News/Events

David Freeman Workshop

On Thursday the 2nd of December David Freeman visited CUTE center to give his workshop titled “Giving Engaging and Memorable Presentations”.    David Freeman is a Los Angeles based story writer which teaches the “Beyond Structure”  story writing workshop world wide. His workshop is taken by novelists, screenwriters, directors, producers, stars, and key creative an marketing executives for the major Hollywood  companies.  All the students in the lab attended the one day workshop.  In his workshop Mr Freeman provided the audience with a series of drills to engage audiences.

Liquid Interfaces

Liquid Interfaces won the Creative Showcase Golden Award at ACE2010 in Taiwan.  The competition was part of the Advances in Computer Entertainment conference which brings together researchers and practitioners from industry and academia to present and discuss their work in breakthrough areas in computer entertainment. From more than 15 projects Liquid Interfaces was chosen as the first price by the attendees public poll.  The second position was shared by two projects “VirtualPhilharmony: a conducting system focused on a sensation of conducting a real orchestra” and “A Software System for Creating and Developing Mobile Augmented Reality Applications”  The conference attracted a multi-disciplinary group including experts in the arts, sociology, anthropology, psychology, marketing, computer science and design.  Liquid Interfaces Gold Award

IEEE/RSJ 2010 International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS 2010)

Conference Report:

IEEE/RSJ 2010 International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS 2010)

June 22-24, 2010

Leiden University, Leiden, the Netherlands

Hooman A. Samani

The IEEE/RSJ 2010 International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS 2010) was held on October 18-22, 2010 at the Taipei International Conference Center(TICC), Taipei, Taiwan. IROS 2010 was the 23rd year of the conference.

The conference theme was “Intelligent Robotics in the Next Transition” The theme of IROS 2010 was chosen such that the conference would continue reflect the ever increasing interest in interactions, co-works, and co-existence of robots with human, cognitive robotics and other forms of intelligent machines and systems, with the goal for improving the better quality of human life.

(more…)

AmbiKraf presented at the Ars Electronica 2010 “repair” festival

The Keio-NUS CUTE Center had the honor of presenting the project “AmbiKraf – Breathing life into textiles” at this year’s Ars Electronica 2010 festival from 2^nd to the 11^th of September 2010. The theme of this year’s festival was “repair” which focused on innovative solutions towards many of societal issues. This year the festival was dispersed over few key locations in the city with bulk of the installations being at the Tabakfabrik of Linz. Tabakfabrik is an old tobacco factory that was set up in 1850 for the manufacture of cigars and pipes. After its constant growth throughout the years that expanded its workforce to approximately 1000 people, the factory ceased its operations in 2009. The city of Linz recently acquired the Tabakfabrik again is currently being assessed for its future options of use.

We presented “AmbiKraf – Breathing life into textiles” as an installation in the ‘Future Factory’ category. Here we presented an interactive byobu screen. In this installation we had a custom made byobu screen that animated flowers appearing and disappearing in a very subtle manner. With AmbiKraf we showcased how the future technology can ‘repair’ the traditional arts and crafts of textiles by merging those age old traditions with the future technology. The installation was well received for its efforts of bringing back these old traditions in a suitable manner for the contemporary society. In addition, Mili Tharakan, a Research Fellow of the CUTE Center in Singapore delivered a talk based on the theme of AmbiKraf at the “Future Factory Talks” session.

This year’s festival also featured some of the other key works such as “Oribotics” by Matthew Gardiner, the “HONDA ASIMO”, “Telenoid” by Hiroshi Ishiguro – a key figure in the android robotics field, etc.

Website : http://new.aec.at/repair/en/program/future-factory/#post-1708

AmbiKraf receives an honorary mention at the Nokia UbiMedia MindTrek Awards

AmbiKraf received an honorary mentioning at the recently concluded Nokia UbiMedia MindTrek Awards 2010, in Tampere Finland. This competition was held as a part of the MindTrek Conference which is a leading Nordic digital media and business conference, focusing on social media & Web 2.0. The Nokia UbiMedia MindTrek Competition is a competition sponsored by Nokia in search of projects, products or services that seek to broaden our understanding of how ubiquitous media will influence out future.

Nokia UbiMedia MindTrek Certificate

Attracting over 20 entrants from around the world, the jury selected three projects as the finalists with ‘AmbiKraf’ from the Keio-NUS CUTE Center in Singapore and ‘iBall’ from Hasselt University/EDM in Benlgium receiving honorary mentions. The winner of the competition was ‘myGreenspace’ by the eHealth Group RWTH Aachen, Kai Kasugai und Felix Heidrich. The press release on the honorary mention stated “The jurywould like to express their recognition for two distinct projects which did not make the top three, but definitely deserve an honorable mention. The motion-sensitive “iBall”, invented by Hasselt University / EDM in Belgium, enhances traditional ball games with mobile gaming features. The AmbiKraf project from Keio-NUS CUTE Center, National University of Singapore, has invented a technology to render smooth animations on textiles using thermo chromic ink. Both projects extend ubiquitous media into new areas of application in convincing ways.”

