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The SIGGRAPH Emerging Technologies program is home to the latest developments in technology, including haptics, displays, robotics, and artificial intelligence. SIGGRAPH 2011 will feature 23 of the latest innovations selected by a jury of industry experts from more than 100 submissions, with topics ranging from displays and input devices to collaborative environments. SIGGRAPH 2011 takes place this August 7th through 11th at the Vancouver Convention Centre.

The SIGGRAPH Emerging Technologies program is unique in its interactive approach that allows people to experience the most cutting-edge developments first-hand,” said Cole Krumbholz, SIGGRAPH 2011 Emerging Technologies Chair and co-founder of Koduco Games. “This year, conference attendees will experience the latest achievements from industry and university research labs.”

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Here is a sampling of the featured highlights from the SIGGRAPH 2011 Emerging Technologies; more can be viewed on the SIGGRAPH 2011 web site.

Face-to-Avatar

Hiroaki Tobita and Shigeaki Maruyama; Sony Computer Science Laboratories, Inc.

This floating avatar system integrates a blimp with a virtual avatar to create a unique system of telepresence. The blimp avatar contains several pieces of equipment, including a projector and a speaker as the output functions. Users communicate with others by presenting their facial images through the projector and voices through the speaker. A camera and microphone attached to the blimp provide the input function and support the user’s manipulation from a distance.

The user’s presence is more dramatic than a conventional virtual avatar (CG and image) because the avatar is a physical object and moves freely in the real world. In addition, the user’s senses are augmented because the blimp detects dynamic information in the real world. For example, the camera provides a special floating view to the user, and the microphone collects a wide variety of sounds such as conversations and environmental noise.

Potential Future Use: Allows the user to have a moveable, physical presence in the real world from even the most remote location.

Volumetric Display Based on Vibrating Mylar Beam Splitter and LED Backlit LCD

Lanny Smoot, Quinn Smithwick, and Daniel Reetz; Disney Research

This new volumetric display produces full-color, high-spatial-resolution aerial images in front of the apparatus. It is based on a new optical element: the large, tunable-resonance, edge-driven, varifocal beam splitter.

This new display technology uses a circular Mylar beam splitter and adds a tension-adjusting metal hoop pressed against its surface. The beam splitter is adjusted, with high Q, to a specific resonance frequency. Three rim-mounted impulse drivers apply low-amplitude sinusoldal drive. Due to the high Q, the diaphram’s sympathetic vibration is large. The beam splitter folds the optical path, and the system includes a fixed-curvature concave mirror to create real images that appear out in front of the apparatus.

It produces high-quality 3D images that occupy a one-third-meter cube 1/3 meter out in front of the apparatus. The image is viewable over a 30-degree viewing angle.

Potential Future Use: Advancements in 3D displays will impact many fields from medical research to gaming.

A Medical Mirror for Non-Contact Health Monitoring

Ming-Zher Poh, Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology; Daniel McDuff and Rosalind Picard, MIT Media Lab

Digital medical devices promise to transform the future of medicine with their ability to produce exquisitely detailed individual physiological data. As ordinary people gain access to and control over their own physiological data, they can play a more active role in diagnosing and managing their health. This revolution must take place in our everyday lives, not just in the doctor’s office or research lab. This project starts in the home environment by transforming everyday objects into health-sensing technology.

The Medical Mirror is a novel interactive interface that tracks and displays a user’s heart rate in real time without the need for external sensors. Currently, collection of physiological information requires users to strap on bulky sensors, chest straps, or sticky electrodes. The Medical Mirror allows contact-free measurements of physiological information using a basic imaging device. When a user looks into the mirror, an image sensor detects and tracks the location of his or her face over time. By combining techniques in computer vision and advanced signal processing, the user’s heart rate is then computed from the optical signal reflected off the face. The user’s heart rate is displayed on the mirror, allowing visualization of both the user’s physical appearance and physiological state.

This project illustrates an innovative approach to pervasive health monitoring based on state-of-the-art technology. The Medical Mirror fits seamlessly into the ambient home environment, blending the data collection process into the course of daily routines. It is intended to provide a convenient way for people to track their daily health when they use the mirror for shaving, brushing teeth, etc.

