30GB head-mounted surveillance camera

[Via Engadget]


Yo. Tripp?





We’ve wanted a camera that we could take everywhere to record everything we see from our POV ever since we saw Edison Carter doing it back in the day. Of course, his rig was way too bulky and cumbersome to really carry around for any length of time. Fortunately, now that we’re living 20 minutes in the future, all that has changed, and there are setups like the DoubleVision series from the U.K.’s Second Sight Surveillance (not to mention other POV-cams from outfits like Viosport). The DoubleVision Pro is particularly sweet, combining a head-mounted camera with a pocket 30 GB HDD that can store as much as 46 hours of video. While Second Sight markets the unit as a mobile surveillance device, we could easily see ourselves donning this and zapping our raw footage up to Bigtime TV.

Ubisoft fights back against EA hostile takeover

CEO Yves Guillemot projects doubled profits over 2 years. Urges shareholders to keep their stock.

"We are working hard to remain independent," Mr Guillemot told the BBC News website.

EA bought 20% of Ubisoft last December, and held talks in February.

EA's block of shares were purchased from Dutch media tycoon John de Mol, and his investment vehicle Talpa Beheer BV. At the time, Ubisoft CEO and co-founder Yves Guillemot commented of EA's purchase: "I have stated on the record that I view this action on the part of EA as hostile", and further marked of future concerns: "When looking at the longer-term, our only concern is the risk that we may not be allowed to fully realize our vocation of being creators of high quality games."

With a market capitalization of $18 billion, sales of $2.9 billion, and cash in hand of $2.5 billion, Electronic Arts could easily afford to outright purchase Ubisoft, which enjoyed sales of $680.1m last year.

Theater of the Oppressed Conference

(Hey Scott G. -- sorry that I asked you to post this, forgetting you didn't have an account. So I'm re-posting for you on the main blog.)

The 11 annual Pedagogy & Theater of the Oppressed conference going on this week. Here's the link: http://www.ptoweb.org/conference/index.php. For those of you who recall, we read about this ages ago in 564 ... wish I was in town to attend.

If any one is curious, get in touch with Scott Gillies: gillies@usc.edu.

Digital Pearl Harbor

Film, life, games, and war all mixed into one. I'd love to see what thier sim looks like, what the experience is, how it feels to be a player within such a sytem? I can't help but imagine the graphics from the film.

From My Way
WASHINGTON - The CIA is conducting a war game this week to simulate an unprecedented, Sept. 11-like electronic assault against the United States. The three-day exercise, known as "Silent Horizon," is meant to test the ability of government and industry to respond to escalating Internet disruptions over many months, according to participants.

The simulated attacks were carried out five years in the future by a fictional new alliance of anti-American organizations that included anti-globalization hackers. The most serious damage was expected to be inflicted in the closing hours of the war game Thursday.

"You hear less and less about the digital Pearl Harbor," said Dennis McGrath, who has helped run three similar exercises for the Institute for Security Technology Studies at Dartmouth College. "What people call cyberterrorism, it's just not at the top of the list."

read more at the link above

Parsons - MFA - Design + Tech Thesis Show

Opening Reception:
Wednesday May 25, 6 - 8pm
Aronson Galleries
66 Fifth Avenue
and Gallery at 2 West 13
Mon-Fri 9-9, Sat-Sun 9-6
Galleries closed Memorial Day weekend

couldn't find a website, but here's the cool MFA DT 2004 Show website

Thesis Guidelines

Parson's news

Winners of the 2005 Prix Ars Electronica - Honorary Mention for Waco Resurrection

Congratulations to Peter Brinson, et al.

winners list

Benjamin Fry and Casey Reas got a well-deserved Golden Nica in Net Vision for Processing.

Waco Resurrection got an Honorary Mention. It is the first chapter of Endgames, a 3D multiplayer computer game series which incorporates elements of subjective documentary and speculative fiction with interactive technologies to create a visceral gaming experience focused on extreme psycho-social phenomena.

