Digitainment

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Rob van Kranenburg
Dagvoorzitter

Rob van Kranenburg is currently working at the 'Virtual Platform'. This platform is a Dutch policy and network organization for e-culture. He is mainly involved with negotiability strategies of new technologies like ubicomp and RFID, at cultural and economic levels.

Biography

Rob van Kranenburg (1964) graduated cum laude in Literary Theory at Tilburg University (Nl). He went to work with Prof Ronald Soetaert in Ghent, in the Educational Department, developing online learning modules, methods and concepts drawing on the idea of multiliteracies. In 2000 he went to Amsterdam to work as a programmer on media education at the centre for culture and politics de Balie and as a teacher-coordinator of the new media program in the Film and Television Studies Department at the University of Amsterdam. Feeling it was too young a field to predominantly historize it, he moved to Doors of Perception and co-programmed with John Thackara Doors 7, Flow, the design challenge of pervasive computing. In 2003 he mentored a postgraduate course in performance, theatre and the arts at APT, Arts Performance Theatricality. For the past two years he has been working part time at Virtual Platform, Dutch policy and network organization for e-culture, as interim and now as co-director. One day is for teaching (mostly at Arts and Design Academies). As innovation consultant he is mainly involved with negotiability strategies of new technologies, predominantly ubicomp and rfid (radio frequency identification), the relationship between the formal and informal in cultural and economic policy and the requirements for a sustainable cultural economy.

Lecture Information

Rob van Kranenburg will introduce the speakers during the day and give us a playful look at the subject of Digital Entertainment.


Prof. Glorianna Davenport
Glorianna Davenport is the authority in the area of 'Entertainment Computing'. She is playing a very important role in the founding of digital entertainment as a serious research area in the academic world.
At this moment, she works at the Media Lab of MIT, Cambridge (USA).

Biography

Glorianna Davenport is Principal Research Scientist and founding member of the MIT Media Lab in Cambridge, Massachusetts where she directs the Media Fabrics group (formerly the Interactive Cinema group). Trained as a documentary filmmaker, her benchmark research explores fundamental issues related to collaborative co-construction of digital media experiences where
the task of narration is shared among authors, consumers, and computer mediators. Davenport’s contributions to the field of digital entertainment span 3 decades and are both theoretical and practical. From 2000-2004 she directed the Story Networks Group at Media Lab Europe in Dublin, a lab she co-founder. Davenport’s research has been extensively published in IEEE, Leonardo,and Scientific America.  Her work has been exhibited at numerous international conferences, film festivals and museum exhibitions. She is recipient of MIT's prestigious Gyorgy Kepes Fellowship Award for Excellence in the Arts.  Davenport holds a BA from Mt. Holyoke College and an MA from Hunter College.

Lecture Information

Narrative is a fundamental mode of human thought and expression. Narrative takes advantage of all our senses as it shapes our understanding of ourselves and of the world around us. Through the millennia, narrative has focused social identity, driven human learning, and from the earliest days framed what we now call "entertainment" activities. Today, rich media, ubiquitous networks, and advancing sensor technologies are transforming the way in which we are able to image ourselves, interact as a society, and explore the natural world.  Increasingly, these technologies blur the boundaries of human endeavor, making it increasingly difficult to distinguish between entertainment, work, and learning; between author and audience; or, between local and global. In this talk, I will focus on these eroding distinctions in human activity space in order to make the case that successful innovation in digital entertainment will increasingly incorporate transparent human/machine partnerships that rely on a deepened understanding of the needs and desires of our narrative soul in the context of being citizens of the world.


Prof. Stephen Emmott
Stephen Emmott is the director of Microsoft Research External Affairs. He is responsible for all the external research conducted at Microsoft.

Also, he is visiting professor at the University College of London and he is a advisor for different large international organisations like the WTO and the "U.K. Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council".

Biography

Stephen Emmott is responsible for all of Microsoft Corp.’s external research programs, strategy and policy across Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA). He is the architect of the External Research Office EuroScience Initiative, which is focused on developing exploratory, long-range research programs and collaborations in highly novel areas with the potential to reshape computing and society, including nonclassical computation, scientific computing, computational biology and social-centric technology innovation. Emmott’s role is vital to extending and increasing Microsoft Research Cambridge’s position and function in the European region.