Press release: http://www.mindtrek.org/2010/conference/nokia-ubimedia-mindtrek-awards-2010-best-ubimedia-has-been-found

El Mercurio: Virtual hugs and intelligent pillows invented in Asia by Amalia Torres

Name of the newspaper – El Mercurio
Name of the Journalist – Amalia Torres

Title – Virtual hugs and intelligent pillows invented in Asia

Sewing machines, books on the psychology of love and a lot of disorder may not be the image you have of a scientific laboratory. Less from the one who has the difficult task of bringing the virtual world to reality.

However, the Mixed Reality Lab at the National University of Singapore operates on a different logic.

According to Professor José Sepúlveda a Spanish researcher who came to this place, as several scholars and foreign students, motivated by the projects, “we spend all the time discussing ideas and only the craziest ones get to be implemented”.

An example? One of the first inventions from the laboratory was to create a human Pacman. To play, participants carried a backpack with a computer and used special glasses that allowed them to see the city as if it were the classic eighties game. Thus, a player takes the role of Pacman while his friends were the ghosts that had to reach it.

“The original idea was to bring to the physical world what we saw on the screen. But now we go further. We are investigating how to make the interaction complete, using the internet to send information to all the senses such as smell, touch, or taste”says Adrian Cheok, director of the laboratory.

So innovative are the projects that emerge from these students in engineering, design, sociology and psychology that have won dozens of awards in France, Italy, Taiwan and the United States. Here, some of their best ideas.

2.0 Huggy Pajamas

Imagine you are on a business trip away from your son. At night you connect through Skype, read him a story and then you hug him. How? With the “Huggy pajama, a jacket that using air pockets in the back, shoulders and chest, can can give you the sensation of receiving a hug, because it inflates in those areas.
To operate it, the person sending the hug pushes a button in a device connected to the internet. “This project does not replace the real hug, but it helps to feel closer. When we showed the prototype, I received email from a mother whose daugther was in intensive care in the hospital. She wrote to tell us how this could be useful for people like her” says Professor Cheok.

Age Invaders

It is no secret that for many older adults is difficult to play the current computer games, which, however, for children are their favorite pastime. With that in mind, we created “Age Invaders”, a game composed of a large electronic board that is placed on the ground and lights indicating where one must move. Thanks to special slippers, the board knows where the players are, and will deliver different challenges, like chasing a few hearts that light up, or follow the direction of arrows. “This game can bring together different generations, while they exercise together. On the other hand, if the parents want to know what the children and granparents are doing, they can follow the match online online,” says José Sepúlveda.

Playful Utensils

To make a memorable meal, give your guests the latest generation of chopsticks. Here, through an electronic system, the chopsticks create music through the eating movement. The music is transmitted via Wi-Fi and can serve as the soundtrack of the meal. This invention also serves to teach children to use these tools through rhythm.

Poultry Internet

Before creating the “Huggy pajama,” lab students invented and patented a jacket for chickens, a common pet in parts of Asia. The invention works by putting a coat on the animal.
If the owner is not home, he should carry a plastic replica of the pet with a similar jacket (see photo) and connect it to the internet. So, the owner will be able to pet the chicken from a remote location. The project can also be used on dogs and cats.

Robot love

“We want to create a sense of love for robots. So a student is studying what makes us human love: analyzing the movements, physical beauty, tone of voice and psychology,” says Professor José Sepúlveda. “In the future I think there will be robots that have a human couple. There is people that cannot be standed by anyone!” He says. For now, the “lovotics robot is just a prototype.

Safe Kids

“PETIMO (pictured) was born with the idea that there is no safe social networking for children,” says Nimesha Ranasinghe, one of the students in charge of the project. Therefore, the objective of the toy is that, only kids first known in real life can join network in cyberspace. Thus, only when two Petimos approach, children become virtual friends. Then, the robot can let them chat and play them online.

TEDx Zurich 2010

In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TED has created a program called TEDx. TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. PhD student Jeffrey Koh was invited to speak at TEDx Zurich, to present his team’s findings regarding the Liquid Interface project. His report can be found here.

Creative Leap – Empowering Children As Innovators In Developing Countries

Creative Leap

Empowering Children As Innovators In Developing Countries

With Creative Thinking and Technology

 A Blueprint For The New Strategic Thrust of the Keio-NUS CUTE Center

Professor Adrian David Cheok

 October 2010

Background

 New Media and Technology are bringing about radical change in the world today. It is affecting the way we work, live and play, and is opening up new potential for economic, social and cultural development. The rapid evolution of New Media and Technology is also accelerating the rate of globalization and increasing communication, trade and exchange between people from all over the world.

 Developing countries are increasingly leveraging on the tools of New Media and Technology to overcome challenges, and to seize opportunities in the liberalized global landscape. As New Media and Technology are getting increasingly ubiquitous, they have transformed the way people live in regions where resources are still scarce. For example, cell phones are helping farmers in Kenya market their crops. The Internet is helping slum-dwellers in India find Jobs. Radio soap operas are educating the tribal communities in Afghanistan. Online social networking is supporting a student drive to distribute school supplies in rural China. New Media and Technology has woven into the fabric of their everyday life.

