Interactive Worlds Applied Research Group

Serious Games

2011-11-29T10:56:00.000-08:00

On the 18th November 2011, Dr. Fotis Liarokapis gave an invited talk to the ‘V-Must Workshop 2: Virtual Heritage, Games and Movie’, Archeovirtual 2011, held at Paestum, Italy. The title of the talk was ‘Serious Games’.

The talk focused on the main technologies used for serious games. In addition, two projects which are currently running at iWARG were presented including crowd modeling and procedural modeling.

More information:

http://www.vhlab.itabc.cnr.it/archeovirtual/workshop.htm

Robots and Avatars

2011-11-07T07:22:00.000-08:00

This event will consist of a collection of four talks from experts in domains related to robots, avatars and interaction. It will consider key issues in the construction and control of real and virtual social entities andimplications for social interaction with humans.

Organiser:
Dr Christopher Peters, Coventry University (aa5547@coventry.ac.uk)

Speakers:
- Dr Ginevra Castellano, University of Birmingham
- Dr Fotis Liarokapis, Coventry University
- Dr Mark Huckvale, University College London
- Dr Asimina Vasalou, University of Birmingham

Outline of the event:
14:00 Introduction
14:30 Session 1: Robots and Interaction

"Long-term interaction with robot companions" by Dr Ginevra Castellano, School of Electronic, Electrical and Computer Engineering / HCI Centre, University of Birmingham. The talk will consider the implementation of social capabilities for robot companions based on the EU FP7 'LIREC' project including affect recognition and the issue of forming affective between humans and robots.

"Human-machine interfaces" by Dr Fotis Liarokapis, Department of Computing / Interactive Worlds Applied Research Group Coventry University. This talk will focus on human-machine interfaces for control and communication between humans and machines, focussing on the use of Brain Computer Interfaces (BCI).

15:45 Session 2: Avatars and Interaction

"Virtual characters and spoken language" by Dr Mark Huckvale, Speech, Hearing and Phonetic Sciences, UCL Division of Psychology and Language Sciences, University College London. This talk will present a computational model of spoken language acquisition in a virtual infant as part of the KLAIR project: a state of the art toolkit allowing a virtual infant to see, hear, talk and express emotions.

"Avatars, self presentation and social media" Dr Asimina VasalouSchool of Computer Science / HCI, University of Birmingham. This talk will consider issues related to how people decide to portray and represent themselves through personalised digital personas ('avatars') and implications in social media.

16:45 Wrap-up and Close

Location: 2 p.m. - 5 p.m. Wednesday, November 9th 2011AS324, Armstrong Siddeley Building, Coventry University

Mind-Minding Machines

2011-09-11T15:47:00.000-07:00

On Monday 12th September 2011, Dr. Chris Peters will give an invited talk at the British Science Festival. The title of the seminar will be 'Mind-Minding Machines'. For more information a brief abstract is provided below:

Abstract Machines capable of being socially sensitive to humans, to empathise and interact with them for example, have been featured in many popular works of science fiction. But just how far are such machines from becoming reality? This talk considers how computational mindreading capabilities may better ensure that human and machine see eye to eye on important issues.

More information:

http://www.britishscienceassociation.org/forms/festival/events/showevent2.asp?EventID=462

VS-Games 2011 Keynote Presentations

2011-09-06T11:39:00.000-07:00

The two keynote presentations from VS-Games 2011 have been uploaded and they are free to access. The first presentation was given by Prof. Carol O' Sullivan and was entitled ‘Socially realistic virtual humans and crowds’ while the second one was given by Prof. Peter Comninos and was entitled ‘Hybrid Object Modelling’.

Both presentations can be accessed from:

http://www.blod.gr/lectures/Pages/viewevent.aspx?EventID=17

Interactive Worlds Applied Research Group demonstrates the power of the mind at Gadget Show Live

2011-06-28T05:29:00.000-07:00

Coventry University's E-dition has a new press release regarding iWARG. In particular, BSc student Athanasios Vourvopoulos and Dr. Fotis Liarokapis from the University’s Interactive Worlds ARG recently attended the Gadget Show Live. The team presented a prototype that uses a brain computer interface (Neurosky Mindset) for controlling a Lego NXT Mindstorms Robot – a brain powered robot! The robot performs basic movements based on the attention levels of the user. Different attention levels will accelerate or decelerate the robot accordingly.

Earlier this month Athanasios Vourvopoulos also presented a co-authored (with Dr. Fotis Liarokapis) paper with title ‘Brain-controlled NXT Robot - Tele-operating a robot through brain electrical activity’, to the 3rd International Conference in Games and Virtual Worlds for Serious Applications (VS-Games 2011). The paper focuses on the research of human-robot interaction through tele-operation with the help of brain-computer interfaces.

More information:

https://staff.coventry.ac.uk/news/pages/edition.aspx?editionID=4501#4513

Digital Media Grand Challenge Faculty Champion

2011-06-19T08:35:00.001-07:00

Coventry University Grand Challenge Initiatives represent core applied research themes including: Low Carbon, Ageing, Digital Media, Transport, Agriculture and Buildings.

Dr. Fotis Liarokapis was recently nominated as the Faculty Champion (Faculty of Engineering and Computing) for the Digital Media Grand Challenge.

More information:

http://uk.linkedin.com/groups?gid=3692167

http://twitter.com/#!/grandchallenge

Interacting with Virtual and Augmented Reality Interfaces

2011-06-11T14:23:00.001-07:00

On Wednesday, 8th June 2011, Dr. Fotis Liarokapis, gave an invited talk at the Alexander TEI of Thessaloniki, School of Technological Applications, Department of Informatics, Thessaloniki, Greece. The title of the seminar was ‘Interacting with Virtual and Augmented Reality Interfaces’. For more information a brief abstract is provided below:

Abstract During the past decade, virtual and augmented reality interfaces have been applied for creating innovative applications in conjunction with computer graphics, brain-computer interfaces, serious games and virtual environments. This presentation will provide some characteristic examples including a subset of the research conducted at the University of Sussex for the ARCO project, City University for the LOCUS project and various other projects for the Serious Games Institute (SGI) and Interactive Worlds Applied Research Group (iWARG) at Coventry University. All the results indicate that virtual and augmented reality interfaces are becoming a mainstream and they can be applied very successfully for a variety of applications such as cultural heritage, gaming, navigation, robotics and education.

More information:

http://ieee.teithe.gr/presentations/91-drliarokapisinteracting-with-virtual-and-augmented-reality-interfaces.html

Computer Graphics Education at a Liberal Arts College

2011-06-02T11:12:00.000-07:00

The fifth iWARG seminar will take place on Monday 6th June 2011 at the Faculty of Engineering and Computing, Coventry University, Armstrong Siddeley Building, room AS126 between 16:00-17:00. The invited speaker is Professor Terry R. Hostetler, Coe College, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, USA. Terry Hostetler’s professional background includes substantial experience in both academia and industry. After obtaining an M.S. in computer science at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, he worked for six years as a software engineer at an aerospace company, followed by three years as a senior support analyst at a computer graphics software company. After returning to academia in 1991, he earned a Ph.D. in computer science at the University of Iowa. His dissertation, Controlling Steering Behavior for Small Groups of Pedestrians in Virtual Urban Environments, explored how individuals and small groups could be modeled in order to produce plausible pedestrian behavior. For the past twenty years he has been teaching computer science at Coe College, a small liberal arts college in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. His research interests include autonomous behaviors, computer graphics, human-computer interfaces, and computer science education. For more information a brief abstract is provided below:

Abstract Computer graphics is an area of computer science important to education, research, and industry. Though traditionally taught as an elective course as part of an undergraduate degree in computer science, it is also sometimes offered separately by departments of art. Computer science departments typically cover the technological aspects of computer graphics, including the algorithms and mathematics that form its core. Departments of art, on the other hand, are more likely to emphasize creativity and graphics tools. At liberal arts colleges students from both disciplines cross-over at times looking to develop cohesive insights and skills. This talk will provide an overview of methodology used to teach computer graphics to students with varied interests and backgrounds. I will discuss topics and techniques that I have used over the twenty years that I have been teaching this course.

VS-Games 2011 iWARG Papers

2011-05-31T11:40:00.001-07:00

On the 3rd International Conference in Games and Virtual Worlds for Serious Applications (VS-Games 2011), which took place in Athens between 4th to 6th May 2011, iWARG presented 4 papers. Two of them were full papers, a short paper and a workshop paper. The first full paper is named ‘A Classification of Scripting Systems for Entertainment and Serious Computer Games’ and was presented by Dr. Eike Anderson. The second paper is named ‘A portable framework design to support user context aware augmented reality applications’ and was presented by Jacek Lewandowski. The short paper is named ‘Brain-controlled NXT Robot: Tele-operating a robot through brain electrical activity’ and was presented by Athanasios Vourvopoulos while the workshop paper is named ‘Online Virtual Learning Environment for Teaching Computer Graphics’ and was presented by Dr. Fotis Liarokapis.

More information:

http://www.vs-games.org/

Serious Virtual Applications for Cultural Heritage

2011-05-02T07:18:00.001-07:00

On Wednesday, 11th May 2011, Dr. Fotis Liarokapis, will give an invited talk at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, School of Rural & Surveying Engineering, Thessaloniki, Greece. The title of the seminar is ‘Serious Virtual Applications for Cultural Heritage’. For more information a brief abstract is provided below:

Abstract The state-of-the-art in serious game technology is identical to that of the state-of-the-art in entertainment games technology. As a result, the field of serious heritage games relies on the advances in computer games, real-time computer graphics, virtual and augmented reality and artificial intelligence. On the other hand, the main strengths of serious gaming applications may be generalised as being in the areas of communication, visual expression of information, collaboration mechanisms, interactivity and entertainment. This presentation will provide an overview of serious virtual applications, ranging from virtual and augmented reality to serious games and online virtual environments for cultural heritage. Some characteristic examples include a subset of the research conducted at the University of Sussex for the ARCO project, City University for the LOCUS project and various other projects for the Serious Games Institute (such as the RomaNova project) and iWARG (such as the Herbert and Shakespeare’s projects) at Coventry University. Results from all projects indicate the importance of intuitive and flexible serious virtual applications for a variety of applications in cultural heritage.

