marientina || IMD (main) || USC

We're looking for pairs ages 25-44 to start! Please forward widely!

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WP-M wishes you a Happy 4th of July!

Posted by marientina at 12:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Wellness Partners is a networked activity diary and casual game that will launch in prototype mode for a pilot clinical study on Valentine's Day 2009. This study is sponsored by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

We need your help! I am looking for pairs of people ages 18-65 who can play together for 7-10 days (or longer up to January 1, 2009) and give us feedback on the current version which doesn't have a lot of game depth yet. We have lots of things planned for a January playtest, but need a first pass now while we're still planning to make sure we're on the right track!

Testers will be asked to send a daily report of their experience with the prototype, bugs, ideas, suggestions, things they hate and love about it, etc.

If you are interested, please email marientina [at] yahoo [dot] com ASAP with your email, the name and email of your play partner and your ages. This is an informal playtest - your information will not be published in any way.

Posted by marientina at 4:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Our project needs your help!

6 questions, 1 minute of your time.
Seeking raw emotional response to a graphic.

Fill out this survey:
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=Ph9uMZ1AOpFSnVF_2ftm2hug_3d_3d

Posted by marientina at 10:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Techno pundits and industry experts at the Intel Developer Forum (IDF), held in August were hailing 3D films as the next big thing.

At the forum, animation supremo and CEO of DreamWorks Jeffery Katzenberg, said 3D filmmaking was the "greatest innovation to occur in the movie business in 70 years."

http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/09/12/future.cinema/index.html

Posted by marientina at 12:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Wellness Partners (WP), a project funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation is seeking a junior web designer and playtest operator for a prototype game that uses a fictional character to help players spark and sustain physical activity.

GAME DESCRIPTION:
WP is a character-driven social game that uses elements from virtual pets, role-playing games (RPGs), and social networking tools to motivate real-world wellness by helping players to leverage their intimate network as sources of encouragement, community and support. Players are rewarded with new character abilities, attributes and props in the game for choosing and sustaining lifestyle changes and staying active. This prototype version of WP is played on either a cell phone or web browser (same functionality for both). Much of the game is a single-player experience, but the game allows for intra-group communication for purposes of support, checking progress, and completing group quests. The WP character is a fictional creature. A WP character can offer encouragement, reminders, and send messages to other players' characters. The WP character becomes both the face of the game and an alter ego for the player. Players can expand their personal group by recruiting partners or helpers.

Position Responsibilities & Skills:
- Help design the game in coordination with senior personnel
- Conduct playtesting sessions of prototype (over sms and email, phone device will be provided)
- Basic knowledge of MS Excel for data entry required
- Creative writing skills and a compassionate spirit for the purposes of the project (it is a health game after all...) are also required
- MUST BE A USC STUDENT
- MUST have taken a game prototyping class with our division

Available immediately, $12/hour to start, send resume or CV to mgotsis@cinema.usc.edu and one paragraph about why you think you can do this and what your creative interests are.

Posted by marientina at 3:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

USC has received a $200,000 grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to explore how interactive digital games could be designed to improve players’ health behaviors and outcomes.

http://www.usc.edu/uscnews/stories/15326.html

and here:

http://www.rwjf.org/newsroom/newsreleasesdetail.jsp?productid=21898

and here:

http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=16212

Super super extra thanks to Diana Hughes and Tracy Fullerton and some earlier brainstormings with Mike Stein and Jen Stein.

