[chisigmail] SA CHI meeting 29th July 2008 and advance notice of future meetings

[Karen Hughes]

There are a few changes in this month's notice (which I will leave in all future ones but wanted to highlight):

*	I'm making a booking for dinner across the road for after the meeting for anyone who is interested 
*	I have no speaker for August yet - I suggest that we still meet and take the opportunity to catch up on who's doing what (unless a presenter is found between now and then - surely you know someone) 
*	I have included remaining dates for the year 
*	I am suggesting we get together for a Xmas dinner (date below) 
*	I have put some suggested dates for 2009 up for comment 

 

When: Tuesday 29th July from 5:30 for a 5:45ish start

Title:    Head Tracking for Virtual Portals

Speaker: Assoc Prof Paul Calder, School of Computer Science, Engineering, and Mathematics, Flinders University

Where: tentatively Excom - Ground Floor, North Lobby, 191 Pulteney St, Adelaide (corner Pulteney and Flinders Sts) (to be confirmed in a later email)

Parking: There is a lot of parking either on Pulteney and Flinders St or in Hindmarsh SQ 
             - its metered but generally only until 6pm (so not much money) and frees up at the right time :-)

Format is intended to be fairly informal: drinks and nibbles on arrival

Presentation from about 5:45 followed by a discussion

Finally networking, more drinks and nibbles and dinner for those who want to continue discussions

RSVP: to karen.hughes at saabsystems.com.au <mailto:karen.hughes at saabsystems.com.au>  (just so I have some idea on quantity of nibbles to organise). If you don't remember to RSVP you are still most welcome :-)

Food and nibbles: gold coin donation to cover costs or if you are able to assist in providing food or nibbles please let me know in your RSVP.

Dinner after the meeting: For those who are interested a table will be booked at Caffe Amore <http://www.cafeamore.com.au/home.php>  (across Pulteney St), please indicate in your RSVP if you would like to come to dinner afterwards and continue discussions (please indicate if a partner or friend will be joining you for dinner).

 

Abstract

Desktop (fish tank) virtual reality systems use a traditional display screen to provide a window (portal) into a computer simulated world.  The sense of reality conveyed by such systems can be improved by tracking the position of the viewer's head and adjusting the view of the simulated world to match.

 

We are currently developing a variety of techniques for head tracking and exploring the extent to which the resulting information can be used to strengthen the viewer's impression that they are actually looking through a window into a 3D world.  This talk will describe two approaches that use cheap and commonly available hardware: the webcam that is built into many current desktop systems, and the Wii Remote that is part of the Nintendo Wii games console.  The work is part of a larger scale project that is using VR techniques to aid in the rehabilitation of patients recovering from brain trauma.

 

Bio

Paul Calder is Associate Professor in the School of Computer Science, Engineering, and Mathematics at Flinders University.  His research interests are in the area of computer human interaction (particularly information visualisation and virtual reality) and software engineering (particular design patterns).

 

August Meeting details: 26th August (same time and place)

Title: To be determined

Presenter: To be determined

 

September Meeting details: 30th September (same time and place)

Presenter: tentatively Shane Morris, Microsoft

 

Dates for the remainder of the year:

28th October

25th November

Maybe a Christmas get together at the café across the road from Excom on 16th Dec?

 

Tentative 2009 dates (any opinions or suggestions?):

27th January

24th February

31st March

28th April

26th May

30th June

28th July

25th August

29th September

27th October

24th November

15th December Xmas show

 

Thanks
Karen Hughes
SA Representative

CHISIG
mob: +61 -4 1788 4876

 

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