More information:

http://www.topo.auth.gr/greek/EPIKAIRA/doc/Invitation_Lecture_Liarokapis.pdf

Nuffield Bursaries for Summer Research

2011-04-27T18:31:00.000-07:00

Three iWARG second year students: Iulian Arcus, Laurentiu Catalin Hinoveanu, Karolis Kivilius have landed Nuffield Bursaries for Summer research (roughly £1000 each). Nationally, almost 800 applications were made and only 450 were awarded. These projects will be supervised by Dr. Fotis Liarokapis, Dr. Eike Anderson and Dr. Chris Peters.

More information:

http://www.nuffieldfoundation.org/science-bursaries-schools-and-colleges

Interactive VS-Games Demo Event –in cooperation with ACMʼs Greek Special Interest Group in Human Computer Interaction (ACM GR-SIGCHI)

2011-04-25T11:23:00.001-07:00

The Interactive Demos event is intended to give researchers and practitioners the opportunity to demonstrate serious games, whether completed or in-progress prototypes, which may interest VS-Games attendees. We welcome both standalone submissions and submissions relating to full and short conference and workshop papers. These demos will take place in an informal setting on the last day of the VS-Games conference, during a 1-hour break between workshops (11:15 – 12:15).

The title and short paragraph describing your game / demonstration and any space, timing, or technical requirements must be sent by May 2, 2011 to mroussou@acm.org. Please note, that you are responsible for bringing and installing your own equipment and anything necessary to demonstrate your work -no equipment or technical support can be provided by the conference venue. You may want to compose a supplement document, up to 2 pages, describing and promoting your work for conference attendees.

More information:

http://www.vs-games.org/

http://www.greekchi.org/

http://campus.acm.org/public/chapters_conf_cal/index.cfm

iWARG at the Gadget Show Live 2011

2011-04-20T15:43:00.001-07:00

Last week, iWARG members Mr. Athanasios Vourvopoulos and Dr. Fotis Liarokapis presented a prototype that uses a brain computer interface (Neurosky Mindset) for controlling a Lego NXT Mindstorms Robot. The robot performs basic movement based on the attention levels of the user. Different attention levels will accelerate or decelerate the robot accordingly.

The Gadget Show Live is the UK's ultimate consumer electronics event and returned for its third year at the NEC, Birmingham this April. The 2011 event brought together more exhibitors than ever before and was the best place to see, try and buy everything from HD Camcorders and 3D TVs to Games Consoles and In-Car Electronics.

More information:

http://www.gadgetshowlive.net/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4hlxCi46OI

Panel: How should we teach CG?

2011-04-09T12:24:00.001-07:00

On Wednesday the 13th of April iWARG member Dr. Eike Anderson will be a panelist in a Eurographics 2011 Education Panel, trying to answer the question "How should we teach CG?". The panel, chaired by Jean-Jacques Bourdin of the Université Paris 8 will be part of the annual Eurographics Conference in Llandudno (Wales), organised by Bangor University's School of Computer Science.

More information:

http://eg2011.bangor.ac.uk/

Interacting with Mixed Reality Interfaces

2011-03-29T04:35:00.000-07:00

On Wednesday, 23rd February 2011, Dr. Fotis Liarokapis, gave an invited talk at the University of Derby, School of Computing, UK. The title of the seminar was ‘Interacting with Mixed Reality Interfaces’. For more information a brief abstract is provided below:

Abstract This presentation will provide an overview of mixed reality interfaces, ranging from virtual and augmented reality to serious games and online virtual environments. Some characteristic examples include a subset of the research conducted at the University of Sussex for the ARCO project, City University for the LOCUS project and various smaller projects for the Serious Games Institute and iWARG at Coventry University. Results from all projects indicate the importance of intuitive and flexible computer interfaces for a variety of application domains such as archaeology, navigation and education.

Mobile Learning 2011 Paper

2011-03-28T08:03:00.001-07:00

Paper written by iWARG members Mr. Jacek Lewandowski and Dr. Hisbel E. Arochena titled: ‘Mobile Attendance and Time Monitoring System for M-Learning Applications: Design and Pilot Results’ has been successfully submitted and presented at the IADIS Mobile Learning Conference 2011, Avila, Spain. The paper describes a Mobile Attendance Management System (MAMS) used to remotely collect, manage and process student’s attendance data during school activities. It presents a system that taking advantage of the wide and spread use of mobile phones among students, becomes a powerful tool to process and manage attendance data in a seamless way with benefits for all parties: teachers, administrative staff and students.

The system was piloted during classes with Computer Science and related courses students’ at the Faculty of Engineering and Computing, Coventry University. The paper presents the results of this pilot as well as students and lecturers view on wireless ain-class attendance tracking. The presentation and paper itself was very well received by participants of IADIS Mobile Learning 2011 conference with a lot of good comments and valuable feedback for further development. The most interesting is the international discussion it raised among participants, whether or not we are allowed to track student’s attendance and how this would be perceived by students and staff in different countries.

More information:

http://www.iadis.net/dl/

http://franzwirl.at/wordpress/?p=85

EG 2011 Educational Paper

2011-02-25T06:04:00.001-08:00

The paper "In at the Deep End: An Activity-Led Introduction to Creative Computing with Interactive Computer Graphics", describing a new approach to introducing students to the computing field developed by the Creative Computing subject group at Coventry University.

The paper is authored by iWARG members Dr. Eike Anderson, Dr. Christopher Peters, Dr. Fotis Liarokapis and Dr. John Halloran and has been accepted for the Eurographics 2011 education programme, which is taking place in Bagnor, Wales, 11-15 April 2011. More information: http://eg2011.bangor.ac.uk/

Biahmu 3D Reconstruction & Exhibition

2011-02-14T03:09:00.000-08:00

The latest exhibition at the Herbert Art Gallery & Museum opened on the 10th of February; it deals with many aspects of Ancient Egypt and uses a variety of methods to allow visitors to interact with elements of the exhibition. The artefacts on display range from a 3,000 year old mummy, to objects from almost every dynasty of Ancient Egypt. Visitors were also able to take part in activities such as an interactive quiz, building their own pyramid and watching a video of a 3d reconstruction of a middle kingdom shrine. The latter of these was created by Ben Baker, a PhD student of iWARG.

Working closely with an archaeologist who has surveyed the site and using data gathered from archaeologists from different time periods we were able to construct a 3D model of how we believe the site looked just after it was completed. This model was used to create a video walk-through showing elements of the shrines that would be of most interest to visitors. The video is part of a section of the exhibition demonstrating the process of archaeology and reconstruction of cultural heritage sites. The model can be used for additional projects in the future; one such project that I am interested in exploring is how to represent uncertainty in cultural heritage locations.

More information:

http://www.theherbert.org/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sD_1FAkvd-k

Workshop on Leveraging the Potential of Virtual Worlds

2010-11-28T09:10:00.000-08:00

Scope

Since their launch, Virtual Worlds (VW) have been seen as a rapidly evolving trend that could play an important role in the future internet. VWs gained enormous popularity at the beginning of the decade and still maintain a strong fan base with 580 million people worldwide currently registered as virtual world users.

Due to the large number of users that they attract and the significant amount of time that users spend inside them, Virtual Environments offer a significant potential for organisations that want to reach out to a larger crowd such as businesses and government bodies. Moreover, Virtual Worlds provide the context inside which people interact with each other in many ways and therefore are rich in user generated content as well as social networking information. When properly leveraged, this information can bring value to a wide range of domains such as commercial applications, search engines and recommender systems. Finally, Virtual Worlds can be viewed as a micro-society with dynamics resembling those of real world societies, making them an ideal testbed for experimentation in a society simulation.

The objective of this workshop is to examine the ways in which the capabilities of Virtual Worlds can be exploited. We are interested in both technological and sociological approaches as well as in case studies showcasing the areas that can benefit from using Virtual Worlds and the challenges and risks involved.

Topics of interest

Researchers and practitioners are invited to present final results and work in progress. However, submissions have to be original research in the area of Virtual worlds. The topics of interest include but are not limited to:

• Managing Identity in a Virtual World: Trust, Privacy and Reputation
• Architectures for leveraging Virtual Worlds capabilities
• Integration of VW applications with enterprise IT systems
• VW Enterprise Applications layered on top of the core virtual world architecture – scenarios, architectures
• Making sense of VW content : Information retrieval and data mining mechanisms
• VW Applications in real life domains: health, education, cultural heritage, the environment and government services
• Modelling, simulation, virtualisation, scenario-building and evaluation
• Policy Simulation in Virtual Environments: case scenarios
• VW Economies : Modelling and trading systems in virtual worlds
• Virtual Worlds as a means for gathering public opinion
• Social Networks as sources of content
• Social Networks interoperability
• Interoperability and application portability between Virtual worlds and social networks

Special session organisers

• Prof. Theodora Varvarigou, National Technical University of Athens
• Konstantinos Tserpes, National Technical University of Athens
• Michal Jacovi, IBM Research Labs, Haifa
• Magdalini Kardara, National Technical University of Athens

Program Committee

• Fotis Aisopos (National Technical University of Athens, GR)
• Prof. Dimosthenis Anagnostopoulos (Harokopio University of Athens, GR)
• Dr. Vasiliki Andronikou (National Technical University of Athens, GR)
• Fanny Coudert (Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, BE)
• Prof. Anastastios Doulamis (Technical University of Crete, GR)
• Rania Hatzi (Harokopio University of Athens, GR)
• Bernard Horan (University of Essex, UK)
• Roman Klinger (Fraunhofer, SCAI, GE)
• Prof. Nikolaos Matsatsinis (Technical University of Athens, GR)
• Prof. Mara Nikolaidou, Harokopio University of Athens
• Prof. Vasilios Vescoukis (National Technical University of Athens, GR)

Important Deadlines

• Submission deadline: 01/01/2011
• Notification of acceptance or rejection: 09/01/2011
• Submission deadline for full versions: 17/01/2011

More information:

http://www.vs-games.org/

Workshop on Natural Interaction and Player Satisfaction in Games

2010-11-26T12:04:00.000-08:00

Scope

Analyzing, capturing and synthesizing player experience in both traditional screen-based games and augmented- and mixed-reality platforms has been a challenging area within the crossroads of cognitive science, psychology, artificial intelligence and humancomputer interaction. Recent advances in readily available sensors (e.g. in mobile phones), hardware (e.g. Nintendo Wii-remote, Microsoft Kinect, Playstation Move) and computing power enable users to interact with computers, handheld devices and game consoles using the same paradigm as in their everyday life: with spoken commands, facial expressions, hand and body gestures. These non-verbal means of expressivity can be studied both in terms of affect and interaction, as well as in terms of gameplay, using concepts from machine vision and understanding, machine learning and psychology.

