Paul Debevec

Paul Debevec is speaking to the Interactive Animation class on Tuesday, 2 December, at 2:00pm, down in the IML. Unfortunately, the room will be pretty crammed, so please let me know (jason.scott@usc.edu) if you want to come so we can set up enough chairs.

If you're not familiar with Paul, or his work here with the Institute for Creative Technologies, it's probably worth a look. His work led to being able to composite the backgrounds in The Matrix, and his research in HDR is regarded as the foremost in the world. Check it out . . .

LA County Deletes 'master-slave' PC Term

Los Angeles County officials have gone PC (politically correct) on PCs (personal computers) -- banning as potentially "offensive or defamatory" the words master and slave from computer hard drives and video equipment where they are used to describe primary and secondary circuits.

Read more of this Daily News article.

Action Stick

From David Kushner's tech review blog:
Work it, Bill, work it. According to CNN, Bill Gates took a break during this week’s Comdex convention to try out Action Stick: a new video game controller that uses 18 infrared sensors to respond to kicks and punches. The $100 gizmo is supposed to go on sale next month, and will be compatible with PC, Xbox, and PS2 systems. Video games are not just for your thumbs anymore.

Tracking Behaviors

EYEBEAM Beta Launch: Artists in Residence '03
540 W. 21st Street between 10th & 11th Aves, NYC
Nov. 25, 7-8:30pm

Tracking Behaviors

Please join artists Adam Frank, Dan O’Sullivan and Marie Sester as they discuss projects in the Beta Launch '03 exhibition developed during their residencies. Tracking Behaviors will explore artists' projects based on human motion, from bodies moving through space to minute facial and eye movements, which also investigate the dynamics of human interaction over distance, time and individual perceptions.

Frank's Shadow, created with Zack Booth Simpson, is an interactive installation that projects a disembodied, autonomous, human shadow on the ground that attempts to interact and merge with the participant’s shadow. O'Sullivan'sTrading Glances is an installation that tracks the viewer’s eye as a database of portraits are displayed in front of them, demonstrating that ones’ eye movements can betray very private visual preferences. Participants’ faces are all added to the database of portraits and through the project web site (http://stage.itp.nyu.edu/~dano/TradingGlances/)one can see who glanced at them and replay exactly how another person's gaze travels across their face. ACCESS, by Sester, is a public art installation that applies web, computer, sound and lighting technologies in which web users track individuals in public spaces with a unique robotic spotlight and acoustic beam system. Documentation of ACCESS exhibitions will be shown.

Tomoe Moriyama Lecture @UCLA

UCLA DEPARTMENT OF DESIGN|MEDIA ARTS
PRESENTS: FALL 2003 LECTURE SERIES CURATED BY ERKKI HUHTAMO

Tomoe Moriyama (Japan):
“Magic Shadows - Perspectives on Japanese Media Art”
Tomoe Moriyama is the curator of media art in the Images & Technology Gallery of the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography. She also lectures at the University of Tokyo and elsewhere. Tomoe Moriyama has curated numerous exhibitions, often connecting “old media” with the most recent creations by contemporary Japanese media artists. Her lecture will provide perspectives on the Japanese media art scene based on her own experiences.

Lectures will be held in the EDA, Kinross North Building, 11000 Kinross Avenue, Westwood, 6PM - 8 PM. Refreshments will be provided.

youth mobile art initiative

According to the BBC, BBC Northern Ireland and Media Lab Europe are holding a series of events that get teenagers engaging w/ mobile technology. Particpants take pictures around the town, engaging the theme "A Day in My life">, and the pictures are presented on a screen in "the town square." Not an incredibly interesting technology, but it's a good step towards using these gadgets to interact with a community. Link Via Smart Mobs

from today's NY Times: The Technology Play Project

Hey, That Big Computer Is Really a Great Actor
By JAMES C. McKINLEY Jr.
Published: November 20, 2003

... Mary Valentis, an English professor who produced the plays, said the intent was to meld classic storytelling with new technologies to invent a new kind of theater and to raise questions about how technology has reshaped humanity. The display is a joint effort by the university and the Capital Repertory Theater here, underwritten by the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation and Apple Computer, among others. It will run through Wednesday at the New Atrium Library at the university and will reopen at the Capital Repertory in the spring. Admission is free. ...

google house

construct of a house / rooms by using google image search for any word + house. the construction could be a little nicer, but it's pretty fun to play with.

