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Monthly Archives: April 2020

Job: Research Associate for “Using AI-Enhanced Social Robots to Improve Children’s Healthcare Experiences” project

Call for Applications

Research Associate
ESRC-funded international collaborative project “Using AI-Enhanced Social Robots to Improve Children’s Healthcare Experiences”
University of Glasgow – School of Computing Science
Glasgow, Scotland
https://www.jobs.ac.uk/job/BYX734/research-associate

Application deadline (extended): 13 April 2020

The School of Computing Science at the University of Glasgow is looking for an excellent and enthusiastic researcher to join the ESRC-funded international collaborative project “Using AI-Enhanced Social Robots to Improve Children’s Healthcare Experiences.” This is a new 3-year project which aims to investigate how a social robot can help children cope with potentially painful experiences in a healthcare setting. The system developed in the project will be tested through a hospital-based clinical trial at the end of the project.

[Project abstract from https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=ES%2FT012986%2F1:

Children experience pain and distress in clinical settings every day, and the negative consequences of unaddressed pain can be both short-term (e.g.… read more. “Job: Research Associate for “Using AI-Enhanced Social Robots to Improve Children’s Healthcare Experiences” project”

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‘Beginning of a new era’: How culture went virtual in the face of crisis

[The tragedy of the Coronavirus pandemic is accelerating some of the major changes in how people live, work and play that many who design, create and study presence-evoking technologies have predicted and propelled. This link-filled story from The Guardian focuses on some of these changes in the arts and culture sector. See the original story for two more images and a video. –Matthew]

[Image: A view of an online gallery from Art Basel. Credit: Art Basel]

‘Beginning of a new era’: How culture went virtual in the face of crisis

The rise of Covid-19 has forced cultural institutions to explore alternative digital spaces with online exhibitions and a rise in virtual reality

By Laura Feinstein
8 April 2020

It’s a terrible time for going out. Since the emergence of Covid-19 and resulting self-quarantine, thousands of museums, cultural institutions, festivals and global happenings have temporarily shuttered operations, leaving behind empty streets and a restless public.… read more. “‘Beginning of a new era’: How culture went virtual in the face of crisis”

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Call: Computer Graphics & Visual Computing (CGVC) 2020

Call for Papers

Computer Graphics & Visual Computing (CGVC) 2020
10-11 September 2020
London, UK
https://cgvc.org.uk/CGVC2020/

Submission deadline: 5th June 2020

NOTE: Given the Corona virus situation we currently live-in, to allow maximum interaction, we are planning for various levels of virtual and interactive attendance.

CGVC 2020, hosted by King’s College London in London UK, is the 38th annual computer graphics, visualization, and visual computing gathering organized by the Eurographics UK Chapter. The objective of Computer Graphics & Visual Computing (CGVC) is to foster greater exchange between visual computing researchers and practitioners, and to draw more researchers and industry partners in the UK, Europe, and abroad to enter this rapidly growing area of research. CGVC has an expanded scope to include all areas of visual computing, and a steadily more wide-spread visibility that achieves a more wide-spread impact.

IMPORTANT DATES

Submission deadline: Friday, 5th June 2020
Notification of Acceptance: Tuesday, 21 July 2020
Camera Ready: Friday, 7 August 2020
Conference: 10-11 September 2020 (Thursday – Friday)

TOPICS

Topics include, but are not limited to:

  • Computer Graphics
  • Visualization
  • Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality
  • Computer Animation
  • Computer Vision
  • Acquisition and Reconstruction Techniques
  • Graphics Architectures and Acceleration Hardware
  • Image processing
  • Rendering Techniques
  • Medical Imaging
  • Multimedia Visualisation
  • Information Visualization and Visual Analytics
  • Visual Data Science
  • Visual computing-related machine learning
  • Visualisation and Big Data
  • Geospatial Visualisation
  • Mobile Apps and Interactive Devices
  • Human Computer Interaction, Robotics, and Haptics
  • Computer-based Arts and Entertainment
  • Computer Games

PAPER TYPES… read more. “Call: Computer Graphics & Visual Computing (CGVC) 2020”

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Virtual proms let high schoolers celebrate together despite social distancing

[ABC’s Good Morning America reports on how a California teen used TikTok to share her home celebration of her high school prom and then expanded the idea to a public virtual prom event. See the original story for four different pictures and five videos. For more information see a (pay walled) story in the San Francisco Chronicle and these related stories:

–Matthew]

[Image: Natalie Reese FaceTimes with her best friends Chloe Padden (left) and Gabriella Tolle, who also dressed up to re-create their canceled prom virtually.read more. “Virtual proms let high schoolers celebrate together despite social distancing”

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Call: Creating Opportunities for Children’s Critical Reflections on AI, Robotics and Other Intelligent Technologies – Online IDC2020 Workshop

Call for Papers

Creating Opportunities for Children’s Critical Reflections on AI, Robotics and Other Intelligent Technologies
Workshop to be held at ACM Interaction Design and Children IDC2020
June 21, 2020
ONLINE
https://sites.google.com/view/idc2020wsai/

Submission deadline: 13 April 2020

Robotics, automated systems and AI are gradually shaping novel techno-social realities especially in educational contexts. However not enough space is being given to a critical reflection on the emerging ethical and social implications for designers/developers and the users, especially children. This workshop aims at creating a space to discuss the current practices and the near-future opportunities for the support of children’s reflections related to robotics, automated systems, and AI implied in educational environments.