In addition to this, those new interaction modalities enhance the importance of the study and the complexity of player experience. Artificial and computational intelligence can be used to synthesize the affective state of player (and non-player) characters, based on multiple modalities of player-game interaction. Multiple modalities of input can also provide a novel means for game platforms to measure player satisfaction and engagement when playing, without necessarily having to resort to post-play and off-line questionnaires. For instance, players immersed by gameplay will rarely gaze away from the screen, while disappointed or indifferent players will typically show very little response or emotion. AI/CI algorithms can also be used to adapt the game to maximize player’s experience, thereby, closing the affective game loop: e.g. change the game soundtrack to a vivid or dimmer tune to match the player’s powerful stance or prospect of defeat; from the point of view of non-player characters, an injured or frustrated opponent will look down when facing defeat, informing the users about its status, much in the way a human opponent would be expected to. In addition to this, procedural content generation techniques may be employed, based on the level of user engagement and expressed interest, to dynamically produce new, adaptable and personalized content (e.g. a new stage in a platform game, which poses enough challenge to players, without disappointing them).

This special session aims at bringing together specialists from machine learning and vision, computational intelligence, affective computing, and multimodal interfaces to discuss advances in designing and measuring player experience and affect induction, sensing and modelling.

Topics of interest

Research areas relevant to the special session include, but are not limited to, the following:

• artificial and computational intelligence for modelling player experience
• cognitive/affective models of player satisfaction
• modelling affect in the context of games
• analysis of player’s facial expressions, gestures, body stance, gaze, speech content and prosody and physiology
• mapping low-level cues to affect and emotion
• using games to record affective databases
• synthesising/reproducing player affect in the game environment
• adapting to player affect/player experience/satisfaction via procedural content generation
• adaptive learning and player experience

Special session organisers

• Georgios Yannakakis, Centre for Computer Games Research, IT University of Denmark
• Kostas Karpouzis, Image, Video and Multimedia Systems Lab, National Technical University of Athens
• Kostas Anagnostou, Department of Informatics, Ionian University

Program Committee

• Elisabeth André (University of Augsburg, DE)
• Ginevra Castellano (Queen Mary University of London, UK)
• Dimitris Grammenos (ICS-FORTH, GR)
• Arnav Jhala (UC Santa Cruz, USA)
• Stefanos Kollias (National Technical University of Athens, GR)
• Jean-Claude Martin (LIMSI-CNRS, Paris-South 11, FR)
• Matteo Matteucci (Politecnico di Milano, IT)
• Alexandros Potamianos (Technical University of Crete, GR)
• Pieter Spronck (Tilburg University, NL)
• Ana Paiva (INESC-ID, PT)
• Christopher Peters (Coventry University, UK)
• Julian Togelius (IT University of Copenhagen, DK)

Important Deadlines

• Submission deadline: 01/01/2011
• Notification of acceptance or rejection: 09/01/2011
• Submission deadline for full versions: 17/01/2011

More information:

http://www.vs-games.org/

Developing serious games for cultural heritage: a state-of-the-art review

2010-11-22T11:10:00.000-08:00

iWARG in collaboration with SGI has published a state-of-the-art journal paper with title ‘Developing serious games for cultural heritage: a state-of-the-art review’ at the Virtual Reality journal, Springer. In this paper, authors focus on the state-of-the-art with respect to the theories, methods and technologies used in serious heritage games. They provide an overview of existing literature of relevance to the domain, discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the described methods and point out unsolved problems and challenges. In addition, several case studies illustrating the application of methods and technologies used in cultural heritage are presented.

More information:

http://www.springerlink.com/content/c1334721182n6078/

Gaze and Perspective-taking as a Basis for Supporting Engagement between Humans and Virtual Agents

2010-11-18T13:30:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow, Dr. Chris Peters is giving an invited seminar at the IDIAP research institute in Martigny, Switzerland. Gaze, a behaviour linked intimately to the deployment of visual attention, is not only a necessary means for orienting the senses in order to better inspect locations of potential relevance to the entity, but also represents a vital social cue: for example, it may be used to help signal ones' desires and intentions, such as to become or remain engaged during interaction, or to purposely direct another interactor to peripheral locations of interest in the environment. Conversely, paying attention to the gaze of another is therefore also an important basis towards inferencing their beliefs, desires and intentions.

This seminar will consider some aspects of gaze from two diverse perspectives: firstly, how gaze behaviour may be interpreted from human users in order to facilitate interaction with an Embodied Virtual Agent. Secondly, how sensible gaze behaviours may be generated for Embodied Virtual Agents within virtual environments to foster interaction with the world outside the computer screen, and particularly with the human user. In both cases, visual perspective-taking will be highlighted as an important bridge for linking lower-level detection and synthesis with higher-level reasoning about the goals and motives of the other, particularly for supporting engagement during interaction scenarios.

It's all Appening on the 2-Tone Trail

2010-11-15T10:28:00.001-08:00

A few days ago, the ‘2-Tone Trail’ became the first real Coventry tourist-based App for the Apple iPhone. Proudly sponsored by Coventry Market, this is the first ever 2-Tone iPhone app, and it’s now available to download at the iphone app store. Last year the 2-Tone Trail was launched as Coventry’s most musical tourist attraction, 11 plaques were unveiled by various members of The Specials, The Selecter, The Beat and former Specials manager Pete Waterman. The Trail has already been walked by countless 2-Tone fans visiting the city, eager to learn more of the origins of bands The Specials and The Selecter.

Now the trail is conveniently available on your iPhone, downloadable for just 59p, and with the phones’ on-board GPS facility, navigating around the trail is a simple task. The problem was how to translate my guide book to iPhone. That’s where Coventry University graduate in informatics Andy Abgottspon came in. Andy, from Switzerland, is the brains who developed the app at iWARG at Coventry University. And that’s a good fit, because Coventry University is number one on the 2-Tone Trail, with its countless connections with the 2-Tone genre, and where 2-Tone Central is based of course.

More information:

http://www.coventrytelegraph.net/lifestyle-news/coventry-history/backbeat-coventry/2010/11/03/it-s-all-appening-on-the-2-tone-trail-92746-27594228/

Launch of the Association of Digital Innnovation

2010-10-27T10:42:00.000-07:00

You are cordially invited to a soiree and dinner buffet in London on the 3rd November 2010. The event will take place from 5-8pm at Coventry University London campus East India House, 109-117 Middlesex Street, London E1 7JF. The sponsored event will involve short talks and opportunities for networking.

In the light of the spending review and cuts to the public sector which will affect all the sectors, we ask the central question: how will the industrial and academic communities support innovation and development over the coming years?

Speakers (see biogs below):

- Tom Chatfield (author of Fun Inc),
- Professor Madeline Atkins (Vice-Chancellor of Coventry University).
- Professor Sara de Freitas (Director of Research SGI)

The event is part of the launch of the Association of Digital Innovation which aims to extend a base of companies to provide better links between industry and academia, and to support innovation in a new digital ecology of industry and academy. Colleagues from industry and academia are invited to the event to become the founder members of the Association (and will receive a reduced cost membership). As places are strictly limited you are invited to register for FREE attendance today.

For more information and to register your attendance at this event please Click here. Or contact Ola at rsgi@cad.coventry.ac.uk.

IIT Invited Seminar

2010-10-13T08:42:00.000-07:00

On Friday, 15 October 2010, Dr. Christopher Peters, will give an invited talk at the Institute of Technology (IIT) Genova – Floor 0, Conference Room, from 11:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. The title of the seminar is ‘Simulating pedestrian crowds in urban environments: An analysis-synthesis-perception approach’. For more information a brief abstract is provided below:

Abstract This presentation describes a subset of work conducted for Metropolis, a project in Trinity College Dublin seeking to create a real-time virtual city and simulate its inhabitants. A key challenge involved the simulation of plausible pedestrian behaviour based on the inspection and annotation of videos of high-density pedestrian walkways. Scenes were virtualized and pedestrian configurations subsequently altered algorithmically at the level of the individual, group and crowd, in order to probe user perceptions of naturalness. Results highlight the importance of the context of the urban walking space in which the pedestrian behaviour occurs, with implications for simulation, perception and expectation.

Building a Social Engine: Automating Human Territoriality for Avatars and Agents

2010-10-07T08:22:00.000-07:00

The fourth iWARG seminar will take place tomorrow (Friday 8th October 2010) at the Faculty of Engineering and Computing, Coventry University, Armstrong Siddeley Building, room AS133 between 14:00-15:00. The invited speaker is Hannes Hogni Vilhjalmsson an Associate Professor of Computer Science at Reykjavik University and a project director at the Center for Analysis and Design of Intelligent Agents (CADIA). He has been doing research in computational models of social and linguistic behavior for about 15 years. His focus has been on supporting fully embodied communication in virtual environments for entertainment, education and training. He co-founded the Los Angeles based serious games company Alelo Inc., and is also one of the co-founders of MindGames in Iceland. He holds a Ph.D. in Media Arts and Sciences from the MIT Media Lab. For more information a brief abstract is provided below:

Abstract In most commercial multi-player games, the expression of communicative intent and social behavior through avatars relies on explicit user input such as menu selections, button presses and emote commands. This approach is fine for deliberate acts, but to portray continuous and relevant social presence, it is impossible to rely on user micro-management. In the same way that avatars autonomously animate walk cycles and physical collisions, they need to automate spontaneous cues that reveal the nature of their social situation. CADIA Populus is the latest tool in a series of works that explores the automation of social behavior in avatars based on theories of social interaction. In particular, the tool models territorial group dynamics as a set of social norms that shape appropriate reactive behavior. I will demonstrate this tool and discuss how it contributes to a new kind of a 3rd party engine for game development: The Social Engine.