Link via Boing Boing

HyperSonic Sound

Here are some links to more info on Elwood Norris' focused sound beam technology that I mentioned in 511:

http://www.atcsd.com/tl_hss.html

http://www.sciscoop.com/story/2003/5/21/12299/0499

and a published paper in Acoustics Society of America:
http://www.acoustics.org/press/133rd/2pea.html

or google for HSS audio...

Rhythm and Hues Presentation

Rhythm & Hues Studios will be giving a presentation on the work that they are currently doing in feature animation, commercials, interactive games and design tomorrow, Wednesday, 19 November, 7:00pm-9:00pm in LUC 108. They will talk about job opportunities at R&H but more importantly, scholarships and internships for students who are currently studying for a career in this field.

USC Electronic Digital Game Expo

This Thursday, 20 November, the Information Technology Program is hosting E.D.G.E. (Electronic Digital Game Expo) at Town and Gown from 5:00pm-11:00pm. The Xbox, Activision, Electronic Arts, the Sony Playstation, and Blizzard are just some of the companies that will be there, and they will be joined by SCFX, the Institute for Creative Technologies, the Integrated Media Systems Center, and the School of Fine Arts to cover all areas of gaming technology.

let them sing it

amusing...They definitely need a larger database of sounds, as common words like 'I,' 'want,' etc have the same sound. it would be easy to randomize this, so why not do it? I've seen things like this before, but not on the web. It's also nice that you can help augment the database: when you enter a word that is not found, you can suggest a artist and a song title where that word can be found.

Link via BoingBoing

photoblog x-mas list

this is so bad.

So I tried it, just so I could see what sort of google ads my list would get. Unfortunately, for some reason there are no google ads there yet. I'm crossing my fingers on this one - it seems like such a no-brainer, and all other textamerica blogs have them...

is there anything you really think I need?
Send an email via computer or phone to: buymestuff.stuff@tamw.com

or see what I want at: http://buymestuff.textamerica.com

here's the blurb from textamerica:

Christmas Wish Lists:
Tired of getting socks and scarves for Christmas? We were too, so we decided to setup Christmas Wish Lists where you can take pictures of the things you actually want, to help guide your friends and family toward the right store for the big day. Just take a picture of what you want, post it to your wishlist and send the URL of your wishlist to your loved ones.

link via smartmobs:

huminity

i hadnt heard about this, has anyone played with it?

from slashdot:
"Here's a story about a new start-up Huminity, referred to as the technology of the year. The software they produce combines instant messaging, chat, and social networking. After burning through over $30k of personal funds, the team has now raised millions for their company. We've heard about Friendster recently, but somehow this seems more interesting."

Scott Snibbe Lecture

The Beall Center for Art and Technology cordially invites you to attend a "Meet the Artist" Lecture with Scott Snibbe in association with Screen Series, on exhibit through December 13, 2003

Thursday, December 4, 2003, 7pm
Nixon Theater, Building 720, second floor
Claire Trevor School of the Arts, University of California, Irvine
Information: (949) 824-4339 • http://beallcenter.uci.edu

Josh Clayton Jitter Presentation...

... tomorrow Friday evening November 14th from 7 to 10 PM in the ZML.

All IM students are invited & encouraged to attend.

UPDATE!
Due to an unforeseen scheduling conflict,
the presentation will begin at 8:30 PM instead of 7.

Matrix Revolutions at LA SIGGRAPH

The Los Angeles SIGGRAPH Chapter is hosting a Matrix Revolutions event on 20 November, sponsored by Alias. The event will be at the Digital Cinema Lab in Hollywood and features VFX and CG supervisors from ESC, GKR, Tippett and Imageworks.

http://www.cgtalk.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=102012

Scott Snibbe Opening

Opening on Wednesday at the Beall Center:
Screen Series by Scott Snibbe
November 12 - December 13
Opening reception November 12, 6-9 pm

A stunning meditation on light and shadow, Screen Series functions on a number of levels, introducing the audience to the history and technique of the earliest cinematic cameras as well as allowing viewers to create cinema directly with their bodies. Six rectangles of pure white light react to visitors as they move between projector and screen, physically interrupting the beams of projected light. In Screen Series, Snibbe has developed a work that belies its technical complexity and brings the process of the earliest moving image photography into the twenty-first century. The work reintegrates the functions of image capture, development and projection by combining camera, projector and computer into a single light sensing and emitting apparatus.

