Humanoids 2010

My paper for the IEEE Humanoids 2010 conference has been accepted for publication.

The paper looks at using neural networks to observe and learn a small number of human reaching motions that have been scaled to a robot body. The neural network is then able to generalise these examples for new requirements, so the robot can generate new human-like trajectories on the fly.

Below is a word cloud of the paper, which was generated by Wordle.

This was the most recent piece of work I completed for my PhD on human motion synthesis for manipulator robots.

The Question DVD

A DVD has been produced on The Question, my collaboration with Extant, the Open University and Battersea Arts Center. Here is a condensed / trailer version of the film:



The widescreen format of this clip seems to be struggling with my blog theme. If you are only seeing half the video click here to watch it on YouTube.

The DVD features the planning of the installation, details on the team, the haptic lotus device and audience experience. The DVD was produced by Braunarts and is available by contacting Extant.

Thesis progress

About a month ago I started writing my PhD thesis. I don't tend to blog too much about my PhD research so to give everyone a flavour of what I've been working on for the last few years here is a wordle word cloud of the 50 pages I've written so far:

Note that wordle doesn't include equations in the word cloud. There are quite a few of those in my work...

Until the thesis is handed in I'm trying to stay away from creative projects and other distractions, so this blog is probably going to be a bit quiet for awhile...

The Question conference acceptance

Our submissions on 'The Question' have been accepted to the following conferences:

* DRHA2010 (Digital Resources for Humanities and Arts)

* MobileHCI2010 (Mobile Human Computer Interaction)

We may be doing a scaled down version of the installation (complete with Haptic Lotus) for the DRHA conference (in Brunel University). I'm sure that some hands-on technology will be accompanying the MobileHCI presentation (in Lisbon).

Both conferences are taking place in the first week of September.

Haptic Lotus in Wired

Technology magazine Wired have published an online article on The Question and the Haptic Lotus in their News and Culture section.

Written by one of the first attendees of the installation, the article speaks very favourable of the project and the haptic navigation device which I designed (with Paul O'Dowd and David McGoran) for the unique project.

"The Lotus device really does work, guiding you around rooms (and into the occasional wall). You have to work harder, but it's ultimately very satisfying to construct your own reality and story, using experiences that you yourself have to uncover and assemble."

An infra-red video of the reporter navigating the pitch black space accompanies the article.

The Question goes live

After a week of setting up, Extant's 'The Question' is now live, with performances running throughout the week. This project has been in the pipeline for several years so it's pretty satisfying to finally see the fruits of all the work and late nights.

My contribution to this project was the design of a unique navigation system that would assist people in finding their way around the pitch black installation. Below is an image of some 'haptic lotus' devices, waiting to be fitted to particpants entering the installation. These devices are one half of the navigation system that I designed, with Daivd McGoran and Paul O'Dowd, for this project.

I don't want to give away too much information on the project until the end of the week (i.e. I don't want to ruin it for any of the participants), so expect more details on the technology then.

Open University Front Page News

Extant's, 'The Question' and the Haptic Lotus have both been featured on the main news page of the Open University.

Go to news item

Front page articles only stay on the front page for a few days and I was a bit late picking this up. You can now read the full article in the news repository.

The project goes live on Monday 14th June 2010.