Jedi Mind Tricks and the Future of Edutainment

2010-10-07T07:52:00.001-07:00

The third iWARG seminar will take place tomorrow (Friday 8th October 2010) at the Faculty of Engineering and Computing, Coventry University, Armstrong Siddeley Building, room AS133 between 13:00-14:00. The invited speaker is Deepa Iyengar, co-founder and CEO of MindGames, Ltd (Reykjavik, Iceland). Deepa Iyengar is a former neuroscientist, astronomer, and currently co-founder and CEO at MindGames. She has long been interested in the neuroscience of reward and habit learning, the bases for motivation and true change. For more information a brief abstract is provided below:

Abstract At MindGames, we develop videogames which draw people to develop their powers of relaxation and concentration while having fun. Players control our games with their mental state, via brainwave (EEG) headsets, so that their performance directly depends on figuring out how to voluntarily control their levels of relaxation and concentration. But fun is a necessary part of the equation - without it, no one will play long enough to learn. So, we wrestle with two open design questions - can we blend brainwaves and gaming? And can we enlighten through entertainment?

More information:

http://www.mindgames.is/

VS-Games 2011: 3rd International Conference in Games and Virtual Worlds for Serious Applications

2010-09-19T04:37:00.000-07:00

Call for Papers

VS-Games 2011, 3rd International Conference in Games and Virtual Worlds for Serious Applications, May 4-6 2011, Technical University of Athens (NTUA), Athens, Greece, http://www.vs-games.org/

Scope

The emergence of serious or non-leisure uses of games technologies and virtual worlds applications has been swift and dramatic over the last few years. The 3rd International Conference in Games and Virtual Worlds for Serious Applications (VS-GAMES’11) aims to meet the significant challenges of the cross-disciplinary community that work around these serious application areas by bringing the community together to share case studies of practice, to present virtual world infrastructure developments, as well as new frameworks, methodologies and theories, and to begin the process of developing shared cross-disciplinary outputs.

Topics

We are seeking contributions that advance the state of the art in the technologies available to support sustainability of serious games. The following topics in the areas of environment, military, cultural heritage, health, smart buildings, v-commerce and education are particularly encouraged:

* Game design
* AI applications for serious games
* Serious games methodologies
* User-modelling in serious games
* Pervasive gaming
* Interactivity issues
* Game design
* Alternate reality games
* Virtual environments
* Augmented reality
* Visualisation techniques
* Human-computer interaction
* Mobile games
* Education and learning
* Multimedia gaming
* Case studies in serious games and virtual worlds

Submission Procedure & Deadlines

Submissions are expected to follow IEEE standards (A4 template) and are accepted in three categories:

* Full Papers: 8 pages
* Short Papers: 4 pages
* Poster Papers: 2 pages
* Call for Workshops: 2 pages

Authors should register to the Easy Chair system (https://www.easychair.org/account/signin.cgi?conf=vsgames2011) before submitting their papers. Once registered, authors will be able to follow instructions in EasyChair to upload their submission.

The best technical full papers will be published in a special issue of International Journal of Interactive Worlds (IJIW). The best educational papers will be submitted to the IEEE Transactions on Learning Technologies.

The paper submission deadline is 1st Nov 2010.
Notification of acceptance is 1st Dec 2010.

Invited Speakers

Prof. Carol O Sullivan - is the Head of Graphics Vision and Visualisation Group (GV2) at Trinity College Dublin.

Prof. Peter Comninos - is the Director of the National Centre for Computer Animation (NCCA) at Bournemouth University and MD of CGAL Software Limited.

Conference Chair

* Fotis Liarokapis (Coventry University & SGI)

Technical Program Chairs

* Nikolaos Doulamis (National Technical University Athens)
* Andreas Georgopoulos (National Technical University Athens)
* Fotis Liarokapis (Coventry University & SGI)

Organization Committee

* Vassilios Vescoukis (National Technical University Athens)

Short Papers/Posters Committee

* Anastasios Doulamis (Technical University of Crete)
* Eike Falk Anderson (Coventry University)
* Christopher Peters (Coventry University & SGI)

International Programme Committee

* Kurt Debattista, University of Warwick, UK
* Michael McNeill, University of Ulster, Ireland
* John Halloran, Coventry University, UK
* Genaro Rebolledo Mendez, Universidad Veracruzana, Mexico
* Christos Gatzidis, Bournemouth University, UK
* Mark Billinghurst, University of Canterbury, New Zealand
* Luis Paulo Santos, University of Minho, Portugal
* Sara de Freitas, Serious Games Institute, UK
* Krzysztof Walczak, Poznan University of Economics, Poland
* Yiorgos Chrysanthou, University Of Cyprus, Cyprus
* Francisco José Gallego Durán, University of Alicante, Spain
* Marcello Carrozzino, Institute for Advanced Studies Lucca, Italy
* Nigel W. John, Bangor University, UK
* Per Backlund, University of Skövde, Sweden
* Mark McMahon, Edith Cowan University, Australia
* Sung Hyun Cho, Hongik University, Korea
* Vishnu Kotrajaras, Chulalongkorn University, Thailand
* Marius Preda, Institut National des Télécommunications, France
* Brian Goldiez, Inst. for Simulation & Training, USA
* Kyung-Sik Kim, Dankook University, South Korea
* Tanya Krzywinska, Brunel University, UK
* Rafael Bidarra, Delft University of Technology, Netherlands
* Maria Roussou, Make Believe, Greece
* Georgios Papaioannou, Athens University of Economics, Greece
* Travis Ross, Indiana University, USA
* Dora Varvarigou, National Technical University of Athens, Greece
* Andreas Oikonomou, University of Derby, UK
* Stephen Ellis, NASA, USA
* Norman Badler, University of Pennsylvania, USA
* Carol O'Sullivan, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland
* Peter Comninos, Bournemouth University, UK
* Nuno Rodrigues, Instituto Politécnico do Cávado e do Ave, Portugal
* Katerina Mania, Technical University of Crete, Greece
* Miguel Encarnação (University of Louisville, USA)
* Nahum D. Gershon (MITRE, USA)
* Kostas Anagnostou (Ionian University, Greece)
* Anthony Brooks (Aalborg University, Denmark)
* Panagiotis Petridis (Serious Games Institute, UK)
* William Fisher (Quicksilver Software, USA)
* J.C. Hertz (Author of Joystick Nation, USA)
* Mark Childs (Coventry University, UK)
* Adam Qureshi (Serious Games Institute, UK)

Special Issue on: Non-Photorealistic Graphics in Games and Animation

2010-07-23T04:36:00.001-07:00

After many years of computer graphics research striving for results which cannot be distinguished from reality, there is now, in parallel, an increasing amount of work focusing not on the approximation of the real world, but on the simulated depiction of more traditional human artwork styles. These styles come with a variety of implications such communicative, emotive and perceptual processing aspects that these approaches can convey, via the inherent abstractive forms and stylization they are associated with.

The research field itself is called non-photorealistic rendering (or NPR in short) and can today be observed in a number of application areas, including real-time computer and video games plus also animated feature films. Contemporary hardware has made possible recent mainstream gaming titles such as Sega’s MadWorld (for Nintendo’s Wii) and Ubisoft’s Prince Of Persia (for a variety of platforms), employing comic-book/sketched and cel-shaded rendering styles respectively. Equally, Disney’s upcoming feature length film Tangled simulates oil-painting techniques. Titles such as these demonstrate that there is considerable interest from developers, film-makers and public alike to explore the possibilities for alternative graphical representations that modern NPR techniques, because of their flexibility in different stylizations, can offer in the area of computer entertainment.
.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

- Evaluation methods for NPR algorithms and techniques
- Interactivity studies for NPR in games
- Algorithm design techniques and methodologies for real-time NPR
- Expressive character animation and physics for games
- GPU hardware acceleration for NPR
- Composition, layout and visual balance for NPR games approaches
- Real-time temporal and spatial coherence of non-photorealistic techniques
- Simulation and style transfer of natural media human artistic styles to games and animation
- Adaption of effects such as motion blur, lighting and depth of field
- State-of-the-art, survey and position papers on the approaches of non-photorealism in games and animation

Scope

The scope of the ‘International Journal of Interactive Worlds’ journal is available at http://www.ibimapublishing.com/journals/IJIW/ijiw.html

Submission Guidelines

Only original research papers will be considered. Authors should limit initial submissions to no more than 30 double-spaced pages in 12-point font with appropriate margins, inclusive of all materials (i.e., references, figures, tables and appendices).

Detailed formatting and submission guidlines are available at: http://www.ibimapublishing.com/journals/IJIW/author.html

A double-blind review will be conducted and papers will be returned to the authors, with explanatory notes for further action. Submissions will be screened to ensure coherence with the theme of the special volume.

Manuscript Submission:

Submissions will be accepted for this theme throughout year 2010. before 31st December 2010.

Review process: 3-4 weeks in double blind peer-review process
Revise and resubmit: 3-4 weeks once received
Publication: 3-4 weeks from final acceptance

Submissions may be sent by email to: submit@ibimapublishing.com.
In the email, please indicate the journal name for greater processing efficiency.

