Info: 3D Virtual Worlds to Save Qld Wallabies!

Attached is a picture of me wearing an Occulus Rift wandering around the (virtual) hills of South-east Queensland. In collaboration with Prof. Kerrie Mengersen@QUT, Justine Murray@CSIRO and Prof Peter Bruza@QUT, we have developed a prototype tool for eliciting expert knowledge from environmental managers using elevation models of natural environments.

Research hypothesis is that the Bayesian wallaby population models will be of a better quality if extracted with greater situational information provided by the interactive virtual world. Normally the process is performed with 2D GIS systems.

Will be testing the prototype soon with environmental experts. Thanks to Kerrie Mengersen, Michael Rosemann and Peter Bruza for the support.  Thanks to the bods at QUT VISER for the usual Star Wars equipment.

BTW, the prototype has been developed by a third year QUT games undergraduate RA, Wesley Heard.

Ross

CFP: Visual Computing (ISVC'14) - Call for Papers, Las Vegas, NV

CALL for PAPERS

10th International Symposium on Visual Computing (ISVC'14)

December 8-10, 2014

Monte Carlo Resort & Casino

Las Vegas, Nevada, USA

http://www.isvc.net

ISVC provides a common forum for researchers, scientists, engineers and

practitioners to present their latest research findings, ideas,

developments and applications in visual computing. We seek papers

contributing to the state of the art and practice in any of the four

central areas of visual computing: (1) computer vision, (2) computer

graphics, (3) virtual reality, and (4) visualization.  Of particular

interest are papers that combine technologies from two or more areas.

**** Important Dates

Paper submissions               August 23, 2014

Notification of acceptance      October 7, 2014

Final camera ready paper        October 31, 2014

Advance Registration            October 31, 2014

ISVC'14 Symposium               December 8-10, 2014

***** Keynote Speakers

Arun Ross, Michigan State University, USA

Melanie Tory, Univ of Victoria, Canada

Rama Chellapa, Univ of Maryland, USA

Bernd Frohlich, Bauhaus Univ, Weimar, Germany

Luc Vincent, Google, USA

Gopi Meenakshisundaram, Univ of California at Irvine, USA

**** Special Tracks

1. Computational Bioimaging

2. 3D Mapping, Modeling and Surface Reconstruction

3. Tracking for Human Activity Monitoring

4. Unmanned Autonomous Systems

5. Intelligent Computing and Cyber Security

6. Multimedia Forgery Detection

7. Big Data Computer Vision

8. Unconstrained Biometrics: Challenges and Applications

9. Intelligent Transportation Systems

10. Visual Perception and Robotic Systems

(Area 1) Computer Vision Chairs:

         Kambhamettu Chandra, University of Delaware, USA

         El Choubassi Maha, Intel, USA

(Area 2) Computer Graphics Chairs:

         Zhigang Deng, University of Houston, USA

         Carlson Mark, DreamWorks Animation, USA

(Area 3) Virtual Reality Chairs:

         McMahan, Ryan, University of Texas at Dallas, USA

         Jerald, Jason, NextGen Interactions, USA

(Area 4) Visualization Chairs:

         Zhang, Hui, Indiana University, USA

         Drucker, Steven, Microsoft, USA

**** Submission Procedure

Papers submitted to ISVC'14 must not have been previously published and

must not be currently under consideration for publication elsewhere. A

complete paper should be submitted in camera-ready format. The length

should match that intended for final publication. The page limit is 12

pages. In submitting a paper the author(s) agree that, upon acceptance,

they will prepare the final manuscript in time for inclusion into the

proceedings and will present the paper at the symposium.

Significantly extended and revised versions of selected papers will be

considered for publication in a special issue of the International Journal

on Artificial Intelligence Tools (IJAIT) (ISI/SCIE indexed) and the

Computers and Graphics journal(ISI/SCIE indexed). Moreover,

significantly extended and revised versions of selected papers from

the "Computational Bioimaging" special track will be considered for a

special issue of the Computer Methods in Biomechanics and Biomedical

Engineering: Imaging & Visualization journal.

A "best paper" award ($500) will be sponsored by MERL. The symposium's proceedings will be published by Springer-Verlag in Lecture Notes in Computer Science.

ISVC'14 Organizing Committee

CFP: Interactive Entertainment 2014 - Fun and Games – Call For Papers

Interactive Entertainment 2014 - Fun and Games – Call For Papers

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Location: University of Newcastle, Australia

Conference Dates:  2-3 December, 2014

Paper Submissions: 16 August, 2014

http://ieconference.org/ie2014/

Interactive Entertainment is Australasia's longest running games and digital entertainment conference. IE2014 marks the 10th anniversary of the conference which is hosted this year by the University of Newcastle, Australia.

