June 30, 2004
Found Magazine
"we collect FOUND stuff: love letters, birthday cards, kids' homework, to-do lists, ticket stubs, poetry on napkins, telephone bills, doodles- anything that gives a glimpse into someone else's life. anything goes..."
Phone-based Virtual Drama
We Make Money Not Art reports on a Virtual Soap Opera for your Phone:
Produced by pervasive game developers It's Alive, Supafly is a location-based virtual soap opera in which players have to resort to intrigues and gossip to appear in the online newspaper "Hype" and become a virtual celebrity.
They have to beat competitors, find allies, belong to the right group, and follow the latest fashion trends in order to stay on top.
The game is played by using SMS and MMS. From the Website the player can read the latest gossip in the newspaper, get new clothes or accessories for the character, chat with other players (logged on to the website or connected from their mobile phone), keep track of friends, and check statistic.
The character stays in the mobile phone and - since the game is location-based - it follows the player everywhere, to help him/her find nearby friends or maybe find a date, till a command from the mobile phone orders the character to leave the phone and enters its home on the Web.
June 29, 2004
SENT Phonecam Art Show Opens in LA
SENT: america's first phonecam art show : July 10-17
Location: Downtown Standard Hotel, 550 South Flower St., LA 90071
LOS ANGELES- sixspace presents the groundbreaking art project SENT, the first major exhibition of camera phone art in the United States. Sponsored by Motorola and co-curated by technology journalist Xeni Jardin and sixspace owners Sean Bonner and Caryn Coleman, the project examines the camera phone's potential as a creative tool.
The online portion of the project is now available for viewing at www.sentonline.com. An in-gallery exhibit takes place from July 10-17, 2004 at the Downtown Standard Hotel in Los Angeles.
Web Surfing No Longer A Metaphor?
The LA Times (free registration required) reports on a project - evidently Intel-sponsored - in which a Tablet PC, with WiFi capabilities, is embedded in a surf board, of all things.
SAY NO MORE - Pun intended
Was it pun or fun that motivated a chip maker (see logo above) to cook up the Web- and wave-riding vehicle it unveiled this month?
The prototype incorporates a tablet PC, solar panels and video camera and communicates via WiFi with a high-speed net connection point, or hotspot, on the beach. A surfer at Rincon can watch a similarly equipped buddy at Blacks get tubed, then check the Web's many live surf cams for hollower waves at another break.
Meanwhile, publications like this will find the stupid surf joke irresistible and offer free publicity.
June 28, 2004
Gesture Interfaces
Beyond keyboards, weather forecasting, and games, gesture recognition technology could transform the way people interact with computers in a variety of settings. Universities have been working on the technology for years. Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology, for example, have explored how gesture recognition may help reduce automobile accidents. A group led by Thad Starner has created what it calls a 'gesture panel' in place of a standard dashboard control. The driver adjusts the car's temperature or sound system volume by maneuvering her hand over a designated area, without having to take her eyes off the road.
Researchers at MIT's Media Laboratory have studied ways in which gestures could be used to enhance various entertainment devices. A 'StoryMat', for example, could recognize and react to movements of particular toys on a child's play mat. A 'conversational humanoid' senses and responds to a person's motions, as reported by a wearable, electromagnetic tracking device. Other projects examine the emotional messages that gestures and posture convey. Research has shown that it's possible to program machines to discern the interest or lack thereof that children display when interacting with educational software, says Rosalind W. Picard, director of the lab's affective-computing research group. A program that incorporated such inadvertent user input could respond accordingly—perhaps by switching activities when the user slumped in apparent boredom.
Tech Review article: Computing Gets Physical
Full article here.
LAATHC
Back from vacation The Los Angeles Art and Technology Hacker Club - coming at you : c-level this Saturday July 3rd 2004.
Schedule:
1) Casual chatting while waiting for stragglers
2) Meeting announcements + planning.
3) Marcos Lutyens and Oliver Hess will discuss their history after meeting at LAATHC including explorations of architecture, psychology, neurophysiology, design, entertainment, and life. They will detail recent work including performances, installations, visualizations, with such a range of technologies it would literally make your brain explode.
http://www.lutyens.net
http://www.choubun.com
4) Free form mingling and problem solving for those who brought stuff, working or non.
The Los Angeles Art and Technology Hacker Club is an open group formed for people interested in doing cool things with electronics. All levels of experience are welcome to attend and participate. The group meets at 7pm monthly at irregular intervals, At c-level, in Chinatown Los Angeles.
To sign up for the discussion and announcement list, visit
http://www.c-level.cc/classes/hackerclub.html.
Untitled War
Machine Project announces "Untitled War", a medieval battle staged inside the gallery space. On July 17 from 6 to 8pm, armored warriors will engage in gut wrenching, full-contact combat with assorted melee weapons.
"Untitled War" is the latest project by artist and uber-gamer Brody Condon. Working in the mystical confluence of contemporary art practice, 3D games, and historical combat reenactment, Mr. Condon's work is engaged in locating and fabricating situations and visual works where computer games and game culture leak outside of the gaming box and into lived experience. In "Untitled War". Condon's ongoing work on SCA (Society for Creative Anachronism, www.sca.org) culminates in a full-contact battle royale staged inside of Machine Project, located in Echo Park Los Angeles.
"Untitled War" is a performative event combining fantasy role-playing, fabricated history, extreme sports, and computer games. Warriors from various historical periods from the SCA will endure an ongoing First Person Shooter Game style Deathmatch battle. Live camera views (similar to the spectator camera views found in online FPS games) will be streamed online and projected next door at the Echo Park Film Center, creating a game-like viewing experience for those outside the space.