The International Journal of Interactive Worlds (IJIW) is an international peer reviewed and open-access research journal aims to disseminate research conducted in the area of Interactive Worlds and its related domains. Ranging from mobile devices that augment the real world to the virtual environments of simulations and computer games, Interactive Worlds have established themselves as elements of everyday life

Guest Editors for the Special Issue

Christos Gatzidis, Bournemouth University, UK
Tian Feng, Bournemouth University, UK

Contact

Christos Gatzidis cgatzidis@bournemouth.ac.uk
Tian Feng ftian@bournemouth.ac.uk

iUBICOM 10: 5th International Workshop on Ubiquitous and Collaborative Computing

2010-07-08T15:14:00.001-07:00

Following four successful previous iUBICOM workshops, we present the 5th iUBICOM workshop, iUBICOM 10. Our theme for this year is 'balancing technological and human factors for better design of ubiquitous computing'. Ubiquitous computing throws down a number of design challenges. These systems feature multi-device architectures and complex interactions. They are often part of the environment, where they host a range of everyday activities in ways that imply new kinds of user involvement. With these sorts of systems, it is important to understand the way systems and people work in the environments which are to be augmented. The purpose of this workshop is to bring multi-disciplinary researchers together in order to discuss different models and theories that can be used to design and evaluate ubiquitous computing systems given these issues, in order to balance technological innovation with adequate consideration for the needs of users.

Workshop Topics

A particular focus of this year's workshop will be how user needs can be interpreted given new interaction models and unfamiliar technologies. We will ask how the challenge of understanding user needs around factors such as speed, transparency, efficiency and quality of service, can be met for a range of ubiquitous computing systems of varying interaction styles with different applications. Applications can include wayfinding systems, smart homes, assistive technologies, mobile games, and collaborative systems. Interaction styles include, as well as familiar forms, increasingly important approaches such as tangible and haptic interaction, gestural interaction, pro-active and 'disappearing' or 'calm' computing, and ambient computing. In order to design and develop systems which can be successfully deployed, it is necessary to take human factors into account. The question motivating this 5th iUBICOM workshop is how best this can be achieved. We wish to attract a wide range of participants involved in designing ubiquitous computing systems, who can contribute to knowledge about the understanding of user needs. We would expect submissions from different practitioners and researchers working in a variety of application and domain areas. Thus, the workshop topics include, but are not limited to:

- User-centred design approaches for ubiquitous systems
- Collaborative and mobile computing
- Smart homes
- Assistive technology
- Context aware systems
- Ubiquitous computing and AI
- Ubiquitous tutoring systems
- Ubiquitous computing and new user experiences
- Interaction styles in ubiquitous computing
- Transparency and ease of use of ubiquitous computing
- Quality of service in ubiquitous computing
- Security and trust management in ubiquitous computing

Workshop Steering Committee

Dr. Dzmitry Aliakseyeu, Philips Research Europe, Netherlands
Professor Anne James, Coventry University, UK
Prof. Jawaid Siddiqui, Sheffield Hallam University, UK
Dr. Nazaraf Shah, Essex University, UK

Workshop Chairs

Dr. Rahat Iqbal, Coventry University, UK
Dr. John Halloran, Coventry University, UK
Dr. Neeraj Kumar, SMVD University, Katra (J&K), India

Publication Chairs

Mr. Adam Grzywaczewski, Trinity Expert Systems, UK
Dr. Rahat Iqbal, Coventry University, UK

Publicity Chair

Mr. Adam Grzywaczewski, Trinity Expert Systems, UK

Programme Committee

Prof. Babak Akhgar, Sheffield Hallam University, UK
Prof. Chris Baber, University of Birmingham, UK
Prof. Russell Beale, University of Birmingham, UK
Dr. Andy Crabtree, University of Nottingham, UK
Mr. Adam Grzywaczewski, Trinity Expert Systems, UK
Dr. John Halloran, Coventry University
Dr. Eva Hornecker, Strathclyde University
Prof. Anne James, Coventry University
Mr. Kashif Iqbal, Coventry University, UK
Dr. Muhammad Khurram Khan, King Saud University, Saudi Arabia
Dr. Fotis Liarokapis, Serious Games Institute, Coventry.
Mr. Salman Naimat, FEI Company (NANOTECH), Netherlands
Dr. Tom Pfeifer, Waterford Institute of Technology, Ireland
Dr. Alexandros Paramythis, Johannes Kepler University of Linz, Austria
Dr. Nazaraf Shah, Essex University, UK
Prof John Soldatos, Athens Information Technology, Greece
Prof. Jawaid Siddiqui, Sheffield Hallam University, UK
Dr. Stephan Weibelzahl, National College of Ireland
Dr. Mohammad Younas, Oxford Brookes University, UK

Submission Details

All submitted papers will be reviewed by the programme committee of the iUBICOM 2010. Papers are limited to 15 pages in Springer's LNCS format. Position papers up to 4 pages are also welcome. For more details see http://www.springer.de/comp/lncs. All accepted papers will be published in workshop proceedings. We are arranging for publication of extended versions of selected papers in a range of international journals. There will be a session at the workshop devoted to discussing funding opportunities in this area, in particular EU bids. For this reason participants from European countries interested in forming groups for future bids are encouraged to attend the workshop. Submit your papers directly to Dr. Rahat Iqbal at: r.iqbal@coventry.ac.uk for review process.

Important Dates

Full paper submission deadline: 10 July, 2010
Acceptance notification: 31 July, 2010
Paper final version due: 20 August 2010

Special Issue on: Analysis and Case Studies

2010-06-30T05:30:00.000-07:00

Scope

Gaming and simulation have facilitated learning for centuries. The evolution of ICT including, web-services and software engineering, has allowed for new ways of using and applying games and simulations. The term 'serious games' refers to certain types of computerized games, that are designed for both entertainment and educational purposes. During the past few years, serious games have exploded mainly because of the evolution of computers, telecommunications, intelligent software agents and accurate physics models. The main advantage of computerized models over some manual simulation/games is that they can be reused for other simulations in a number of commercial and non-commercial areas such as military operations, medical education, emergency management training, and many others. Typical examples include the use of game engines and interactive virtual environments for the design and implementation of games for non-entertainment purposes. The development of modern technology has facilitated the wide application of serious games in education and other disciplines. Much research indicates that, from a pedagogical perspective, serious games have a positive influence on young learners.

Papers

We are seeking contributions that advance the state of the art in the technologies available to support the sustainability of serious games. Authors should provide their definition of serious games, and they are encouraged to consider the differences and similarities between serious games and more ‘traditional’ computerised (or even manual) simulation/games. We much prefer research-based articles over descriptive pieces. Topics of interest include:

•Serious games research
•Theory, including taxonomies
•Interactive serious games
•Virtual and augmented reality serious games
•Research on effectiveness and quality of learning from serious games
•Serious games for mobile platforms
•Multimodal human computer interaction
•Artificial reality in serious games
•Multimedia games and learning
•Debriefong in serious games
•Effectiveness of learning

Requirements

We place great emphasis on quality (in content, clarity and writing). Accepted articles will be published relatively fast electronically (and thus count as a published article) before the symposium appears in print. Please send to each of the Guest Editors a one-to-two page outline proposal (.doc, not docx) containing the following elements:

•Your name, emails, phone, address, etc.
•A working title, an abstract and a plan for the proposed paper
•If possible, also send copies of any relevant already-published articles of yours

Provisional schedule

•Receipt of proposals: Until end 2011
•Response to proposals: Within one month
•Writing and submission of ms: 1 to 5 months
•Reviews and acceptance: Within about 2 or 3 months
•Ms revision (maybe 2nd review), editing, proofing
•Publication on line: Within 2 months after final ms are accepted (during 2011 and 2012)
•The faster you work, the sooner you will be published!

Contacts

Fotis Liarokapis (F.Liarokapis@coventry.ac.uk)
Yung-Fang Chen (Yung-Fang.Chen@coventry.ac.uk)

More information:

http://www.coventry.ac.uk/researchnet/content/1/c4/75/42/S&G%20CFPs%20-%20final.pdf

SGARG Invited Seminar

2010-06-17T14:14:00.000-07:00

Today, I have presented an invited talk at the Serious Games Applied Research Group Seminar Series, hosted at the Serious Games Institute. The talk was an overview of an educational paper that was originally presented at the 31st Annual Conference of the European Association for Computer Graphics (Eurographics 2010).

The title of the paper is ‘Using Augmented Reality as a Medium to Assist Teaching in Higher Education’ and was co-authored with Dr. Eike Falk Anderson. The paper describes the use of a high-level augmented reality (AR) interface for the construction of collaborative educational applications that can be used in practice to enhance current teaching methods.

A draft version of the paper can be downloaded from here.

Special Issue on: Information Retrieval, Decision Making Processes and User Needs in Ubiquitous Computing

2010-06-06T13:20:00.001-07:00

iWARG members have recently organised a special issue for the “International Journal of Advanced Pervasive and Ubiquitous Computing (IJAPUC)”. The theme of the special issue is on “Information Retrieval, Decision Making Processes and User Needs in Ubiquitous Computing”. The motivation for this special issue is the conviction that in order design and develop systems which can be successfully deployed, it is necessary to take user needs into account from the outset. The focus is on how understandings of user needs can be incorporated into the enhanced design of ubiquitous computing systems. The special issue attracted six high quality submissions from researchers working in areas ranging from smart homes, through assistive technologies, to situated displays.

More information:

http://www.igi-global.com/Bookstore/TitleDetails.aspx?TitleId=1106&DetailsType=Contents

IET University Challenge Poster Competition Award

2010-05-31T14:58:00.000-07:00

Final year BSc Informatics student Andy Abgottspon's poster "A Hand Gesture Interface for Investigating Real-Time Human-Computer Interaction", based on his bachelor's dissertation has won the IET University Challenge Poster Competition in Birmingham.

Andy developed a real-time tangible augmented reality application based on gesture computer vision tracking. A video illustrating the functionality of the system can be found here.

Visit at Dome Theater at Norrkoping

2010-05-06T02:25:00.000-07:00

Yesterday night, iWARG members (Dr. Fotis Liarokapis and Dr. Eike Anderson) had a visit to the Dome Theater, at Norrkoping Visualization Center, at Sweden as part of the Eurographics 2010 conference. The dome space can be re-organized for different types of performances – theatre, music concerts, dance performances or seminars. Performances are characterized by high technology and qualitative content which breathe experimentation and creativity. They are also educational and innovative.

