Seminar

We live surrounded by such media as PCs, mobile phones and game machines.These media have changed and are still changing our society rapidly. Future media that would come after these media would be realized based on the integration of media technologies, contents, and robotics. As such media would have strong impacts to us and our society, we, researchers working in the area of digital & interactive media, would bear a great responsibility for the future of people. In my presentation, I will discuss the direction of the research topics we have to pursue based on my experiences in the area of telecommunication, multimedia and robotics.

Ryohei Nakatsu received the B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in electronic engineering from Kyoto University in 1969, 1971 and 1982 respectively. After joining NTT in 1971, he mainly worked on speech recognition technology. In 1994, he joined ATR (Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute) as the president of ATR Media Integration & Communications Research Laboratories.

From the spring of 2002, he is a professor at School of Science and Technology, Kwansei Gakuin University. At the same time he established a venture company, Nirvana Technology Inc., and became a president of the company. His present research interests include interactive media, entertainment technology, and communication robot/agent.

In 1978, he received Young Engineer Award from the Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers Japan (IEICE-J). In 1996, the best paper award from the IEEE International Conference on Multimedia. In 1999, 2000 and 2001, Telecom System Award from Telecommunication System Foundation and the best paper award from Virtual Reality Society of Japan. In 2000, the best paper award from Artificial Intelligence Society of Japan.

He is a fellow of IEEE and the Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers Japan (IEICE-J). He is a member of several academic societies such as IEEE, ACM, IEICE-J, the Acoustical Society of Japan, Information Processing Society of Japan, Japanese Society for Artificial Intelligence, Society for Art and Science and so on. Also he is a chair of IFIP Technical Committee on Entertainment Computing.

We live in a software culture - that is, a culture where the production, distribution, and reception of most content is mediated by software. And yet, most creative professionals do not know anything about the intellectual history of software they use daily - be it Microsoft Word, Photoshop, Final Cut, After Effects, Flash, etc. Similarly, the theorists and critics so far have not systematically examined the connections between the workings of contemporary media authoring software and the new communication languages developed in design and media (including graphic design, web design, motion graphics, animation, and cinema.)

Lev Manovich (www.manovich.net) is a Professor at the Visual Arts Department, University of California -San Diego (UCSD) where he teaches digital art theory. He also directs directs of the Software Studies Initiative at California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology (CALIT2).

In 2007 Manovich has founded Software Studies Initiative at CALIT2/UCSD. This is the first research center in the world which aims to facilitate emerging work on software cultures. Manovich was born in Moscow where he studied fine arts, architecture and computer programming. He moved to New York in 1981, receiving an M.A. in Cognitive Science (NYU, 1988) and a Ph.D. in Visual and Cultural Studies from University of Rochester [1993]. His Ph.D. dissertation The Engineering of Vision from Constructivism to Computers traces the origins of computer media, relating it to the avant-garde art of the 1920s.

Manovich has been working with computer media as am artist, computer animator, designer, and programmer since since 1984. His art projects have been presented by, among others, Chelsea Art Museum (New York), ZKM, the Walker Art Center, KIASMA, Centre Pompidou, and the ICA (London).

Manovich's awards include Guggenheim Fellowship 2002-2003, 2002 Digital Cultures Fellowship from UC Santa Barbara, 2002 Fellowship from The Zentrum für Literaturforschung, Berlin, and 1995 Mellon Fellowship from Cal Arts. Manovich also been a visiting professor at California Institute of the Arts, SCI-ARC, UCLA, University of Amsterdam, Stockholm University, University of Art and Design (Helsinki), and Hong Kong Art Center.

Manovich is in demand to lecture on new media around the world. Since 1999 he presented over 230 lectures, seminars and master classes in North and South America, Europe, and Asia.

Currently Manovich is working on three new books: Info-aesthetics , Generation R, Expanded Image.

The emerging field of Human-Robot Interaction is undergoing rapid growth, motivated by important societal challenges and new applications for robotic technologies for the general public. In this talk I present five projects currently under development in the Robotic Life Group at the Media Lab. Two projects explore “invisible robot” applications where we have integrated robotic technologies into everyday artifacts like clothing or desktop computers, and the rest focus on more anthropomorphic social robots. These projects are motivated by the promise of social robotics and related technologies to play a beneficial role in the daily lives of people. An important goal of this work is to leverage scientific understanding of human brains, bodies, and behavior to design robotic technologies that can enhance human performance, learning, communication, and quality of life. Specific applications in eldercare, health, education, and social networking will be highlighted.

Cynthia Breazeal is an Associate Professor of Media Arts and Sciences at the MIT Media Lab. She is Director of the Robotic Life Group and holds the LG Group career development chair. Cynthia has been building autonomous robots for over a decade ranging from insect-like planetary micro-rovers, to robotic terrariums and gardens of interative flowers, to highly expresssive anthropomorphic robots, and more. Her work is informed by scientific theories of natural behavior and incorporates artistic insights to create capable and appealing robot creatures that can socially interact and communicate with people in a manner that intrigues us intellectually and touches us emotionally. Her current research extends these themes in the area of human-robot relations to create cooperative anthropomorphic robots that work and learn in partnership with people.

The computer revolution has started, but hasn't happened yet. Like the start of printing, we are still making "Gutenberg Bibles" (which used the new press to imitate the look and content of hand written text media from the past). That is, today's computer representations are mostly used to imitate past media - texts, pictures, movies, recordings, etc. But the computer is a new medium that represents ideas in ways the old media can't, and this in turn leads to new ideas and the possibility of a new revolution in thought.

Alan Kay has been elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, the Royal Society of Arts, and the Computer History Museum. He has a BA in Mathematics and Biology with minor concentrations in English and Anthropology from the University of Colorado, 1966. MS and PhD in Computer Science (1968 and 1969, both with distinction) from the University of Utah, and Honorary Doctorates from the Kungl Tekniska Hoegskolan in Stockholm, Columbia College in Chicago, and Georgia Tech.