Machine Project
1200 D North Alvarado Street
Los Angeles, CA 90026
213-483-8761
http://www.machineproject.com/
June 27, 2004
TV on your phone
Live video streaming to your phone... sounds pretty cool but I can't imagine GPRS provides high data transfer rates. I wouldn't complain about Gilligans' Island reruns on demand, but streaming conventional linear TV, it's kind of boring.
Read the article @ BBC News World Edition
Cell-phone-based alibi clubs
Cell-phone-based alibi clubs, which have sprung up in the United States, Europe and Asia, allow people to send out mass text messages to thousands of potential collaborators asking for help. When a willing helper responds, the sender and the helper craft a lie, and the helper then calls the victim with the excuse -- not unlike having a friend forge a doctor's note for a teacher in the pre-digital age.
'Click here to read the full story'
Story Maker
A fiery tale, by Fred Stimpson
I began the day on June 27. as I began every other day since I can remember. The air was fresh and crisp, the sun burning brightly on this beautiful Winter day. As every other morning, I walked through the forest trees as tall as Scott Fisher counting at least 505 different kinds of birds chirping happily among the branches. I changed my course, deciding it was time for my daily blogging. Scurrying down to the forest clearing by around twilight, I ran into Satan happily sitting in the sun reading The Language of New Media. I called out to say hello and we began talking about moblogging.
Suddenly, the sun began to move behind the clouds, it began to softly drizzle, and I began to feel strange and all I could taste was propaganda. I exclaimed, holy crap sticks! There was a strange smell that filled the air. Was it virtual reality? Or maybe hypertext? Could it be fire? Satan and I took off running through the clearing, seeing Jenova, and Peggy Weil, and even Tracy Fullerton running for cover! damn right biatch, I gulped. What would become of us? What would become of all our homes? I thought fondly of my wearable media and nokia 3650, would they be lost forever? Rubbing my gluteous, thinking hard, I looked around trying to find the source of the awful smell that was steadily growing stronger. In all the commotion, I lost sight of Satan, but saw a crowd of gradstudents gathering in the distance.
By the time I arrived on the scene, the Ranger had poured database narrative and narratology all over the raging flames, putting out the fire. Relieved and smiling weakly, I found Satan, as well as my friends Brad Newman and Will Carter and bounced over to them knowing that the day was saved! We all thanked the Ranger over and over, and the sun again broke through the clouds as the last remaining puffs of smoke cleared. Satan grabbed me by the shoulders and shook me excitedly, insisting that we still had time to scamper off to develop the future and make the most of the beautiful day.
---------------------------------
Check out Smokey the Bear's Story maker @ http://www.smokeybear.com/kids/forest_story.asp
Sure it's simple and crude like a bad Mablib, but nonetheless I did create my own story within a structure that provides little agency; and hell it made me laugh too!
June 25, 2004
1000 Journals Project
The 1000 Journals Project is and ongoing, collaborative experiment attempting to follow 1000 journals throughout their travels.
The project consists of 1000 journals (the real, physical kind). The first 700 or so were sent to folks who asked, to travel at random throughout the world. More recently, a sign up function was added, to allow more people to participate. These last journals are more controlled, and are sent from person to person on the sign up list. People are allowed to add whatever they like to the journals, writing, painting, scraps of food. (food might actually be a bad idea... due to international customs regulations).
The goal is to provide a method for interation and shared creativity. If you ask a kindergarten class how many of them are artists, they'll all raise their hands. Ask the same question of 6th graders, and maybe one third will respond. Ask high school grads, and few will admit to it. (explained in Orbiting the Giant Hairball)
What happends to us growing up? We begin to fear criticism, and tend to keep our creativity to ourselves. Many people keep journals, of writing or sketching, but not many share them with people. (when was the last time a friend invited you to read their diary?) You will not be judged here. And you will have company. This is for you. For everyone.
"A Remote Control For Your Life"
The plan will go into gear this summer, when DoCoMo introduces a new and radically more versatile type of phone. Like a regular cell phone, it will make and receive telephone calls. Like a regular i-mode device, it will let you send and receive e-mail, play online games, and access any one of the 78,000 i-mode-compatible websites around the world. And like other DoCoMo phones, it will take photographs, read bar codes, and play downloaded music over headphones or tiny but surprisingly good speakers. But it will also contain a special chip made by Sony that lets it pay for groceries, serve as personal identification, unlock doors, operate appliances, buy movie and subway tickets, and perform dozens of other tasks.
A Remote Control For Your Life
PDF of the article here.
Multi-viewpoint TV
Technology Review: Fragments Boost 3D TV
In January 2001, CBS spiced up its coverage of the Super Bowl with a special effect that allowed the broadcaster to freeze a replay, arbitrarily change the viewpoint and continue the replay. Researchers around the world are looking to take this technology further by enabling viewpoint changes as the action, including live-action, unfolds, and by letting viewers controlled viewpoint.
The formidable technical challenge in presenting real-time, free-viewpoint three-dimensional video is the enormous amount of information contained in the stream of video information.
Researchers from Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zürich have devised a way to process three-dimensional video in real-time that reduces the amount of data to the manageable level of 3 megabits per second.
June 23, 2004
Nokia Lifeblog
Nokia Lifeblog is a PC and mobile phone software combination that effortlessly keeps a multimedia diary of the items you collect with your mobile phone. Lifeblog automatically organizes your photos, videos, text messages, and multimedia messages into a clear chronology you can easily browse, search, edit, and save. Nokia Lifeblog does the work of organizing the items you create and receive, and you can also add notes throughout the day, or tag and update your favorites so they're always on your phone
June 22, 2004
VR Tool Re-Creates Hallucinations
Technology Review: VR Tool Re-Creates Hallucinations
Reality can seem different depending on who you are. Researchers from the University of Queensland in Australia have written software designed to allow psychiatrists to gain an understanding of the reality of patient hallucinations. The hallucination simulation software is a three-dimensional environment something like the game Quake. The researchers interviewed a patient to get descriptions of a set of real-life hallucinations, then depicted them in the software.
