The next Ideas Seminar is coming soon, and here is the preliminary program. Responding to the increasing focus on the notion of «innovation» that research funding agencies are displaying, and INREMO’s interest in developing innovative projects, the seminar will be arranged to stimulate discussion over what «innovation» can be for us. The seminar will be held at Maarud Konferanse Gård during June 13th – 14th. The specific topics and activities are specified in the program. The program is in Norwegian, and can be downloaded in PDF format here: June 2013 Program3

The Way Gone… 

18 months have gone since Inremo’s kick-off seminar was held in September 2011.  In that seminar, the distinctive features of the network were already drawn: an interdisciplinary arena for discussion concerned with the identification of action points where the design and development of digital artifacts and representations could be pushed further, and a declared commitment towards the establishment of interdisciplinary projects that would take up and materialize the network’s ideals in literal action. 18 month later, three such projects have been outlined and respective applications have already been sent to research funding institutions for two of them. The goal of this note is to sum up over a year of the network’s activities and achievements, and to outline some further action points.

The coalition from both private and public actors from areas as diverse as education, architecture, cultural heritage and graphical design, is perhaps the most distinctive – as well as the most challenging – feature of the INREMO network. Maintaining and supporting effective ways of communicating and collaborating has been an important achievement during the last months. In this regard, the role of the different seminars held has been determinant. In this period, we have arranged 5 seminars. Our seminars have typically involved one full day activities, though in one occasion, due to the complex and ambitious nature of the meeting, it has also involved longer sessions.

A central aspect of INREMO’s seminars is that they create opportunities to listen to and learn from each other. During the seminars, the participants have articulated what their own value for the network is, and what the needs and challenges of each of our fields were. In addition, experts in the field have been recruited as keynote speakers, extending and adding depth to the networks’ perspective.

INREMO’s seminars have also been conceived for fostering collaboration in the development of innovative ideas and projects for future implementation. Thus, already in March 2012, the network announced that it would assign economical funding for the development of specific ideas that could be operationalized in feasible projects of interest to the different partners. In what was called the first «Ideas Seminar» (12 – 13 June 2012), the germs of several ideas were presented and actively developed during a two-days session of brainstorming and participatory design activities. As a result, the seminar gave place to the further development of three project applications, two of which have already been sent to funding institutions.

Another important aspect related to collaboration has been the arrangement of social activities, which transcend the more intellectual and practical aspects, but which nevertheless form the basis for more productive relationships between the networks’ partners. Perhaps the most salient event organized by the network in this regard has been the August 2012 study tour to Los Angeles and San Francisco in the US. In that tour, INREMO partners had the opportunity to participate in the SIGGRAPH 2012 conference. They also visited some of the most well known actors in the Information & Technology industry, such as Google and Facebook, and the prestigious The Tech Museum of Innovation in San Jose. A memory on the INREMO network’s travel was published at Norsigd (Norwegain Association for Computer Graphics) and can be downloaded here.

The Project Applications

Two project applications have been developed so far. The projects reflect the wide scope of the interdisciplinary coalition, and cover important aspects of both research and development within the area of digital representations in different socio-cultural contexts, such as cultural heritage, education, and evaluation of users’ experience.

CHIME (Cultural Heritage Immersive Environments) is a project proposal leaded by Expology, and with the University of Oslo and Notam (Norwegian Center for Technology in Music and the Arts) as partners. The main idea of the project is to produce new tools and to develop methods for the design of immersive experiences in centers of cultural heritage and other tourist destinations. For this purpose, the project offers a combination of bold narrative story-telling with innovative sound and visualization techniques that can support visitor interaction, learning and particiaption. The specific expertise of the different partners in the project, with extensive experience and excellence in the design and implementation of museum exhibitions, education, and sound art and performance, makes the project unique in its nature and potential. It is precisely this kind of inter-professional initiatives that INREMO pursues to foster and develop. The project proposal has been sent in to the Research Council of Norway’s program for user-driven research based innovation (BIA).

INSPIRASJON is the name of yet another project sent in to the same BIA program. With the participation of Expology, the Norwegian Computing Center, the Norwegian Museum of Science and Technology and the University of Oslo, the project aims to develop an innovative system evaluate the visitors’ engagement and experiences in science centers. The project involves the application and development of evaluation techniques comprising (a) collection of different kinds of data, including video-recordings and physiological measures, and (b) modeling of these data. With this project, our INREMO partners attempt to push our understanding of visitors’ experience further, and to develop new techniques that may assist in the development of more engaging and rich experiences in science centers.