Emmott has a Ph.D. in computational neuroscience and has worked in pioneering research fields at the intersection of computing and science for almost two decades. He has held appointments at BT Laboratories, AT&T Labs and, most recently, at NCR Corp. There, he was chief scientist and managing director of NCR’s internationally acclaimed advanced research lab, the Knowledge Lab, which he founded and led, the work of which captured industry and media imagination worldwide. He holds several patents in science and technology.

Emmott continues to hold an appointment as visiting professor at University College London (UCL), where he is also a member of the board of advisors. He sits on the U.K. Chancellor of the Exchequer’s Science and Innovation Framework committee, is an advisor to the U.K. Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, is an advisor to the Swiss National Science Foundation, and has been an advisor to the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the U.K. Department of Trade and Industry.

Lecture Information

Stephen Emmott will talk about the innovations that are developed within the area of Digital Entertainment and their role within academic research. Various discoveries in the area of Digitainment have already found their way into modern science, but also to (for example) medical research.
Stephen Emmott will also outline a vision of the role of digital entertainment in the academic research of tomorrow.



Dr. Erik Geelhoed
Track: Media & Interaction

Erik Geelhoed works at Hewlett-Packard Laboratories in Bristol (UK), where he is involved in the MobileBristol project. He has a strong interest in applying sound psychological method and sound statistical technique.

Biography

Erik Geelhoed (1950) studied psychology at the University of Amsterdam and worked in research at the Universities of Plymouth, Birmingham and Bristol before joining Hewlett-Packard Laboratories in 1992. He has a strong interest in applying sound psychological method and sound statistical technique, and has undertaken a diverse range of qualitative and quantitative studies including field trials, controlled laboratory experiments, large scale surveys and in-depth interview studies.

Lecture Information

The purpose of the Mobile Bristol program is to provide an experimental test-bed for technology and user value research in pervasive mobile media. The vision of the test-bed is to provide a digital canvas over the city of Bristol onto which rich situated digital entertainment experiences can be painted and new commercial ventures can be explored. As you walk through the city a diverse range of digital media experiences such as soundscapes, games, interactive media and art bring the city alive and augment the ambiance of the physical places. The outcomes from the program have been a rich publicly accessible wireless infrastructure covering the city of Bristol, a variety of new business opportunities that utilise the new capabilities and extensive research publications that advance the science of computing, engineering and psychology.


Dr. Joyce Westerink
Track: Media & Interaction

Joyce Westerink works at Philips research and is specialized on topics involving human perception and cognition of consumer products.
Written output of her work can be found in some 35 articles in books and international journals and 7 US patents.

Biography

Joyce H.D.M. Westerink (1960) studied physics at Utrecht University, and graduated in 1985. Since then, she joined Philips Research and specialized on topics involving human perception and cognition of consumer products: visual perception of display devices, user-friendliness of home entertainment systems, and sensory aspects of personal care products. The first 14 years she did this research on detachment at IPO (the Institute for Perception Research, later known as the Center for User-System Interaction), and since 1999 she is member of the Personal Care Institute (PCI), a research group at Philips Research dedicated to personal care products. Written output of her work can be found in some 35 articles in books and international journals, a Ph.D. dissertation on ‘Perceived image quality in static and dynamic images’ and 7 US patents.

Lecture Information

Home fitness is serious business these days. Many people try to improve their health by exercising at home with fitness devices, yet often find it difficult to remain motivated. Equipment often ends up unused in the attic. We’ll be presenting some concepts that seek to enhance motivation in fitnessing: a virtual environment, in which the user can be immersed, and a virtual coach, who guides the training session based on biofeedback. But nice concepts are always better if they have been tested. Therefore, we have been exploring whether the application of these concepts can help to turn home fitnessing into a more motivating experience.


Prof. Ryohei Nakatsu
Track: Media & Interaction

Ryohei Nakatsu is is a researcher at Kwansei Gakuin University in Nishinomiya (Japan). This university is one of the best known universities of Japan. Ryohei Nakatsu is an expert at robotica and he organizes the International Congres on Entertainment Computing to be held in Tokyo in 2006.

Biography

Ryohei Nakatsu received the B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in electronic engineering from Kyoto University in 1969, 1971 and 1982 respectively. After joining NTT in 1971, he mainly worked on speech recognition technology. In 1994, he joined ATR (Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute) as the president of ATR Media Integration & Communications Research Laboratories.