The prototype software runs on a university virtual reality system that includes three projectors and a 9-meters-wide by and 2.5-meters-high screen curved to provide a 150-degree field of view.
June 18, 2004
Timeplay
This company gave a presentation at ICT today looking for connections between their IP and ICT research, and I kept thinking: "Why aren't they presenting at the IMD???" I'm sure they're old news to some. Their chief creative officer, Jon Snoddy (of Imagineernig fame and linked with Randy Pausch) gave the presentation and was cool. (Did you know him Andrew?)
Their design is to have a gameboy like device in the back of each theater chair connected wirelessly to a main server. You slide your credit card on the side of the device to play $1-2 games before the movie, $5-8 for 20 minutes after the movie, and eventually long format theater game experiences. Lot’s of similarities with the gameboy DS interface. Mutlitudes of game possibilities were talked about, including some interesting cooperative play ideas, and allowing a winner in the audience 15 minutes of silver screen fame.
They're getting close to an alpha testing phase, and seemed interested in talking with us about content ideas. I was impressed, and think they'd be great presenters for our division.
Game Ads
Viacom Eyes Game Ads - GameMarketWatch.com - Insight for the Electronic Entertainment Industry
"I think the jury is in, people are spending a lot of time in interactive," Bressler told attendees at the Global Digital Summit, sponsored by OgilvyOne, the interactive marketing division of ad agency Ogilvy & Mather. "The interesting thing for us is to figure out if there's a market for advertising in video games."
June 16, 2004
XFIRE
All The Other Kids Are Doing It :: AO
Xfire, made by the eponymous company formerly known as Ultimate Arena, is an application that gamers run on their desktop, like an instant messenger client. The application tracks what game you are running and lets you see which games your friends are playing. You can just click on any friend's name and, if his (or her) game server has room on it and you have the game software, you'll find yourself in the same game, on the same server as your friend, so you can play with your pal.
Sounds a lot like what the Microsoft Researchers presented..
June 14, 2004
Spot On: Do Better Graphics Make For Better Games?
"The secret weapon is interactivity," said Will Wright. "It doesn't really matter what graphics you map on top of [the game]." Wright added, pointedly, that he doesn’t equate high-end graphics and photo-realism with a good game. To muffled laughter, he added, “Movies have had it for a long time and there are still plenty of bad movies.”
June 12, 2004
Against Realism in Game Design
The Undead Zone - Why realistic graphics make humans look creepy. By Clive Thompson
In 1978, the Japanese roboticist Masahiro Mori noticed something interesting: The more humanlike his robots became, the more people were attracted to them, but only up to a point. If an android become too realistic and lifelike, suddenly people were repelled and disgusted.
June 11, 2004
The Quest for the Rest
now I'm a bit biased b/c I dig the polyphonic spree, but this is the coolest promotional game/interactive experience I've ever encountered. Visually, it's great, and the point-and-clickness of the whole thing really worked for me. Very fun the first time (replays not as much), so I would strongly recommend clicking through all 3 levels. Plus, each is accompanied by a new song from the upcoming spree album together we're heavy. So BUY your copy today and get a robe!
LINK to game
more images on my blog
Supersonic opening
Opening reception on Saturday, June 12, 6 to 11 PM
An unprecedented region-wide exhibition of all the artists graduating the MFA programs at Art Center College of Design, California Institute of the Arts, Claremont Graduate University, Otis College of Art and Design, UC Irvine, UCLA, UC San Diego and USC.
This will be the first major exhibition to be held in “The Wind Tunnel,” a colossal, 16,000 square-foot exhibition hall at Art Center College of Design’s new South Campus located at 950 South Raymond Avenue in Pasadena California.
open 11 AM to 8 PM Daily
Art Center College of Design
South Campus
Wind Tunnel Exhibition and Event Hall
950 South Raymond Avenue
Pasadena, California 91105
also
Symposium: Art in Southern California: From the 90s to Now (with Mike Davis, etc)
Date: Sunday June 13
Time: 10.30 am to 1.00, 2.15 to 6.30 pm
Location: Silver Screen Theater, Pacific Design Center
Admission: Free (come early to guarantee a seat)
http://www.artcenter.edu/supersonic/index.html
June 10, 2004
D|MA 2004 MFA exhibition opening
June 10th, 2004 @ 6:00 pm
New Wight Gallery
A display of second year graduate work by Michael Chu, Osman Kahn, Lucas Kuzma, Anne Niemetz, Daniel Sauter, Doug Smarch. Exhibition will be on view from through June 24. Gallery hours are Monday through Friday 9am to 4:30pm.
New Wight Gallery
11000 Kinross Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90095
sent
here lies the first ever phone-cam art show, curated by los angeles/web uber-presence xeni jardin. Invited participants include some chick from Will and Grace, Weird Al Yankovic, and Dallas Mavs owner/crybaby/spoiled brat/soon-to-be-reality-TV star/blogger Mark Cuban.
June 09, 2004
New Interactive Media Course for Fall 2004
CTIN 499 Design and Technology for Mobile Experience
Units: 2
Mondays 10am-12pm
Fall 2004 Syllabus
Professor: Julian Bleecker
The proliferation of mobile devices with built-in networking capabilities offers a unique opportunity for designing compelling entertainment, productivity and information experiences.
The objective of this course is for students to develop a strong sense of the design challenges and opportunities presented by mobile technologies. Through readings and discussions, students will develop critical and pragmatic insights into designing mobile experiences and technology. Students will form design groups to develop a mobile project design using the principles from readings and class discussions.