Revisiting the 1993 Waco tragedy, gamers enter the mind and form of a resurrected cult's leader David Koresh through headgear, a voice-activated, 3D skin. They are Koresh who must defend the Branch Davidian sect against intrigue, skeptical civilians, rival Koresh and government agents.

Players are bombarded with a soundstream of government “psy-ops”, FBI negotiators, the voice of God and the clamor of battle. Players voice messianic texts, wield weapons from the Mount Carmel cache and influence the behavior of both followers and opponents by radiating a charismatic aura.

Ten years after, in 2003 (year of the game creation), the spirit of Koresh has become a paradoxical embodiment of the current political landscape - he is both the besieged religious other and the logical extension of the neo-conservative millennial vision. Waco is a primal scene of American fear: the apocalyptic visionary - an American tradition stretching back to Jonathan Edwards - confronts the heathen "other" - in Waco Resurrection, the roles are anything but fixed.

By: Team Waco (Michael Wilson, Eddo Stern, Jessica Hutchins, Brody Condon, Peter Brinson, Mark Allen) (US).

via wmmna

Hong Kong job opportunities for our recent graduates

The School of Creative Media at City University in Hong Kong is looking for instructors in Animation and New Media. The Dean of SCM specifically asked me to post this link to these job opportunties for our recent grads.

I can tell you from experience that this is a great school and living and working in Hong Kong is an excellent opportunity. The faculty here are very interesting people to work with and the students are fantastic and talented. If anyone is wondering what to do next, you might want to follow up on this. If you have any questions, shoot me an email.

Spore

Other than the dollar bill glued to the floor, this is what I remember from the show:

EA's Teaser

Interview with Mr. Wright

Michael Naimark: Interactive and Immersive Film Environments,1977 — 1997

Michael Naimark
Interactive and Immersive Film Environments,
1977 — 1997

Opening reception:
Saturday, May 21,
6:00 to 9:00pm

Exhibition dates:
May 22 — August 20, 2005

Williamson Gallery hours:
Tuesday through Sunday, 12 noon to 5 p.m.
Friday, 12 noon to 9 p.m.
Closed Mondays and holidays

Alyce de Roulet Williamson Gallery
Art Center College of Design
1700 Lida Street
Pasadena, California 91103-1999
(626) 396-2446
williamsongallery.net
Michael Naimark

Moving Movie #1 (1977)
panoramic film loop projection and cylindrical screen;
Originally produced at the Center for Advanced Visual Studies, MIT
Courtesy of the artist

Displacements 2005 (1980-84)
panoramic video projection and living room painted white;
Originally produced at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
With additional support from the MIT Council for the Arts
and the National Endowment for the Arts
Re-Creation

Golden Gate Flyover (1987)
interactive moviemap from the air;
Originally produced at the Exploratorium
With additional support from Advanced Interaction, Inc.
Courtesy of the Exploratorium

Karlsruhe Moviemap (1991)
interactive moviemap from the tram;
Originally produced at the ZKM | Center for Arts and Media
Courtesy of the ZKM | Center for Arts and Media

See Banff! Kinetoscope (1993-94)
stereoscopic interactive moviemap
Originally produced at Interval Research Corporation
With additional support from the Banff Centre for the Arts
Courtesy of the American Museum of the Moving Image

Be Now Here (1995-97)
stereoscopic interactive panorama
Originally produced at Interval Research Corporation
With additional support from the UNESCO World Heritage Centre
Courtesy of the artist

E3: Odd MMORPG Marketing

Saw this ad for a massively-multiplayer game called Ryzome. Something about it just seemed...off. I think it's the conservatively-dressed teenage girl standing on what looks like a nude beach.

I guess they were trying to say that "it's like you're actually there." Maybe if she'd been wearing a swimsuit at least? As it is, it seems more voyeuristic than they were probably intending...

Quartz Composer

Saw Quartz Composer (part of Quartz Extreme running in Tiger) in action on Leonard's powerbook tonight and was really intriguied and impressed. Hardware accelerated flying 3d fish and RSS feeds text in an environment, very fast and beautifully rendered. The programming environment looks similar to MAX, but, ahem, clean and pretty. Are we getting Tiger for at least 1 machine? I'd really like to use this.