Scott Snibbe is an award-winning San Francisco research artist and computer scientist who explores direct physical perception and the nature of the self through the use of electronic media [...] http://www.snibbe.com/

NOTE: Unfortunately the opening confiicts with Julia Scher's lecture at UCLA.

max workshop Wed. 11/12

another max workshop:

time: Wednesday, 11/12, 1:00 'til a couple hours after
where: zml

I hope that some 1st yrs. can make it, although I know this probably isn't a great time.

_wc

Everyone...

Needs to read this article and feel very old. It's also VERY funny!

~Mike

there inc - propagating the bad of society?

from slashdot:

"An anonymous reader writes "A former beta tester has written up a negative, but interesting, review of the 'virtual world' MMO title There. While it mainly contains sarcastic remarks directed at the game mechanics (or lack there-of), near the end it also claims that There is 'a mirror of the shallowest possible view of American consumerist society.' It concludes by saying that There is missing anything that would classify it as a game, and that as a chat service it capitalizes on 'our society's tendency to believe that being attractive is a prerequisite for being accepted by others.' Should developers try to be aware of whether their game will reproduce negative trends already present in real life?" We recently ran a story on the official launch of There, a game that has its fans as well as its detractors."

i still havent had a chance to play it. i know some emails were bounced around a few weeks ago about it. anyone have anthing new to say about it? (or brinker: second life updates?)

War Games

From Henry Jenkins' Technology Review Blog:
Early next year, Kuma Reality Games plans to launch a service that will allow players to re-enact contemporary news events. Kuma's first product—centered on the war in Iraq—will brief players with information derived from real-world news reporting, and then allow them to play out missions based on actual troop deployments. On its Web site, Kuma claims that the new game "presents our soldiers' acts of patriotism and bravery as never before possible.” And then, the kicker: “In a world being torn apart by international conflict, one thing is on everyone’s mind as they finish watching the nightly news: 'Man, this would make a great game.'”

Speech Processing Lecture

In case any of you are interested in this kind of stuff, Shrikanth Narayanan is giving a lecture on his recent research in automatic speech recognition algorithms, spoken dialog and multimedia systems, speech synthesis, and speech production modeling TOMORROW, 7 November, 12:00pm-1:00pm in OHE 122. There's also FREE PIZZA AND SODA, courtesy of the IMSC Student Council, who is sponsoring the lecture.

Shrikanth Narayanan is the IMSC Research Area Director, and is a USC Associate Professor in Linguistics, Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, and at the Signal and Image Processing Institute.

Julia Scher talk at UCLA

UCLA DEPARTMENT OF DESIGN|MEDIA ARTS
PRESENTS: FALL 2003 LECTURE SERIES CURATED BY ERKKI HUHTAMO

November 12: Julia Scher (USA): “There Is No Image Vault”

Julia Scher’s art focuses on the subjects - surveillance and cybersphere. Aiming at the exposure of dangers and ideologies of monitoring systems, Scher creates temporary and transitory web/installation/performance works that explore issues of power, control and seduction. She has shown numerous works at major art institutions in the United States and in Europe. She has also lectured at Harvard University, Princeton University and Rutgers University.

Lectures will be held in the EDA, Kinross North Building, 11000 Kinross Avenue, Westwood, 6PM - 8 PM. Refreshments will be provided.

Mobile Bristol

The Mobile Bristol Centre is part of the DTI's City & Buildings Research Centre, the principal founders are Hewlett Packard Laboratories, the University of Bristol and the Appliance Studio.
The purpose of Mobile Bristol is to provide an experimental test-bed for technology and user value research in pervasive mobile media. The vision of the test-bed is to provide a digital canvas over the city onto which rich situated digital experiences can be painted and new commercial ventures can be explored. As you walk through the city a diverse range of digital media experiences such as soundscapes, games, interactive media and art bring the city alive and augment the ambiance of the physical places.

max workshop Friday 11/7; 6-8 PM, ZML

I'll do a Max workshop on 11/7 from ~6-8 PM in the ZML (RZC 201), and if people are interested, another one on 11/12.

This is an attempt to try and accomodate everyone. 1st years seem to have issues with Wednesday...please, please rsvp in the comments so I don't show up to an empty room on friday night.

if there is something you really want to learn how to do, post that as well. otherwise, I'm going to do a basic overview of the max environment, data structures, objects and messages, and basic control elements.