The New Horizons

The network is soon having his second ideas seminars, where the guidelines for future development will be drawn. Topics of relevance will be the identification of sectors to recruit partners and expand the networks’ areas of action and of funding possibilities to launch new projects of innovation. In this latter regard, the European program «Horizon» will surely be an important target.

Next 12 – 13 of June, the INREMO network will hold its first Project Ideas Seminar. The seminar will take place at Leangkollen Hotel, in Asker, and will last during two half-days, starting at 13:00 on Tuesday, and finishing Wednesday at 13:00. In this occasion, the seminar will be arranged by Expology. During the seminar, INREMO partners will suggest and discuss ideas for possible projects within the network. A dynamic, open and participatory structure will be adopted in order to foster diversity and creativity in the process. The aim is to stimulate the formulation of innovative and feasible ideas for developing specific collaborations within the network, and in the field of interaction design and digital visualization. The INREMO network may invest up to NOK 200.000 in order to support further development of the most promising ideas. With this initiative, INREMO fulfills one of its core ambitions: that of fostering innovation in research and design of interactive visualizations by bringing together an inter-disciplinar team of professionals from industry and academy.

INREMO network is holding its Second Seminar next 22nd of March. The seminar will be held at our most recent partner’s offices: DIIZ. The address is Akershusstranda 21, Oslo. The seminar starts at 08:30. Dinner will be served in the same location at around 16:30. You can download the seminar’s program here.
Knut Mørken, professor of Computational Mathematics at the University of Oslo, Department of Informatics, will be keynote speaker. The theme for his presentation, which frames this second seminar, will be «Education and learning when the academic frameworks are changing«. You can read more on professor Mørken here.

In addition, a number of very interesting presentations will be held by some of our partners. You may click on the titles to read the abstracts for the presentations.

- Otto Anshus (Department of Computer Science, University of Tromsø):
«High-performance, high-resolution, large-sized, multi-user interactive visualization»

- Anders Kluge (InterMedia, University of Oslo):
«Use of interactive models in the school – How complex can they be?»

- Anniken Furberg (InterMedia, University of Oslo):
«Use of representations»

- Wolfgang Leister, Ingvar Tjøstheim and Till Halbach Røssvoll (Norwegian Computing Center):
«Trend in user experience research»

- Rolf Steier and Palmyre Pierroux (InterMedia, University of Oslo):
«Museums in schools – schools in museums: Interactive table tops and meaning making in art and architecture»

- Gunnar Liestøl (Department of Media and Communication, University of Oslo):
«Sensory media: Indirect augmented reality and situated simulations of future topics (urban plannig)»

- Erik Bjerketnedt Nordbye (DIIZ):
«Case study: Quadrum» + «Interactive augmented reality and cultural heritage»

Welcome!

The 20-th International Conference in Central Europe on
Computer Graphics, Visualization and Computer Vision (formerly Winter School of Computer Graphics, WSCG), will be held in Plzen (Czech Republic), at the University of West Bohemia, June 25-28.

This is a relevant international conference for INREMO, of wide scope, that deals with issues ranging from algorithms, data structures and techniques for computer graphics and visualization, to human computer interaction, animation and multimedia, or virtual reality. The conference has a relative long history, starting in 1992 after the Eastern Bloc «dissolution», and holding anually from 1994. The conference also has an associated international journal (WSCG journal).

Both full and short-communication papers, as well as posters, can be submitted. The deadline is March 6, 2012. For more information, visit the WSCG conference pages.

The Research Council of Norway has allocated NOK 450 millions for innovation projects. The call for projects is framed within the User-driven Research-based Innovation program (BIA – Brukersstyrt InnovasjonsArena) and it aims at stimulating R&D initiatives in the trade and industry sector. This is the major call of this kind ever. You can read more about it at the BIA pages.

This call is well suited for INREMO. All partners needed to build a consortium (reserach partners, commercial partners) are present in the network. Please take contact with us or directly with other partners for collaboration. There may also be funding available from INREMO to develop ideas.

You may contact Anders Kluge and Alfredo Jornet Gil if you are interested in arranging a submission.