Read More:

Report : Bar Camp Seoul

Report : Bar Camp Seoul

http://barcamp.org/BarCampSeoul4

Participant : Yongsoon Choi,

Venue: DAUM building, Hannam-dong, Seoul, Korea
Date: Saturday, November 7 2009

Seoul Bar Camp had 2 sessions and many discussion issues. In fact, I could not count on how many discussions were going on at that time because Seoul Bar camp was very flexible un-conference and I could see many enthused volunteers were presenting their researches and ideas freely during the sessions without presentation allocations. This event was started from almost 10 AM and finished 5PM.

  
Daum Building outlooking
 

Read More: http://137.132.145.178/media/articles/Seoul Bar Camp Report.doc

TEDxCanton

TEDxCanton aims to convey “ideas worth spreading” to individuals, businesses and institutions in our community and beyond by putting together a program of heavyweight local and international speakers. TEDxCanton engages people in Guangzhou and elsewhere in better understanding Guangzhou’s modernity and heritage, and reach out towards the wider world through motivational, intellectual and entertaining experiences. The theme of the event is “The Overflow of the Heart”, or “心溢新意·畅享创想” in Chinese. The mixed reality lab PhD scholars Wei Jun, and Wang Xuan attended this session and below are their reports on their experiences,

Wang Xuan

Wei Jun

AAL Forum- Ambient Assisted Living Forum

The Ambient Assisted Living Joint Program is a new joint research and development funding activity by 23 European Members and Associated States with the financial support of the European Community. The overall objective of the program is to enhance the quality of life of older people and strengthen the industrial base in Europe through the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). In the context of the “AAL Forum Odense 2010” the “Young Researchers and PhD workshop” involves students and young researchers from various backgrounds, presenting their research towards technical solutions for the elderly people.

The mixed reality lab PhD scholars Jeffrey Koh, Wei Jun, and Wang Xuan presented their research works in this conference and below are their reports on their experiences,

• Report by Jeffrey Koh – http://mixedrealitylab.wikia.com/wiki/AAL_Forum_-_Report_by_Jeffrey_Koh
• Report by Wei Jun – http://mixedrealitylab.wikia.com/wiki/Report
• Report by Wang Xuan – http://mixedrealitylab.wikia.com/wiki/YR-RISE_Wang_Xuan

more information: http://www.aalforum.eu/group/youngresearchersandphdworkshop

Lifeboat foundation – Mixed and Virtual Reality

Similarities and differences between Virtual Reality and Mixed Reality, and how these technologies will enhance human experiences in the future! (The song Sprawl II used in end credits is courtesy Arcade Fire.)

Watch it in iPhone size for Windows (.avi format) or for the Macintosh (.mov format).

Watch it in regular computer size for Windows (.avi format) or for the Macintosh (.mov format).

Smells Like Home, Truly

National Day and a researcher’s e-mail create a surge of interest in the collective scent memory of Singapore.

Graduate student Cao Yan Yan is interviewed by Vivienne Khoo about her project.  Her project is an exploration of the use of smell in interactive technology. She is focusing on collective memory using scent as a medium.

http://theasiamag.com/patterns/smells-home-truly

MXR Lab spin off company MXR Corp debuts at Shanghai World Expo

Punggol North Racial & Religious Harmony Street Parade and Carnival 2010

On July 18th the Mixed Reality Lab participated in the Punggol North Racial & Religious Harmony Street Parade and Carnival 2010.  The MXR booth was visited by the guest of honor Mr Teo Chee Hean, Duputy Prime Minister of Singapore.  The Lab presented Confucius Computer and Huggy Pajama with about 150 people using the systems.  The confucius system uses new media to revive and model these historical philosophies and teachings, presenting them in new contexts, such as online social chat, music and food. This enables people to experience and explore the ancient culture using the literacy of digital interactivity.  Huggy Pajama is a novel wearable system aimed at promoting physical interaction in remote communication between parent and child. This system enables parent and child to hug one another through a novel hugging interface device and a wearable, hug reproducing jacket connected through the Internet. The hugging device is a small, mobile doll with embedded pressure sensing circuit that is able to sense varying levels of human force. This device sends hug signals to a haptic jacket that simulates the feeling of being hugged to the wearer.

Petimo

Petimo

Click here to read more

Back to the future: Adrian David Cheok interviewed for an article on animatronics,and Lovotics is commented upon”

Back to the future: Adrian David Cheok interviewed for an article on animatronics,and Lovotics is commented upon”

Read Actual Article

Read Online Version

Discovery Channel program “Future Fun” featuring Huggy Pajama research

Discovery Channel program “Future Fun” featuring Huggy Pajama research and interview with Adrian David Cheok




Click here to watch Quicktime

Click here to watch Youtube

Russian Art Magazine

Poultry Internet research work featured
Read More

Petimo: Social networking robot for children wins the First prize in Milan International Invention

2010-04-22 – SINGAPORE – Children as young as seven years old are now able to experience a safe and fun online social environment with the world’s first interactive virtual and real world social robot,developed by a team led by A/Prof Adrian Cheok from the Mixed Reality Lab. Parents can feel safe and comfortable with their children using social networks because the friend making must be made only in the physical world through the children’s robot. An experience like no other, the robotic toy, named “Petimo”, responds to touch and movement. Its outer finish is an adorable plush toy and its small, round physical shape evokes a warm and tender feeling likened to carrying a baby animal. Petimo has already been selected by an international review panel as one of the best three submissions for the Como for Children (C4C) design competition held at The 8th International Conference on Interaction Design and Children (IDC 2009) during its debut in Europe.

