Keynotes
Adrian Cheok
Title: Embodied Media and Mixed Reality for Social and Physical Interactive Communication and Entertainment
Abstract
This talk outlines new facilities within human media spaces supporting embodied interaction between humans, animals, and computation both socially and physically, with the aim of novel interactive communication and entertainment. We aim to develop new types of human communications and entertainment environments which can increase support for multi-person multi-modal interaction and remote presence. In this paper, we present an alternative ubiquitous computing environment based on an integrated design of real and virtual worlds. We discuss some different research prototype systems for human to human and also human to animal interactive communication and play. The functional capabilities implemented in these systems include mixed reality, tangible interaction, and ubiquitous human media spaces.
Related Web Sites:
www.mixedrealitylab.org
Biography
Dr. Adrian David Cheok has previously worked in real-time systems, soft computing, and embedded computing in Mitsubishi Electric Research Labs (Osaka, Japan). He has been working on research covering mixed reality, human-computer interaction, wearable computers and smart spaces, fuzzy systems, embedded systems, power electronics, and multi-modal recognition. He has successfully obtained funding for externally funded projects in the area of wearable computers and mixed reality from Nike, National Oilwell Varco, Defense Science Technology Agency, Ministry of Communications and Arts, National Arts Council, Singapore Science Center, Hougang Primary School. The research output has included numerous high quality academic journal papers, research prototype deliverables numerous demonstrations including to the President and Deputy Prime Minister of Singapore, broadcast television worldwide broadcasts on his research (such as CNN/CNBC/Discovery/National Geographic), and international invited new media exhibits such as in Ars Electronica and Wired Nextfest.
He is currently an Associate Professor at the National University of Singapore where he leads a team of over 20 researchers and students. He has been a keynote and invited speaker at numerous international and local conferences and events. He is invited to exhibit for two years in the Ars Electronica Museum of the Future, launching in the Ars Electronica Festival 2003. His works "Human Pacman" and "Magic Land" were selected as one of the worlds top inventions by Wired and invited to be exhibited in Wired NextFest 2005. He was invited to show the works "Human Pacman" and "Magic Land" at Wired NextFest 2005. He was IEEE Singapore Section Chairman 2003, and is presently ACM SIGCHI Chapter President. He was awarded the Hitachi Fellowship 2003, the A-STAR Young Scientist of the Year Award 2003, and the SCS Singapore Young Professional of the Year Award 2004. In 2004 he was invited to be the Singapore representative of the United Nations body IFIP SG 16 on Entertainment Computing and the founding and present Chairman of the Singapore Computer Society Special Interest Group on Entertainment Computing. Also in 2004, he was awarded an Associate of the Arts award by the Minister for Information, Communications and the Arts, Singapore.
In 2005 he was awarded the Microsoft Research Fellowship. He is Editor/Associate Editor of the following academic journals: The Open Electrical and Electronic Engineering Journal, Advances in Human Computer Interaction, International Journal of Entertainment Technology and Management (IJEntTM), Virtual Reality (Springer-Verlag), International Journal of Virtual Reality, and The Journal of Virtual Reality and Broadcasting.
Adrian David Cheok, who was born and raised in Adelaide Australia, graduated from the University of Adelaide with a Bachelor of Engineering (Electrical and Electronic) with First Class Honors in 1992 and an Engineering PhD in 1998.
Related Web Sites:
www.adriancheok.info
William Gaver
Interaction Research Studio, Goldsmiths College, University of London
Title: Design as a Resource - Designing Resources
With computational technologies increasingly powering everyday appliances, issues of aesthetics, expressivity, social connotations and cultural implications have all become important factors in their success. In this talk, I suggest that traditions from design, the arts and the humanities all provide a useful complement to scientific approaches in understanding how to design the computers of the future. One of the key insights of such approaches is that rather than designing solutions to problems, it is more useful to design resources that people can play with, interpret and appropriate themselves. This allows designers to raise important issues without imposing answers, encourages different people to find their own meanings and engagements, and subverts the global commodification of experience. I show how this attitude can inform the entire design process, from understanding context to designing systems to assessing results, and illustrate this with numerous examples from my studio’s work.
Related Web Sites:
www.goldsmiths.ac.uk/interaction
www.equator.ac.uk
Biography
Bill Gaver has pursued research on innovative technologies for over 15 years, following a trajectory that led from experimental science to design. His research work has spanned auditory interfaces, theories of perception and action, and interaction design. Currently he focuses on design-led methodologies and innovative technologies for everyday life. Much of his work has been pursued with and for companies such as Intel, France Telecom, Hewlett Packard, IBM and Xerox. He is a principal investigator of the EPSRC-sponsored Equator IRC, and is a member of the AHRC and EPSRC Peer Review Colleges.
Prof. Gaver’s current group blends top-calibre departments of Sociology, Psychology, Cultural Studies and Computing as well as expertise in critical design, sustainability and design learning. He has keynoted various conferences and is well respected in both science and design research circles.
