News

Angelina is presenting a talk on “Fabricating humanities futures: a case for innovative partnerships in the regions” at the University of Tasmania on 9 May, 6pm.

Betty Sargeant is shortlisted for the Innovator of the Year award: she will present as finalist for the Veski Fast Smarts Innovator of the Year Award at Federation Square on Wed, 8 May 2018. Well done Betty!

All our CHI 2018 publications are now online:

This is our flyer for CHI’18:

Dear CHI attendees,

If you are packing for CHI, here is your chance to bring your running shoes for another “Jogging at CHI” event!

As in previous years, we are again organizing a jog around the conference venue to discuss interactive technology and sports. We invite you to bring your running gear with you (and any jogging apps, sportswatches, your own prototype, …) and we meet on

Tuesday, 24 Apr, 18:30 after the plenary outside room 517D

(where you can leave your bags) and jog from there. So bring your runners, either get changed at your hotel during the break before or use the toilets next to the room, we’ll leave shortly after for a run around the venue outside. We have done this five times in the past and everyone involved seemed to have enjoyed this “alternative” format of talking HCI and sports while getting some exercise at CHI.

We’ll be running for approx. 30min and we have plans to accommodate those who want to jog slower/faster/further/not that long etc. All jogging levels will be catered for! The goal is to actively shape the future of the field of sports-HCI.

Hope to see you there,
Floyd, Rohit, Joe, Jakob, Stina, Josh, Rakesh

https://chi2018.acm.org/2018/04/19/a-note-from-your-jogging-at-chi-enthusiasts/

You can now also download our workshop and videoshowcase publications to be presented at CHI 2018 in Montreal, Canada:

We are seeking exceptional PhD and Masters candidates to research the future of human-computer interaction (HCI) in terms of digital play.

We are interested in the following broad topics:
* PLAYFUL HUMAN-FOOD INTERACTION: Designing the playful side of our interactions with food
* HUMAN-BODY INTEGRATION: Designing and exploring novel forms of bodily play through mini-exoskeletons
* DIGITAL WATER PLAY: Designing and exploring novel bodily interactions around water sports
* FLYING ROBOTIC PLAY: Designing and exploring interactive sports systems with flying robotic companions
* EXTREME SPORTS: Designing and exploring extreme sports
* BODY AND HCI: Your topic around the body, play and HCI

ABOUT YOU:
We are looking for motivated individuals with keen interests and passion towards play. If you have Bachelors or Masters education in the following: human-computer interaction, game design, interaction design, computer science, industrial design, electrical engineering, human movement, sports science, performing and media arts, that’s even a plus. Prior research experience (with publications) is desirable and so are hardware prototyping abilities (Arduino, etc.) and programming skills. We are looking at the potential for creativity, excellence, and drive.

Please get in touch with us. All applicants will need to apply for and be
accepted to the respective program in the School of Design at RMIT
University, see
http://www.rmit.edu.au/research/phds-and-other-research-degrees/scholarships-and-support.

DEADLINES:
1) Australian applicants: ** 4 May 2018**,
2) International applicants:   **AS SOON AS POSSIBLE **
International applicants must have an offer for a “place” by 23 April so that they are eligible for the scholarship, therefore they will need to apply for the place approx. 3 weeks earlier.
http://exertiongameslab.org/engage-2/engage

Please email your interest with CV and portfolio URL to:
exertiongameslab[at]rmit.edu.au with subject line “APPLICATION”.

This is a ranking of game universities,
we are #17 worldwide, #1 in Australia:
http://www.kmjn.org/game-rankings/

We will present the following at CHI 2018 in Montreal, Canada:

Mueller, F., Byrne, R., Andres, J., Patibanda, R. Experiencing the Body as Play. Proceedings of the 2018 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. CHI 2018. Long paper. ACM. BEST PAPER AWARD.

Marwecki, S., Brehm, M., Wagner, L., Cheng, L., Mueller, F., Baudisch, P. VirtualSpace – Overloading Physical Space with Multiple Virtual Reality Users. Proceedings of the 2018 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. CHI 2018. Long paper. ACM.

Sargeant, B., Mueller, F. How Far Is Up? Bringing the Counterpointed Triad Technique to Digital Storybook Apps. Proceedings of the 2018 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. CHI 2018. Long paper. ACM.

Mueller, F., Gibbs, M.R., Vetere, F. and Edge, D. Designing for Bodily Interplay in Social Exertion Games. ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction. Volume 24, Issue 3, 2017, 1-41. Presented at CHI 2018.

Our conference paper has been published:

Demediuk, S., Tamassia, M., Raffe, W., Zambetta, F., Li, X., Mueller, F. Monte Carlo Tree Search Based Algorithms for Dynamic Difficulty Adjustment. Proceedings of the Conference on Computational Intelligence and Games. CIG 2017. IEEE. 53-59

Our article in the International Journal for Human-Computer Studies has been published:

Altimira, D., Mueller, F., Clarke, J., Lee, G., Billinghurst, M., Bartneck, C. Enhancing Player Engagement Through Game Balancing in Digitally Augmented Physical Games. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies. 103 (2017), Elsevier. 35-47.

