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Upcoming conference – Interfaces for the New Decade – November 15, 2011

Hello Open Exhibits Members,

I wanted to invite you to join us for a conference focused on new interfaces for museums at:
The Tech Test Zone 2011: Interfaces for the New Decade – Conference and Gallery Opening

The conference will feature speakers who are developing new interfaces using augmented reality, eye-tracking, tangible surfaces, gestural interfaces, and more.

Museum staff are eligible for a discount – use discount code museum2011 during registration.
Open Exhibits members that are not museum staff – use discount code oe2011 during registration.

Registration is open:
http://testzone2011.eventbrite.com

Connect with entrepreneurs, developers, and researchers working on cutting-edge interfaces such as:
Augmented Reality
Context Aware
Deformable Surfaces
Eye Tracking
Feedback
Gestural Interfaces
Gigapixel Images
Motion Sensing
Multi-touch
Natural User Interfaces
RFID
Smart Museum Systems
Tablet Computers
Ubiquitous Media

One Test Zone station will feature the Open Exhibits Gigapixel Zoom module in use with Kinect. We are all very excited to be able to install somem of these cutting-edge interfaces in an experimental way. The full conference description is below, and I’ll be updating the registration page with additional details and speakers as I get them.

See you there!

Bob Ketner

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The Tech Test Zone 2011: Interfaces for the New Decade
Conference and Gallery Opening
Join us on Tuesday, November 15, 2011 for a gathering of the most innovative developers of new interactive technologies at The Tech Museum’s Test Zone 2011.
This event will bring together interactive technology researchers, developers, and users for a conference and opening of The Tech Museum’s newest gallery.

Connect with entrepreneurs, developers, and researchers working on cutting-edge interfaces such as:
Augmented Reality
Context Aware
Deformable Surfaces
Eye Tracking
Feedback
Gestural Interfaces
Gigapixel Images
Motion Sensing
Multi-touch
Natural User Interfaces
RFID
Smart Museum Systems
Tablet Computers
Ubiquitous Media

Find out how museums and other public-space designers can use these technologies to enhance visitor learning and experience.
Experience the interactives firsthand at the opening of The Tech Test Zone Gallery, a new gallery dedicated to temporary exhibitions of prototypes from corporate, academic, and nonprofit partners.
 
Agenda:
(Subject to change. Details to be posted soon.)
10:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Includes:
- Speakers
- Press conference
- Lunch
- Workshop
- Gallery Opening (evening program from 6:00 p.m. on)

Speakers:
- Ori Inbar, CEO, Ogmento
- Christopher Stapleton, Creative Venture Catalyst, Simiosys
- Jim Spadaccini, Director, Ideum, and Principal Investigator,
  Open Exhibits
- Ross Smith, PhD, Deputy Director, Wearable Computer Laboratory
  University of South Australia
- Tamara Schwarz, Senior Manager of Experience Design, Chabot Space
  & Science Center
- John MacDuffie Woodburn, Co-Developer, Pixel, and Graduate Student,   University of the Arts, PA
- Matt Miller, Co-Developer, Pixel
- Bob Ketner, Curator, The Tech Test Zone

Call for Participation:
The Tech Test Zone is developed through The Tech Virtual (http://www.thetechvirtual.org), an online museum design community dedicated to advancing the art and science of exhibit design, and funded by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation.

The Tech Virtual  is an open platform where artists, companies, designers, experts, hobbyists, videographers, and other creative people from around the world can directly connect with museum projects.

To suggest an interactive for future Tech Test Zone exhibitions, just start a Project at: http://www.thetechvirtual.org/requests/test-zone-2011

Volunteer:
There is a need for volunteers for this event. Please send an inquiry using the “contact the host” button if you are interested.
Discounts:
All discount codes expire November 10, 2011.
Museum Professionals: Use discount code musuem2011 
Students: Use discount code student2011

Speaker Bios:

Ori Inbar, CEO, Ogmento
Ori is co-founder and CEO of Ogmento, a developer and publisher of mobile augmented reality experiences; Author of Games Alfresco – the #1 blog for augmented reality; President of the Augmented Reality (AR) Consortium – an international group of pioneering AR companies dedicated to advancing the AR industry through collaboration. Ori is a recognized speaker in industry events and co-founded the Augmented Reality Event – the largest event dedicated exclusively to the AR industry.

