Friday, July 30, 2010

Link: 30% Unity Business Non-games

In this article the CEO of Unity has stated that around 30% of licences for their game engine are from non-game companies seeking to use virtual worlds for business interests.

This may be a product of the cross-platform capabilities of the engine, as it can deploy implementations of worlds to web, pc, iphone, ipad and android, but it does go to show the growing usage of virtual worlds for marketing and business opportunities. We also use it at QUT in our games degree.

Bland statements aside, virtual worlds and games are now almost de rigour as marketing tie ins to films and products. The Salt movie and game comes to mind as the most recent idea.

What I wonder is what further unique linkages can be made between such environments and commonplace business processes. I think augmented reality holds some interesting possibilities here.

Ross

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

VIdeo: Second Life to SAP Netweaver

An older video here of SAP Netweaver system integrated into Second Life as a user interface.

The example shows a 3D interface to an airline booking system. While not a generalised interface to business processes like our work, it is a great example of the interface possibilities for Second Life style systems.

Ross

Monday, July 26, 2010

Video: BPM on an MS Surface



Video of a BPM package running on an MS Surface. While interesting, the interface here is a rule-based system (at first glance) and does not use a graphical language such as BPMN for process modelling, unlike our video shown previously.

Still, would be good to explore such hardware in detail for collaborative modelling.

Just need to find $20K.

Ross

Thursday, July 22, 2010

Video: Collaborative 3D BPMN Modelling Two



New improved collaborative Open Simulator, 3D BPMN editor video, showing a new interface and collaboration capabilities via remote login of another avatar.

This video is being presented at AMCIS 2010 in Peru, along with our paper.

Ross

Video: Collaborative Tabletop Process Modelling



Have just shot a video of QUT BPM Research group members using a Mimio pen-based device for collaborative process modelling. The advantage here is in the projection of the modelling system onto the table, making the workspace large enough for close collaboration. The process modelling application is Oryx, a free web-based tool.

Ross

CFP: SIOP MUVE Conference 2011

REQUEST FOR PAPERS

The study of Multi‐User Virtual Environments (MUVEs), like Second Life and OpenSim, is a brand new area of investigation in industrial/organizational psychology. Researchers in I/O
Psych study the application of psychological principles to workers and worker behavior in a
wide variety of settings, from large multinational corporations, to small businesses, to the
military. MUVEs are being used in these settings for many reasons, including recruitment,
selection/interviewing, training and development, leadership studies, and many others.

We are currently seeking collaborators for a symposium submission on MUVEs to the 2011
conference of the Society for Industrial/Organizational Psychology [SIOP]. The SIOP conference
attracts approximately 4000 academics and practitioners from a variety of fields, most typically
including I/O psychology, human resources, organizational behavior, and management.
OBHRM professionals are also often in attendance. Together, this composition offers ample
opportunity to establish new partnerships, collaborations, and contracts with a wide variety of
organizations.

Symposia at the SIOP conference are one‐ to two‐hour presentations consisting of 3 to 7
individual theoretical or empirical presentations, followed by a discussant that gives
commentary on the papers presented. Individual presentation lengths vary, but are typically 20
to 30 minutes. For this symposium, we are targeting empirical submissions, but high quality
theory is also welcome. Case studies of MUVEs deployed in actual organizations (outside the
lab) would be of high value.

The 2011 SIOP Conference will be held in downtown Chicago, IL. Each paper submitted in a
symposium is abstract‐length, and the deadline for this submission is September 15, 2010.
If you are interested in being a part of this symposium, please contact Richard N. Landers
(rnlanders@odu.edu), Assistant Professor of I/O Psychology at Old Dominion University to
discuss it in further detail.

Relevant URLs:

General SIOP Conference Website: http://siop.org/conferences/default.aspx
R. N. Landers: http://rlanders.net | http://neoacademic.com
SIOP: http://siop.org

Friday, July 9, 2010

CFP: 6th International Symposium on Visual Computing (ISVC10)

6th International Symposium on Visual Computing (ISVC10)
Monte Carlo Resort & Casino
Las Vegas, Nevada
Nov 29 - Dec 1, 2010
http://www.isvc.net

The submission deadline has been extended by one week
(July, 19, 2010).

