The Leeds Met Centre for Creative Technology

1. The Leeds MetCentre for Creative Technology Research, Development and Practise 1. November 2007 Reinhold Behringer Lecture at Danube University Krems

2. About Presenter • Physicist, Software Engineer/Scientist. • Past work and interest: • Autonomous system (road vehicles). • Real-time computer vision applications. • Augmented Reality (AR) concept demonstrations. • Mobile and Wearable Computing. Leeds Metropolitan University Innovation North – Faculty Of Information And Technology

3. Curriculum Vitae • 1990-1996: computer vision for automated driving (FP-3 EU project PROMETHEUS). • 1996-2005: Rockwell Scientific (RSC), US (now Teledyne Scientific) • Since Sept. 2005: “Professor of Creative Technology” at Leeds Metropolitan University. http://www.leedsmet.ac.uk/inn/ReinholdBehringer.htm Leeds Metropolitan University Innovation North – Faculty Of Information And Technology

4. About Leeds Metropolitan University • 52,000 students • 3,500 members of staff • Annual expenditure: 200 M € (2006). • Leading the “Regional University Network” (RUN), with total of 300,000 students • Partners: DUK, Fachhochschule Vorarlberg, NY State University at Farmingdale, Hongkong Vocational Training College. Leeds Metropolitan University Innovation North – Faculty Of Information And Technology

5. History • 1824: Leeds Mechanics Institute. • Mergers with other educational institutions in Leeds. • 1907: Headingley Campus built for Leeds Training College. • 1970: Leeds Polytechnic. • 1992: Leeds Metropolitan University becomes “full” university, with right to award PhD degree. Leeds Metropolitan University Innovation North – Faculty Of Information And Technology

6. Universities in UK • “Russell Group” of Universities http://www.russellgroup.ac.uk/: 20 research-intensive universities. • Founded in 1994, at a meeting in Russell Hotel. • “Oxbridge”: U. of Oxford, U. of Cambridge. • 65% (over £1.8billion) of UK Universities' research grant and contract income, 56% of all doctorates awarded in the United Kingdom. • The other 106 Universities: • “Post-1992” Universities. Leeds Metropolitan University Innovation North – Faculty Of Information And Technology

7. The “Russell Group” • The University of BirminghamThe University of BristolThe University of CambridgeCardiff UniversityThe University of EdinburghThe University of GlasgowImperial College LondonKing's College LondonThe University of LeedsThe University of LiverpoolLondon School of Economics and Political ScienceThe University of ManchesterNewcastle University The University of NottinghamThe University of OxfordQueen's University BelfastThe University of SheffieldThe University of SouthamptonUniversity College LondonThe University of Warwick Leeds Metropolitan University Innovation North – Faculty Of Information And Technology

8. Funding for Research • From Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) http://www.hefce.ac.uk/ • Funding depends on rating of research: • Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) is conducted every 7-8 years http://www.rae.ac.uk/ • Leads to rating, which translates into funding for research activities. • Funding Councils: • Specific proposals need to be written for research projects. Leeds Metropolitan University Innovation North – Faculty Of Information And Technology

9. Leeds Met Striving to Excellence • 2006: Shortlisted for Times Higher University of the Year • Honorary Mention. • Award for best contribution to Community. • 2007: Award by “People and Planet” for most environmentally friendly UK university. • Vice Chancellor Prof. Simon Lee: • Since 2003, implemented many changes. • Research activities are high on the agenda: supported by foundation of Research Centres. Leeds Metropolitan University Innovation North – Faculty Of Information And Technology

10. Centres at Leeds Met • Purpose of Centres: • Coordinate research activities, • Foster interdisciplinary cross-faculty cooperation, • Collaborate with external partners. • Are organised around the interest of professors. • Examples of other Centres: • Centre for Mobile and Converging Technology • i-Centre (Technology-Enhanced Learning) • PRAXIS Centre (Peace and Conflict Resolution) • Centre for Research into Higher Education Leeds Metropolitan University Innovation North – Faculty Of Information And Technology

11. This Centre • Creative Technology: • Tools for the creation of artworks (visual, acoustic). • Enable human creativity. • Lower the threshold of interacting with computing devices. • Ways of interaction with and engaging the audience. • Works, created with these tools: • Multimedia installations, • Computer music, • Computer graphics, • Computer games. • From software development to artistic expression. • From graphics (visual) to audio/music (acoustic). http://creativetech.inn.leedsmet.ac.uk Leeds Metropolitan University Innovation North – Faculty Of Information And Technology

12. Launch Event • 9. July 2007: launch event evening • With demonstrations by members of centre. Leeds Metropolitan University Innovation North – Faculty Of Information And Technology