Recently, “Petimo” – social networking robot for children, won the first prize in an international innovation competition in Milan Milan, Italy (Apr 22nd 2010). The prize is InventiON: concorso di idee per inventori, InventiON: competition of ideas for inventorshttp://www.innovationcircus.it/2009/. Petimo won the first prize in the ICT (information and communication technologies) track The competition is sponsored by the Municipality of Milan and the Chamber of Commerce, and is co-organized by a service company (Alintec) together with “Nova-Sole 24 ore”, (Italian financial times). The main sponsor of the competition is 3M.

C4C – Como for Children Design Competion

Adrian Cheok YGL

WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM ANNOUNCES SINGAPORE’S ADRIAN DAVID CHEOK AS A 2008 YOUNG GLOBAL LEADER

ADRIAN DAVID CHEOK joins 245 leading executives, public figures and intellectuals – all age 40 or younger – chosen from around the world Geneva, Switzerland, 11 March 2008 – The World Economic Forum today announced Adrian David Cheok has been selected as a Young Global Leader 2008. This honor is bestowed each year by the World Economic Forum to recognize and acknowledge the top 200-300 young leaders from around the world for the professional accomplishments, commitment to society and potential to contribute to shaping the future of the world. The Young Global Leaders for 2008 include 121 business leaders, as well as leaders from government, academia, media and society at large from 65 countries.  The new class represents all regions, including East Asia (64), Europe (58), Middle East and North Africa (12), North America (45), South Asia (24), sub-Saharan Africa (21) and Latin America (21). “The World Economic Forum is a true multi-stakeholder community of global decision-makers.  We need the Young Global Leaders to be a voice for the future in the global thought process and as a catalyst for initiatives in the global public interest.” Said Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum. Drawn from a pool of almost 5,000 candidates, the Young Global Leaders 2008 were chosen by a selection committee of 31 eminent international media leaders, including Thomas H. Glocer, Chief Executive Officer, Reuters, United Kingdom; Arthur Sulzberg, Chairman and Publisher, The  New York Times, USA; Robert Thomson, Publisher, Dow Jones & Company and  The Wall Street Journal, USA; and Hisashi Hieda, Chairman and Chief  Executive Officer, Fuji Television Network, Japan.  The selection committee is chaired by H.M. Queen Rania Al Abdullah of the Hashemite  Kingdom of Jordan. The current community of Young Global Leaders represents over 60  countries and includes Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Co-Founders of  Google, USA; Crown Prince Haakon of Norway; Malvinder M. Singh, Chief  Executive Officer and Managing Director, Ranbaxy Laboratories, India;  Hiroshi Nakada, Mayor of Yokohama, Japan; Nicky Newton-King, Deputy  Chief Executive Officer, JSE, South Africa; Carlos Danel, Co-Chief  Executive Officer, Banco Compartamos, Mexico; and Jack Ma Yun, Chairman  and Chief Executive Officer, Alibaba Group, People’s Republic of China. “It is our belief that this community of committed individuals can actually change the status quo.  They are not only a preview of what  effective, collaborative leadership in the 21st century might look  like, they are actually putting it into practice today,” said David Aikman, Senior Director and Head of the Forum of Young Global Leaders.  “It is our privilege to work with such inspirational leaders and to bring them together in a global network that builds their insights and skills even further, providing them with a global platform to tackle the key challenges of our generation. Established in 2004 by Professor Klaus Schwab, The Forum of Young  Global Leaders is a unique, multistakeholder to community of the  world’s most extraordinary young leaders, who dedicate a part of their  time to jointly address global challenges and who are committed to devote some of their knowledge and energy to collectively work towards  a better future.  As part of their engagement, the Young Global Leaders give their time to task forces to initiate, develop and drive innovative solutions on important, globally-oriented issues, including  health, education, the environment, global governance and security, and  development and poverty. For more information and a detailed list of all Young Global Leaders, visitwww.younggloballeaders.org, http://www.weforum.org/en/index.htm

Last Updated ( Tuesday, 10 March 2009 )

Dr Adrian Cheok appeared in Digital Deconstruction

Watch Here

Dr Kim Solez’s visit to CUTE center

On May 7th, Dr Kim Solez visited CUTE center in Singapore to see the demos of the research projects.   Dr Kim Solez is one of the world’s foremost renal pathologists and medical Internet leaders. He has been at the University of Alberta since1987, and is currently a Professor and Director of Experimental Pathology as well as Director of NKF cyberNephrology, a joint venture of the National Kidney Foundation (U.S.) and the University of Alberta.  Dr Solez is a co-writer of http://www.internetevolution.com/ and has a profound interest in technology. The meeting developed as a long conversation where Dr Solez expressed his interest in our projects and provided interesting suggestions for future work.

http://picasaweb.google.com/106341802660447646160/KimSolezVisit#

The Frisbee of the Future: Gaming with your furry family members

The Frisbee of the Future: Gaming with your furry family members
1UP.com, 18 April 2006

Read here (WEB)
Read here (PDF)