A crucial task and great challenge is to develop, test and evaluate the new forms of interactive experiences and narrative techniques which the dome theater and other virtual environments make possible. This is an appropriate assignment for the university’s research and student body. Visualization is of great importance when chronicling the society we live in here and now. The ambition will be thus, to present meaningful stories about people and their living conditions.

More information:

http://www.eurographics2010.se/

http://www.visualiseringscenter.se/1/1.0.1.0/25/2/

AFFINE 2010: 3rd ACM International Workshop on Affective Interaction in Natural Environments

2010-04-29T04:33:00.000-07:00

**********************************************************************************
AFFINE 2010: 3rd International Workshop on
Affective Interaction in Natural Environments
at ACM Multimedia 2010
Friday 29th October 2010, Firenze, Italy
http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/conference/affine2010
**********************************************************************************

Background

A vital requirement for social robots, virtual agents, and human-centered multimedia interfaces is the ability to infer the affective and mental states of humans and provide appropriate, timely output during sustained social interactions. Examples include ensuring that the user is interested in maintaining the interaction or providing suitable empathic responses through the display of facial expressions, gestures, or generation of speech.

This workshop will cover real-time computational techniques for the recognition and interpretation of human multimodal verbal and non-verbal behaviour, models of mentalising and empathising for interaction, and multimedia techniques for synthesis of believable social behaviour supporting human-agent and human-robot interaction.

A key aim of the workshop is the identification and investigation of important open issues in real-time, affect-aware applications 'in the wild' and especially in embodied interaction, i.e. with robots and embodied conversational agents. Issues such as natural and multimodal interaction, estimation and adaption to context, context dependent processing and related databases, HCI/HRI beyond emotion (cognition, behaviour, etc.), and best practices for applications in real environments will be discussed in the context of interacting with other humans and social artefacts.

We welcome the participation of researchers from diverse fields, including signal processing and pattern recognition, machine learning, cognition, affective science, human-computer interaction, human-robot interaction, and robotics. We hope an interdisciplinary group will benefit from mutual osmosis of ideas, concepts and developments in the field.

The workshop especially welcomes studies that provide new insights into the use of multimodal and multimedia techniques for enabling interaction between humans, robots, and virtual agents in naturalistic settings. We also encourage the submission of work-in-progress papers including recent results providing novel and exciting contributions.

Accepted papers will be published in the ACM Digital Library. A journal special issue is currently being planned. (Details forthcoming).

Topics

Workshop topics may include, but are not limited to:
- Multimedia expression generation in robots and virtual agents, including:
* Gaze
* Gestures
* Facial Expressions
* Speech
* Other modalities
- Multimodal human affect and social behaviour recognition, including:
* Facial expressions
* Body language
* Speech
* Physiological
* Other modalities
- Perception-action loops in agents/robots
- Cognitive and affective 'mentalising'
- Visual attention / user engagement with robots and embodied conversational agents (ECAs)
- Emotion and cognitive state representation
- Social context awareness and adaptation
- Natural Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) / Human-Computer Interaction (HCI)
- Multimedia HCI
- Multimodal and emotional corpora (naturally evoked or induced emotion)
- Recognition of human behaviour for implicit tagging
- Contributions to standards for multimodal interaction and specification of mark-up languages
- Applications to interactive games, robots and virtual agents

About AFFINE

This workshop follows the previous successful AFFINE workshops organised as satellite events of ICMI '08 (http://www.telecom.tuc.gr/~potam/icmi2008/) and ICMI-MLMI '09 (http://icmi2009.acm.org/), as well as a special session organised at WIAMIS '09 (http://wiamis2009.qmul.net/). This is the first time the workshop has been held at ACM Multimedia. AFFINE has a track record for attracting researchers from the virtual agents, social robotics and affective computing communities and encourages interdisciplinarity - submissions from other domains are also very welcome.

Important Dates

- Deadline for paper submission: 10 June 2010
- Notification of acceptance: 10 July 2010
- Camera ready paper: 20 July 2010

Submission Instructions

Please prepare your paper in accordance with the ACM Multimedia Guidelines. Your paper may be either 4 or 6 pages in length, including references and figures.

Authors may submit a pdf version of their paper using the ACM Multimedia 2010 paper submission system. Please note: The review process is double-blind, so please be sure to remove any identifying information before uploading your submission (name, affiliation, tell-tale references, etc).

Contact

If you have any questions, please write to the organisers: affine2010 at googlemail dot com

Organising Committee

General Chairs:

* Ginevra Castellano, Queen Mary University London, UK
* Kostas Karpouzis, National Technical University of Athens, Greece
* Laurel Riek, University of Cambridge, UK

Program Chairs:

* Jean-Claude Martin, LIMSI-CNRS, France
* Louis-Philippe Morency, University of Southern California, USA
* Christopher Peters, Coventry University, UK

Program Committee (alphabetical)

* Aris Alissandrakis (ATR, Japan)
* Elisabeth André (Augsburg Universtiy, Germany)
* Tony Belpaeme (University of Plymouth, UK)
* Elisabetta Bevacqua (CNRS/TELECOM ParisTech, France)
* Timothy Bickmore (Northeastern University, USA)
* Nadia Bianchi-Berthouze (University College London, UK)
* Carlos Busso (The University of Texas at Dallas, USA)
* Marc Cavazza (University of Teesside, UK)
* Kerstin Dautenhahn (University of Hertfordshire, UK)
* Vanessa Evers (University of Amsterdam, Netherlands)
* Hatice Gunes (Imperial College, UK)
* Dirk Heylen (University of Twente, Netherlands)
* Stefanos Kollias (National Technical University of Athens, Greece)
* Maurizio Mancini (University of Genova, Italy)
* Carlos Martinho (Instituto Superior Técnico, Portugal)
* Peter William McOwan (Queen Mary University of London, UK)
* Yukiko Nakano (Seikei University, Japan)
* Anton Nijholt (University of Twente, Netherlands)
* Maja Pantic (Imperial College London, UK / University of Twente, Netherlands)
* Catherine Pelachaud (CNRS/TELECOM ParisTech, France)
* Peter Robinson (University of Cambridge, UK)
* Candace Sidner (Worcester Polytechnic Institute, USA)
* Marc Schroeder (DFKI, Germany)
* Bjoern Schuller (Technische Universitaet Muenchen, Germany)
* Gualtiero Volpe (University of Genova, Italy)
* Astrid Weiss (University of Salzburg, Austria)
* Yorick Wilks (University of Oxford, UK)
* Georgios Yannakakis (IT University of Copenhagen, Denmark)
* Massimo Zancanaro (FBK, Italy)

Special Issue on: Graphics for Serious Games

2010-04-20T10:21:00.000-07:00

Computers & Graphics, an international journal dedicated to Systems and Applications in Computer Graphics, invites you to submit your latest research results to a special issue on “Graphics for Serious Games”.

Motivation

Serious games have emerged as a dominating force in training, education and simulation due to the focus on creating compelling interactive environments at reduced costs by adopting its capacity of engaging younger hi-tech generations in the highly motivated gaming environments and to the opportunities offered by the commodity technologies commonly associated with the entertainment industries. This field is informed by theories, methods, applications and the state-of-the-art in a number of areas based on technological principles and innovation, advances in games design, pedagogic methodologies and the convergence of these fields. While the serious games community has made it possible to bring together such diverse fields, further academic and industrial collaboration is needed in further defining, refining, formalising and applying the standards and methodologies for the future. This Computers & Graphics special issue on Graphics for Serious Games will encourage a further exchange of knowledge and experience in this cross-disciplinary area and its related applications. Emphasis is on Graphics for Serious Games, including:

• Game design
• Serious games methodologies
• User-modelling in serious games
• Pervasive gaming
• Interactivity issues
• Game modelling
• Alternate reality games
• Virtual environments
• Augmented reality
• Visualisation techniques
• Human-computer interaction
• Mobile games
• Case studies in serious games and virtual worlds
• Methodologies, theories and frameworks

Important Dates

01 June – Manuscripts Submission
01 July – First Decision
01 August - Revised Versions Submission
01 September - Final Decision
08 September – Camera Ready Versions
December – Publication (nbr. 6)

Submission Instructions

For paper formatting and submission instructions please refer to http://ees.elsevier.com/cag. You will have to register/log on to EES in order to be able to submit your paper. When prompted to specify the paper type, you have to select: “Special section”, “Graphics for Serious Games”.

Guest Editors

Alberto Proença, Universidade do Minho, Portugal
Kurt Debattista, The Digital Lab, Warwick, United Kingdom
Luís Paulo Santos, Universidade do Minho, Portugal

Heise Press Release

2010-04-02T07:22:00.000-07:00

Coverage of the AISB symposium by German technology news provider Heise includes a discussion of the work presented by Christopher Peters. The article states that memory also influences the body language of virtual characters, contributing to their believability. This was demonstrated by Christopher Peters who provided the example of a pedestrian walking along a street and looking around with the viewing direction being influenced by perception, attention and memory alike.

More information:

http://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/Vergessliche-Computer-967153.html

AISB 2010 Paper and Posters

2010-03-29T13:03:00.000-07:00

A short paper and two posters by iWARG researchers have been accepted for presentation at ‘The Thirty Sixth Annual Convention of the Society for the Study of Artificial Intelligence and Simulation of Behaviour (AISB’10)’, taking place from 29th March to 1st April 2010 at De Montfort University, Leicester. The AISB annual convention is a forum for new and experienced researchers to present their frontier ideas and research.

The short paper entitled ‘An object-based memory for supporting attentive virtual agents’ is being presented by Christopher Peters in the Human Memory for Artificial Agents symposium, and the two posters entitled ‘Towards the use of trait inheritance for flocks of navigating agents’ by Piotr Piasecki and ‘Towards a goal oriented action planning approach for predator-prey simulation’ by Justyna Pultowicz, supervised by Chirstopher Peters, will be presented at the AI and Games symposium.

