ISPR Presence News

Monthly Archives: March 2020

Call: 14th European Conference on Games Based Learning (ECGBL 2020)

Call for Papers

ECGBL 2020: 14th European Conference on Games Based Learning
24 – 25 September 2020
Brighton, UK
https://www.academic-conferences.org/conferences/ecgbl/

Abstract submission deadline:  STILL ACCEPTING ABSTRACTS [as of March 31, 2020]

NOTE: ACPI is continuing to prepare for our conferences scheduled for the remainder of the year and into next year. We are aware that the uncertainty surrounding COVID-19 may affect your ability to attend an event in person, but we are integrating interactive virtual participation where attendance is not possible. We urge you to continue to submit your abstracts and papers in line with the published dates (extensions will be granted on request). For more details and regular updates please click here or contact info@academic-conferences.org.

WELCOME TO ECGBL 2020

The European Conference on Games Based Learning was established 14 years ago. It has been held in Austria, Scotland, Spain, Portugal, Germany, Greece, Norway and France to mention only some of the countries that have hosted it.… read more. “Call: 14th European Conference on Games Based Learning (ECGBL 2020)”

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Social presence in these strange days: “All of my friendships are virtual again”

[The tragedy of the Coronavirus pandemic is highlighting our need for, and the nature of, effective social presence. This personal reflection from WBUR, Boston’s NPR news station, highlights some of the issues, including the effectiveness of less ‘rich’ media. –Matthew]

[Image: Each text, each silly emoji, reminds me that my people are out there, their cursors blinking in the darkness just like mine, writes Whitney Scharer. Credit: Christin Hume/Unsplash]

COMMENTARY

All Of My Friendships Are Virtual Again

March 27, 2020
Whitney Scharer

I went to college in 1995, a time when — as my 10-year-old daughter was horrified to learn — we didn’t have cell phones and the internet barely existed.

I was slow to adjust to college life: I missed my circle of high school friends, I missed my boyfriend, and I didn’t get along with my strange roommates, one of whom had a Disney Princess comforter and the other who used to call home and carry on full conversations with her cat (“I can hear you purring, Mittens, yes I can!… read more. “Social presence in these strange days: “All of my friendships are virtual again””

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Call: Next Gen Storytelling in a Virtually Connected World (free online event)

NEXT-GEN STORYTELLING IN A VIRTUALLY CONNECTED WORLD

Tuesday April 14, 2020, 7:00 PM PDT

Join us online to learn about Next-Gen storyteller and director Brett Leonard and friends take us down the rabbit hole with this online interactive panel.

DESCRIPTION

Recent events are driving a mass migration into cyberspace. Next-Gen storyteller and director Brett Leonard and friends take us down the rabbit hole with this online interactive panel. We will explore XR storytelling, new forms of online social interaction and implications for our future. This will be a rich multimedia experience including case studies and live demonstrations.

Brett Leonard – Co-Founder Studio.Lightship. VR Visionary, Futurist, award-winning Hollywood Director – Lawnmower Man (Introduced VR to Popular Culture)

Mark Rickard – Moderator, Creative Technology Center

This is an online only event. There is no social hour.

A link to the online event will be posted later.… read more. “Call: Next Gen Storytelling in a Virtually Connected World (free online event)”

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March Madness after all: ‘Quarantourney’ and other sports simulations during the Coronavirus crisis

[Several stories in the press describe efforts to simulate the cancelled 2020 NCAA March Madness basketball tournament, including the one below from Yahoo! Sports (where the original includes more pictures, tweets and a 3:18:45 minute video) and stories by The Washington Post, The Indianapolis Star and ESPN. –Matthew]

March Madness after all: ‘Quarantourney’ live-streamed video game NCAA tournament is what we needed

Frank Schwab
March 26, 2020

It started a week late, but March Madness is up and running. Virtually.

The real 2020 NCAA tournament was canceled, but if you had YouTube running on Thursday afternoon, there was No. 9 seed Oklahoma Sooners pulling away from the No. 8 Providence Friars in overtime for a 94-87 first-round win on a video game. Kristian Doolittle of Oklahoma scored 32 points. And yes, there was a point spread on the internet.… read more. “March Madness after all: ‘Quarantourney’ and other sports simulations during the Coronavirus crisis”

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Call: Future Technologies Conference 2020

Call for Papers

FTC 2020 – Future Technologies Conference 2020
5-6 November 2020
Vancouver, Canada
https://saiconference.com/FTC2020/CallforPapers

Submissions due: 01 May 2020

The Future Technologies Conference presents the best of current systems research and practice, emphasizing innovation and quantified experience. FTC has emerged as the foremost world-wide gathering of academic researchers, Ph.D. and graduate students, top research think tanks and industry technology developers.

Join us for FTC 2020, the world’s pre-eminent forum for reporting technological breakthroughs in the areas of Computing, Electronics, AI, Robotics, Security and Communications.

Previous conferences successfully brought together technology geniuses in one venue to not only present breakthrough research in future technologies but to also promote practicality and applications and an intra- and inter-field exchange of ideas.