We are co-organizing a new Dagstuhl Seminar, on Human-Computer Integration, with Jonathan Grudin, Pattie Maes and Kia Höök, from 5-10 Aug 2018:

Dagstuhl Seminars are frequently praised by participants as the most productive academic events they have ever experienced. It has earned a reputation as Informatics Capital throughout the world.

https://www.dagstuhl.de/en/program/calendar/semhp/?semnr=18322

Dr. Tuomas Kari, D.Sc. (Econ. and Bus.Adm.), is a visiting postdoctoral researcher from the University of Jyvaskyla, Finland. His background is in information systems science, and his main research interest lays in the use of technology in everyday life, especially in the context of health and wellness. Welcome Tuomas!

Betty wins the Victorian Premier’s Design Award!

Betty, creator-in-residence at the RMIT Exertion Games Lab, led the creative team who designed The Storytelling Machine. This was the major project of her recent Melbourne Knowledge Fellowship and won the Victorian Premiers Design Award for best Digital Design.

The development of this project was proudly supported by the Centre for Game Design Research.

The Storytelling Machine is an interactive media artwork. It is a digital system that delivers a collective story made from crowd-sourced content. The story is told through text and images that are projected onto surfaces in an exhibition space.

Audiences draw characters, place them into a custom-made photo-booth and watch as their characters are instantly animated across video “worlds”. People also contribute short story texts in any language. The machine generates real-time graphics, randomly displaying audience contributions. Ultimately this installation presents a disjointed contemporary narrative; an imprint of what it’s like to live in digitally connected automated cultures where people oscillate between geographic and virtual realities.

Our CHI PLAY’17 publications are now in the ACM Digital Library:

Brandmueller, F., Li, Z. Guts Game – A Game using Ingestible Sensors. CHI PLAY 2017. Student Game Competition Finalist. 625-631.

Li, Z., Brandmueller, F., Mueller, F., Greuter, S. Ingestible Games – Swallowing a Digital Sensor to Play a Game CHI PLAY 2017. Work in Progress. 511-518.

Sargeant, B., Mueller, F., Dwyer, J. Using HTC Vive and TouchDesigner to Projection-Map Moving Objects in 3D Space: A Playful Participatory Artwork. CHI PLAY 2017. Spotlight. 1-11.

Patibanda, R., Mueller, F., Leskovsek, M., Duckworth, J. Life Tree: Understanding the Design of Breathing Exercise Games. CHI PLAY 2017. Long paper. 19-31.

Mueller, F., Tan, C., Byrne, R., Jones, M. 13 Game Lenses for Designing Diverse Interactive Jogging Systems. CHI PLAY 2017. Long paper. 43-56.

We presented our 2 papers, Student Game Competition, Work-in-Progress and Spotlight submission at CHI PLAY’17 in Amsterdam! Here is a photo of Zhuying and Felix presenting their latest “Guts” game, for which they designed their own T-Shirts.

Brandmueller, F., Li, Z. Guts Game – A Game using Ingestible Sensors. CHI PLAY 2017. Student Game Competition Finalist. 7 pages.

Li, Z., Brandmueller, F., Mueller, F., Greuter, S. Ingestible Games – Swallowing a Digital Sensor to Play a Game CHI PLAY 2017. Work in Progress. 8 pages.

Sargeant, B., Mueller, F., Dwyer, J., Using HTC Vive and TouchDesigner to Projection-Map Moving Objects in 3D Space: A Playful Participatory Artwork. CHI PLAY 2017. Spotlight. 11 pages.

Patibanda, R., Mueller, F., Leskovsek, M., Duckworth, J. Life Tree: Understanding the Design of Breathing Exercise Games. CHI PLAY 2017. Long paper. 13 pages.

Mueller, F., Tan, C., Byrne, R., Jones, M. 13 Game Lenses for Designing Diverse Interactive Jogging Systems. CHI PLAY 2017. Long paper. 14 pages.

Our Interact 2017 full paper is published:

Khot, R., Stusak, S., Butz, A., Mueller, F. 10 Design Themes for Creating 3D Printed Physical Representations of Physical Activity Data . In Proceedings of IFIP Conference on Human-Computer Interaction. Interact’17. Springer, 85-105.

The Storytelling Machine has been selected as a finalist in the Victorian Premier’s Design Awards: http://www.premiersdesignawards.com.au/entry/the-storytelling-machine/

Congrats Betty and Justin!

Rohit is an invited panel member at the New Interfaces and Future Applications panel at Interact 2017 in Mumbai, India:

https://www.interact2017.org/panels-accepted