New “robot” to protect children online

New “robot” to protect children online
21 Stoleti, 13 May 2010
Country : Czech
Read More

Petimo protect children who surf the Net

Petimo protect children who surf the Net
La Stampa, 12 May 2010
Country : Italy
Read here

Doll robot helps children to surf the web safer

Doll robot helps children to surf the web safer
La Stampa, 11 May 2010
Country : Italy
Read here

Cute Robot that protect children from danger

Cute Robot that protect children from danger
Prima Communication, 10 May 2010
Country : Italy
Read More

Cute Robot that protect children from danger

Cute Robot that protect children from danger
Prima Communication, 10 May 2010
Country : Italy
Read More

Cuddly ‘social robots’ that make social networks child-safe developed

Cuddly ‘social robots’ that make social networks child-safe developed
One India, 8 May 2010
Read here

Social network-safe robot Petimos guards children against cyberbullies

Social network-safe robot Petimos guards children against cyberbullies
Gizmo Watch, May 8 2010
Read here

Cuddly ‘social robots’ that make social networks child-safe developed

Cuddly ‘social robots’ that make social networks child-safe developed
Blog: Taragana, Science News, 8 May 2010
Read here

Cuddly ‘social robots’ that make social networks child-safe developed

Cuddly ‘social robots’ that make social networks child-safe developed
Sindh Today News, 8 May 2010
Read here

Cuddly robots aim to make social networks child-safe

Cuddly robots aim to make social networks child-safe
New Scientist Magazine issue 2759, 07 May 2010

Read here

ACE 2009 Conference

This year, ACE 2009 (Advances in Computer Entertainment Technology) conference was successfully held in Athens, Greece from October 29th to 31st, 2009. There were very interesting paper sessions as well as creative showcase session in the conference. Poetry Mix-up and Petimo projects from Mixed Reality Lab and KEIO-NUS CUTE Center are accepted in poster, creative showcase and short paper categories. The ACE 2009 Conference student reports from Kening Zhu and Nimesha Ranasinghe are attached below with detailed information and individual experiences.

Links :

• http://137.132.145.178/media/articles/ACE 2009 Report NimeshaRanasinghe.pdf

• http://137.132.145.178/media/articles/ACE09 Ken.pdf

Photos: http://share.ovi.com/album/mxrlab.ACEConference20

Petimo makes social networking fun and safe for children

Petimo makes social networking fun and safe for children
Web in Travel online news, 21 April 2010

Read More

Special Issue of Springer Virtual Reality Journal – “Virtual Reality and Culture Technology”

Special Issue of Virtual Reality
“Virtual Reality and Culture Technology”
Guest Editors:
Adrian Cheok, Professor at Keio University, Japan.
Woontack Woo, Professor at Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology, Korea.
Tomoe Moriyama, Curator of the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, and Associate Professor at the University of Tokyo

Most of current information and computing systems are developed to handle logical information, and most virtual reality technology related to culture are mainly related to heritage applications. However these systems and applications do not consider deeply the contents, form, and meaning of cultures. Until recently it has been believed that a complex and non linear system such as culture could not be modeled by computers. Nevertheless recently computing and interactive media directed at the analysis and modeling and prediction of culture or “culture technology” has emerged [1]. For example if the underlying structures of historical culture can be determined, then it can not only be modeled in virtual reality, but it can be used to predict new forms of modern or pop culture, some which can be based purely in the virtual world.

Through culture technology with virtual reality we can develop novel forms of cultural activity in the arts and humanities, for example creating virtual instruments which merge Electric Guitar with Japanese Shamisen. Or combining intelligent virtual characters of different eras or cultures (e.g. Confucius with Plato) and see new types of interaction that is impossible in the physical world. Essentially this could lead to new forms of transformation and blending of the domains of science, arts and humanities.
In this special issue we call for scientific based virtual reality based research which has a goal to create and disseminate transformative, innovative cultural works and will lead to new paradigms that will positively transform culture.

Topics of interest include (but are not limited to) the following areas:
• VR for modelling culture
• Using VR to transform historical and contemporary or pop culture
• Generating new virtual cultures
• New interfaces that can develop in VR for cultural computing (e.g. new virtual musical instruments)
• Complex and dynamic systems of cultural computing
The special issue will appear in the Springer journal Virtual Reality (www.springeronline.com/journal/10055). Papers should typically be less than 8,000 words and of standard journal content: reports of original research, review papers, essays and discussions. Papers will be peer reviewed in accordance with the journal’s normal process. Prospective authors can their intention to submit by notifying the editor with a planned title for the submission and names of authors.
Papers should be submitted in Microsoft Word or Latex formats by
Please direct correspondence to email address: adriancheok (at) mixedrealitylab.org
Papers should be submitted to http://www.editorialmanager.com/vire/ under the relevant special issue category.
Important Dates:
Deadline for submission of full papers: 24th April 2009
Notification of acceptance: 10 July 2009
[1] Tosa N., Matsuoka S., Ellis B., Ueda H., and Nakatsu R. (2005). Cultural Computing with Context-Aware Application: ZENetic Computer, Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol. 3711, pp. 1

Web Link : http://www.mixedrealitylab.org/media/pdf/VR and Culture Techology v22.pdf and Culture Technology v22.pdf

