http://show.mat.ucsb.edu UCSB Media Arts and Technology Tue, 15 May 2012 08:28:23 +0000 http://show.mat.ucsb.edu en http://show.mat.ucsb.edu/Alex-BostandjievTasteWeights-Interactive-Music-Recommendation http://show.mat.ucsb.edu/following/show.mat.ucsb.edu/Alex-BostandjievTasteWeights-Interactive-Music-Recommendation Tue, 15 May 2012 08:28:23 +0000 UCSB Media Arts and Technology 3373404 TasteWeights is a visual interactive hybrid recommender system designed to personalize information flow from multiple social and semantic web resources such as Wikipedia, Facebook, and Twitter. The system employs hybrid techniques from traditional recommender system literature, in addition to a novel interactive interface which serves to explain the recommendation process and elicit hybridization preferences from the end user. http://show.mat.ucsb.edu/Jonathan-Ventura4Eyes-Lab http://show.mat.ucsb.edu/following/show.mat.ucsb.edu/Jonathan-Ventura4Eyes-Lab Tue, 15 May 2012 08:28:12 +0000 UCSB Media Arts and Technology 3373398 Modeling and Localization for Mobile Augmented Reality We propose a system for modeling an outdoor environment using an omnidirectional camera and then continuously estimating a camera phone's position with respect to the model. Our system evaluation shows that minimal user effort is required to initialize a camera tracking session in an unprepared urban environment. We combine panoramas captured using an omnidirectional camera from several viewpoints to create a point cloud model. After the offline modeling step, live camera pose tracking is initialized by feature point matching, and continuously updated by aligning the point cloud model to the camera image. In contrast to camera-based simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) systems, our methods are suitable for handheld use in large outdoor spaces. Our vision-based system enables mobile augmented reality applications with better position accuracy and update rate than possible with satellite triangulation. ilab.cs.ucsb.edu/index.php/component/content/article/10/105 http://show.mat.ucsb.edu/Steffen-GauglitzVisual-Interaction-for-Remote-Collaboration http://show.mat.ucsb.edu/following/show.mat.ucsb.edu/Steffen-GauglitzVisual-Interaction-for-Remote-Collaboration Tue, 15 May 2012 08:26:33 +0000 UCSB Media Arts and Technology 3373395 Current telecommunication/teleconference systems are largely successful when dealing with verbal communication and digital data (such as presentation slides), but they hit severe limitations when real-world objects are involved. We present a paradigm and prototype that aims at significantly increasing the interactivity of remote collaboration systems and thus their applicability, by leveraging novel computer vision and augmented reality techniques. Specifically, rather than forcing a remote user to passively watch a video stream, our system allows him/her to communicate spatial information by placing live annotations into the local user's environment. Our demo scenario is that of a remote user helping a novice pilot to safely operate a mock-up airplane. Our system leverages model-free, markerless visual tracking to facilitate live, but decoupled views of the environment with live, world-registered annotations, while supporting a freely moving camera and unknown, unprepared environments. http://show.mat.ucsb.edu/Cha-LeeMixed-Reality-Simulator http://show.mat.ucsb.edu/following/show.mat.ucsb.edu/Cha-LeeMixed-Reality-Simulator Tue, 15 May 2012 08:21:25 +0000 UCSB Media Arts and Technology 3373392 Controllability and reproducibility are two of the main principles of the scientific method and yet traditional user experiments in the domain of Augmented Reality (AR) display systems are very difficult to control and repeat. Due to the many choices in hardware and software, it is generally the case that each display system is unique. This makes it difficult for researchers to repeat experiments performed by others. By using the traditional approach, a researcher would need the exact display system (or something very close to it) to repeat an experiment. This can be costly and impractical. Mixed Reality (MR) Simulation is a practical approach to conducting controlled and repeatable experiments. MR Simulation is the concept of using a high-fidelity Virtual Reality display system to simulate a range of lower-fidelity display systems. We can simulate a variety of display systems used by other researchers by simulating the level of fidelity of said system, making it practical for reproducing previous experiments. This approach also offers more controllability when we conduct user experiments in a simulated display system. By simulating the hardware, the software, and even the environment, we can control all factors in an Augmented Reality experiment which is often impossible with real-world setups. An added benefit of using MR Simulation is the ability of evaluating non-existing or hard to obtain technologies by simply simulating the technology. This project investigates the validity of this approach. Through a series of experiments we will empirically show that for a representative set of tasks and conditions, it is both practical and valid to run AR user experiments using MR Simulation. Cha Lee is a computer science PhD candidate in the Four Eyes Lab at the University of California Santa Barbara. http://ilab.cs.ucsb.edu/index.php/component/content/article/10/21 http://show.mat.ucsb.edu/Javier-VillegasBackground-Singer http://show.mat.ucsb.edu/following/show.mat.ucsb.edu/Javier-VillegasBackground-Singer Mon, 14 May 2012 01:40:01 +0000 UCSB Media Arts and Technology 3397615 Untitled from Javier Villegas on Vimeo. The human visual system constantly receives a large amount of information that has to be filtered in order to be meaningful. A key element to know where to direct our attention is a classification between figure and ground. However, that separation is not always evident. Examples as Rubin's vase show that it is possible to create images that have more than one stable interpretation. But, can the same type of ambiguities be created on a sequence of moving images? Are we able to track what is happening on the background and the