"50 People See..."

From Technology Review:

I wrote a program to blend Flickr images which share the same tags. No human is involved in choosing, positioning, or blending the images.

Suggestions are welcome for new tags to try. The best tags imply a certain composition, like "sunset", although I've gotten some interesting results with abstract words too.

This is partially inspired by the work of Jason Salavon.

50 people see... - a photoset on Flickr

We LOVE Katamari Ball

"At the next E3 Expo, they will be making a real-world Katamari Ball: attendees are invited to bring whimsical detritus that will be stuck to the ball in simulation of the gameplay:

'Help the Prince please the King of All Cosmos at this E3Expo with the We LOVE Katamari ball. The King of All Cosmos has requested all attendees to provide items throughout the three days. Items should be lightweight enough to be attached and as nutty and creative as possible. Items should NOT be x-rated in nature or include clothing, books, magazines, papers or garbage. Those representing the Prince also have full right to decline any item.' "

via boingboing

RES Screening MAY '05

RES invites you to our monthly series showcasing brand new music videos, short films and motion graphics. This month we are proud to present the West Coast premiere of Chris Cunningham's new short film Rubber Johnny. The evening will also feature brand new music videos for Basement Jaxx, Quasimoto, Aesop Rock, Amon Tobin and many more.

Also screening is a new crop of excellent short films, including Albert Kodagolian's Moving On, Zeitguised's Dancing About Architecture, Sally Ann Arthur's Perfect, Chihcheng Peng's Something in the Water, Edouard Saller's Empire and Pic Pic Andre's Le Grand Sommeil.
We will also premiere new RES-Commissioned D-SNAP Shorts by Spencer Susser, Jonnie Ross and Gabriel Malaprade.

More Information
Buy Tickets

OMG PS3

That controller looks ugly. And painful.

Guess the Google

Grant Robinson has made a web-based game "Guess the Google" - look at a series of images and guess what keyword pulled them all up. A perfect IMD distraction! Too bad it's summertime.

Inventors: Troy Hurtubise

Each one of us, students and faculty in the Interactive Media Division, we are inventors. We look at our dreams, our imagination, our desires, and we make what we see there, to share with the world.

We could draw some inspiration from Troy Hurtubise, a man who developed a giant protective suits so he could be more intimate with grizzly bears. This work lead to the development of several unusual technologies; most recently a God Light that cures disease.

How does he fund his work? Shadowy investors and scrap metal sales. We should all be so fanciful and resourceful!

I am 8-bit exhibition

link

Gallery Nineteen Eighty Eight
7020 Melrose Ave, 90038
(323) 937-7088
April 19-May 20
Tue-Sat 11am-7pm

Reactrix ads

Update on uses of the Reactrix technology for advertising:

Each installation includes an infrared camera, a computer, and a projector. As a person interacts with the projected image, the camera tracks his or her movements and feeds that information to the computer; the computer adjusts the image to make it appear to react to the person. Bell says the way in which the software processes information from the infrared camera enables the Reactrix system to operate in the dynamic environments of the real world, whereas earlier interactive projection systems could track users only against white backgrounds or in situations where the lighting conditions were tightly controlled.

Indeed, Reactrix is not the only company developing interactive displays. IBM's Everywhere Displays project makes use of mirrors and cameras to produce similar effects, while a system from Austin, TX-based artistic collective Mine-Control tracks people's shadows instead of the people themselves. But Reactrix's most direct competition may come from Toronto-based Gesturetek, which has created interactive floor displays for clients such as Coca-Cola and Krispy Kreme.

But where Gesturetek is focusing on selling or licensing its technology for a variety of applications, including gaming, virtual-reality-based rehabilitation, and museum kiosks, Reactrix aims instead to build and operate a global network of advertising installations. Linking each installation to the Internet would allow the company to upload new ads and track their usage statistics. Former Yahoo CEO Tim Koogle is a major investor in Reactrix and serves on its board of directors; he says the company would make the bulk of its money not by selling its technology, but from advertising revenue, which it would share with the venues that host its installations.