Authors are kindly invited to submit their papers/ posters/ demo proposals as per the schedule below.… read more. “Call: Future Technologies Conference 2020”

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QuarantineChat is here to help us survive social distancing

[The Coronavirus pandemic is leading to innovative uses of technology to increase social connection, including the one described in this story from Mashable (the original version includes other pictures). See stories in The New Yorker and The Guardian for more information about QuarantineChat. –Matthew]

QuarantineChat is here to help us survive social distancing

By Anna Iovine
March 24, 2020

“Are there stoops outside your window?”

A stranger in Los Angeles asked me this over the phone as I peered out of my bedroom window in Brooklyn. We connected through QuarantineChat, which facilitates calls for people who are currently self-isolating.

Now that the coronavirus has reached pandemic level, many countries have instituted lockdowns; those in the United States are heavily encouraged to stay indoors and flatten the curve. With self-isolation causing people to be apart from their loved ones, coupled with the anxiety of the whole situation, it’s easy for loneliness to seep into everyday life.… read more. “QuarantineChat is here to help us survive social distancing”

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Call: Acta Ludologica (journal with focus on digital games)

Call for Submissions

Acta Ludologica
www.actaludologica.com

Dear colleagues,

I would like to announce to you the current Call-for-Papers of the Acta Ludologica’s winter issue.

Acta Ludologica is a double-blind peer-reviewed scientific journal published twice a year (both online and print), recently indexed in the ICI Journals Master List. It focuses on the discourse of games and digital games, including theoretical and empirical studies, research results and their implementation into practice, as well as professional publication reviews and scientific reviews of digital games. Submissions are accepted only in English, no fees for publishing.

Journal issues contain scientific reflections on media and digital competencies, creation, design, marketing, research, development, psychology, sociology, history, and the future associated with games and digital games.

Guidelines for authors and paper template: www.actaludologica.com/guidelines
Deadline for submissions to the winter issue: June 30, 2020

Contact: actaludologica@fmk.sk
Journal’s web: www.actaludologica.comread more. “Call: Acta Ludologica (journal with focus on digital games)”

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Virtual reality shows exactly how COVID-19 can damage the lungs

[VR is providing a new way to see what the Coronavirus does to a patient’s lungs, which in addition to helping the medical community could help the public understand the seriousness of the pandemic. See the original version of this story from WJLA in Washington, D.C. for four more images, a 1:47 minute news report and another 0:34 minute video. Surgical Theater has a 1:40 minute video showing the VR rendering on YouTube, which is taken from a 13:02 minute video and podcast available from George Washington University Hospital. –Matthew]

A new perspective: Virtual reality shows exactly how COVID-19 can damage the lungs

By Heather Graf, WJLA
March 23, 2020

WASHINGTON (WJLA) – High-tech imaging is now providing a first-of-its-kind look at the damage COVID-19 can inflict on a patient’s lungs.

Dr. Keith Mortman, the Chief of Thoracic Surgery at George Washington University Hospital, used a CAT scan from an actual coronavirus patient to create the virtual reality rendering.… read more. “Virtual reality shows exactly how COVID-19 can damage the lungs”

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Jobs: 2 Postdoctoral Research Associate positions at University of Georgia

Position 1:
Postdoctoral Research Associate
VPR-Owens Institute for Behavioral Research (OIBR)
University of Georgia
Athens, Georgia, USA
https://www.ugajobsearch.com/postings/146315

Advertised Salary:  $48,960

Anticipated Start Date:  07/01/2020
Posting Date:  03/06/2020
Open Until Filled

Position Summary:

The postdoctoral research associate serves as the data manager for the Virtual Fitness Buddy Ecosystem project. They ensure data is downloaded and stored and trained in pertinent methodologies. They carry out quality assurance measures and prepare data for statistical analyses. They assist with data analysis and manuscript development.… read more. “Jobs: 2 Postdoctoral Research Associate positions at University of Georgia”

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Industry veteran on requirements for successful telepresence in virtual conferences and beyond

[This post in Medium provides an industry veteran’s thoughtful perspective on the requirements for successful telepresence experiences that replace attendance at in-person conferences and in other contexts. See the original version for a different image and follow the links for more information. –Matthew]

[Image: Source: Liv Erickson blog]

Coronavirus Exposes Our Need For True Telepresence

Let’s meet nowhere

Avi Bar-Zeev, Design and Technology Leader (fmr. HoloLens, Apple, Google Earth, Second Life, Disney VR)
March 2, 2020

I’ve been convinced for 30 years that telepresence is the “killer app” for extended reality (XR). Now more than ever, it seems like it could be an important replacement for face-to-face meetings and conferences.

This same idea led to the first HoloLens prototypes and a visually rich TED Talk by my former boss, Microsoft technical fellow Alex Kipman. The first two augmented reality (AR) devices Microsoft has released aren’t yet great for representing “live” holograms of people, mainly due to their narrow fields of view.… read more. “Industry veteran on requirements for successful telepresence in virtual conferences and beyond”

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