Potential Future Use: This device allows for easy and much more sophisticated everyday health monitoring.

Telenoid: Tele-Presence Android for Communication

Kohei Ogawa, Shuichi Nishio, Kensuke Koda, Koichi Taura, Takashi Minato, Carlos Toshinori Ishii, Hiroshi Ishiguro; ATR Intelligent Robotics and Communication

This new system of telecommunication focuses on the idea of transferring human “presence”. A minimal human conveys the impression of human existence at first glance, but it doesn’t suggest anything about personal features such as gender or age. The minimal appearance allows people to use Telenoid to transfer their presence to distant places regardless of their personal features.

Telenoid’s tele-operation system is simple and intuitive. It can be controlled by even novice users. Its face-tracking system automatically captures the operator’s facial movements and expressions. Field tests revealed that most users tended to have a strange and negative impression of Telenoid in the beginning, but eventually they became comfortable. Elderly people had very positive feelings about Telenoid at first sight.

Potential Future Use: Telenoid provides a much more interactive and intimate experience than technology that is available today, such as Skype.

True 3D Display

Hidei Kimura and Akira Asano, Burton Inc.; Issei Fujishiro and Ayaka Nakatani; Keio University

This research team was the first to use laser-plasma technology for a true-3D display device that allows users to draw 3D images in midair. Now the team has developed a much more compact and precise display,  called SRV (Super Real Vision)-5000, based on advanced laser technology. One remarkable feature of the new device is its enhanced resolution: from 300 points per second to 50,000 points per second. It displays 3D objects more faithfully in real time and increases the range of possible applications.

Potential Future Use: Advancements in 3D displays will impact many fields from medical research to gaming.

Hothead Games today announced summer release plans for The Baconing, a new stand-alone experience about the mythology of the Bacon Fires. In The Baconing, players will be able to settle in for a lot of fun, meeting some old friends and new acquaintances in this new high profile comical adventure. The game is currently in development for PC, Mac and other formats and is scheduled for release in late summer.

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Apparently Bob from Marketing released this comment about the trailer – after a briefing from Legal:

“With an epic name such as ‘The Baconing’ we didn’t want to detract from one of the most memorable video game names in history, so we created a trailer that shows only the title logo. This trailer explains half of the story about how we arrived at this name, the other half of this story is down to one of our loyal fans.”

I wonder if DeathSpank will know more….is it possible to bribe ineptly naive virtuous super-heroes? I hope that “one of the other formats” includes the Xbox 360. If not, I will have to vanquish a few friends from the realm of Hothead with a kick in the shin. 😉

Ottawa-based AssetLabs Inc. and Dublin’s Openplain Ltd. have announced the integration of their web-based ‘SAM’ (Software Asset Management) solutions. This integration enables customers to share data between AssetLab’s AssetCheck and Openplain’s LicenseMetrics services, empowering corporations to optimize, reduce and forecast their software licensing requirements.

LicenseMetrics is a web-based managed service that offers software metering and inventory for PC, MAC, Unix and other network devices. There are no servers or databases to maintain. LicenseMetrics can track usage of desktop, web, virtual and portable applications. LicenseMetrics includes FeatureDetect™, which determines whether the ‘professional or ‘standard’ features of a product are being used, assisting customers in justifying the value of professional editions, or to save money by deploying standard editions.

AssetCheck is a web-based managed service that offers software licensing, budget and productivity risk analysis and true-up cost forecasting based upon software growth trends. AssetCheck also categorizes and normalizes inventory data, identifies vendor ‘end-of-support’, Windows 7 readiness and enables tagging of various license states (open source, trial, volume license, etc.)

“The combination of LicenseMetrics and AssetCheck enables corporations to quickly identify ‘wasted’ software licenses and to justify and also budget for essential increases in software deployments,” says Jon Mulligan, CEO of Openplain. “As a web-based managed service, the deployment and ROI of both AssetCheck and LicenseMetrics are immediate to both the corporation and their SAM advisors.” Read the rest of this entry »

Canadian and international filmmakers, animators and video artists are invited to submit one-minute silent films for an urban public to the 5th annual Toronto Urban Film Festival (TUFF).

