Presentation: TweetBlended Reality for Learning and Play

Ian Hughes/Epredator will look at some of the advances in mixing the physical world and the virtual world that create both entertaining and interesting experiences. How games technology is already helping us learn a great many new skills and enhance the ones we already have. If you have ever tried to learn a new physical skill from playing the guitar to a martial art then games technology and their interfaces can play a major part in enhancing your learning. So just think what that can do for other experiences and professions? It can also be surprising how many kids toys are already crossing the boundaries between physical and virtual. Blended reality is really a mix of technologies, physical and emotional experiences.

How does all this fit together? That is what will be explored. You can also read more about this in the Computer Networks paper Virtual worlds, augmented reality, blended reality and in Flush Magazine

Presentation: TweetLightning Talks: Technical Showcase

This session will contain several lightning talks which will demonstrate and discuss some of these ideas around Emerging Interfaces including:

Gesture-based shopping with Kinect and mobile

Mattijs and Dave dived into the concept of browsing an online catalog purely based on gestures. They will demonstrate the resulting prototype and present a short summary of findings.

Ian Hughes will also talk about the work he has recently done with Imperia College London to use virtual works to assist with patient management in a nearly full hospital.