We invite researchers from all disciplinary backgrounds to participate in the workshop. Participants need to submit a position paper, 2-4 pages (including references) in CHI Extended Abstracts Format, that outlines their view on the workshop’s topic.… read more. “Call: Creating Opportunities for Children’s Critical Reflections on AI, Robotics and Other Intelligent Technologies – Online IDC2020 Workshop”

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17,000 doctors and nurses training for COVID-19 pandemic using VR technology

[Virtual reality and presence are playing an important role in helping the medical community fight the pandemic, as reported in this story from TechRepublic (where the original includes a 7:24 minute video); for more on the Oxford Medical Simulation system see coverage in The Guardian, and for more on how immersive technology companies are helping, see a story in Forbes. –Matthew]

[Image: Two doctors talk with a patient in this animated training image. Credit: Oxford Medical Simulation]

17,000 doctors and nurses training for COVID-19 pandemic using VR technology

By Todd R. Weiss in Innovation
April 2, 2020

Oxford Medical Simulation is offering online VR training to help busy hospitals and medical facilities as they are being crushed by large numbers of patients during the coronavirus pandemic.

A virtual reality (VR) medical training system built by Oxford Medical Simulation (OMS) is now being offered for free during the COVID-19 pandemic to help hospitals and medical schools bring in badly-needed additional staffers to provide patient care.… read more. “17,000 doctors and nurses training for COVID-19 pandemic using VR technology”

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Call: Art History In Quarantine Conference: Digital Transformations, Digital Futures

Call for Participation

ART HISTORY IN QUARANTINE CONFERENCE:
DIGITAL TRANSFORMATIONS, DIGITAL FUTURES
April 10, 2020 via Zoom
#AHINQUARANTINE
https://dahj.org/conference

In the age of shelter-in-place, digital literacy is no longer optional. In just a few weeks, we have seen an unprecedented infrastructural shift to video conferencing, online pedagogy, and project management software. What presents itself as a challenge to everyday art history is also digital art history’s greatest opportunity-for experimentation, learning, and moving forward, together. With this in mind, we hope to pose a number of pressing questions to our global community: What does a civilization in “social distancing” mean for art history, museums, teaching, and infrastructure? What are the challenges right now? What are the opportunities today? What proven tools are available? What can we expect from the future? Physical separation need not warrant intellectual isolation. Be part of the global exchange.… read more. “Call: Art History In Quarantine Conference: Digital Transformations, Digital Futures”

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Japan’s BBT University used telepresence robots to hold a virtual graduation

[BBT University in Tokyo used telepresence robots and Zoom to produce a virtual graduation ceremony for its students, as reported in this story from Business Insider (based on a report from the University). Coverage in LADbible adds this detail:

“The novel and innovative ceremony was the idea of Professor Shugo Yanaka, Dean of Global Business Administration at the university. He said: ‘While new coronavirus measures are required, the introduction of avatars can realise a warm online graduation ceremony. We hope this initiative will be helpful to educational institutions who are having difficulty holding graduation ceremonies and entrance ceremonies.’”

Interesting Engineering’s report on the BBT University effort ends with this: “However original our ways of using technology to bridge the gap between social functions amid social distancing and COVID-19, one could say: the more we do it, the more technological mediation itself takes center-stage in our lives.”… read more. “Japan’s BBT University used telepresence robots to hold a virtual graduation”

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Call: NERD for – New Experimental Research in Design

Call for Papers:

NERD for – New Experimental Research in Design
23-24 October 2020
Hamburg, Germany
https://designabilities.wordpress.com/2020/03/09/nerd-for-new-experimental-research-in-design-hamburg-23-24-october-2020/

Submission deadline: May 15, 2020

The particular epistemic and innovative potentials of Design Research are increasingly recognized within the wider academic sphere and are in constantly growing demand by businesses, institutions and politics alike. Yet, design research also is a field and practice that, due to its in-between nature, lacks the clear boundaries and formal dogmatisms of more traditional research disciplines, as well as their implicit notions of secured knowledge and linear progress.

Recognizing this inherent openness as one of its key qualities, the New Experimental Research in Design (in short: NERD) conference aims at providing a genuinely diverse and open platform for discussing, reflecting on and exposing to a wider public the manifold ways in which design’s unique perspective and proficiencies can intelligently be applied as a research competence.… read more. “Call: NERD for – New Experimental Research in Design”

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Couple replaces wedding guests with cardboard cutouts due to Coronavirus

[This is a short, uplifting story about an effort to evoke social presence at a couple’s wedding ceremony while practicing social distancing. It’s from WSBT TV (Atlanta) via WXIX-TV (Cincinnati, Ohio) via CNN; see the WSBT website for a 2:03 minute video news report and for more details read a story in The Herald-Palladium. –Matthew]

[Image: Source: The Herald-Palladium]

Couple replaces wedding guests with cardboard cutouts due to coronavirus

April 2, 2020

DOWAGIAC, Mich. (WSBT/CNN) – A Michigan groom got creative for his church wedding during the coronavirus pandemic, commissioning cardboard cutouts of guests, so his wife wouldn’t have to walk down an empty aisle.

Like many other couples, Dan Stuglik and Amy Simonson spent months planning their wedding, set for Saturday, but because of the coronavirus, things had to change a bit, especially the number of people on the guest list.… read more. “Couple replaces wedding guests with cardboard cutouts due to Coronavirus”

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