TUFF is FREE to submit prior to June 1, 2011. After that date, there will be submission fees: $10 (June 1 – June 30) and $15 (July 1 – July 15). Final deadline is July 15, 2011. Films can be submitted through the TUFF website. The Festival pays artist fees and awards thousands of dollars in cash and prizes.

The Toronto Urban Film Festival is North America’s only true “underground” film festival, reaching over 1.3 million daily commuters who ride the Toronto subway system.  Films screen every 10 minutes on 300 screens in 60 subways stations across the city. The festival takes place September 9 – 18, 2011 concurrent with the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF).

Award-winning Canadian filmmaker Atom Egoyan will guest judge this year’s festival. Egoyan will select the top three films of the festival as well as the winner of the “Naish McHugh Award”, an annual cash award from the City of Toronto to an emerging GTA filmmaker. Egoyan, who was on the jury of this year’s Tribeca Film Festival, joins a prestigious roster of former guest judges that includes Deepa Mehta, Don McKellar, Mark McKinney, and Jeremy Podeswa.

Named one of MovieMaker Magazine’s “20 Coolest Film Festivals” for 2010, TUFF is co-produced by Art for Commuters and Onestop Media Group, and funded by the Canada Council for the Arts.

Promaginy, a business assistance company in Winnipeg, is pleased to officially launch its own product. UpDownStart is a free web app that uses Twitter technology to track the latest announcements of games industry companies and their fans.

UpDownStart allows developers, news media, and fans to easily see the latest Tweets from the games industry. UpDownStart goes beyond focusing solely on game companies, expanding to include game communities, providing a holistic industry perspective. Companies and communities not included in the site’s index are invited to submit their Twitter feed to UpDownStart.

UpDownStart allows developers, media critics, and fans to:

• Track the most popular companies and communities, ranked by number of Twitter Followers. Smaller entities can be found through the index, the site’s search form, or via the random profile selection.

• Read games industry Tweets through UpDownStart.com’s Activity Feeds. Feel the industry’s pulse via distinct company and community perspectives.

• Add your own Twitter Feeds. If you are game developer, news media, or a fan, and have a website related to the games industry, you can add your site to UpDownStart. Not only will your profile be included in the index, your future Tweets will be shared via UpDownStart’s Activity Feeds.

• Note, there is currently a message on the site which states: At the moment we are only taking submissions for Video Game Company profiles. This is due to limited amount of resources at this early stage. Follow @updownstart for news when the resources limit is removed.)

Following the great success of “I Learn With Poko: Seasons and Weather! HD,” Tribal Nova has released the iPhone version of this top ranking educational app. The iPad version has been selected by Apple as “New and Noteworthy” or “Staff favorites” in the U.S and 15 other countries. Users and reviewers have also given the game rave reviews bringing the app to the top position of the Games-Educational and Games-Kids charts in Australia as well as a top 10 positions in the U.S., Canada and the UK.

I Learn With Poko: Seasons and Weather! is an educational game that lets children 3 to 7 years old learn many key concepts about the weather in various seasons, how to dress and what activities to do depending on the weather… while having tons of fun! Produced by the developers behind the award winning PBS KIDS PLAY! and CBC Wonderworld online learning programs, this app is the first app available on iPhone in the groundbreaking iLearnWith educational program, which is designed to help kids get ready for school, one app at a time.

“Seasons and Weather is one of the most important Science subjects taught to children in Pre-k and Kindergarten, yet there are no games for young children covering the subject in the app store. We are happy to fulfill this need and are committed to developing a comprehensive educational program in which each app will address a specific subject in the curriculum. We have another nine apps currently in development covering various skills in math, literacy, science and foreign languages,” says Pierre Le Lann, co-founder of Tribal Nova.

This app is based on National Standards and has been developed with child developmental psychologists and educators. The game has three levels, increasing in complexity, details and subject covered. Moreover, each level contains a mechanism that adjusts the difficulty based on the child’s success rate. These elements combined enable the game to meet children’s developmental needs regardless if they are 3 or 7 years old.

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The game contains many ways for children to learn about seasons and weather: finding certain weather conditions such as clouds or snow to help Beebee find pictures for her photo album; or spotting clothes that do not fit the weather to help Poko take a perfect picture; or guessing what activities Poko did certain days of the week based on the weather and the month of the year.

