From ejp@world.std.com Thu Jan 8 09:30:37 1998 Date: Thu, 8 Jan 1998 07:29:47 -0500 From: Eric J Pierce Reply-To: boston-vr-announce@world.std.com To: boston-vr-announce@world.std.com Subject: BVRG Jan 98 Meeting: Navigating Audio Space (one more time) ------------ FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE DISTRIBUTE WIDELY------------ THE BOSTON VIRTUAL REALITY GROUP (formerly known as the Boston Computer Society Virtual Reality Group) PRESENTS NAVIGATING A SPATIALIZED SPEECH ENVIRONMENT THROUGH SIMULTANEOUS LISTENING AND A HALLWAY METAPHOR (this time for sure!) WITH BRENDEN C. MAHER SPEECH INTERFACE GROUP -- MIT MEDIA LAB THURSDAY, JANUARY 15, 1997 MEDIA LABORATORY (BLDG E-15) MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS ________________________________________________________________ *ALSO* SIGGRAPH '98 PROJECT: "The Boston Tea Party" By the time this meeting happens, our project proposal for SIGGRAPH '98 will be submitted. Copies will be on hand for review. If you interested in getting involved or just plain curious, check it out!! *IN ADDITION* We'll be reviewing our plans for meetings for the rest of the year. If you have any ideas for presentations you'd like us to host, whether they are companies with VR related products, people doing research in the area, or otherwise, let us know at the meeting or by replying to this list or by sending e-mail to brenden@media.mit.edu. ________________________________________________________________ Join the Boston Virtual Reality Group and Brenden C. Maher for a presentation of his masters thesis. [This presentation was supposed to happen last month but due to an unforntunate mishap, it had to be rescheduled at the last minute. This month Brenden is back from battling anomalous rifts in the space-time continuum that have been known to occur during the holiday season ;->. Once again, for those who came to the meeting last month, please accept our humble appologies. For those who thought you missed it, here's your second chance to see what Brenden's been up to at the Media Lab for the past few years.] Brenden is a founding member of the BVRG and has been the director for the past three years. During much of that time he has been a graduate student at the MIT Media Lab developing innovative ways to explore large quantities of stored audio data. Brenden will present a system for browsing and navigating a database of recorded speech. It uses a spatialized audio environment, taking advantage of the human ability of simultaneous listening. A browsing environment is provided in the form of a virtual acoustic hallway. The user hears several audio recordings simultaneously; each stream of audio is of a specific topic coming from several virtual doors along the hallway. The users head position in real space controls the rate of movement past the doors and the subsequent playing of the audio recordings. Behind each door is heard a Braided Audio collage of related news stories. Listening to an individual news recording for a given topic is accomplished in Audio Rooms through a new method of selection and representation based on the metaphor of a FishEye lens. MEETING DETAILS: --------------- When: Thursday, January 15, 7:00 PM Eastern Time Location: Room 095 (unless otherwise posted) MIT Media Lab (Building E-15) 20 Ames Street Cambridge, Massachusetts By T: Get off at the Kendall Square Station on the Red Line. When you come to the surface you will be at the end of Main Street where it is more like a wide bricked pedestrian area in front of the Marriot Hotel. Walking to the end of the block toward Central square will put the Marriot on the right. The corner of the Marriot complex where Legal Seafoods is will be the corner of Main and Ames. Take a left onto Ames Street. The Media Lab is the only silver tiled building on the street and will be on your left. By Car: Ames Street runs between Main street and Memorial Drive, near Kendall Square in Cambridge. It is one-way going from Main to Memorial. Your best bet is to either look for parking near Kendall Sq. and follow walking instructions (By T) above. *OR* you could look for parking along Memorial Drive and walk up Ames Street the other way. If you're interested in coming and don't know how to get to MIT or even Cambridge, MA, instructions from all highways are available upon request via e-mail to ejp@world.std.com. More directions can be found at the following URL: http://casr.www.media.mit.edu/groups/casr/directions.html ________________________________________________________________ The Boston Virtual Reality Group meeting schedule for 1998 is now available on the web! Check out http://www.media.mit.edu/~brenden/bostonVR/bostonVR.html for the most current info on future meetings. ======================================================================= Boston VR Group - A Gathering of Minds for Cyberspace Development: The Group meetings are a great way to meet others who are "actually" developing Virtual Environments. Whether you have an interest in the discussions, 3-D modelling, interactively generating and/or coding virtual worlds, or somewhere in between, there lots to do and talk about!!! Boston VR Group Philosophy: The purpose of the Boston Virtual Reality Group is to provide an ongoing venue for developing virtual environments as well as a forum for bringing scientists and developers together with VR enthusiasts/potential users. Through actively exploring both the technology and its cultural implications, exposing each to the other's thoughts and ideas, and "learning from" and "sharing with" industry leaders, we can help shape the future of this medium. ====================================================================== FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT: ------------------------------ Director BCS-VRG: Brenden C.Maher Speaker Requests: brenden@media.mit.edu voice: (617) 666-1874 HOW TO SUBSCRIBE TO AND UNSUBSCRIBE FROM THIS LIST: --------------------------------------------------- To subscribe to the boston-vr-announce e-mail announcement distribution list, send the following line in the body of your message to majordomo@world.std.com: subscribe boston-vr-announce To unsubscribe yourself from this list send the following line: unsubscribe boston-vr-announce Sometimes e-mail addresses (especially domain names) get convoluted by peoples servers. 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