ACE 2009

ACE 2009

(5th Advances in Computer Entertainment Technology Conference)

incorporating

DIMEA 2009

(3rd Digital Interactive Media Entertainment and Arts Conference)

Athens, Greece

October 29-31, 2009

Interactive Entertainment is one of the fastest growing industries in the world. In 1996, the U.S. entertainment software industry reported $2.6 billion in sales revenue; this figure has more than tripled in 2007, yielding $9.5 billion in revenues. In addition, gamers, the target market for interactive entertainment products, are now reaching beyond the traditional 8-34 old male target demographic to include women, Hispanics, and African Americans. This pattern has been observed in several markets, including Japan, China, Korea, and India. Thus, interactive entertainment is becoming part of our everyday life, impacting our thinking, society and culture in many ways. ACE has become the leading academic forum for dissemination of novel research results in the area of entertainment computing. This year for the first time it incorporates DIMEA which has established itself over the last three years as a strong conference on interactive entertainment arts. Together the conference forms an exciting new step blending deeply the latest research in art and technology.

The focus of ACE 2009 is to gather researchers from academia and industry−researchers who are working in multi-disciplinary areas within the arts, psychology, computer science, and design to discuss, present, and demonstrate their new contributions. The goal of ACE is to stimulate discussion in the development and advancement of interactive art and entertainment applications. It, thus, strides to balance several interdisciplinary areas and seeks representation in all these areas, including, but not limited to:

To encourage presentation of such multi-disciplinary work, we invite submissions that fall into the following tracks:

• Papers Track:

o Full Papers: Original unpublished technical, design, and theory/social impact. Submissions to this track
should not exceed 8 pages in ACM format.

o Short Papers: Original unpublished technical, design, and theory/social impact. Submissions to this
track should not exceed 4 pages in ACM format. The program committee may also
suggest submitted long papers be resubmitted as short papers.

o Posters: Breakthroughs in technical research, content design, industry applications, and entertainment
theories/social impact researches are invited. Submissions to this track should not exceed 2 pages in
ACM format. Format instructions are posted on the website noted below. All accepted submissions
will be published in conference proceedings.

• Creative Showcases (show cased within three types of spaces: exhibition space, art gallery and gaming exhibit)

o Technical demos : prototype demos of advanced entertainment technology

o Games, including, but not limited to, experimental games, independent games, games for change,
video games, commercial games, casual games, mobile games

o Interactive narrative, interactive drama, alternate reality games, and interactive fiction

o interactive art installations

o web-based computer entertainment

o digital audio, visual and other sensory art

o Design showcase

One page abstracts of all accepted submissions will be published in conference proceedings.

For further information please visit: http://www.ace2009.org

Important Dates:
Deadline for Full and Short Papers: June 19, 2009
Deadline for Posters and Creative Showcases: June 19, 2009
Notifications of Acceptance: August 21, 2009
Camera Ready Copy: September 18, 2009

Submissions of papers will be online on our conference website (http://www.ace2009.org) using Easy Chair and should follow the ACM Submission Format. See ACM SIG Proceedings Template for more instructions.

Selected papers will be asked to extend their papers for a Journal Publication:
Selected papers will be published in Special Issue of ACM Computers in Entertainment and International Journal on Arts and Technology (IJART)
Awards
Best papers and creative showcases will be selected based on a jury of well respected pioneers in the field attending the conference. We honor the authors of these publications by presenting awards including:

Paper award categories: Gold, Silver, and Bronze.

Creative showcase award categories: Gold, Silver, and Bronze.

Organization Committee

Asia Malls Company Visit

On 18th October, Asia-Malls company visited our MXR lab to see our demo. This meeting was arranged as they are exploring ideas on working with our lab to create an Interactive Media set up in the atirum of a new shopping mall in Singapore. Read more for pictures.

93.8LIVE Interview on Babbage Cabbage Project

CUTE Center and MXR Lab Director Adrian David Cheok was interviewed on May 5th in a half hour live interview on Radio 938LIVE.The topic was about the Babbage Cabbage project

Link : http://137.132.145.178/media/radio/Babbage Cabbage 5-5-2009.mp3

Synthetic Reality conference in Israel

Prof Pan Talk

Professor Pan, Zhejiang University, delivered a presentation about “Virtual Presentation of Product based on VR” on 8 Dec 2006 in NUS.

The talk discussed the state of the art on virtual presentation based on VR, which includes image-based method, and 3D-based presentation. The key technology is exploited, and some examples are discussed, including Virtual Shopping Mall, Virtual Presentation of Textile product (Easy Show), Virtual presentation of mobile phones, and application of the techniques to culture, entertainment park, sight-seeing and historical places.

Prof. Masahiko Inami Talk

Professor Masahiko Inami delivered a remarkable presentation on “Multi-Modal Interfaces to enhance Human I/O”, grabbing full attention from the viewers on the 1st March 2007. Several videos were shown to allow the viewers to have a better understanding. There are three main points that Professor Inami brought up in his presentation; Objects for Enhancement, Sensation Enhancement and Communication Enhancement.