Educational content, rich graphics and audio, fun game mechanics and a high production budget really set this app apart to deliver both learning and fun to families.

“We have developed over 100 online educational games for young children over the past 5 years. We are very excited to apply our expertise to touch screens, and are confident we can develop some of the best kids apps in the app store with truly educational content and great gameplay,” says Guillaume Aniorte, Tribal Nova’s other co-founder.

Canadian casual developers are invited to the Casual Connect Conference, taking place in Seattle this July 19th through 21st. The conference attracts over 2,000 industry professionals with a cutting edge lecture series and highly popular nightly networking events. Join more than 50 Canadian companies that are expected to attend this year’s conference and take advantage of the following:

• $100 discount off the Premium Registration for the first 50 companies – Contact your local Trade Commissioner for details.

• Send and receive meeting requests with companies prior to the conference

• Access to free on-site meeting space during the conference

• Informational breakfast briefing with local industry experts on July 19

• Networking events held at the Invest in Canada booth on-site

• Inclusion in the Canada Company Directory to be distributed at the event (please feel out attached document)

Digital Alberta received nearly 200 submissions in 17 categories for this year’s Digital Alberta Awards. The Association has announced the finalists and hopes to see you all at the Digital Alberta Awards on Monday, June 6th at Calgary’s Hotel Arts. Tickets are on sale now, but seating is limited and the show promises to be a sell out event. This year’s nominees are:

Outstanding Achievement Award

• iStockphoto – Bruce Livingstone
• Bioware – Dr Ray Muzyka and Dr Greg Zeschuk
• Critical Mass – Dianne Wilkins
• Smart Technologies – David Martin
• StumbleUpon – Garrett Camp

B2C Innovation – Presented by Macleod Dixon

• Robots & Pencils for Ripplewave – Ayala Malls
• Robots & Pencils for Rightmove PLC – Rightmove for iPad
• Chaordix for Orange (France Telecom) UK – Mobile Volunteering
• Pirates Love Daisies – gskinner.com
• Strut for Brookfield Homes – Website, iPhone App & Touch-based Kiosk

Best Digital Advertising/Marketing or Design Agency – Presented by the CMA

• Donovan Creative
• Medium Rare
• Suitcase Interactive
• Evans Hunt
• Critical Mass

Best Digital Design – Presented by Adobe

• Robots & Pencils for Rightmove PLC – Rightmove for iPad
• Suitcase Interactive – Jayman MasterBuilt Web Site
• RED The Agency – EPCOR Blue Bucket Crew
• Calgary Herald In-house design team – Swerve Calgary
• Strut for Brookfield Homes – Website, iPhone App & Touch-based Kiosk

Best in Cross-Platform Content – Presented by Postmedia Networks

• The SnowShow Presented by SnowSeekers
• Enthrill Entertainment – One Child Transmedia Experience
• Corus Entertainment – ExploreMusic – powered by Cardinal
• Snow Seekers Go-Guide
• EA / Bioware – Mass Effect 2
• Conceptual Films – FOTO with Struan

B2B Innovation

• Robots & Pencils for Avalanche Air Systems Ltd. – Contractor Forms HD App
• Robots & Pencils for Ayala Malls / Ripplewave – Ayala Malls App
• Chaordix for IBM (Global) – Information Governance Community
• Touchmetric
• WMode – Cricket

Best Combined Hardware & Software Experience

• Suitcase Interactive – Jayman Touchscreen Application
• JetVision
• eQube Technology and Software Inc – Lil Gecko
• SMART Technologies – Multitouch Interactive Whiteboard
• SMART Technologies – Mixed Reality in education

Best in E-learning

• Rocket Fuel Games for Discovery Kids – Seek Your Own Proof
• 3DI – Simulation Training on Aerial Work Platform
• Global e-Training
• SMART Multitouch Interactive whiteboard
• SMART Mixed reality in the classroom

Best in Games Development

• Big Nerds in Disguise – Own This World
• EA / Bioware – Dragon Age 2
• EA / Bioware – Mass Effect 2
• BigStack Studios – Sigma
• Games Cafe – Sally’s Studio
• Pirates Love Daisies – gskinner.com

