: January 23, 2020

[It’s easy to forget how quickly technologies, including media technologies that evoke presence, have evolved and changed our daily lives. We can’t know exactly what will happen next, but as this story from Vanity Fair safely predicts, “a decade from now, on the eve of 2030, we’ll look back at today in astonishment at how primitive life was in 2019.” –Matthew]

[Image: From the Everett Collection.]

“IT WON’T BE PRETTY”: HOW THE NEXT DECADE’S TECHNOLOGICAL TSUNAMI WILL CHANGE LIFE AS WE KNOW IT

Self-driving cars, iPads, Uber: The technological advances of this decade have happened so quickly that their breadth is difficult to comprehend. The next decade? That, times ten.

By Nick Bilton
December 30, 2019

This time a decade ago, there was no such thing as an iPad. There were no food delivery meal kits. You didn’t speak to a machine called Alexa or Siri, or get laid with an app called Tinder.… read more. “How the next decade’s technological tsunami will change life as we know it”

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Call: ‘Toys and the TV: Serious Play’ ACM IMX workshop

By Matthew Lombard | Published: January 22, 2020

Call for Papers

‘Toys and the TV: Serious Play’
ACM IMX (previously TVX) workshop
17 June, 2020
Barcelona, Spain
Workshop website: https://sites.google.com/view/toys-and-the-tv/introduction
Comprehensive website: http://toys-n-tv.org/

Submission deadline: 17th February, 2020

BBC R&D, BBC Childrens’, IRT and ZDF are hosting a collaborative workshop titled ‘Toys and the TV: Serious Play’ at IMX (https://imx.acm.org/2020/) on the 17th of June 2020, in Barcelona.

We aim to bring together researchers and designers to tackle interaction design and interfaces with respect to the use of the TV by children. With the advent of connected TVs and connected toys, there is an opportunity to develop exciting novel interaction paradigms and innovative forms of user experiences around how children might view and interact with TV programmes.

We would like to invite practitioners, designers and researchers to submit a 1-2 page position paper containing the following information:

  • Author names and bios
  • Use cases (see below)
  • Challenges addressed (see below)
  • Details of any related research

In your submission, please outline a plausible use case involving connected toys while watching TV within a given context.… read more. “Call: ‘Toys and the TV: Serious Play’ ACM IMX workshop”

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A man re-animated ‘Sleeping Beauty’ to create an unforgettable wedding proposal

By Matthew Lombard | Published: January 22, 2020

[For a touching example of presence, watch the viral video of Lee Loechler’s creative December 30 wedding proposal as described in this story from CNN. The original story includes more pictures and the full 3:23 minute video is available on YouTube. For more information, see coverage in Boston Magazine and Yahoo! –Matthew]

[Image: Source: Good Morning America]

A man re-animated ‘Sleeping Beauty’ to create an unforgettable wedding proposal

By Mallory Hughes, CNN
January 11, 2020

An illustrator, a self-described hopeless romantic and a room full of Redditors made one man’s proposal to his high school sweetheart quite literally picture perfect.

Filmmaker Lee Loechler spent six months working with an Australian illustrator to get himself and his girlfriend, Sthuthi David, animated into a fake screening of her favorite Disney movie, “Sleeping Beauty.”… read more. “A man re-animated ‘Sleeping Beauty’ to create an unforgettable wedding proposal”

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Call: “Be Part Of It: Spectator Experience in Gaming and eSports” – CHI 2020 Workshop

By Matthew Lombard | Published: January 21, 2020

Call for Papers

Be Part Of It: Spectator Experience in Gaming and eSports
WORKSHOP @CHI 2020 (https://chi2020.acm.org/)
April 25, 2020
Honolulu, Hawaii
https://seegamesws.wordpress.com/

Submission Deadline: 11 February 2020

This one-day workshop aims to bring researchers and industry professionals from different disciplines together to promote interdisciplinary exchange, to increase awareness, and to establish a community and collaborations how technology and Human-Computer Interaction can help to transform the act of spectating games and particularly esports from a merely passive (watching) to a more active – and engaging – experience. Submissions are invited on, but not limited to, the following topics.