The Customer Is Always Right There

MFA THESIS SHOWS 2005

The First MFA Thesis Exhibition

http://interactive.usc.edu/thesis2005/

Featuring:
Mike Brinker, Will Carter, Todd Furmanski,
Kurt MacDonald, Tripp Millican, Stephanie Weinstein

May 7-12, 2005

**************************
opening reception
**************************
Saturday, May 7, 2005
4 - 8pm
**************************

exhibition schedule
Sun-Thu, May 8-12, 1-5pm
(closed Monday)

presentations
Thursday, May 12, 5-6pm
@ Ron Howard Theatre

This year, the USC School of Cinema-Television, Interactive Media Division graduates the first class of its three-year MFA program, and we proudly present PASS THROUGH, an exhibition of our graduating seniors' thesis projects. These six unique projects range from mobile media to games to immersive installations, from memories and fantasies to arenas and cityscapes, and from live performance to intimate interaction. Taken together, they exemplify the promise of interactive media: a glimpse of a digital future, a vision of a novel aesthetic, a passage through what is to what can be.

thought thieves

Thought Thieves is about people stealing and profiting from your creation or innovation. Think about it: how would you feel if you saw your hard work being passed off as the property of someone else? What would you do?

We want to know!

Send us your short film on intellectual property theft by 1st July 2005 for your chance to win £2,000 worth of film and video equipment vouchers. And finalists will be invited to attend a special screening of their films and presentation ceremony in London.

website

poster

Website sells a script

Screenwriter Eric Heisserer set up a website called The Dionaea House last year and posted a series of correspondence between characters in his horror screenplay. After all, if the Internet is there, why not exploit it to create some buzz? The site got a ton of hits. Tomorrow's Hollywood Reporter says the website helped "build the mythology" of the project — and Warner Bros. Pictures picked it up for David Heyman to produce at Heyday Films.

http://www.dionaea-house.com/

via la observed

Firefox security alert

Read advisory for instructions. You need to manually change some settings for the time being until an update fix is made; this includes disabling javascript, which appears to prevent you from using uscwebmail, unfortunately. Have to switch it on and off for a while..

retroshopped

This Worth1000 contest asks photoshoppers to dummy up images of modern products in antique contexts.

Link

Where's your post Andrew!

First Ever Casual Games Conference

I suppose the day was going to come where the casual gaming market would get a conference of its own. It's nice to see that the day is in late July (July 19-20 to be exact). This conference is put on by The Games Initiative, who has put on various other conferences such as the Advertising in Games Forum and How to Break Into the Game Industry. Please go here for more info.

ISEA 2006 - Interactive C4F3

Call for Proposals for ISEA 2006 Interactive C4F3..That's Cafe for you non-L33Trs.

http://isea2006.sjsu.edu/C4F3/

"The goal of The C4F3 is to create an active ambient space of augmented
everyday objects that is not just an art gallery, a restaurant, or a chill
space, but a new kind of project space where the whole environment has
been rethought in terms of the capabilities of current technology."

Fieldworks Art-Geography at the Hammer

This symposium includes an evening of performance and a day of discussion to bring together practitioners from art, architecture, and geography to present original (field)works and address emerging relations between geographical science (including GPS, satellite surveillance, etc.) and artistic production. Program includes Trevor Paglen, Laura Kurgan, Lize Mogel, Juan Geuer and a live performance by Ultra-red. At the UCLA Hammer Museum on Thursday evening and all day Friday.

Fieldworks Symposium Program

MacArthur Award to ACC

Congrats to Professor Mimi Ito, Co-PI on this major grant:

A grant of $3.3 million over three years was awarded to School of Information Systems at the University of California at Berkeley and the Annenberg Center for Communication at the University of Southern California to study how and to what effect young people use digital media. The ethnographic study, which is one of the largest to date, will involve a diverse sample of young people between the ages of 10 and 18 in four physical sites and as many as 20 virtual spaces. Researchers will examine how young people experience digital media and use digital tools in their daily lives, and document the consequences of this exposure. The findings of the study also will be used to help identify possible implications for learning.

MacArthur Foundation Press Release