Christopher Stapleton, Creative Venture Catalyst, Simiosys
Christopher Stapleton is an entrepreneur, educator, inventor and artist who explores the power of human experience augmented by the emerging technology of Mixed Reality. Trained as a designer he has led interdisciplinary creative teams to stimulate the innovation life-cycle to more effectively transform radical ideas into viable solutions. His background includes the founding of the UCF Media Convergence Laboratory, producing theme parks world wide and designing for theater, feature films & television in the New York City. He is currently creating the national model of the Mixed Reality Experiential Learning Landscape for NASA and NSF ISE (STEM).

Jim Spadaccini, Director, Ideum, and Principal Investigator, Open Exhibits
Before founding Ideum, Jim was the Director of Interactive Media at the Exploratorium in San Francisco. While at the Exploratorium, his department was responsible for developing educational Web resources and media exhibits for the museum floor. For his work at the Exploratorium, he received a Smithsonian Computerworld Award, an Association of Science and Technology Centers Award for Innovation and three consecutive Webby Awards for “Best Science Site.” Jim taught courses on design and technology at SFSU’s Multimedia Studies Program for seven years starting in the mid-90s and currently teaches for the Cultural Resource Management Program at University of Victoria, British Columbia and the Technology-Enhanced Communication for Cultural Heritage (TEC-CH) program at the University of Lugano, Switzerland.

Ross Smith, PhD, Deputy Director, Wearable Computer Laboratory University of South Australia
Ross Smith, PhD, is an engineer with extended experience in developing electro-mechanical prototypes to support new forms of human-computer interaction. His research includes deformable surfaces, spatial augmented reality, input device hardware development and user interface design.  Ross is the lead researcher of the patented deformable sensor “Digital Foam” that was invented during his doctoral studies. The future goal is to incorporate the Digital Foam sensor into medical training, industrial design devices, and other interface applications where touch is important.
Ross’ vision of computer interaction employs deformable devices that can be squashed, twisted and manipulated to create a rich set of gestures to support new form of human-computer interaction.
Ross supervises doctorate, honors, and undergraduate students at the Wearable Computer Laboratory in South Australia, and manages the Computer and Information Science prototype workshop which employs  a variety of advanced production machines such as 3D printers, printed circuit board (PCB) and computer assisted design (CAD) machining tools in developing research prototypes.

Tamara Schwarz,  Senior Manager of Experience Design, Chabot Space & Science Center
Tamara Schwarz is the Senior Manager of Experience Design at Chabot Space & Science Center. She leads all aspects of design and development of Chabot’s major visitor experiences and other public spaces, including permanent and temporary/traveling exhibitions, programming in the planetarium, large-screen theater, and observatories, and digital media for online learning. She serves as project director for Bill Nye’s Climate Lab, an award-winning interactive climate education exhibition and website launched by Chabot in 2010.
Tamara has more than a decade of experience developing exhibitions, multimedia, and web projects on science and historical topics. She has also worked on exhibition and media-based informal science education collaborations with the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, the Space Sciences Institute, and KQED Public Broadcasting. She participates in regional and national museum networks and serves as vice president of Cultural Connections, a Northern California consortium for museum professionals.

John MacDuffie Woodburn, Co-Developer, Pixel and Graduate Student  University of the Arts, PA
Bio coming soon.

Matt Miller, Co-Developer, Pixel
Bio coming soon.

Bob Ketner, Curator, The Tech Test Zone
Bio coming soon.

Hashtag: #ttz2011

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