TOPICS

Submissions are invited on, but not limited to, the following topics:

  • User requirement analysis for improving spectator experiences
  • Design concepts to increase audience participation
  • Use cases that describe spectator experiences in practice
  • Evaluation methods for assessing spectator experience
  • User studies on spectatorship
  • Studies on streamer-audience interaction dynamics, toxic behaviour, or harassment
  • Data visualizations and dashboards that support spectatorship
  • Spectator analytics
  • Social and community aspects of streaming
  • Technological solutions for empowering viewers (AR, VR, wearables, etc.)
… read more. “Call: “Be Part Of It: Spectator Experience in Gaming and eSports” – CHI 2020 Workshop”
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BellaBot is a cat-like robot waiter

By Matthew Lombard | Published: January 21, 2020

[It may be necessary to watch the 1:14 minute video from the story below (or via YouTube) to appreciate the likelihood that the new “robot cat waiter” BellaBot will evoke medium-as-social-actor presence. The short story from YellRobot is followed by excerpts from a press release from the company that created her, er, it. –Matthew]

BellaBot is a Cat-Like Robot Waiter

January 12, 2020

We’ve seen robot waiters before. Whether a novelty to get more customers or a necessity to battle staff shortages, robots have been becoming increasingly more common in the restaurant industry. The newest robot waiter from Shenzhen, China-based PuduTech puts a bit of a new spin on things.

Meet BellaBot. It’s part waiter, part cat, and all robot. Like other robot waiters, it will bring food from kitchen to table. What makes BellaBot a bit different is its feline-like qualities.… read more. “BellaBot is a cat-like robot waiter”

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Call: 5th International Conference on Smart Learning Ecosystem and Regional Development (SLERD 2020)

By Matthew Lombard | Published: January 20, 2020

Call for Papers

SLERD 2020: 5th International Conference on Smart Learning Ecosystem and Regional Development
PEDAGOGICAL APPROACHES, LUDIC AND CO-DESIGN STRATEGIES & TOOLS SUPPORTING SMART LEARNING ECOSYSTEMS AND SMART EDUCATION
Bucharest, Romania
25-27 May, 2020
http://slerd2020.uniroma2.it/

Paper submission deadline: 10th February 2020

SLERD 2020 is proud to invite and welcome contributions from researchers and practitioners that foster the development of smart learning ecosystems and smart education to help learning places to recover their central role in the education of future citizens, and in the promotion of social innovation and territorial development. We welcome contributions from people that fight to reify the above vision and to achieve a better learning for a better world as a contribution to the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Topics of interests can be grouped under three big themes:

Places for smart education

  • future of institutional learning
  • interplay between formal and informal learning
  • new educational models and settings
  • continuity-discontinuity of time, technology, place/space, process in learning
  • role of and case studies of games and gamification in smart education
  • dual education and other alternate scheme approaches
  • monitoring and benchmarking of smartness (individual, institution, city, region)

People in place centered design for smart education

  • general frameworks and methodological advancement
  • design, data and other relevant literacies
  • literacies, skill and competences of smart citizens
  • communities and co-design in smart learning
  • sharing & participatory practices
  • open access to any resource and disparity
  • cultural influences

Supportive technologies and tools for smart education

  • intelligent tutoring systems and interfaces
  • semantic web technologies and applications
  • text/opinion mining and sentiment analysis
  • real/virtual communities and social network analysis
  • interoperability and application of open/smart data and services
  • safety & security in education
  • IoT, ubiquitous and wearable technologies
  • adaptability to educational contexts and citizens
  • role of VR in education
… read more. “Call: 5th International Conference on Smart Learning Ecosystem and Regional Development (SLERD 2020)”
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Skydiving, kayaking, fly fishing: Virtual reality therapy is taking paralyzed veterans to new places

By Matthew Lombard | Published: January 20, 2020

[This article from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch is full of inspiring personal stories about different uses of presence-evoking technology to improve the lives of paralyzed military veterans. See the original version for four more pictures. –Matthew]

[Image: Recreational therapist Matt Luitjohan, center, helps veteran Mike Erbe use a virtual reality head set in the Recreational Therapy Department of the Spinal Cord Unit at the Jefferson Barracks Division of Veterans Affairs in St. Louis on Thursday, Jan. 9, 2020. Credit: David Carson, St. Louis Post-Dispatch.]

Skydiving, kayaking, fly fishing: Virtual reality therapy is taking paralyzed veterans to new places

Michele Munz
January 18, 2020

ST. LOUIS COUNTY — A car wreck in 1983 paralyzed Navy veteran Mike Erbe from the waist down, but he fought to stay positive, stay active. He finished his engineering degree. He got his pilot’s license.

It’s getting harder, though, as he gets older, especially while staring at four hospital walls.… read more. “Skydiving, kayaking, fly fishing: Virtual reality therapy is taking paralyzed veterans to new places”

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