Sample Syllabus:
Week 1: August 23
Introduction
• Introduction to Design for Mobile Experiences
• Motivation for Mobile Experience Design
• Syllabus Review
• Survey and Review of Mobile Applications
Week 2: August 30
Place vs. Space – Understanding the distinction between geographic space and social place.
• Discuss possible mobile project concepts
• Design teams formed
• Students refine team projects
• ("Re-Place-Ing Space: The Roles of Place and Space in Collaborative Systems", Harrison and Dourish)
• ("Social Mobiles", Jones)
Week 3: September 6:
Labor Day – University Holiday- No Class
Week 4: September 13
Mobile Technology and Ubiquity – What does it mean to be always on, everywhere?
• Design teams present project concepts to class for review and critique: project pitch, narrative descriptions.
• ("Smart Mobs: The Power of the Mobile Many", Rheingold)
Week 5: September 20
Mobile Society – What are the large scale changes societal changes brought about when we become mobile and have wireless access to networks?
• Design teams present design document for project to class: requirements, wireframes, development technology
• ("The Co-Existence of Cyborgs, Humachines and Environments in Postmodernity: Getting over the End of Nature", Luke)
• ("A New Set of Social Rules for a Newly Wireless Society", Ito)
•
Week 6: September 27
Mobile Social Practices – How does mobile technology become us? Are mobile social practices new or are they evolutions of existing ageless ones?
• Design teams present initial project prototype to class for review, critique
• ("The Gift of the Gab?: A Design Oriented Sociology of Young People's Use of 'Mobilze!'", Taylor and Harper)
• ("Framing Mobile Collaborations and Mobile Technologies", Churchill and Wakeford)
Week 7: October 4
Bringing the Physical to the Digital – What is the compulsion for integrating the physical and digital worlds?
• Design teams present refined project prototype to class for review, critique
• ("Camera Phones Changing the Definition of Picture-Worthy", Ito)
• ("Urban Tapestries: Wireless Networking, Public Authoring and Social Knowledge", Lane)
Week 8: October 11
Conceptual Mobile Practices – How does art-technology inform the possibilities for pragmatic designed objects?
• Design teams continue project development
• Class discussion on the pragmatic aspects of situating and presenting art-technology projects for exhibition, financial support, commercial opportunities
• ("Programming Media", Reas)
• ("Mobile Feelings", Sommerer and Mignonneau)
• ("Design Noir: The Secret Life of Electronic Objects", Raby)
Week 9: October 18
Mobile Cities – What has the city become with the proliferation of mobile, wireless access to data?
• Design teams present second prototypes for class review and critique
• ("Space of Flows, Space of Places: Materials for a Theory of Urbanism in the Information Age", Castells)
• ("The City of Bits Hypothesis", Mitchell)
Week 10: October 25
Mobile Cities II – Location, location, location – but where is that? How do we orienteer in physical space using mobile communications?
• ("Mobile Communications in the Twenty-First Century City", Townsend)
• Excerpts from - (“Splintering Urbanism : Networked Infrastructure, Technological Mobilities and the Urban Condition”, Graham, Marvin)
Week 11: November 1
The Network Is Us – When cyberspace is everyplace what are the design challenges for creating sensible, usable mobile experiences?
• Design teams hand off prototypes for peer review and usability testing.
• ("The Era of Sentient Things", Rheingold)
Week 12: November 8
Approaches To Post-Internet Design – What now for designing networked experiences in the aftermath of the dot-com gold rush?
• ("Situated Software", Shirkey)
• ("Life after Cyberspace", Agre)
Week 13: November 15
Approaches To Post-Internet Mobile Design – What are the considerations for designing mobile experiences in the present day urban environment?
• Guest presentation and discussion from the mobile design and technology field.
• ("Mobile Communications in the Twenty-First Century City", Townsend)
Week 14: November 22
Professional Survivalism – In an increasingly crowded, what are ways to distinguish your own craftwork?
• Class discussion on professionalizing yourself in your field.
• Class discussion on ownership and copyright issues; developing professional networks and how to represent yourself and your work.
• ("How to Be a Leader in Your Field", Agre)
Week 15: November 29
Project Presentations I
• In class presentations with outside discussants
Week 16: Final Exam Period
Project Presentations II / Conclusion
• In class presentations with outside discussants
• Course review and wrap-up
June 08, 2004
Interchange
From Flavorpill LA (I don't know anything personally about it):
gallery eight two five is hosting a multimedia event this friday
june 11, 8pm at 825 La Cienga $10.
"In these heady times of digital media, interactivity is the buzzword du jour. But the artists involved in Interchange take that idea far beyond the mere pushing of buttons or simple video feedback, challenging the idea of the passive audience. The group of multimedia, performance, and installation artists assembled by curator D. Jean Hester for this one-night event has been charged with incorporating the audience into the content of the works, with all of the unpredictability and controlled chaos that implies. As either voluntary performers or the source of improvised soundtracks, no one gets out without becoming art. (SND)"
CCRMA@Banff Programs
The Banff Centre and Stanford University welcome CCRMA (Centre for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics) to Banff this summer for six intensive programs where top educators and researchers from the fields of music, engineering, and computer science will present a detailed study of specialized subjects in an awe-inspiring setting.
UPDATE!
Tuition Discount:
Pay for any two weeks and get any third week at 50% off the regular rate ($375Cdn savings)
Accommodation Discount:
Digital Signal Processing I and Digital Signal Processing II will now be primarily housed at The Banff Centre. Because of this, we are able to offer a significant reduction in room rates.
See www.banffcentre.ca/ccrma for details.
The CCRMA@Banff Programs include:
Physical Interaction Design for Music (July 5 - July 16)
Faculty: Scott Wilson, Michael Gurevich
Guest: Bill Verplank
This workshop integrates programming, electronics, interaction design, audio, and interactive music. Focus will be on hands-on applications using sensors and microprocessors in conjunction with real-time DSP to make music.