The purpose of the International Symposium on Visual Computing (ISVC) is
to provide a common forum for researchers, scientists, engineers and
practitioners throughout the world to present their latest research
findings, ideas, developments and applications in the broader area of
visual computing. ISCV seeks papers describing contributions to the state
of the art and state of the practice in the four central areas of visual
computing: (1) computer vision, (2) computer graphics, (3) virtual
reality, and (4) visualization. ISVC10 will consist of invited and
contributed presentations dealing with all aspects of visual computing. In
addition to the main technical program, the symposium will include six
keynote speakers, one poster sessions, several technical sessions, and
eight special tracks.

***********************
***Keynote Speakers****
***********************

Dorin Comaniciu, Siemens Corporate Research, USA
Tobias Hollerer, Univ of California at Santa Barbara, USA
Ioannis Kakadiaris, Univ of Houston, USA
Marc Pollefeys, ETH Zurich, Switzerland
Steve Seitz, Univ of Washington, USA
John Stasko, Georgia Tech., USA

(Area 1) Computer Vision Chairs
Ronald Chung, The Univ of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
Riad Hammoud, DynaVox Systems, USA


(Area 2) Computer Graphics Chairs
Muhammad Hussain, KSU, Saudi Arabia
Kar-Han Tan, Hewlett Packard Labs, USA


(Area 3) Virtual Reality Chairs
Roger Crawfis, Ohio State University, USA
Daniel Thalman, EPFL, Switzerland


(Area 4) Visualization Chairs
David Kao, NASA Ames, USA
Lisa Avila, Kitware, USA

SPECIAL TRACKS

ST1: 3D Mapping, Modeling and Surface Reconstruction


Organizers:
Nefian Ara, Carnegie Mellon University/NASA Ames Research Center,
USA
Broxton Michael, Carnegie Mellon University/NASA Ames Research
Center, USA
Huertas Andres, NASA Jet Propulsion Lab, USA


ST2: Best Practices in Teaching Visual Computing


Organizers:
Albu Alexandra Branzan, University of Victoria, Canada
Bebis George, University of Nevada, Reno, USA


ST3: Low-Level Color Image Processing


Organizers:
Celebi M. Emre, Louisiana State University, USA
Smolka Bogdan, Silesian University of Technology, Poland
Schaefer Gerald, Loughborough University, UK
Plataniotis Konstantinos, University of Toronto, Canada
Horiuchi Takahiko, Chiba University, Japan


ST4: Low Cost Virtual Reality: Expanding Horizons


Organizers:
Sherman Bill, Indiana University, USA
Wernert Eric, Indiana University, USA


ST5: Computational Bioimaging


Organizers:
Tavares Joo Manuel R. S., University of Porto, Portugal
Natal Jorge Renato, University of Porto, Portugal
Cunha Alexandre, Caltech, USA


ST6: Unconstrained Biometrics: Advances and Trends


Organizers:
Proena Hugo, University of Beira Interior, Portugal
Du Yingzi, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, USA
Scharcanski Jacob, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul Porto
Alegre, Brazil
Ross Arun, West Virginia University, USA
Amayeh Gholamreza, EyeCom Corporation, USA


ST7: Perceptual Organization


Organizers:
Parvin Bahram, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, USA
Loss Leandro, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, USA


ST8: Behavior Detection and Modeling


Organizers:
Miller Ron, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, USA
Bebis George, University of Nevada, USA
Rosen Julie, Science Applications International Corporation, USA
Davis Jim, Ohio State University, USA
Lee Simon, Army Research Laboratory, USA
Zandipour Majid, BAE Systems, USA

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Link: Proctor and Gamble, and Virtual Environments

Over at Business World Online, great article on the use of Virtual Environments for Business Process Management by Proctor and Gamble. Their intention is to enable the company to innovate using visual representations of processes, and also to better engage the public regarding their products. All things that I have been advocating here on this blog for a few years now.

Just further proof that we are onto something here at the BPMVE. ;-)

Ross