Education

IMTC researcher, Brian Jones, will join three other Georgia Tech Aware Home Research Initiative (AHRI) researchers presenting on their AHRI research efforts at the Georgia Gerontology Society event on September 21, 2011 from 9:45-10:45. Mr. Jones will present information on a new testbed under development for evaluating the effectiveness of industry home health devices intended to help older adults live independently.

This workshop conducted at the Festival of Wisdom and Grace was intended to inform participants of the types of devices currently on the market as well as related research. During the workshop, groups of 4 participants developed a persona of someone they wished to help (real or fictional) and were to serve as that persona's advocate, determining which technological solutions might be a good fit for their needs.

Presented by Brian D. Jones
Aware Home Research Initiative Georgia Tech
Lake Junaluska, NC 
August 9-10, 2011 

On November 26, 2001, The Georgia Centers for Advanced Telecommunications Technology (GCATT), Georgia Tech, and Shepherd Center received a $5 million, five-year federal grant to develop applications of wireless technologies to enhance the independence of people with physical and cognitive disabilities."To promote universal access to mobile wireless technologies and explore their innovative applications in addressing the needs of people with disabilities." 

90% of deaf children are born to hearing parents. Most do not know sign language or have low levels of proficiency. Unlike hearing children of English-speaking parents or deaf children of signing parents, these children often lack the serendipitous access to language at home which is necessary in developing linguistic skills during the "critical period" of language development. Often these children's only exposure to language is from signing at school.

Lorenzo Ghiberti worked for twenty-seven years on his masterpiece, “The Gates of Paradise” a pair of bronze doors for the San Giovanni Baptistery in Florence, Italy. Now, after more than twenty-five years of work at Florence’s Opificio delle Pietre Dure, the restoration of Ghiberti’s Gates of Paradise is nearing completion. The doors consist of ten panels (approximately 32" x 32") and numerous frieze elements bordering the panels. The panels, ordered from left to right and top to bottom, feature a sequence of scenes from the Old Testament are crafted in relief.

In collaboration with Highlands Historic Consulting (HHC) and the National Monuments Foundation (NMF), IMTC has developed an innovative, immersive interaction experience for the Millennium Gate Philanthropy Gallery (on the lower floor of the Millennium Gate). Rodney Cook, Jr of the National Monuments Foundation was looking for someone capable of devising and delivering this full-gallery experience.

We have developed a software framework for the creation of live performance simulations by non-technologists. This is a toolkit for simulating various types of cultural performances using motion capture, 3D animation, virtual reality, and reactive agents. The software allows the developer to define the components of a performance such as actors, audience members, and venue using a standard score paradigm. The user interactions and reactive agent scripting can also be defined through this interface.

Tangible user interfaces (TUIs) can create engaging and useful interactive systems. However, along with the power of these interfaces comes challenges; they are often so specialized and novel that building a TUI system involves working at a low level with custom hardware and software. As a result the community of people that are capable of creating TUIs is limited.

Scott Robertson presented a paper entitled, Multiuser Collaborative Exploration of Immersive Photorealistic Virtual Environments in Public Spaces at the Human Computer Interaction International Conference (HCII 2009) in San Diego, July 19-24, 2009.

• July, 2007: The Gates of Paradise Interactive Kiosk was up and running at the Art Institute of Chicago. Museum staff followed detailed instructions provided by IMTC and customized the physical appearance to match their space.