Haptic Musical Devices (July 19 - 23)
Faculty: Charles Nichols
Guest: Perry Cook
This workshop will explore the design of haptic musical interface systems, which provide force-feedback to the performer, in addition to producing synthesized sound.
Digital Signal Processing I: Spectral and Physical Models (July 26- August 6)
Faculty: Perry Cook, Xavier Serra
This course will cover analysis and synthesis of sounds based on spectral and physical models. Models and methods for synthesizing real-world sounds, as well as musical sounds, will be presented.
Perceptual Audio Coding (August 9 - 13)
Faculty: Marina Bosi
Guest: Richard Goldberg
Perceptual audio coders are currently used in many applications including Digital Radio and Television, Digital Sound on Film, Multimedia/Internet Audio, Portable Devices, and Electronic Music Distribution (EMD).
Digital Signal Processing II: Digital Audio Effects (August 16 - 27)
Faculty: Jonathan Abel, Dave Berners
Guest: Julius O. Smith
Digital signal processing methods for audio effects used in mixing and mastering will be covered. Topics include techniques for dynamic range compression, reverberation, equalization and filtering, and panning and spatialization, with attention given to digital emulation of analog processors and implementation of time varying effects.
ANET: High Quality Audio over Networks Summit (August 20 - 22)
Faculty: Chris Chafe, Jeremy Cooperstock, Theresa Leonard, Wieslaw Woszczyk
This three-day summit is an exploration of the state-of-the-art in Ethernet-based professional audio networks. The scope includes IP-based systems and systems with dedicated protocols.
June 07, 2004
Clock
Check out this clock:
http://www.lares.dti.ne.jp/~yugo/storage/monocrafts_ver3/03/index.html
June 05, 2004
ACE - Day 3, Full Paper Session 05 - interface
audio games: new perspectives on game audio
Johnny Friberg and Dan Gardenfors, Stockholm International Toy Research Center, Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden
Mudsplat: trad. game, levels, power-ups and bosses. played from 1st person perspective. Uses a simple 3-key navigation system with different audio backdrops to reflect changes in each level.
x-tune: user composes music according to a set theme (which determines which sounds are available)-- 2 interfaces, one with visual cues, the other being completely aural.
Tim's Journey: mix between adventure and 3d game w/ surround sound. the soundtrack is interactive surround sound, highly spatialized - sounds cool. The game itself is a exploration/puzzle solving game, but I'm having a hard time figuring out how the interactive surround-ness enhances the game itself. Their approach is novel: developing the audio at the same time as the rest of the same, but other than that, I can't tell how this is advancing game audio other than making it a more cohesive part of the game experience. Overall, what they are proposing is a move towards audio gaming as an enabler for freedom of movement, etc., but I'm not certain, without playing these games, how at least 2/3 of these games work towards that goal.
The Intelligent Street: Responsive Sound Environments for Social Interaction
Henrik Lorstad, Mark d'Inverno and John Eacott, Interactive Institute Sweden, Sonic Studio
Been looking forward to this talk all conference.
responsive sound installation that processes SMS messages into a overall composition. Users can interact transnationally in Sweden and London. Uses algorithmic composition. User goals: available to all, easy to understand, easy to use, require no musical skills. Users send SMS messages to a vodaphone sms recognition system. The command then outputs music from the . (additional commands are stored in a buffer). Commands reflect a genre, such as 'urban', 'dance' etc., which triggers an algorithmic composition. The sounds from sweden are sent to a location in the UK, and the UK compositions are sent to sweden.
Augementing the Virtual Domain w/ Physical and Social Elements
Carsten Magerkurth, Timo Engelke, Maral Memisoglu, Ambiente Research Division
This project was dealing with the creation of computer Tabletop games (apparently in germany tabletop games are much more successful than video games) that allow for the social interactions that exist in normal tabletop games. the intercTable is a plasma screen tabletop w/ overhead projector and a camera recording hand movements and object positions for input. the first implementation is a monopoly clone with visual representations of money, pieces, etc. the interface itself is a little sketchy to me, as it is with a lot of AR interfaces. The idea of hand/gesture interface is a great idea in theory, but in the end seems less natural than just pressing a key, or in this particular case, moving the thimble around the board.
The Soul of ActiveCube -- Implementing a Flexible, Multimodal, Three-Dimensional Spatial Tangible Interface
Ryoichi Watanabe, Yuichi Itoh et. al
what is up with osaka university and this powerpoint template:
support real-time 3D modeling by building w/ blocks. (ok, and this presentation has the most active powerpoint animations I've ever seen...). Ok, so that's what I thought it was, but it seems that there are 3 types of blocks: light, sound, and vibrate. Kids put blocks together and then control things on a screen with this building block interface they've created -- the example is controling a plane --> they build up a set of blocks that looks like a plane, then can control the virtual plane with that interface... the light blocks light up to tell the kids when to turn the plane, or it vibrates when they crash. Adrian just asked a good question about how the kids know what type of shapes to build, but I think it was sort of lost in translation, so to speak. As far as I can tell, there are no directions - the kids just play around until they get it right - discovery, I guess. I just couldn't tell if there was any feedback telling them when they built the right shape, etc.