More information:

http://www.aisb.org.uk/convention/aisb10/AISB2010.html

Eurographics 2010 Posters

2010-03-20T17:39:00.001-07:00

Three poster-papers by iWARG research students have been accepted for presentation at Eurographics 2010, Norrkφping, Sweden, 4-7 May 2010. The three posters will be presented at this year's Eurographics Welcome Reception. "Procedural Generation of Urban Environments through Space and Time" by PhD student Jeremy Noghani (co-authored with Fotis Liarokapis and Eike Anderson) introduces a system for the procedural generation of buildings from different periods in history.

"Real-Time Smoke Rendering and Light Interaction" by Christopher bass (co-authored with Eike Anderson) presents a GPU-based mathod for casting shadows onto smoke represented by a particle system. Finally, "GPU Destruction: Real-Time Procedural Demolition of Virtual Environments" by Derek Morris (co-authored with Eike Anderson) describes a GPU technique for procedurally breaking up/destroying virtual objects in videogames and similar virtual environments.

More information:

http://www.eurographics2010.se/

Special Issue on: Serious Games and Interactive Worlds

2010-02-06T11:01:00.001-08:00

Description

The popularity of computer games, especially among younger audiences, makes them an ideal medium for engaging population groups that are not reached by other media. As a result there has been a trend towards the development of more complex games with educational and learning purposes which are informed by both pedagogical and game-like, fun elements. The term ‘serious games’ describes computer games that are not limited to the aim of providing entertainment, but that allow for collaborative use of 3D spaces that are used for a variety of purposes in a number of application domains. Typical examples are the use of game engines and interactive virtual environments for the design and implementation of games for non-entertainment purposes. The deployment of serious games in interactive worlds opens up the possibility of defining a wide range of scenarios that also enable collaborative or mediated activities. An added benefit of using serious games in combination with interactive worlds is that players engage with these in a multimodal fashion helping them to fully immerse themselves in the games’ scenarios.

Topics

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following areas:

• Serious games applications
• Taxonomies and theory
• Interactive serious games
• Procedural content generation techniques
• Education and learning
• AI-based serious game design
• Applications of serious game theory
• Virtual and augmented reality serious games
• Serious games for mobile platforms
• Comparative studies and game-based benchmarking
• Embodied virtual agents
• Multimodal Human-Computer Interaction
• Interactive visualisation and animation techniques

Scope

The scope of the ‘International Journal of Interactive Worlds’ journal is available at: http://www.ibimapublishing.com/journals/IJIW/ijiw.html and the call for papers for this special issue at: http://www.ibimapublishing.com/journals/CFP/ijiw.html

Submission Guidelines

Only original research papers will be considered. Authors should limit initial submissions to no more than 30 double-spaced pages in 12-point font with appropriate margins, inclusive of all materials (i.e., references, figures, tables and appendices).

Detailed formatting and submission guidelines are available at the IJIW url: http://www.ibimapublishing.com/journals/IJIW/author.html

A double-blind review will be conducted and papers will be returned to the authors, with explanatory notes for further action. Submissions will be screened to ensure coherence with the theme of the special issue.

Important Dates

Paper submission deadline: 30 March 2010
Review and return to authors: 15 May 2010
Camera ready papers: 1 June 2010

Editors

Dr. Fotis Liarokapis
Dr. Eike Anderson
Dr. Christopher Peters

Contact

Dr. Fotis Liarokapis
F.Liarokapis@coventry.ac.uk

On the Provision of a Comprehensive Computer Graphics Education in the Context of Computer Games: An Activity-Led Instruction Approach

2010-02-01T14:58:00.001-08:00

The second iWARG seminar took place on December 2009 at the Faculty of Engineering and Computing, Coventry University, Armstrong Siddeley Building, room AS136 at 14:30. Dr. Eike Falk Anderson presented a revised version of "On the Provision of a Comprehensive Computer Graphics Education in the Context of Computer Games", detailing the group's approach to games education originally presented at Eurographics 2009, which was based on the paper Dr. Anderson co-authored with Dr. Christopher Peters.

Abstract Over the past decade the development of computer games – which originated in academia with the creation of Spacewar at MIT in 1961 – has evolved into an accepted academic discipline, closely related to the field of computer graphics. Games courses can be found embedded in traditional computer science degrees or as dedicated degree programmes for students aiming to work in the games industry. In this paper we present a student-centred, activity-led approach to teaching computer graphics in the context of a computer games technology undergraduate degree. We describe our computer graphics related courses and demonstrate how they are formed by the activity-led teaching methodology.

A draft version of the paper can be downloaded from here.

Eurographics 2010 Education Program Papers

2010-01-25T08:35:00.000-08:00

The iWARG papers ‘Using Augmented Reality as a Medium to Assist Teaching in Higher Education’ by Fotis Liarokapis and Eike Anderson and ‘No More Reinventing the Virtual Wheel: Middleware for Use in Computer Games and Interactive Computer Graphics Education’ by Eike Anderson and Christopher Peters have been accepted for the Eurographics 2010 education papers programme. The conference will take place in Norrköping, Sweden between 4th and 7th of May.

More information:

http://www.eurographics2010.se/

International Journal of Interactive Worlds (IJIW)

2010-01-20T04:17:00.001-08:00

Members of iWARG have founded a new open access journal, called International Journal of Interactive Worlds (IJIW). The aim of IJIW is to disseminate research conducted in the area of Interactive Worlds and its related domains. Ranging from mobile devices that augment the real world to the virtual environments of simulations and computer games, Interactive Worlds have established themselves as elements of everyday life. Due to the multidisciplinary nature of this area the journal will welcome submissions from a wide range of topics. The emphasis will be on the publication of high quality articles, from descriptions of specific algorithms to full system implementations, rapidly and freely available to researchers, practitioners and decision makers worldwide.

IJIW will also organise regular special issues, as well as accept state of the art reports and communications. It will also accept best papers from peer reviewed conferences. The mission of the journal is to promote the synthesis of knowledge generated in domains related to Interactive Worlds and the publication of peer-reviewed technical content that covers current research and development in this new field of study. Manuscripts will be evaluated for originality, significance, clarity, and contribution. Submitted manuscript must not have been previously published or currently submitted for publication elsewhere and will follow a blind peer review process.

More information:

http://www.ibimapublishing.com/journals/IJIW/ijiw.html

SIGGRAPH Asia 2009 Educators Program Paper

2009-12-16T15:42:00.001-08:00

The paper "Educating Technophile Artists: Experiences from a Highly Successful Computer Animation Undergraduate Programme" has just been published in the proceedings of the SIGGRAPH Asia 2009 Educators Program. The paper was co-authored by IWARG member Eike Anderson with Professor Comninos, one of the founders and director of the National Centre for Computer Animation (NCCA), and Leigh McLoughlin, a graduate of and PhD student at the NCCA. The paper charts the development of computer animation in the UK and also provides a detailed discussion of the acclaimed Bachelor of Arts in Computer Visualisation and Animation undergraduate honours degree run by the NCCA at Bournemouth University.

A draft version of the paper can be downloaded from here.

PhD Studentship

2009-12-02T15:22:00.000-08:00

Interactive Worlds Applied Research Group is offering a funded PhD opportunity for a student to work with our research leaders. Our areas of research include:

- Ubiquitous Computing
- Computer Graphics and Visualisation
- Mixed Reality Interfaces
- Mobile Computing
- Artificial Intelligence
- Human Computer Interaction
- Image Analysis

- Serious Games
- Creative Computing Education

Studentship details

The studentship will last for a three year period at the end of which it is expected that the PhD will have been completed. The studentship provides a scholarship (£6,500 to £13,000 per year) for 3 years including the full fees at home/ EU rate. Overseas students are welcome to apply but will need to fund the balance of fees payable by overseas students. As part of the studentship successful applicants might be expected to undertake some teaching duties and support activities and to contribute to research activities within iWARG.

Expertise and Experience required

Applicants will normally be expected to have a good Masters degree (average marks of 60% +) in a relevant subject from a recognised academic institution or a good undergraduate degree (2:1 Hons or above) plus comparable professional experience working in interactive worlds industry. An IELTS score of 7 or above is required for those who do not have English as a first language.

How to apply

Please refer to the more detailed information on our website http://wwwm.coventry.ac.uk/researchnet/ResearchStudents/ResearchStudentships/Pages/Studentships.aspx. Applicants will be required to submit an application form, a written piece of not more than 1000 words outlining what they see as the key issues in relation to the particular topic that they are interested in studying (referencing literature where appropriate), a detailed CV, two references and a covering letter addressed to Dr Fotis Liarokapis, by email to: F.Liarokapis@coventry.ac.uk

For an application form please visit the link:

http://www.coventry.ac.uk/researchnet/studentships

For any queries, please contact:

Admissions team: 024 7688 8857 / 7667

Email: research-apps.pg@coventry.ac.uk

Start date: 25th January 2010
Closing Date: 11th December 2009

Creative Computing Activity Lead Learning

2009-11-30T14:44:00.000-08:00

The Faculty of Engineering and Computing at Coventry University recently completed a pilot 6 weeks project by applying activity lead learning (also known as project based learning) techniques in higher education. In particular, a number of iWARG members (which are also part of the Creative Computing subject group) have developed a very thoughtful-designed and engaging 6-week experience for 1st year undergraduate students. The overall aim of this pilot project was to first group students into small numbers and then to challenge their ability to solve a creating computing assignment, in this instance to produce a media player from scratch. Students did not have any knowledge of the underlying technologies. The assignment was split into different tasks including programming, hardware, marketing, writing and presentation skills. Results from this pilot project were very positive and the majority of students reported that the whole experience was educating and fun at the same time. Based on these findings we strongly believe that the 6-week block of project based learning activities generated a number of challenges for the future of higher education. A video that demonstrates the outcomes of this effort can be found at:

http://www.youtube.com/user/CovStudent

Special issue on Serious Games and Virtual Worlds

2009-10-28T10:58:00.001-07:00

Dr. Fotis Liarokapis, the director of IWARG, is the guest editor for a ‘Special issue on Serious Games and Virtual Worlds’ which will be published by Visual Computer, Springer next month. This special issue comprising of seven papers is focused on the various aspects of serious games and virtual worlds for serious applications and provides a collection of the latest research in this area. Papers were selected on the basis of fundamental ideas and concepts rather than the thoroughness of techniques deployed. The papers in this special section clearly demonstrate the depth and breadth of use of serious games and virtual worlds. This is a new area and in the coming years, a number of research issues will be further explorer and new ideas will be developed. Special thanks to all the people who helped to make this special issue as well as all the authors for contributing their work and the anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments and suggestions.