IE2014 welcomes scientists, designers, artists, technicians, students, industry and academics from across the spectrum. We encourage contributions from fields as diverse as computer science, social science, design, communication, media studies, music, engineering, health and mathematics. Anyone interested in the myriad of technologies and issues that impact on interactive entertainment and computer games are encouraged to come along and share their discipline's perspective on "Fun and Games".   

TOPICS

---------

·         heuristic methodologies

·         control and evaluation

·         design practices and method

·         design history

·         transmedia

·         experience measurement

·         dynamic difficulty balancing

·         core mechanics

·         discussions on narrative

·         networking models

·         game physics

·         game graphics

·         sound design

·         artificial intelligence

·         user interface design

·         serious games

·         exergaming

·         development processes

·         evaluation methodologies

·         creativity in games

·         experimental gameplay forms

·         advances in mobile and portable games

·         Virtual Reality

·         interactive simulation

·         interactive film

·         animation in games

·         history of interactive media

·         commercial concerns

·         case studies on interactive applications

·         games thinking not listed here

SUBMISSIONS

------------------

IE2014 will accept four kinds of submissions; all types of submissions will be peer reviewed published online in the ACM International Conference Proceedings. http://www.acm.org/publications/icp_series

Regular Papers (Recommended length: 7-10 pages)

All regular papers will be peer reviewed for technical merit, significance, clarity and relevance to interactive entertainment. Accepted papers are required to give a 15-20 minute presentation at the conference.

Short Papers (Recommended length: 3 pages)

Short papers represent novel work in progress that may not be yet as mature as regular submissions, but still represents a significant contribution to the field. All short papers will be peer reviewed for technical merit, significance, clarity and relevance to interactive entertainment. Accepted papers are required to present a poster at the conference.

Demo Submissions (Recommended length: 1 page)

Technical demonstrations show innovative and original implementations to interactive entertainment. Demo papers will be reviewed by the conference chair and the program chair for significance and relevance.

Exhibition Submissions (Recommended length: 1 page)

These submissions are for work which will be exhibited in the conference's dedicated space. Applicants are to submit a short write-up outlining and contextualising the work to be exhibited, including pictures. They will need to provide a clear understanding of the proposed exhibited design work and its relationship with interactive entertainment.

MORE INFORMATION

---------------------------

For more information, please visit http://ieconference.org/ie2014/ or email ieconference2014@gmail.com

Video: Gesture-based Process Modelling on QUT Cube

Fortune Truong has been at it again, developing new features for our prototype gesture-based modelling tool for the QUT Cube.  I particularly like the undo and redo gestures at 1:10 in the video.

Thanks to Information Systems School and the Institute of Future Environments at QUT for the support.

Well done Fortune!

Ross

Info: Touch Screen Gesture-based Process Modelling

Picture on the left shows Markus Rittenbruch and Fortune Truong working in the QUT VISER laboratory on our new gesture-based process modeller, destined for the QUT Cube.

We have implemented a set of gestures to promote its use with large scale touch screen collaboration systems, such as the Cube.   Note, both participants in the image are modelling concurrently, as it is a multi-user system.

We will be looking for process modelling volunteers soon to perform a collaboration experiment. Keep your eyes peeled for an invite to take part in some leading edge collaborative modelling research.

Many thanks to Michael Rosemann (HOS) and Ian Mackinnon (IFE) for support, and the VISER laboratory for access to their Star Wars gear.

This project is a collaboration involving myself, Erik Poppe and Artem Polyvany at QUT, and Alex Nolte at Bochum University, Germany.

Get in contact if you are interested in the project.

Ross

Paper: Workflow patterns as a means to model task succession in games

Just had a paper accepted for ICEC 2014 (LNCS) with Simone Kriglstein and Guenter Wallner, colleagues from Vienna Austria.  Paper is found here.  In it, we seek to use workflow patterns to provide a formal basis for the modelling and simulation of user tasks in computer games.

Abstract. Over about the last decade, people involved in game development have noted the need for more formal models and tools to support the design phase of games. It is argued that the present lack of such formal tools is currently hindering knowledge transfer among designers. Formal visual languages, on the other hand, can help to more effectively express, abstract and communicate game design concepts. Moreover, formal tools can assist in the prototyping phase, allowing designers to reason about and simulate game mechanics on an abstract level.  In this paper we present an initial investigation into whether workflow patterns – which have already proven to be effective for modeling business processes – are a suitable way to model task succession in games.  Our preliminary results suggest that workflow patterns show promise in this regard but some limitations, especially in regard to time constraints, currently restrict their potential.

Ross

CFP: IVAPP 2015

Please consider submitting a paper to IVAPP 2015

See - http://www.ivapp.visigrapp.org/CallForPapers.aspx for further details