Entertainment Feature of the Game Using a Skin Conductance Response
Shigeru Sakurazawa, Naofumi Yoshida and Nagisa Munekata
THis guy is a molecular biologist and sounds very nervous. But awesome powerpoint so far, depiciting a boy acting cool for his favorite girl (don't ask...). This is a little out of my league, but it's basically just a proposal for using new types of input (skin conductivity response) for entertainment applications. Ok, so I get that you can measure skin conductance response (supposed to indicate autonomic response/stress), but there are a lot of X factors that would really need to be tested before a good design for an entertainment app could be made. Ok, he just showed this awesome video showing how they measure skin conductance --> there is this woman sitting in front of a huge metal thing and next to a waveform display reflecting her current scr (I'm assuming). So then some research guy in a white lab coat comes in from behind and slams a mallet against the metal thing, causing a gong-like noise. The woman knew it was coming, so she didn't totally jump and tried to remain calm, but the scr graph suddenly went off the charts. It was pretty awesome.
So now he's showing an actual game that looks something like Joust. However, I'm not clear at all how the scr is controlling the character. I guess it would be really easy to mess someone up who was playing it, though. Ok, he just showed another video where an audience member put a joy-buzzer on the person controlling the game, and he totally lost. that was cool too - I wish my demo videos were this cool. Oh, I finally get it - the player controls this joust like game w/ a controller, but they have to try and maintain a consistent scr level or the player sinks into the ocean.
June 04, 2004
ACE - Day 3, Full Paper Session 03 - stories
Scene-Driver: A Narrative Driven Game Architecture Reusing Broadcast Animation Content
Annika Wolff, Paul Mulholland and Zdenek Zdrahal
Using narrative principles to guide the growing field of viewing galleries (movie clips for shows, movies, etc). They are working with a UK production company called Pepper's Ghost on a show Tiny Planets. The show follows two main characters as they travel to different planets to help it's inhabitants with problems. This narrative structure is broken down and the clips are then organized and described according to that story structure. THe interface for this is in the form of dominoes. Children using the system will match dominoes
Extending Game Participation with Embodied Reporting Agents
Dan Fielding, Mike Fraser, Brian Logan and Steve Benford, Univ. of Rottingham
System for AI reporters in a persistent virtual game world - a very cool idea that would allow players to be somehow alerted to game events even when they aren't participating in the game. The reporters look around the space for events, then prioritize them and report them back out to a human system editor, who then posts them in an event report. THey can see events directly (see them) or also infer things about the event. THey tested this in an unreal tourney game, where reporters were reporting on the events: drop, capture, pickup, return. Right now, I think the weakness is that the reporters just give stuff to an editor, who then logs it in a standard unreal log file. The second thing is that the unreal game doesn't seem like the ideal place for this to happen - it doesn't seem persistent enough. My take is that you'd want this system in something like sims online or second life, where reporters could report information and the data could be sent out in headline form to your mobile phone or something, which could warn you if your pad was being raided, etc. I can see someone in a cafe with their boy/girlfriend or something, getting an update from the online world and running out to get back in the game world before more damage is done.
Oh, and now reporters can be killed in the unreal game, which is something they are trying to stop. This seems like a great thing that should be nurtured rather than thrown away, because how cool would it be to have people in a team killing a reporter so that they couldn't report that information to another player. This seems like one of the coolest parts...would be a shame if they axed it. Overall, a totally cool idea.
Extending Game Participation with Embodied Reporting Agents
Steve Benford, Duncan Rowland Univ. of Rottingham
Platform: iPaq w/ GPS (welcome to the club...) THe game tries to teach players what it's like to be a lion. the 'savannah' was about the size of a football (soccer) field (pitch). There is constant sound feedback - as the players wander around they hear wind, water etc. that might have been around them. Players are allowed text messages, e.g. "THe masai are attacking, RUN!"
Gameplay: Role play on the savannah : mark "interesting" sights or scents on the savannah. After this territory has been marked, they go out and kill and eat water buffalo, which is a collaborative activity. YOu can then go to a DEN interface where you can review your territory, look at maps, etc. The feedback for this stage was also a text messaging system. THe demo has a blur soundtrack. how very british...
Uncle Roy All Around You: Implicating the City in a Location-Based Performance
Steve Benford
this has been around for a while: check the specs online. It's really a compelling game / idea where street players and online players collaborate, using clues provided by 'uncle roy' and embedded in the space to find Uncle Roy. The game is very well executed--especially on the design end. You can actually play online right now - the last day of a setup in the UK is going on this weekend - I think the last day is the 5th (UK time) so pls. check it out if you get the chance.
A User-Centric Adaptive Story Architecture Broowing from ACtivn Theories
Magy Seif El-Nasr
This guy is talking about interactive narrative, but I don't think he really knows what it is. I guess my problem is that he said that America's Army has an interactive narrative. Or rather, he's throwing the term interactive narrative around without really having thought about what that means. Also, the structure of interactive story he's talking about is strictly a branching one. ugh, anyway - onwards. Basically just breaking down a basic screenwriting model and applying a basic AI to lead the user through different paths. Ok. maybe it's just the powerpoint, but this one seems just like a bad tech. approach to solving story problems. update: getting sort of blasted in the questions...
Augmented Reality Chinese Checkers
Nicholas Cooper, Aaron Keatley, Maria Dahlquist, Simon Mann, Hannah Slay, Joanne Zucco, Ross Smith and Bruce Thomas University of South Australia
the name sort of says it all. it looks fun, but I guess part of me wonders why not just play the physical game. I think the novelty might wear off after a little bit in the AR space, and the delay and lag seem bad. There are some nice features, like the ability to rotate the virtual board. it's becoming more clear that this is purely a tech. demo, and that not much thought at all has been put into the design other than 'chinese checkers game.' Bruce Thomas is responsible for AR quake, and has done a lot of other great things in this field, but this particular one isn't my favorite. Id like to see the technical framework applied to other more compelling experiences.
