P R E S E N C C I A
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PRESENCCIA PhD Symposium 2007

14th - 15th May, Barcelona

The PRESENCCIA project undertakes research that has as its major goal the understanding and exploitation of brain mechanisms for the enhancement of presence and interaction in mixed and virtual reality.

The project is highly interdisciplinary, combining neuroscience, computer science, psychiatry, psychology, psychophysics, mechanical engineering, philosophy and drama. By presence we mean the propensity of humans to respond to fake stimuli as if they were real, something observed daily in every virtual reality laboratory. Understanding the neural basis of this 'presence response', its enhancement and its application is the fundamental object of study from many different points of view, and including visual, haptic and auditory modalities.

The most interesting, challenging and useful mixed environments are social. The types of interaction we study in mixed reality are those supporting interactions between real people and other remote real people, real people and virtual people, and between virtual people and virtual people. The aim is to make people's responses real even if the perception of the reality is based on virtual stimuli. The project carries out fundamental research adopting a neuroscience methodology and theoretical standpoint combined with research in the delivery of presence through multisensory modelling and rendering, and wide area tracking and display systems. A substantial part of the project is concerned with interaction through brain-computer interfaces. The whole will be brought together through a number of applications, in particular a persistent virtual community that represents the project itself, methods for projecting sensations of ownership to virtual representations of self, and the exploitation of neurofeedback for the enhancement of creativity through mixed reality environments.

CALL FOR PARTICIPATION

This PhD symposium invites submitted papers and posters that relate to this project in any of the areas discussed above. Anyone, PhD or postgraduate student in any laboratory associated with PRESENCCIA is invited to participate.

We plan to have short and longer presentation slots of 10 and 20 minutes with 10 minutes discussion time for each presentation. To participate, please submit a title and a short paper for your presentation to cgroenegress@gmail.com by 23 February 2007).

Please not that we intend to publish the papers under publications on the PRESENCCIA website. However, since this symposium is not a registered event, you can submit the same work to other journals or conferences or choose to withdraw your paper from publication on the website.

Please use the following Word template to format your document.

Invited Speaker:
Olaf Blanke
Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience (http://lnco.epfl.ch)
Brain-Mind Institute
Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL)

LOCATION & DIRECTIONS

Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC)
Building B6, Sala de Actos
Campus Nord
Barcelona, Spain.

Map and Directions to Building B6, by Public Transportation
The best way to get to Building B6 is by metro, Line L3 (green line) and the stop is Palau Reial.

DURATION

The symposium will last two days (Monday 14th May - Tuesday 15th May).


IMPORTANT DATES  
Abstract submission deadline February 23, 2007
Acceptance notification: April 02, 2007
Final Paper Deadline: April 22, 2007
Poster Title Deadline: April 22, 2007
Symposium Dates: May 14-15, 2007

Programme


Monday, 14 May
09.45-10.00 WELCOME  
10.00.11.30 Keynote speach by Olaf Blanke  
11.30-11.50 COFFEE BREAK  
Session 1: PRESENCE AND NEUROSCIENCE
11.50-12.10 Armin Duff Rule learning in men, machines and avatars: From the neuronal organization of the pre-frontal cortex to computational principles
12.10-12.30 Juan M. Abolafia Toward an abstract representation of environmental magnitude information: Interference between number processing and motor control
12.30-12.50 Tej Tadi Duration of activation at the Temporo-parietal junction during mental own body transformations as a demarcating measure of “Presence”
12.50-13.10 Gian Beeli Eliciting Presence by external stimulation of the brain
13.10-14.40 LUNCH BREAK  
Session 2: VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENTS FOR REHABILITATION AND PSYCHOLOGY
14.40-15.00 Daniel Pèrez-Marcos Exploring the feeling of ownership over a virtual arm
15.00-15.20 Lukas Zimmerli The influence of dynamic virtual environments on locomotion training in gait rehabilitation
15:20 -15.40 Xueni Pan Real Man Meets Virtual Woman: A study of social anxiety in a Virtual Environment
15.40-16.00 Mónica S. Cameirão A virtual reality based gaming system for motor and cognitive neurorehabilitation
16.00-16.30 COFFEE BREAK  
Session 3: SPACE, MOVEMENT AND NAVIGATION
16.30-16.50 Jorge R Brotons Scaling properties of subicular place cells: are Subicular units coding for the geometry of the environment?
16.50-17.10 Thomas Gener Modulation of spatial processing by somatosensory inputs in the rat
17.10-17.30 Walter A Aprile Navigation performance effects of panoramic projection in a virtual environment
17.30-17.50 Angus Antley Human Movement in real and virutal environments

Tuesday, 15 May
Session 4: MULTIMODAL INTERACTION
10.00-10.20 Zenon Mathews Multimodal Tracking and Object Identification in a Mixed Space: A Brain Based Approach
10.20-10.40 Christoph Groenegress Spinoff – Transferring energy between real and virtual worlds
10.40-11.00 Silvia Pabon A data glove with vibrators pads for virtual reality interaction
11.00-11.20 Massimiliano Solazzi Local contact geometry haptic display for improving perception of shape cues
11.20-11.40 COFFEE BREAK  
Session 5: VIRTUAL REALITY
11.40-12.00 Giuseppe Marino Cluster-based rendering of complex Virtual Environments
12.00-12.20 Ramon Trueba Dynamic worlds in miniature
12.20-12.40 Davide Vercelli Blender Meets XVR
12.40-14.20 LUNCH BREAK  
Session 6: EXPRESSIVE VIRTUAL CHARACTERS
14.20-14.50 Sylvain Le Groux Real-Time Adaptive Sonification of Avatar Behaviour
14.40-15.00 Joan Llobera Storytelling within Immersive Environments
15.00-15.20 Daniel Bernhardt Detecting emotions from everyday body movements
15.20-15.50 COFFEE BREAK  
15.50-17.20 Panel on Virtual Characters Marco Gillies, University College London
Verònica Orvalho, Universitat Pompeu Fabra
Vinoba Vinayagamoorthy, University College London

SUGGESTED ACCOMODATION

There is one hotel near the symposium site that is affiliated to UPC. However please note that UPC is located on the edge of Barcelona.

On the following sites you can find a list of other options that may be more suitable for your needs.

Copyright 2006 Presenccia Project