Best Use of Film, Animation or Special FX

• Solid Green Promo
• Jump Studios – IZOD Indy Rebranding Package
• Science Alberta – Do You Know What Nano Means
• 3DI – MARL Technologies Launches Revolutionary Sub Sea Drill
• EA / Bioware – Mass Effect 2

Government 2.0

• HEALTH DETERMINANTS FOR FIRST NATIONS in Alberta – Lift Interactive
• City of Calgary – Road Conditions Map
• City Of Calgary – 2010 Calgary Civic Election iPhone App
• Studio Dialog for the City Of Calgary – The Bow is Below
• Share Edmonton Wiki Site

Best In Financial Services

• Fulucai Productions Ltd. – “The Real Deal”
• Habañero for Servus Credit Union – Servus Website
• Suitcase Interactive for Neteller Net+ Credit Card – Facebook Ninja Defense Game
• Solium Capital – Adhoc Financial Reporting Engine

Mobile Innovation

• Poynt Corporation
• Syncamatic
• Big Nerds in Disguise – Own This World
• Perfectly Clear – iPhone & iPad Apps
• Fluik Entertainment – Office Jerk

Best in Social Media

• Suitcase Interactive for The Forzani Group – Athletes World “Stand Out” Engagement Campaign
• Cardinal for Corus Entertainment – ExploreMusic
• RED the Agency for EPCOR – Blue Bucket Crew and Digital Aquarium
• Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP) – Canada’s Oil Sands: Come see for yourself.
• Edmonton Journal – Grey Cup 2010
• Shell Canada – Shell FuellingChange

Best Social Impact

• Chaordix for University of Oxford (Global) – Global Voices for Maternal Health
• Suitcase Interactive for United Way of Calgary – “BeCause” Social Campaign
• Joe Media for angrysue.ca – Get Turned off. For Good (aka. End Idling)
• Spark! by Benevity Workplace Giving Solution
• From Competition to Connection – Bringing Women Together with Womentum

Best Digital Startup

• Empire Avenue
• ExploreMusic – powered by Cardinal
• Beamdog
• Calgary Herald In-house design team – Swerve Calgary
• decorateIT online

Student Digital Award

• Alana Thorburn-Watt – Synaesthesia Squares
• Jessie Altura and Oana Avasilichioaei – Celan Mirror
• Greg Crossfield – Pulsar Chocolate Bar
• Lindsay MacDonald – University of Calgary – A Delicate Agreement
• Jeremy Pudlowski – The Man of Hat

Way back on March 8th we went to a Customer Consultation evening hosted by Shaw, our ISP. The reason for this desire to meet face to face with customers was the backlash Shaw experienced from customers like us in response to the User Based Billing issue. The corporation hosted over 30 such meetings across its service area during the first consultation, and judging from the meeting we attended tonight, Shaw listened.

As with the first consultation evening, this one was led by Chris Kucharski, VP Operations, and one of the first points he made was that Shaw heard the message, loud and clear. He stated that at times it was hard to hear people who (like us) had been long term customers, and who, because of the way Shaw initially handled the UBB issue, had lost trust and faith in the company. Throughout each of the original consultation sessions, there was a commonality of thinking that Shaw needed to become transparent in its communication with its customers, who wanted more options when it came to the speed and data usage of their internet access – and the company freely admitted that it learned some very hard lessons throughout that process.

Over the past three months, the teams at Shaw went over all of the feedback they had received both in person and via the internet, and they came to the decision that Shaw’s future involved unleashing their internet customers, not reigning them in. This was followed by a collective mind shift on the company’s focus as it began to really explore what it could accomplish in the way of service provision and pricing to support the ever-growing usage of the internet in our daily lives. None of these considerations would have been possible without the exchanges that went on between the corporation and its customers, and this was a dialogue that Shaw wanted to keep open as it moves into the future.

There are approximately 366 000 Shaw customers still on analogue cable, and over the next 16 months, those customers will be converted to full digital cable. As those customers are moved off of analogue, there will be an increasing capacity of bandwidth available to improve internet services and options. These improvements will be a rolling capacity improvement as each of those analogue customers will have to be visited and their services converted. Those who need to be upgraded to digital will receive their digital boxes at no charge, and while this will cost the company a lot of money, and we know that those costs will be passed along to the consumer in the course of doing business, but to be honest I really don’t have a problem with that, simply because when all is said and done, everyone will benefit.