June 03, 2004
ACE - day 2, full paper session #2, interacting
Full Paper 2 - Interacting
Re-tracing the past: Mixing Realities in Museum Settings
Multi-Audible Table for Collaborative Work
Tama Art University, Tokyo
(if I see this powerpoint template again, I'm going to lose it...)
table has a number of cell based sound spots, represented by characters on the top of the table which are displayed via an overhead lcd projector. A user would stap on a system called CoBIT, which basically is a little finger sleeve attached to a cable which runs up to a set of headphones. When the user touches a certain icon, or moves it around, they individually hear sounds based on their interactions w/ each character. This one is pretty cool. It brings up this issue though that nearly every one of these presentations is about 'collaboration' yet they all are pretty weak at actually enacting it. This woman is going through the testing results and sounds surprised by the fact that the kids tested didn't talk to each other very much, when she has them all in a headphone environment.
Robot's Play: Interactive Games With Sociable Robots
Andrew Brooks, MIT media lab
Teaching robots basic games, then playing those games with them -- the 2 games they showed, one a binary switch game, and the other an imitation game, worked really well, but I'm wondering how much pre-defined behaviors were inherent to those games. Basically, I'm not sure how easily scalable the system would be. I think the idea of teaching robots via movement and action is really cool, and giving the robot much better vision and more scalable recognition and logic systems would benefit this research.
THe Sensing Board enhanced by Interactive Sound System for Collaborative Work
uses a sensing board system w/ rfid. same people who did the multi-audible table and this research seems like it overlaps with the other project. there are a couple differnet configurations w/ this -- the best one seemed to be a color based sound generator. Users could place colored cut-outs all around a table -- a black line moves around the stage like a clock hand, and plays sound based on which colors it is moving over. What's cooler is that users can record sounds using mics set up around the exhibit, and then embed those sounds with rfid to one of these color circles. uses the same headphone coBit tech. as the earlier piece. Not convinced that headphones are the way to go with either of these systems...
up next, keynote by Mark Billinghurst from u washington's hit lab.
ACE2004 Day 1.
Keynote 1 - Takashi Totsuka (Sony, Director of Content Application Lab). This was a good talk - Totsuka spoke about the need to develop WHAT applications, instead of HOW applications. He used examples from Sony's history, remarking that HOW applications such as the trinitron displays were going to break companies while WHAT apps like the walkman and the eyeToy would lead to success.
Full Paper Session 1
Composition of Gaze-triggered display: saccade detection technique/eye tracking to display unique 2D images to different users. Sounds like it may result it cool things / apps for new AR displays, but just a piece of tech now. THis talk is super-dry, lots of graphs and charts and awkward silences - the crowd is stunned - this would be a good example of one of those HOW apps Totsuka was chastising. I think I'd like a pastry.
Fancy a Schmink? : A Novel Networked Game in a Cafe HP LABS, UK: Sound based interactive game tested in a week long public trial in the Waterched Cafe in Bristol, England. Participants played a sound game where they had to identify a sound that was NOT in the mix - the missing sound. More and more sounds are added as the level increases, making everything harder. but this was really a social experiment, seeing how people reacted to playing a game socially and how collaboration occured, etc. my question was: why test social interaction using a game where you have to use headphones.
How Can Entertainment Improve Workers Motivation This was completely preposterous. the idea was that each worker has an avatar (a tree in an aquarium) that grows the more productive they are. the problem is that the most important part of this -- how 'productivity' is measured -- is completely ignored. Basically, working constitutes key strokes. Hmm... problematic maybe? I won't go into this one anymore.
Compelling Experiences in Mixed Reality Interactive Storytelling Superimposing players in a virtual world where their actions and speech controls part of the story. Of course, 'interactive' is used loosely here, as basically the user has to go through a set of plot actions in a linear Bond story in order to get anywhere. Ahem. Good tech., for sure -- not sold on the current implementation of 'interactive stories.'
Free viewpoint video synthesis and presentation of sporting events for mixed reality entertainment Pretty cool 1st step: allow users to control the camera at a sporting event, zooming, panning etc. They then went downhill by making the display AR, superimposing the soccer players on a piece of paper that looks like a field -- aren't the soccer players already on a field? ( I believe the correct term is pitch). Unnecessary.
Keynote no.2 Mainly talked about AR, and the relationships between Stapleton's Physical, Virtual, and Imaginary Realities. Big advocate of objects, and the combination of TUI (tangible user interface) with AR display to produce a 'best of both worlds' scenario. He gave many examples of collaborative AR spaces, including a project called MagicBook, a AR book that allows multiple users to interact in a public view of this virtual book space. This all looks great, and is really good research, but the content still seems highly lacking (perhaps due to current issues of delay between the physical / virtual world causing a disconnect). THeir book Jimmy Jones was done w/ a New Zealand based illustrator and was by far the best example of how something like this could be integrated w/ useful and engaging content.
Short Paper Sessions 1
Unfortunately, not much here. Mostly AR applied to the old standards like bowling and tennis. These are ok tech pieces that work nicely, but very uninteresting.
Short Paper Sessions 2
I chaired this one, and was freaking out that I was being rude or something the whole time. They provide you with this bell (ring for assistence style) that you're supposed to ring if time goes over 15 minutes. yeah right: all these eminent figures sitting in the room and I'm going to ring a bell? So we went a little over, so what? There were 2 / 3 cool things here. THe 1st was this "system for creation of fond memories." THe presentation itself was slow, relatively poor english (but still 100% better than my japanese so I give credit to the presenter), but presented this nice idea for a music resonator upon which little genre boxes of music are places. These genre boxes wander about playing music until they come into contact with another box -- the system then checks a database for some similarity between the two songs. If there is one, then it plays whatever song is the link. Mainly prelim research I think, but pretty neat. The other decent one was a saw type 3D interface thing were you had to collaboratively rock this thing back and forth by using your weight in order to advance through a virtual world. THe 3rd one (that was pretty bad) was this music synthesis thing based on dance. a) it wasn't synthesis b/c it was just playing back MIDI controlled sounds b) it wasn't real time, so what's the point? c) the presenter was on crack and d) there have been a lot of great interactive dance systems done, and this project clearly was not aware of any of them, acting like it was the first thing to try and generate music from movement... ick.
that's basically it for today. it is very hot here.