Professor Masahiko Inami is a Professor in the Department Engineering and Intelligent Systems of the University of Electro-Communications, Tokyo. He was the Winner of Time Magazine for the “Coolest Inventions”.
Before that, on the 28th February, `Professor Inami and his students, Noriyoshi Shimizu went to the Singapore Science Centre to set up the Teddy Bear Robots.

http://www.twango.com/channel/mxrlab.inami

Prof. Ryohei Nakatsu Talk

Prof Nakatsu gave a public lecture on “Digital & Interactive Media and Their Future”, which was held at the Engineering Auditorium in National University of Singapore on the 25 Oct 2007. The day before the talk, he came to visit MXR lab to understand in depth on the research that our lab is working.

Images:
http://www.twango.com/channel/mxrlab.ryoheinakatsu

Video:
http://nuscast.nus.edu.sg/PublicEvents/1/MODVideoOnly.asp?KEY=93FA77F0-3523-43A3-BA30-619C909164BE

Senior Minister of State visit

On 7 September 2009, Mr S Iswaran Senior Minister of State, Ministry of Trade and Industry, and Ministry of Education, visited Mixed Reality Lab.The lab members showed impressive work of their projects

Link : http://share.ovi.com/album/mxrlab.SeniorMinistero

Singapore President Visit

The Keio-NUS CUTE Center was officially opened by His Excellency President SR Nathan on 12th October, 2009. The event was attended by distinguished invitees from the National Research Foundation (NRF), the Media Development Authority (MDA), the National University of Singapore (NUS), the Keio University and several other government and private sector organizations.

HE President declared open the center by cutting the traditional ribbon as well as launching a “digital ribbon cutting” followed by the unveiling of the plaque. The Co-Director of the Center, Prof. Adrian Cheok, showed visitors the cutting edge research carried out in the Center. Introducing its research, Prof. Cheok stated that “our research tries to solve important problems in society”. The demos included research carried out in the Center using different media for communicating between Children and Families using senses hitherto unexplored in such communication. Some of the demos that caught the attention of the distinguished gathering included AmbiKraf-color changing fabrics, Petimo-Safe social networking tool for children and Huggy Pajama – a remote hugging device for families. The visitors were highly appreciative of the achievements of the Center in a very short period of its existence and congratulated the Center director and its staff in progress made in making Singapore a global hub in Interactive and Digital Media research. Several guests congratulated the Center Co-Directors Prof. Cheok and Prof. Masa Inakage of Keio University on the initiative taken to share the resources and expertise of two highly acclaimed academic institutes in coming together for collaborative research. Research staff and students of the center were highly thrilled to demonstrate their research and the global award-winning results obtained to such a distinguished gathering and are highly motivated by the interest shown by such a distinguished group of visitors.

ADRIAN DAVID CHEOK AS A 2008 YOUNG GLOBAL LEADER

ADRIAN DAVID CHEOK joins 245 leading executives, public figures and intellectuals – all age 40 or younger – chosen from around the world

Geneva, Switzerland, 11 March 2008 – The World Economic Forum today announced Adrian David Cheok has been selected as a Young Global Leader 2008. This honor is bestowed each year by the World Economic Forum to recognize and acknowledge the top 200-300 young leaders from around the world for the professional accomplishments, commitment to society and potential to contribute to shaping the future of the world.

The Young Global Leaders for 2008 include 121 business leaders, as well as leaders from government, academia, media and society at large from 65 countries. The new class represents all regions, including East Asia (64), Europe (58), Middle East and North Africa (12), North America (45), South Asia (24), sub-Saharan Africa (21) and Latin America (21).

“The World Economic Forum is a true multi-stakeholder community of global decision-makers. We need the Young Global Leaders to be a voice for the future in the global thought process and as a catalyst for initiatives in the global public interest.” Said Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum.

Drawn from a pool of almost 5,000 candidates, the Young Global Leaders 2008 were chosen by a selection committee of 31 eminent international media leaders, including Thomas H. Glocer, Chief Executive Officer, Reuters, United Kingdom; Arthur Sulzberg, Chairman and Publisher, The New York Times, USA; Robert Thomson, Publisher, Dow Jones & Company and The Wall Street Journal, USA; and Hisashi Hieda, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Fuji Television Network, Japan. The selection committee is chaired by H.M. Queen Rania Al Abdullah of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.
The current community of Young Global Leaders represents over 60 countries and includes Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Co-Founders of Google, USA; Crown Prince Haakon of Norway; Malvinder M. Singh, Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director, Ranbaxy Laboratories, India; Hiroshi Nakada, Mayor of Yokohama, Japan; Nicky Newton-King, Deputy Chief Executive Officer, JSE, South Africa; Carlos Danel, Co-Chief Executive Officer, Banco Compartamos, Mexico; and Jack Ma Yun, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Alibaba Group, People’s Republic of China.

“It is our belief that this community of committed individuals can actually change the status quo. They are not only a preview of what effective, collaborative leadership in the 21st century might look like, they are actually putting it into practice today,” said David Aikman, Senior Director and Head of the Forum of Young Global Leaders. “It is our privilege to work with such inspirational leaders and to bring them together in a global network that builds their insights and skills even further, providing them with a global platform to tackle the key challenges of our generation.