More information:

http://www.springerlink.com/content/40gmn7671w764236/

Serious Games in Cultural Heritage

2009-09-30T14:03:00.001-07:00

Last Friday 25th October 2009, iWARG members Eike Anderson and Fotis Liarokapis have presented a paper with title ‘Serious Games in Cultural Heritage’ in the 10th International Symposium on Virtual Reality, Archaeology and Cultural Heritage (VAST09), in State of the Art Reports (STARs) session. STARs are papers providing useful novel overviews of research in the fields of computer graphics, computer science and related fields that can benefit the multidisciplinary nature of VAST. They are survey papers in what the community considers important areas that have not been covered before or recently.

Their aim is to give a detailed account of the principles, algorithms and open problems of a research area, so that an interested reader can quickly become up to speed in this field. The conference was held in Malta between 22 - 25 September and it is sponsored by Eurographics. The paper focused on the state-of-the-art with respect to the theories, methods and technologies used in serious heritage games. An overview of existing literature of relevance to the domain was provided including the strengths and weaknesses of the described methods as well as unsolved problems and challenges. In addition, several case studies illustrating the application of methods and technologies used in cultural heritage were presented.

A draft version of the paper can be downloaded from here.

VS-GAMES 2010, March 25-26, Braga, Portugal

2009-08-26T02:49:00.000-07:00

Aims and Scope of the Conference

The use of virtual worlds and games for serious applications has emerged as a dominating force in training, education and simulation due to the focus on creating compelling interactive environments at reduced costs by adopting commodity technologies commonly associated with the entertainment industries. This field is informed by theories, methods, applications and the state-of-the-art in a number of areas based on technological principles and innovation, advances in games design, pedagogic methodologies and the convergence of these fields. While the serious games community has made it possible to bring together such diverse fields, further academic and industrial collaboration is needed in further defining, formalising and applying the standards and methodologies for the future. VS-GAMES 2010 is the primary conference dedicated to serious games and virtual worlds presenting state of the art methods and technologies in the multidisciplinary fields outlined above. The aim of this international conference is to encourage an exchange of knowledge and experience in this cross-disciplinary area and its application to all aspects of the use of games and virtual worlds in serious applications.

Topics

We welcome topics relevant to, but not limited to:

• Game design
• AI applications for serious games
• Serious games methodologies
• User-modelling in serious games
• Pervasive gaming
• Interactivity issues
• Game modelling
• Alternate reality games
• Virtual environments
• Augmented reality
• Visualisation techniques
• Human-computer interaction
• Mobile games
• Education and learning
• Case studies in serious games and virtual worlds
• Methodologies, theories and frameworks

Organizers

Conference chair: Luis Paulo Santos (Universidade do Minho)
Programme chairs: Kurt Debattista (University of Warwick) and Alberto Proenca (Universidade do Minho)
Local Organisation Committee: Antonio Ramires Fernandes (Universidade do Minho), Cristina Manuela Peixoto dos Santos (Universidade do Minho), Edgar Sousa (Universidade do Minho) and João Garcia Barbosa (Universidade do Minho)

Invited Speakers

Prof. Sara de Feitas, Serious Games Institute, Coventry, UK

Additional Invited Speakers will be announced later.

Paper Submission

Full papers: Papers presenting new and innovative results. These papers will be published in the conference proceedings sponsored by the IEEE Computer Society. The work will be presented at VS-GAMES 2010.

Short papers: presenting preliminiry results and work in progress. These papers will be published in the conference proceedings. The work will be presented at VS-GAMES 2010.

Important Dates

Paper submission for full papers: 1st November 2009
Paper submission for short papers: 15th November 2009
Notification for refereeing feedback: 7th December 2009
Camera-ready full papers and tutorials to printer: 20th December 2009
Early registration: 25th January 2010

WebSite

http://vsgames2010.org/

BCS Teachers Conference

2009-05-29T12:41:00.000-07:00

iWARG Member Peter Every will be talking on the subject of 'Inspiring school children to take Computer Science: Where are the new big ideas?' at a forthcoming BCS conference entitled 'Future Vision for ICT Education' on June 9th 2009.

Simulating Small Groups of Pedestrians in Virtual Environments

2009-05-27T09:31:00.001-07:00

The first iWARG seminar will take place tomorrow (Thursday 28th May) at the Faculty of Engineering and Computing, Coventry University, Armstrong Siddeley Building, room AS136 at 14:30. The invited speaker is Professor Terry R. Hostetler from Coe College, Iowa, USA. His research interests include computer graphics, virtual environments, autonomous agents, computer-human interaction, user-interface design, and computer science education. The topic of the presentation is “Simulating Small Groups of Pedestrians in Virtual Environments”. Professor Terry will be describing his pioneering work in real-time small group simulation for urban environments. For more information a brief abstract is provided below:

Abstract People congregate in ordinary, everyday public settings, like markets and plazas, for many different reasons. Individuals hurry down sidewalks to appointments. Couples leisurely stroll and window shop. Friends meet at open air cafés. Commuters sit on benches waiting for a bus. As pedestrians move around and interact with their environment, they often give clues regarding their relationships with each other. Couples walk side by side. Parents shepherd children across intersections. Friends turn their heads to face each other as they converse. Sociologists have observed that urban gatherings are normally composed of both individuals and small groups. Group members often share some relationship that attracts and binds them together, such as family, friendship, courtship, or common interests. This linkage produces prolonged, continuous influence over the behavior of group members. This talk will provide an overview of methods used to simulate the movement of small groups of characters in virtual public gatherings. I will discuss how individuals and small groups can be modeled in order to produce plausible collective walking behavior, including moving and standing formations.

Coventry Telegraph's Press Release

2009-05-15T05:06:00.000-07:00

Last week an iWARG student has presented his work at the new Games Lab opening, at Coventry University. Coventry Telegraph who was present interviewed the student regarding his project with title ‘Multimodal Augmented Reality Tangible Game’. The project proposes a more natural and tangible method of interaction by using Augmented Reality and a variety of sensing technology, and demonstrates a fully working 3D pile game using those techniques.

The goal of the pile game is to complete a circuit of pipes from a starting point to an end point on a grid. While a player is laying these pipes, there is a liquid that is gradually flowing through the pipework. If a player does not connect the pipes quickly enough, and the liquid spills out, the game is lost. On the right hand side of the board, there is a supply point for pipe pieces, which is automatically replenished when the player picks a piece from there.

A video that illustrates the operation of the game can be found at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xPIpinN4r8

Sponsoring VS-GAMES 2009

2009-03-21T15:01:00.001-07:00

iWARG sponsors the First International IEEE Conference in Serious Games and Virtual Worlds in March 23 - 24, Coventry, UK. This conference will bring together researchers from a range of disciplines to formulate a new cross-disciplinary community in the emerging field of serious games and virtual worlds. The first IEEE International Conference in Games and Virtual Worlds for Serious Applications 2009 aims to meet the significant challenges of the cross-disciplinary community that work around these serious application areas by bringing the community together to share case studies of practice, to present new frameworks, methodologies and theories and to begin the process of developing shared cross-disciplinary outputs. In order to achieve this main aim the conference will pioneer new methods for bringing together and supporting communities of practice emerging in themed areas beyond the duration of the conference.

Using the conference as an ignition to support a wider aspiration to form and sustain a community of practice around the field. To achieve this, the team at the SGI will use innovative software called Intronetworks, which allows conference participants to create their own profile allowing them to identify like-minded and complementary skilled colleagues. The term 'Serious Games' covers a broad range of applications from flash-based animations to totally immersive and code driven 3D environments where users interface with large volumes of data through sophisticated and interactive digital interfaces. This shift towards immersive world applications being used to support education, health and training activities marks the beginning of new challenges that offer real scope for collaborative and multi-disciplinary research solutions, and real opportunities for innovative development.

More information about VS-GAMES 2009 can be found at:

http://www.vs-games.org.uk/

iWARG Overview

2009-01-03T07:35:00.000-08:00

The Interactive Worlds Applied Research Group (iWARG) is a multidisciplinary team, drawn from the Department of Computing and the Digital Environment, Faculty of Engineering and Computing at Coventry University. iWARG is dedicated to innovative applications for interactive worlds. The work of the group includes a number of specific topic areas and objectives:

Ubiquitous Computing and Applications: Simulations and demonstrators of a range of multi-device and location-based systems and services; researching the social and cultural impact of these technologies.
Computer Graphics and Visualisation: Innovative systems for visualising complex multi-modal data and simulations; procedural generation of visual content and real-time rendering of virtual worlds.
Mixed Reality Interfaces: Mapping of audio-visual information into real spaces, for a variety of ubiquitous applications.
Mobile Computing: Research into existing and new approaches towards algorithms and system design for the use of mobile devices as interfaces for virtual worlds and digital environment applications; investigation of ad-hoc networks for multi-device and multiplayer virtual world applications and games.
Artificial Intelligence: Research into existing and novel algorithms for intelligent applications; behaviour definition and real-time behaviour synthesis for believable embodied conversational agents in virtual worlds; adaptation of existing AI technology for use in computer games, investigating the optimal trade-off between accuracy and real-time requirements.
Human Computer Interaction: New approaches to creative co-design of ubiquitous computing, and development of approaches and heuristics for ubiquitous usability; research of the philosophical foundations of technical communication, information design and HCI.
Image Analysis: Image processing for data retrieval/gathering; synthetic vision for embodied agents in virtual worlds.
Creative Computing Education: Research of student perceptions and use of social networking and asynchronous collaborative tools; adapting computer science education to degrees targeting the creative industries.

These research areas are related but each is nominally headed up by the relevant group members. In addition, they are or strategic in terms of departmental teaching excellence and innovation.