ARTISTS SUBPOENAED IN USA PATRIOT ACT CASE
Early morning of May 11, Steve Kurtz awoke to find his wife, Hope, dead of a cardiac arrest. Kurtz called 911. The police arrived and, after stumbling across test tubes and petri dishes Kurtz was using in a current artwork, called in the Joint Terrorism Task Force.
Soon agents from the Task Force and FBI detained Kurtz, cordoned off the entire block around his house, and later impounded Kurtz's computers, manuscripts, books, equipment, and even his wife's body for further analysis. The Buffalo Health Department condemned the house as a health risk.
Now four artists have been served subpoenas to appear before a federal grand jury that will consider bioterrorism charges against a university professor whose art involves the use of simple biology equipment.
While most observers have assumed that the Task Force would realize the absurd error of its initial investigation of Steve Kurtz, the subpoenas indicate that the feds have instead chosen to press their "case" against the baffled professor.
Three of the subpoenaed artists--Beatriz da Cost, Steve Barnes and Dorian Burr--are, like Kurtz, members of the internationally-acclaimed Critical Art Ensemble (CAE), an artists' collective that produces artwork to educate the public about the politics of biotechnology. They were served the subpoenas by federal agents who tailed them to an art show at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art. The third artist, Paul Vanouse, is, like Kurtz, an art professor at the University at Buffalo. He has worked with CAE in the past.
http://www.caedefensefund.org/
Dorkbot Socal Meeting
dorkbot
people doing strange things with electricity
http://www.dorkbot.org/socal
JUNE 5th 2004 - 8pm (SATURDAY)
UCLA Design | Media Arts
Host: Casey Reas
LUCAS KUZMA: The Ecstasy of Communication
A population of sound-making devices interacting with each other and the sounds in their environment. Using models from computational neuroscience as a basis, they emulate some of the features of organic neurons as well as those of artificial neural networks.
PAUL YARIN: LTS2000
The ISM60 is an interactive sensing module for laparoscopic skill training and measurement. The module is a rotating sensor carousel with several coordination and knot tying tests. It provides a video overlay with task data, error count, and score.
PERRY HOBERMAN: Wormhole
A networked installation, connecting at least two remote sites. Participants at one site can manipulate and mutate projected objects and send them as obscure messages to participants at another site.
Hybrid Vigor
The Beall Center for Art and Technology
presents
HYBRID VIGOR
open lab / exhibition / performance GROUP SHOW
June 4-19
Opening Reception Thursday, June 3, 6-9 pm
The Arts Computation Engineering (ACE) graduate program was launched this year at the University of California, Irvine. Students in this pioneering program have organized this "open lab" exhibition showcasing their own work and selected new media and interdisciplinary arts initiatives across campus.
http://beallcenter.uci.edu/hybridvigor/index.html
The Beall Center for Art and Technology, UC Irvine
Information: (949) 824-6206
Hours: Mon. - Sat., noon-5 pm; Thursdays until 8 pm
June 02, 2004
Rumble Seat
New game accesory demo'd at E3 and reviewed in the WSJ:
Is this a great country, or what? Thanks to technology, you soon will be able to not only hear your favorite music and the sound effects of videogames, but to actually feel these sounds, and not just in your heart and soul. An outfit called Guitammer Co., from Westerville, Ohio, has developed a $150 home gadget that actually transmits sounds as vibrations through your body, starting from the bottom up. The product's name says it all: the ButtKicker Gamer. This gizmo attaches to the bottom of your chair and sends low-frequency sound waves from music or games through the chair's back and, especially, its seat -- hence the name.
Story vs. Interactivity Discussion on Gamedev.org
I'm a moderator for the webboard, Gamedev.org. Generally, this site is dominated by beginning-to-intermediate level programmers, but the Game Design subsection is slowly growing. I started a topic on Story vs. Interactivity in Games. This topic will probably be central to my eventual thesis. Perhaps some of you would like to weigh in--it would definitely up the academic level of the discussion. You can log in as a guest. You will find the discussion thread here.
June 01, 2004
Golf Launchpad
Golf Launchpad is a revolutionary way to play golf anywhere, anytime. Use it to play life-like golf on one of the world’s premier golf courses in EA SPORTS™ Tiger Woods PGA TOUR® 2004 or Microsoft Links, or use it to practice your game. Feel the real thing.
Golf Launchpad replaces the mouse with a sophisticated swing path analyzer with a tethered regulation golf ball, sensors and electronics that enable you to play computer golf with your own clubs with unmatched realism and feel.
Backseat Gaming
The Pocket PC in my hands, covered in strange purply plastic, beeped and whistled as our van passed an ancient oak tree in the outskirts of Stockholm, Sweden. "Grab the documents, quick!" shouted professor Oscar Juhlin riding shotgun. I flailed the Pocket PC in the air, desperately snatching for virtual documents. Squirming in the air, I caught two documents. Good enough - now on to the docks, where we hoped to find some undercover operatives.
No, we weren't two geeky professors reaching for a papers flying out the window. We were two geeky professors playing a new type of location-based game, called "backseat gaming" from the Interactive Institute in Sweden. Basically, the idea is to create digital games that bring the real world into the game. If you've ever taken a family trip, you know how boring a 15 hour drive in the family mini-van. Remember counting license plates, or making games out of surrounding cars and drivers? Well, backseat games leverage this natural inclination to layer a game on top of the real world, but they use GPS, compass, and wireless internet technologies to bring action, role playing, and story into the backseat gaming experience.
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