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Panels Program
1. Systems engineering science: Obsolete or Essential?
-- March 6 Tuesday, 10:30-12:00
Organizer:
-Marc Erich Latoschik | University of Würzburg, Germany
Other Panelists:
-Steven Feiner | Columbia University, USA
-Dieter Schmalsteig | Graz University of Technology, Austria
-Carolina Cruz-Neira | University of Louisiana at Lafayette, USA
The engineering of systems plays a significant role in the exciting field of virtual and augmented reality (VR and AR). Expectations are constantly rising. State-of-the-art VR/AR-applications often depend on multiple simulation aspects, from multimodal input processing and output generation to intelligent behavior of entities or agents. All too often, such diverse aspects define their own set of highly heterogeneous requirements which call for alternative and novel engineering approaches. Fortunately, there are constant advancements in software technology, from system architectures, design patterns, to programming paradigms or even programming languages which can either be applied to, or developed, refined, or put into practice in the VR/AR-domain for mutual benefits. However, despite the importance of such technological advancements, there seems to be a decreased interest in the engineering science over the last years. This panel counters this trend by openly addressing current and future challenges of the science of software engineering and system development in the field of VR and AR, asking:
- What is the significance of software engineering and programming developments for our field?
- What are important software engineering and programming developments to take into account?
- How will we integrate the state-of-the-art of the engineering sciences continuously?
- How will we value, i.e., publish, review, and rate technically oriented material?
Bios:
Marc Erich Latoschik is a Professor of Computer Science at the Julius-Maximilians University of Würzburg where he holds the chair of Human-Computer Interaction. His work on intelligent graphics is interdisciplinary oriented, interconnecting real-time 3D graphics and virtual/augmented environments with Artificial Intelligence and cognitive sciences.
Steven Feiner is a Professor of Computer Science at Columbia University, where he directs the Computer Graphics and User Interfaces Lab. His lab created the first outdoor mobile AR system using a see-through display, and has pioneered experimental applications of AR to fields such as tourism, journalism, maintenance, and construction. He is a member of the CHI Academy and recipient of the UIST Lasting Impact Award and best paper awards at UIST, CHI, ISMAR, and VRST.
Dieter Schmalstieg is head of the Institute for Computer Graphics and Vision at Graz University of Technology, Austria, and director of the Christian Doppler Laboratory for Handheld Augmented Reality. His current research interests are augmented reality, virtual reality, visualization and user interfaces. He received MSc and PhD degrees from Vienna University of Technology, Austria.
Carolina Cruz-Neira is known as the co-inventor of the CAVE and the original developer of the CAVELibs. She spearheaded the open-source VR API movement with the development of VR Juggler and has been an advocate of best practices on how to build and run VR facilities and applications. Carolina is the W. Hansen Hall and Mary Officer Hall/BORSF Endowed Super Chair in Telecommunications in Computer Engineering and the Chief Scientist of LITE at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.
2. Brain-Computer Interfaces and Virtual Reality: present and future interactions
-- March 8 Thursday, 10:30-12:00
Organizer:
-Anatole Lécuyer | INRIA, France
Other Panelists:
-Anton Nijholt | University of Twente, Netherlands
-Chris Berka | Advanced Brain Monitoring, USA
-Mar González-Franco | University of Barcelona, Spain
-Reinhold Scherer | Graz University of Technology, Austria
Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCI) and Virtual Reality (VR) share the same strong evocative power. BCIs have come a long way since pioneer works of Vidal in the late 70's who showed that electrical signals emitted by the brain could be used as a real-time controllable and measurable user output. As for today, results can be very impressive and illustrate in different manners that mental states and brain responses such as motor imagery or visual attention can be used to effectively drive various kinds of application. The connection between VR and BCI has already been established in two ways. First, Virtual Reality was shown to improve performance of BCI users by engaging the user in a more motivating scenario. In the other way, BCI were shown to enable control of virtual environments in various explicit or implicit manners.
The purpose of this panel is to present and discuss the research challenges involved by this topic and to exchange on potential interactions between Virtual Reality and Brain-Computer Interfaces.
Envisioned topics include:
- Usage and compatibility of BCI with VR technologies
- BCI performance and comparison with traditional 3DUI
- 3D Interaction techniques-based on BCI
- Presence and mind-based interaction
- Implicit versus explicit mental control in virtual environments
Bios:
Anatole Lécuyer is a Senior Researcher at the French National Institute for Research in Computer Science and Control (INRIA), Rennes, France. His research interests include 3D user interfaces, haptic and pseudo-haptic feedback, and brain-computer interfaces (BCI). He has been the project leader of the OpenViBE software for BCI and VR since 2005.
Anton Nijholt is Professor in Human-Computer Interaction at the University of Twente, the Netherlands. His interests include multimodal interaction, affective and entertainment computing and brain-computer interfacing (BCI). He co-edited a book on BCI and Human Computer Interaction (2010), while a second edited book on BCI is in preparation (2012).
Chris Berka is CEO/Co-Founder of Advanced Brain Monitoring; 25 years managing research and developing and commercializing neurotechnologies, co-inventor 8 patents/11pending, PI for over $22million from NIH, DARPA, ONR and NSF, key contributor to AMEX company commercializing hair analysis, 10 years research experience, B.A. with distinction Psychology/Biology, Ohio State, completed graduate studies in Neuroscience at UCSD.
Mar González-Franco is a PhD Candidate at the EventLab University of Barcelona; currently visiting the MIT. Her research focuses on novel methods of measuring body ownership as manifested in brain activity, as well as the use of Brain-Computer Interfaces. Interested on the underlying brain mechanisms that determine what's real and what's virtual.
Reinhold Scherer is Research Scientist at the Graz University of Technology, Graz, Austria. His research interests include brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) based on oscillatory activity of electroencephalographic (EEG) and electrocorticographic (ECoG) signals, functional brain mapping, statistical and adaptive signal processing, and robotics-mediated rehabilitation.
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