From the spring of 2002 he is a professor at School of Science and Technology, Kwansei Gakuin University. At the same time he established a venture company, Nirvana Technology Inc., and became a president of the company. His research interests includes emotion extraction from speech and facial images, emotion recognition, nonverbal communications, and integration of multi modalities in communications.

In 1978, he received Young Engineer Award from the Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers Japan (IEICE-J). In 1996, the best paper award from the IEEE International Conference on Multimedia. In 1999, 2000 and 2001, Telecom System Award from Telecommunication System Foundation and the best paper award from Virtual Reality Society of Japan. In 2000, the best paper award from Artificial Intelligence Society of Japan.

He is a fellow of the IEEE and the Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers Japan (IEICE-J), a member of the Acoustical Society of Japan, Information Processing Society of Japan, and Japanese Society for Artificial Intelligence.

Lecture Information

Even though in recent years research and development of humanoid robots has increased, the major topics of research generally focus on how to make a robot perform specific motions such as walking. However, walking is only one of the complicated motions humans can perform.

For robots to play an active role in society as our partner, they must be able to simulate precisely various kinds of human actions. Based on this consideration, we study and develop various types of robot motions such as dancing, 'Tai-chi,' and 'Noh.' Also by measuring our brain activities while we are interacting with these robots that can perform such actions, we want to show the importance of physical interactions between human and computer.



Dr. Stefan Grünvogel
Track: Technology & Fundamentals

Stefan M. Grünvogel's mission is to advance the collaboration between scientists, artists and developers. He did research in various areas, from mathematical control theory to non-linear storytelling.
Together with other colleagues, to accomplish his mission, Stefan founded the non-profit organization NOMADS Lab.

Biography

Stefan M. Grünvogel's mission is to advance the collaboration between scientists, artists and developers. He did research in various areas, starting with mathematical control theory, character animation and interaction in mixed realities, non-linear storytelling, formal models in game design, and aesthetics of computer games. He took his diploma and his doctoral degree in mathematics from the University of Augsburg in Germany, where he investigated controllability properties of chaotic systems. After working for some time in the industry, he spent several years at the Laboratory for Mixed Realities at the Academy of Media Arts Cologne, where he got in close contact with media arts. There he was responsible for the development of a character animation system for an augmented reality environment for planning stages. He participated in numerous projects ranging from non-linear storytelling for virtual environments up to a documentary film on out-of-body experiences. As invited professor at the Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers in Paris, he worked on formal models for game design.

Together with other colleagues, Stefan founded the non-profit organization NOMADS Lab.

Lecture Information

Technological driven entertainment constantly undergoes a diversification into more and more specialized applications and means for leisure. On the other side recurrent patterns and building blocks can be observed in the various domains and classes of entertainment (e.g. the 'genres' in computer games). Thus one might ask, if there are any laws behind this behaviour explaining this development.

In this talk, theories and models from various disciplines and their relationship to current (and possible future) entertainment applications are discussed and compared.



Prof. Mark Overmars
Track: Technology & Fundamentals

Mark Overmars is a full professor in Computer Science at Utrecht University in the Netherlands. Here he heads the Center for Geometry, Imaging, and Virtual Environments.
Mark Overmars is heavily involved in the Utrecht Platform for Game Education and Research, a collaboration between the "Hogeschool van de Kunsten Utrecht" and the "Hogeschool Utrecht".

Biography

Mark Overmars is a full professor in Computer Science at Utrecht University in the Netherlands. Here he heads the Center for Geometry, Imaging, and Virtual Environments (www.give.nl). His main research interests include motion planning, virtual environments, and game design. He also teaches courses on game design at Utrecht University. Mark Overmars is heavily involved in the Utrecht Platform for Game Education and Research (UPGEAR), see (www.upgear.nl). This collaboration between Utrecht University, the "Hogeschool voor de Kunsten Utrecht", and the "Hogeschool van Utrecht" has as a goal to promote education and research in the area of game design and technology in the Netherlands.

Mark Overmars is also the creator of the Game Maker softwarepackage for creating computer games (www.gamemaker.nl) that is used all over the world for education and fun.