Established in 2004 by Professor Klaus Schwab, The Forum of Young Global Leaders is a unique, multistakeholder to community of the world’s most extraordinary young leaders, who dedicate a part of their time to jointly address global challenges and who are committed to devote some of their knowledge and energy to collectively work towards a better future. As part of their engagement, the Young Global Leaders give their time to task forces to initiate, develop and drive innovative solutions on important, globally-oriented issues, including health, education, the environment, global governance and security, and development and poverty.

For more information and a detailed list of all Young Global Leaders, visit www.younggloballeaders.org,http://www.weforum.org/en/index.htm

C4C – Como for Children Design Competion

The Chamber of Commerce of Como, in occasion of the IDC 2009 conference, has promoted a special competition calling for proposals on a “technology-enhanced” pre-school environment: the Como 4 Children (C4C) competition. C4C is an initiative to promote a strong innovation of the approach to education for young children (3-10 years of age). The competition’s goal is to “imagine a pre-school of the (near or remote) future, where the physical space is enhanced with (existing or future) technologies and children can naturally intermix, at individual or social level, ‘traditional’ playing and learning activities with interaction based on modern technologies of all kinds”. The competition has two tracks: Vision of the interactive pre-school of the future and Interaction at pre-school. 35 creative, visionary and compelling proposal were submitted from all over the world, by designers, interaction designers, computer scientists and architects. The conference chairs together with a panel of experts from the Chamber of Commerce of Como, after a careful analysis have selected the best 3 proposals for each track. The top 3 winners for Track 1 are from Stanford University, USA, a collaborative proposal between Georgia Institute of Technology, USA and Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands, and another proposal from ASP-Politecnico Milano, Turkey. Petimo was named as a winner in Track 2. Besides Petimo, the other 2 selected top 3 winners are proposals from MIT Media Lab, USA and University of Iowa, USA. We gave a presentation about Petimo in a special session during the IDC 2009 conference. After the presentation, we receive many positive feedback about the project. One of the Italian speaking panelist gave his thumbs-up immediately upon the completion of our presentation. The distinguished panelists were very impressed at the high quality of the project, its vision and implementation within a short time frame.

Two PhD students won XCC fellowship award

A new look on reality

Adrian David Cheok interviewed for article on augmented reality “A new look on reality”
Today, 9 April 2010

Read here

Huggy Pajama filming for new NHK program, Gatchan

NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corporation, http://www.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/) recently conducted a filming of the Huggy Pajama project for a new program called Gatchan. This TV program is an educational program to introduce some of the famous universities in the world, and especially research works conducted by unique research labs in these universities.

Photo Link : http://share.ovi.com/album/mxrlab.HuggyPajamafilm

After some research, NHK found that the works in Mixed Reality Lab are very interesting and suitable for the TV program. Ms Hiroko Kikuchi, the Singapore media coordinator for NHK contacted Professor Adrian Cheok, director of Mixed Reality Lab, and voiced the interest on highlighting the works done in the lab, drawing particular attention to Huggy Pajama. Initially, NHK representatives visited Keio University, where the NUS-KEIO CUTE Center’s lab is located. We showed a demonstration of the earlier prototype of Huggy Pajama and other lab works like Petimo and Kiss Robot.

To read more : http://137.132.145.178/media/articles/NHKTV-newsArticle.doc

The Young Investigator’s Forum on Culture Technology

The Young Investigator’s Forum on Culture Technology (YoungCT) is an annual event bringing together leading young scholars, industry executives and great mentors of our time. ‘Culture Technology’ covers a wide range of research areas on digital media and related technologies, which are gaining ever-increasing significance in every corner of our surroundings and culture. As a unique workshop that invites advanced graduate students (or those with equivalent credentials) around the world, the forum aims to facilitate discussion on Culture Technology among young researchers. Furthermore, YoungCT will provide you an opportunity to visit Korea and to celebrate diverse cultures. This time the theme for the event was “Engaging Culture and Technology”. The mixed reality lab PhD scholars Nimesha Ranasinghe and Eng tat Khoo presented their research works “Poetry Mash-up” and “Confucius Computer” respectively in young CT 2009.

More information: http://ct.kaist.ac.kr/yct2009/

Photo Link : http://share.ovi.com/album/mxrlab.TheYoungInvesti

Nimesha ‘s Report : http://137.132.145.178/media/articles/YouthCT2009 Report NimeshaRanasing.pdf

Eng Tat ‘s Report: http://137.132.145.178/media/articles/ET YCT09 report.pdf

AmbiKraf at Digital Content Expo 2009 and Interactive Tokyo Symposium

AmbiKraf was demonstrated at the recent Digital Content Expo 2009 in Tokyo Japan. The event was held at the National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation (Miraikan). The exhibition was held as a part of the Content Technology Exhibits (ConTEX) 2009 through 22nd to 25th October 2009. The project received great comments and complements from the public. The attendees were fascinated by the animated form of the fabric and the technology utilized. Many industrial players including Samsung Mobile were interested in the technology for use in their future products.

In addition, AmbiKraf was presented at the Interactive Tokyo Symposium in the “Real World” session. The panel discussion following the presentation discussed about the future applications and research directions of such technologies.

Article on Poultry Internet

“Dialog Iskusstv/Dialogues of the Arts” Russian Magazine -Article on Poultry Internet

Read here