Some of those benefits have already been realized by those who subscribe to the Extreme internet package, with the bandwidth speed and data transfer allowance already receiving an upgrade that sees the transfer allowance more than double. The new, what I will call lower-tier, packages are shown in the image below – I will get into the higher-tiered packages later in this article.

These transfer allowance improvements are evidence that Shaw was indeed listening to its customers – and are available with no price increase over the current plans. Those of us on the higher-tiered broadband packages will have to wait until June for new options, but I will come to that in a bit.

The topic of the Transfer Usage Tool used by Shaw to show its customers how much data transfer they’ve used, but as was shown in the first round of consultations, this tool does not reflect real-time usage and is in fact two days behind in its reporting. It was also shown to be inaccurate and unreliable. Shaw’s programming engineers will be revisiting the reporting tool and making several improvements in it over the coming months.

There was also the question of Shaw’s flexibility as customer usage of the internet will inevitably change over time as the internet and data transfers become more and more important to the average Canadian as well as to business. Mr. Kucharski stated that as with these new plans, Shaw would review the plans and options when usage changes became apparent. One of the most important issues that started the whole uprising among internet users was very conspicuous in its absence with these new plans. There are no per gigabyte charges. At all.

Should a customer consistently go over his or her transfer cap month after month (not that that has ever happened in our house), they will be contacted by Shaw to discuss plan options as the plan they are on obviously isn’t working for them. The corporation is still working on the best avenue to pursue in regards to those who are consistently over, but they promise to not be combative or punitive. Those customers on plans with transfer limits who go over will be automatically bumped up to the next plan level for the remainder of the month, but again, the company is looking at the best way to communicate this action to the consumer.

During the first round of consultations there had been discussion of educating people to do their downloading during off-peak hours, something that would not always be convenient for those with home offices or who telecommute. After taking the beating that it did during the consultation period, Shaw wanted to take the most open and customer-friendly approach to any changes they made with their internet offerings, and throttling or rewarding off-peak usage simply did not have a place in the new packages. While there will inevitably be a need for some education in regards to transfer usage, the company again felt it better to unleash its customers and give them the internet experience they expected than to leave them feeling sour and limited. Read the rest of this entry »

Ubisoft has released new product details for Assassin’s Creed^® Revelations, allowing us to see what is coming as the battle between Assassin and Templar continues its richly immersive tale when it launches on the Xbox 360^® , the PlayStation^®3 and Windows PC this November. Assassin’s Creed Revelations is available now for pre-order in the Ubi Store.

Assassin’s Creed Revelations follows master assassin Ezio Auditore as he walks in the footsteps of his legendary mentor, Altaïr, on a journey to recover five ancient seals that hold the keys to the future of the Assassins brotherhood. It is a perilous path – one that will take Ezio to Constantinople, the heart of the Ottoman Empire, where a growing army of Templars threatens to destabilize the region.

• Hone the deadly art of assassination – As Ezio Auditore, wield the lethal skills of a wiser, more efficient assassin. Armed with a new arsenal of weapons and abilities including the hookblade, bomb crafting and a heightened Eagle Sense, you can kill with death-dealing proficiency.
• Herald the return of a legend – Assassin’s Creed Revelations features the return of Altaïr as a playable character, the hero of the original Assassin’s Creed.
• Journey to the Constantinople –Explore picturesque settings, from Masyaf, the mountain stronghold of the Assassins during the Third Crusade to the vibrant and exotic Constantinople, the jewel of the Ottoman Empire in the 16^th Century. Navigate crowded streets and vistas, through a cauldron of cultures as Constantinople comes to life.
• Meet new players to the Assassins Creed lore –Encounter memorable personalities, including fellow master assassin Yusuf Tazim, Prince Suleiman, destined to become one of the greatest monarchs in history, and Sofia Sorto, a simple woman who vies for Ezio’s heart.
• Test your skills as an assassin against your friends – the acclaimed online multiplayer experience returns, refined and expanded with more modes, more enthralling maps and new characters

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