Posted by marientina at 10:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

for more information, click here

Posted by marientina at 6:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Speakers: Tom DeFanti, Dan Sandin, Greg Dawe, Todd Margolis, (University of California San Diego/CalIT2, University of Illinois at Chicago, Electronic Visualization Laboratory)
Time: Wednesday, April 23, 6-8pm
Location: USC's Robert Zemeckis Center for Digital Arts (RZC)
Room 201 Zemeckis Media Lab (ZML)

"CineGrid: Networked Digital Cinema Challenges"
Tom DeFanti

"VR W/O Attachments"
Dan Sandin

"The Calit2 StarCAVE, a 3rd Generation VR Room"
Greg Dawe

"CRCA: Examples of Collaborative Practice for Large Scale New Media Art Projects"
Todd Margolis

BIOS

Tom DeFanti is an internationally recognized expert in computer graphics since the early 1970s. DeFanti has amassed a number of credits, including: use of EVL hardware and software for the computer animation produced for the 1977 “Star Wars” movie; contributor and co-editor of the 1987 National Science Foundation-sponsored report “Visualization in Scientific Computing;” recipient of the 1988 ACM Outstanding Contribution Award; appointed an ACM Fellow in 1994; and appointed one of several USA technical advisors to the G7 GIBN activity in 1995. He also shares recognition along with EVL director Daniel J. Sandin for conceiving the CAVE™ Virtual Reality Theater in 1991. Currently he is a research scientist at the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology (Calit2). At the University of Illinois at Chicago, DeFanti was director of the Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL), a distinguished professor and a distinguished professor emeritus in the department of Computer Science, and the director of the Software Technologies Research Center. Striving for a more than a decade to connect high-resolution visualization and virtual reality devices over long distances, DeFanti has collaborated with Maxine Brown to lead state, national and international teams to build the most advanced production-quality networks available to scientists, with major NSF funding.

Dan Sandin is an internationally recognized pioneer in computer graphics, electronic art and visualization. He is Professor Emeritus of the School of Art & Design, University of Illinois at Chicago, and Director Emeritus of the Electronic Visualization Laboratory at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He has worked on a number of inventions such as the Sandin Image Processor (1971-1973), a patch programmable analog computer for real-time manipulation of video inputs through the control of the grey level information. This modular design was based on the Moog synthesizer, the Sayre Glove (1977), the first data glove, as part of a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, a type of VR photography called PHSColograms (1988), a system whereby a number of still images were situated in an auto-stereoscopic manner and back-projected with light. In 1991, in conjunction with Tom DeFanti and graduate students, he designed the CAVE™ Virtual Reality Theater. More recently, he has been working on The Varrier™ Auto-Stereographic Display.

Greg Dawe's unique background mixes mastery in electronics, optics, video technology, material fabrication, computers, and software, complemented by a Florida building contractor’s license acquired in the early 1990s. Dawe holds a BFA in design from the University of Illinois at Chicago and an MFA in video art from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, working under Phil Morton, the legendary video artist. Working with colleagues Tom DeFanti and Dan Sandin at EVL, Dawe is known for his contributions to the CAVE™ Virtual Reality Theater and its derivatives, the ImmersaDesk™, and PARIS™. The CAVE is a multi-screen, projection-based, virtual-reality system, and the ImmersaDesk is a single-screen, drafting table-style device. Both are commercial products sold by Fakespace Systems (formerly Pyramid Systems Inc.). Dawe also did the mechanical design for and assembled the Varrier™ auto-stereographic display, many large tiled displays and recently a six-wall CAVE (StarCAVE) installed on the ground floor of the UCSD Calit2 building.

Todd Margolis is artist, educator and technologist. He received his MFA in Electronic Visualization from the Electronic Visualization Laboratory at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He is a founding member of the immersive and interactive art and technology non-profit organization, Applied Interactives, and also a member of the art collaborative Sine::apsis Experiments. Margolis ic currently appointed the Technical Director of the Center for Research in Computing and the Arts(CRCA) at UCSD. Margolis was previously a Visiting Research Programmer at UIC developing a new virtual reality system, The Varrier™ Auto-Stereographic Display with Dan Sandin.

Posted by marientina at 10:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

FYI, Yahoo has a Widget called Avalanche that ties into Basecamp and is very convenient to use instead of browser. I know that many of you use this.

There are several extras to be found here:
http://www.basecamphq.com/extras

Posted by marientina at 10:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)