13. Creative Technology • Is linked to “Entertainment”, but has serious engineering behind it: • Visual and acoustic processing, • Analogue and digital processing, • Software development, • Sensors, networking, • Collaboration, interaction. • Intelligent systems, artificial intelligence/creativity. Leeds Metropolitan University Innovation North – Faculty Of Information And Technology

14. Graphics and Video Creative Technology Games Augmented/Mixed Reality Music and Audio Human-Computer Interaction Technology Artificial Intelligence Robotics Leeds Metropolitan University Innovation North – Faculty Of Information And Technology

15. Vision for the Centre • Develop novel technologies for use in the creative realm. • Create novel multimedia art installations. • Improve human-computer interaction systems. • Stimulate interdisciplinary collaboration: • Across different work areas, • Across faculties, • Beyond the boundaries of our university, with external partners. • Apply Creative Technology in other areas. Leeds Metropolitan University Innovation North – Faculty Of Information And Technology

16. Leeds Metropolitan University Research Centre for Creative Technology Innovation North Other Centres Other External Institutions Leeds Metropolitan University Innovation North – Faculty Of Information And Technology

17. Members • Membership is open to everyone. • Is defined by work topic, interest in collaboration, and concrete joint projects. • Can be from • Innovation North, • Other faculties at Leeds Met, • External institutions. • External Partner: collaboration envisioned. Leeds Metropolitan University Innovation North – Faculty Of Information And Technology

18. Activities • Many individual research and work topics, worked on by individual researchers. • Goal: • To combine work of several researchers into larger-scale projects. • To leverage different capabilities and interests of members of the centre. Leeds Metropolitan University Innovation North – Faculty Of Information And Technology

19. Research, Development, Practise • Three core pillars: • Research: • Uncovering basic principles in creativity, interaction, aesthetics. • Development: • Develop novel ways of interaction with computing systems, by improving “intelligence” of these systems. • Practice: • Creation of art, music, multimedia. • PostGraduate Education: • Centre will provide topics for Master and PhD theses, from repository of its projects. Leeds Metropolitan University Innovation North – Faculty Of Information And Technology

20. Activity Clusters • Computer Music. • Computer Graphics. • Machine Intelligence. • There are many areas of overlap between these clusters. Leeds Metropolitan University Innovation North – Faculty Of Information And Technology

21. Activity Matrix Leeds Metropolitan University Innovation North – Faculty Of Information And Technology

22. Computer Music • Novel interfaces to music instruments. • Electro-acoustic compositions. • Music and sound in computer games. • Automatic music following and beat tracking. • Automated composition (artificial creativity). • Digital Music Research Network. Leeds Metropolitan University Innovation North – Faculty Of Information And Technology

23. Computer Graphics • Animation. • Photography, Video, Film. • 360-degree photography. • Immersive virtual reality. • Mixed and augmented reality. Leeds Metropolitan University Innovation North – Faculty Of Information And Technology

24. Machine Intelligence • Artificial intelligence. • Automated language understanding. • Computer vision. • Intelligent Human-Computer Interfaces. Leeds Metropolitan University Innovation North – Faculty Of Information And Technology

25. General Topics • Software development: • Methods and technology. • Sensor integration. • Non-linear narrative for games and film. • Many applications of these technologies also in non-creative areas. Leeds Metropolitan University Innovation North – Faculty Of Information And Technology

26. Contacts with other Faculties • Carnegie Faculty of Sport and Education: • Joint project for simulation of physiological processes: “Virtual Runner” game. • Consideration of application of virtual reality in context of psychology. • Faculty of Health: • Automatic wheelchair for collision avoidance. Leeds Metropolitan University Innovation North – Faculty Of Information And Technology

27. Facilities • Music Studios: • Installed in James Graham, 2nd floor, Dec. 2006 • Motion Capture room for capturing human movements into digital animation. • Blue screen facilities. • “Foley” Room for recording sound effects. • Computer laboratories. Leeds Metropolitan University Innovation North – Faculty Of Information And Technology

28. Music Studios • 5 control rooms/studios and 5 production rooms. • Open since December 2006. Leeds Metropolitan University Innovation North – Faculty Of Information And Technology

29. Music Studios – Equipment • Audient 8024 36 channel desk complete with ASP510 controller and Genelec 1038 and 1032’s monitors for 5.1 mixing and a Protools HD3 system with Mackie controller. • Soundcraft Ghost desks and Dynaudio BM15A monitoring, equipped for 5.1 monitoring. • Production rooms are equipped with Protools 002’s and Mackie controllers and a Mackie DXB console and a Protools HD3 system. • All rooms are equipped with outboard effects/dynamics from TC Electronics, Lexicon, Yamaha, TL Audio and Drawmer. Leeds Metropolitan University Innovation North – Faculty Of Information And Technology