foreground? Background Singer is a short animation that explores these questions and the possibilities of parallel story telling using the duality of ground and figure. The animation plays with the ambiguities of background-foreground perception integrating both in a single musical piece. http://show.mat.ucsb.edu/Yoon-Chung-HanAcross-the-Universe http://show.mat.ucsb.edu/following/show.mat.ucsb.edu/Yoon-Chung-HanAcross-the-Universe Mon, 14 May 2012 01:35:06 +0000 UCSB Media Arts and Technology 3397596 Everyone is a little universe determined by forces in time and space. Human beings, trees, animals, or cosmic dust have their own tracks in tune with the world and space, and interacting with each other. Nature has recorded their history in their own ways; the best example is the tree rings. Tree rings are the representations of their stories, and their own universe. It is a small history and world, containing everything as the whole universe. Across the Universe is an installation where performers can explore the music of this universe by moving marbles on the tree trunk. Each tree rings represent different orbits in space and the positions of the marbles determine the planets and their frequencies. http://show.mat.ucsb.edu/Sahar-SajadiehPlease-Keep-Your-Eyes-Closed http://show.mat.ucsb.edu/following/show.mat.ucsb.edu/Sahar-SajadiehPlease-Keep-Your-Eyes-Closed Mon, 14 May 2012 01:32:13 +0000 UCSB Media Arts and Technology 3397583 A Performance Poetry: Please keep your eyes closed!!! This performance is an experiment with poetry in Farsi and English, using varieties of sound effects to distort the natural flow of words, in combination with sound poetry. Using modified recorded voices and live effects on speech, the performance creates an atmosphere of simultaneous interrogation and seduction. By generating a multi-sensorial experience for the audience members, the art piece will bring their focus to the parallel between the themes of human and prison and the seductive abuse of human in our capitalist society. In creating this piece, I have used my father’s, Amir Hossein Sajadieh, poetry from his book, “The Songs of Prison”, which I have translated into English. http://show.mat.ucsb.edu/Marco-Pinter-and-Nick-LoewenObject-Permanence http://show.mat.ucsb.edu/following/show.mat.ucsb.edu/Marco-Pinter-and-Nick-LoewenObject-Permanence Mon, 14 May 2012 01:30:07 +0000 UCSB Media Arts and Technology 3397574 Object Permanence is a system of three structures, each exploring and challenging our perception of reality versus illusion.   Kinetic structures cycling between states of chaos and order (documented in video loops) exploit the perceptual effect of object permanence through the use of graphics, computers and robotically controlled sculpture. Thus the viewer perceives objects that do not in fact exist. The photographic fragments of the installation are precisely positioned to create what would be a complete image, mimicking those areas of the image that the eye is naturally drawn towards through unconscious saccadic movements. By presenting only these fragments, the work draws attention to the unconscious process and attempts to create a discourse around its meaning.   This work was funded in part by the Interdisciplinary Humanities Center. http://show.mat.ucsb.edu/Tim-WoodNothing-is-Ever-Forgotten http://show.mat.ucsb.edu/following/show.mat.ucsb.edu/Tim-WoodNothing-is-Ever-Forgotten Mon, 14 May 2012 01:26:28 +0000 UCSB Media Arts and Technology 3397529 Nothing is Ever Forgotten is a performance combining movement, poetry, and a unique spatial instrument controlled by the body. We are made up of many smaller parts, what would it be like if every cell in your body was consciously aware of every other cell; if every piece of you was in harmony with every other piece? How do we maintain an awareness and connection to the most fundamental equipment we have in a growing world of technological augmentation? How can a deeper awareness of our bodies be important in the near future? Can the body know? What does the body know? It is my intent to play with the idea that the human body is in itself intelligent, and ultimately to encourage viewers to listen to their own bodies. http://show.mat.ucsb.edu/Daniel-VaqueroComposition-Context-Photography http://show.mat.ucsb.edu/following/show.mat.ucsb.edu/Daniel-VaqueroComposition-Context-Photography Thu, 10 May 2012 06:35:52 +0000 UCSB Media Arts and Technology 3373403 In a point-and-shoot camera in automatic mode, we call the contextual information given by viewfinder images, their capture parameters, and inertial sensor data collected while the user is framing a photograph the "composition context" of the photograph. We have collected a large database of framing instances by asking users to take pictures of scenes representing common photographic situations. An analysis indicates that significant and useful variations in capture parameters exist in this dataset, such as field of view, exposure time, focus, zoom, and presence of moving subjects. We explore these variations to create new camera functionality. A “composition context camera” preserves the interface of current point-and-shoot cameras, but it silently records the composition context and uses it to compute additional photo suggestions from the same scene, ranging from panoramas to synthetic long exposure images. We expect this capability to expand the photographic possibilities for casual and amateur users, who often rely on automatic camera modes. Daniel Vaquero is a PhD student at the Department of Computer Science, University of California, Santa Barbara. Throughout his PhD studies, Daniel held research internship positions at Mitsubishi Electric Research Labs, IBM Research, and the Nokia Research Center, where he worked on novel computational photography and surveillance techniques. Daniel’s research has been featured in major Computer Vision and Graphics conferences, such as CVPR, ICCV and SIGGRAPH. His interests span topics in computer vision, graphics, and image processing, with applications in computational photography and visual surveillance. www.cs.ucsb.edu/~daniel/publications/conferences/siggraph11/ http://www.cs.ucsb.edu/~daniel/