Lecture Information

Computer game design and technology is an area that poses many new challenges to various scientific disciplines. It requires improved computer graphics techniques and new approached to artificial intelligence in which the notion of fun plays a prominent role. It poses important questions to human-computer interaction and to software engineering. But it also challenges liberal arts and psychology to enhance the experiences games can offer, and asks educational studies how to use gaming effectively for learning and training. In this presentation we review the state of the art and discuss some important future development in games research and education.



Jurrie Hobers
Track: Business & Society

Jurrie Hobers was after the start of his career responsible at Emtec (part of BASF) for the introduction of Tomb Raider. After Emtec was sold, he joined Atoll Soft, the largest distributor of computer games in the Benelux.
Since 2000 Jurrie is working for Codemasters in which he is responsible for the Benelux office.

Biography

Jurrie Hobers started his career in the entertainment industry in 1990 when this industry was just fresh. He saw then already the great power and future of digital entertainment.

He initially started in mail-order and a shop. This in 3 years grew out to a distribution business delivering products and formulas to more than 2.000 retailers in the Benelux. As a self taught marketer he then moved to Brussels to work for a multimedia dependence of Emtec (part of BASF). In that time he was responsible for the introduction of Tomb Raider in several versions. After Emtec was sold because the multimedia entertainment did no longer fit in the portfolio of BASF he joined Atoll Soft - the largest independent distributor of videogames in the Benelux. At Atoll Soft he was responsible for the Eidos publishing label for the Benelux.

Since 2000 Jurrie is working for Codemasters in which he is responsible for the Benelux office and to make sure the full market potential in sales, marketing and communications is being used for the Codemasters products.

Lecture Information

We asked Jurrie Hobers to give a lecture about the vision of Codemasters at the game industry from a corporate viewpoint.

The exact content will be announced soon.



Michaël Bas
Track: Business & Society

Michaël Bas works at RAN.J, a young dutch media-company that is mostly focussing on the new digital media.

Biography

Michäel Bas (1963) graduated in 1987 as an autonomous artist and designer at the Academy of Visual Arts in Rotterdam. He then persued a postacademic degree at the Colege of Arts in Utrecht, at the faculty of Visual Media-technology. In 1990 he founded the animationstudio Hootchie Cootchie Cartoons and in 1999 Ranj. digital entertainment, a design studio for computer games.

Lecture Information

Can media change our society? There are enough arguments to believe that it is possible. It's possible in theory. So why isn't
anything happening? What is needed to utilize the full potential of
the media? Using a number of examples, including the Codex Kodanski project, Michaël Bas will discuss the possibilities and limits of digital entertainment and its role in media.



Prof. Ed Tan
Track: Business & Society

Ed Tan (1951) has been a professor in Media Entertainment since 2003 at the University of Amsterdam.
He did research into the emotional experience of movies and digital media.

Biography

Ed Tan (1951) has been a professor in Media Entertainment since 2003 at the University of Amsterdam. He did research into the emotional experience of movies and digital media, and was involved with product research in the field of digital assistance for the distribution of cultural media.

Lecture Information

In his presentation Ed Tan will try to exemplify future trends in the entertainment industry, given the current forms of media. In the next few years we will see many new forms of entertainment. Some of these will develop across different media, while others are constrained to one type of media, such as TV or internet. This growth will place heavy demands on the distribution of media, the interfaces and the middleware. Safety and privacy issues will become more important as well. Whether these developments will take place quickly or at a slower pace is dependant upon the innovative capacity of research and the way companies are able to cope


Derk Wagelaar
Derk Wagelaar works at Microsoft. As product solution manager he is responsible for the introduction of the Windows XP Media Center in the Netherlands.

Biography

Derk Wagelaar works at Microsoft. As product solution manager he is responsible for the introduction of the Windows XP Media Center in the Netherlands.

Lecture Information

Through the digitalization of our lives through photos, film, music and TV we are quietly but surely experiencing a revolution in the way we deal with home entertainment. The youth of today already has more photos stored digitally than in photo books or cds.  

With the coming of digital television and Internet as medium for interactive creative entertainment the next step has been made towards a market-driven model. The consumer now determines more than ever how and when he will be entertained.

During the presentation the fading of borders between media such as Internet and television will be examined, via a Windows XP Media Center Edition demonstration.