30. Motion Capture System • Optical Motion Capture System developed by Vicon. • 10 infrared cameras. • Full body motion capture, face capture. Leeds Metropolitan University Innovation North – Faculty Of Information And Technology

31. Examples of Projects • Research • Development • Practice Leeds Metropolitan University Innovation North – Faculty Of Information And Technology

32. Structural Playability • Applying psychological facts to analyse playability of computer games. • Study suitability for eLearning. • Contact: Hazel Bradshaw, H.Bradshaw@leedsmet.ac.uk Leeds Metropolitan University Innovation North – Faculty Of Information And Technology

33. Medical Simulation • Visualisation of hand surgery. • Usable for: • Patient education. • Training for surgeon. • Contact: Steve Wilkinson S.Wilkinson@leedsmet.ac.uk Leeds Metropolitan University Innovation North – Faculty Of Information And Technology

34. Computer Graphics • Genetic Art: • Organic forms, based on algorithmic renditions. • Contact: William Latham, Goldsmiths College mas01whl@gold.ac.uk Visiting Professor at Leeds Met. Leeds Metropolitan University Innovation North – Faculty Of Information And Technology

35. Mobile Games • Games on PDAs or mobile phones: • Limited hardware resources. • Contact: Ben Dalton b.dalton@leedsmet.ac.uk Leeds Metropolitan University Innovation North – Faculty Of Information And Technology

36. Bluetooth Multiplayer Game • Uses Java to Micro-Edition (J2ME). • Suitable for mobile phones. • Contact: Muthu Ramachandran M.Ramachandran@leedsmet.ac.uk Leeds Metropolitan University Innovation North – Faculty Of Information And Technology

37. Mobile Games • Games on PDAs or mobile phones: • Limited hardware resources. • Contact: Ben Dalton b.dalton@leedsmet.ac.uk Leeds Metropolitan University Innovation North – Faculty Of Information And Technology

38. Augmented Reality • Goal: • To develop a framework for “seamless operation” of Augmented Reality applications. • Issues: • Transition from cooperative infrastructure into non-cooperative environment. • Portability and scalability on various hardware platforms. • Large market near future: mobile camera phones. Leeds Metropolitan University Innovation North – Faculty Of Information And Technology

39. Geographic Visualisation of Photos • Fusion of individual photographs with location = “Geo-tagging” • Services: Flickr, Panoramio • Current state: overlay on map. • Future: integrate photo with 3D model: • Either by texture mapping onto 3D model • Or by overlay into the user’s view. Leeds Metropolitan University Innovation North – Faculty Of Information And Technology

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41. Location of Picture in Map With Google Maps display Leeds Metropolitan University Innovation North – Faculty Of Information And Technology

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46. VibraChair • Student project. • Contacts: Matthew Ian Smith M.Smith4794@student.leedsmet.ac.uk Lionel Myers L.Myers5892@student.leedsmet.ac.uk Leeds Metropolitan University Innovation North – Faculty Of Information And Technology

47. interactiveVIDEO: approaches to developing an interactive movie system Brian Larkman • the entertainment limelight: • CGI influenced movies increasingly computer generated vs. 3D real-time ‘video’ games increasingly cinematic. • convergence is still some way off – largely for commercial and philosophical differences - not technological. research direction: • Interactive Video and especially Panoramic Video, is the major topic of the presentation. Contact: Brian Larkman, b.larkman@leedsmet.ac.uk Jonathan Wilkinson: 360 video “Paris” Rana Gangari: Interactive Video “The Car Journey

48. Eye Tracking • Monitoring the player’s eye motion during game sequences with desktop Tobii eye tracking system. • Commercialisation in “Usability North”. • Interactive installation “Re-Possessed”: Analysing Hitchcock’s “Vertigo”. • Contacts: • Tony Renshaw T.Renshaw@leedsmet.ac.uk • Richard Stevens R.Stevens@leedsmet.ac.uk http://www.re-possessed.com/

49. Repossessed explores the evolution of spectatorship in the digital era. An interdisciplinary team of writers, artists and technologists have collaborated to produce artworks in which the audience actively participates. Whilst under electronic surveillance visitors register their responses and continually re-make the content of the exhibits. Inspired by Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo questions of power, freedom and desire are never far from the surface, emerging as metaphors for the relationships between audience, artist and medium. Leeds Metropolitan University Innovation North – Faculty of Information and Technology

50. Creative + Technology RePossessed ReViewed ReSearch Leeds Metropolitan University Innovation North – Faculty of Information and Technology