Poll for Faculty and Students Alike

What is interactive media?

human pacman

human pacman from the mixed reality lab at the national university of singapore:

Human Pacman is an interactive ubiquitous and mobile entertainment system that is built upon position and perspective sensing via Global Positioning System and inertia sensors; and tangible human-computer interfacing with the use of Bluetooth and capacitive sensors. Although these sensing-based subsystems are weaved into the fabric of the game and are therefore translucent to players, they are nevertheless the technical enabling forces behind Human Pacman.

Link

"Bluejacking"

The inevitable:

"BBC News is reporting a new craze - using Bluetooth to send unsolicited messages. Apparently lots of phone owners are leaving Bluetooth switched on, meaning that anyone within range can send a short message. The phenomenon is known as "bluejacking". It's not clear at present that this is being done by anyone other than pranksters, but one can't help wondering, how long before commercial spammers catch on."

Read the Slashdot post and follow the links:

BBC online article
www.bluejackq.com

The Visby Game

From Technology Review:

The beep coming from your PDA is not a reminder for a meeting. It’s a trull trying to communicate. Shouting, it looks at you from the screen. The only thing to do is to scribble some runes to make it quiet. Then run to the next holy place. This is a perfectly real scenario, and has been since the release of The Visby Game,—an adventure computer game set not in the usual fantasy world but in the town of Visby, Sweden. The trull is a character in the game, and together you visit mystical places both in the physical world and the game world.
The choice of Visby for the game setting is no coincidence. This small, medieval town is the home of Zero-Game Studio, an applied research lab specializing in games. A dozen leading computer games researchers from all over the world have settled at this two-year-old lab to investigate what a game really is—and what it could be. Zero-Game is part of a company called the Interactive Institute, which is owned by a Swedish research foundation that is itself controlled and financed by the Swedish government.

"Layers of water" - an experimental collaborative art project

Eleven artists from different countries and with different backgrounds (media art, performance, installation, painting, music) gathered on the island of Vis to work on a collaborative art project. Each day participants individually shot some video footage which was afterwards inserted on the daily digital-video-editing-timeline.
The participants were free in their working styles, but connected to eachother with the theme of layers and transparencies in nature. In the evening of each day there was a round table with presentations and discussions and a copy of the layered version was made. At the end of the workshop, a superimposed version of all layers was made. Some layers are clearly recognizable and others less.
The DVD version of the 30 minutes long project was shown as a projection installation within the of the International Festival of New Film in Split.

Participants: Anna Anders (D), Alfred Banze (D), Ana Bilankov (HR), Daniela Butsch (D), Heiko Daxl (D/HR), Ingeborg Fülepp (D/HR), Thorsten Nass (NL/D), Katrin Nölle, Tanja Ravlic (HR), Thorsten Streichardt (D), Clea T. Waite (USA)

Concept und Organization: Alfred Banze (D), Heiko Daxl (D/HR), Ingeborg Fülepp (HR/CRO) in collaboration with International Festival of New Film, Split 2003

15. - 21. September 2003, workshop - island Vis, Croatia
22. - 28. September 2003, presentation - International Festival of New Film, Split, Croatia

Videoprojection and postersession with the artists
in the Embassy of the Republic of Croatia in Berlin, Germany
November, 6th 2003, 18:00-20:00 hrs

Botschaft der Republik Kroatien, Ahornstraße 4, 10787 Berlin
(U1, U6 Nollendorfplatz)

www.kroatische-botschaft.de

max workshop (non c-level variety)

it seems as though some people are interested in getting some experience with max (the /msp/jitter variety). I know that c-level is having their tutorial, which should be good, and I urge people to go if they want. However, since maybe people won't be able to find the hole in the wall that is the c-level space, or want to learn some stuff without straying too far from campus, I thought maybe I would try and hold a workshop in the zml. I want to try and gauge experience and interest in such an event, so if you could all post comments about when would be the best time. The lab is currently being built up, but if there is no construction going on, the space is certainly workable. I've heard from a couple people that Wednesday night would work well, which is fine with me. Maybe 8ish to 10:30-11:00ish. So maybe let's do this: I'll see what the situation is with the zml this week, and anyone who is interested in attending (or helping, if you already know the software) post comments on whether you can come on Wednesday night or not. And if you can't make it Wednesday, post on what days are good for you and we can try and work something out. We've been doing some max stuff with Perry, which I think has been really helpful to people in our class, but I think that maybe this would provide an opportunity for some 1st years to get some experience with this environment, which I feel has been very useful for producing certain types of interactive experiences.

yeah, ok?