I have two short papers in!

One that I and my co-author will present this Tuesday morning:
Stroke Rehabilitation with a Sensing Surface
By C. Boulanger, A. Boulanger, L. de Greef, A. Kearney, K. Sobel, R. Transue, Z. Sweedyk, P. Dietz, S. Bathiche

We propose a multisensory environment that tracks movements on a sensing platform for patients with a spectrum of cognitive and physical ability. Our study elaborates an interaction model that motivates patients in continued therapeutic engagement.

One that my intern presents this morning: SpaceTop: Integrating 2D and Spatial 3D Interactions in a See-through Desktop Environment
By J. Lee, A. Olwal, H. Ishii, C. Boulanger

SpaceTop is a concept that integrates 2D and 3D spatial interactions in a desktop workspace. It extends the desktop interface with interaction technology and visualization techniques that enable seamless transitions between 2D and 3D manipulations.

Join the Applied Science Group and help imagine and create the future of Microsoft’s hardware and software businesses. In a lot of ways this is a dream job, a position that is rare at Microsoft and it demands only the top visionary and technical talent. We seek very creative, broadly skilled technologists, with a talent for unconventional thinking and a track record of bringing innovative ideas to fruition.

Members of the Applied Sciences Group are expected to be active participants in both the Microsoft research and the product groups company wide. The ideal candidate is one that straddles the world of being a world class researcher and a rock star developer. He or she is one that is excited, passionate, and driven to make an impact in people’s lives. They have a vision and want to carry it. They have the ability to wear multiple hats like engineering, business, and research.

For this opening, we are looking for an Electrical, Computer Engineering or HCI researcher who is interested in developing new interaction experiences for portable computers. The candidate must be able to understand and be adept at working with embedded and mobile hardware, all kinds of sensors, cameras, and application specific silicon implementations of cutting edge image processing and algorithms. He or she will work with a multi-interdisciplinary team of researchers from computer visions, optics, and hardware. The goal is to create the next generation of hardware and user experiences. We want devices to know where they are in the world, augment the user’s experiences, and enable a rich input/output framework.

You will need a good eye for identifying interesting areas for investigation, creativity to generate compelling new concepts, and the ability to quickly test and express these concepts in the form of functional prototypes. You will interact with multiple groups and disciplines within Microsoft, and you should be comfortable having substantive conversations on technical, user experience, and business matters.

The considerable creative and work style freedom inherent in this job will require a candidate with excellent judgment in selecting concepts to pursue and allocate time for their development. The ideal candidate will be able to thrive in an entrepreneurial environment, be self-driven, self-directed, and handle ambiguity well.

QUALIFICATIONS:
For the Electrical Engineering position
• Skilled at designing analog and digital circuits, and embedded software. Adept at CAD tools, schematic capture.
• Deep experience
o Digitizer hardware, pen and touch.
o Display electronics and driving schemes.
o Camera hardware, interfaces and system design.
o Sensors of all kinds, inertial, GPS, Doppler, optical, ultra-sonics.

• Creative in coming up with ideas and cleaver solutions to problems to turning around and building them.
• Developing and researching cutting edge hardware and working with a team of talented computer vision researchers to implement real-time processing in embedded hardware.
• Ability to be applied: passion for both engineering and research.
• Experience working in a research lab developing/researching new technologies.
• Entrepreneur with the ability to work in ambiguous uncharted areas and having a knack for picking the right direction.

EDUCATION:
Relevant graduate degree preferred, however, exceptional candidates with a proven track record of innovation will also be considered.

The invention of the Jacquard loom in eighteenth-century France paved the way for computing and revolutionary change. From its punch-card origins, code has evolved to define and enable new methods in design, making, visualization, production and communication, achieving the previously unimaginable. Digital Visions for Fashion + Textiles: Made in Code considers how computing has reinvented image, material and structural processes, highlighting newly advancing 2D, 3D and interactive output. Pioneering shifts of practice have developed from hybrid technical and creative collaborations. Digital and analogue fusions are defining new contexts for the innovative fabrication of surfaces, products and environments. Twenty-two of the most forward-thinking practitioners, established and emerging, who have embraced developing digital technologies are profiled. Featured are household names, such as Hussein Chalayan, Prada and Issey Miyake, early pioneers (Vibeke Riisberg, Peter Struycken) and more independent, avant-garde individuals (Iris van Herpen, Casey Reas, Tom Gallant). Complete with a reference section and bibliographic information, this unique and richly illustrated book is the perfect resource and inspiration for designers, students, industry professionals, and anyone looking for an exploration of how computer technology has creatively permeated fashion, textiles and related digital sectors.

It says:”

Le stelle di domani

25 come gli anni di Marie Claire: ecco i (nostri) talenti visionari che guardano al futuro.”

Cati Boulanger, la più giovane ricercatrice Microsoft. 
Perché. Noi siamo alle prese col precariato, lei maneggia desktop 3D superfuturistici.

Not bad, and I am carrying my baby!

It is on kickstarter, but be quick, you can get the early first kit

Here is the video

spider projection from Friedrich van Schoor on Vimeo.

MIT researchers — graduate student Michael Rubinstein, recent alumni Hao-Yu Wu ‘12, MNG ‘12 and Eugene Shih SM ‘01, PhD ‘10, and professors William Freeman, Fredo Durand and John Guttag — will present new software at this summer’s Siggraph, the premier computer-graphics conference, that amplifies variations in successive frames of video that are imperceptible to the naked eye.

See the researchers’ full video and learn more on the project’s webpage: http://people.csail.mit.edu/mrub/vidmag/

Welcome Surface! We all had our role in making you happen, I had the pleasure to work on your exploration phase ;)

This is a very interesting approach and project that not only challenges everything that makes TV lame, but also what makes watching content on a laptop based on friends’ recommendations on social networks more integrated. TV becomes a new social activity, with tailored content. The only issue here is repetition that one might find in social networks. If your friends only watch gossipy content, you end up only hearing about that on your TV. On the bright side, it is also a channel to discover entirely new content by filtering and reviewing users “a la” stumbleupon.

It was designed and built by ReeD Martin, Ana Luisa Santos, Mike Shafran, Henry Holtzman, and Marie-José Montpetit at the MIT Media Lab.

This object is given as heirloom to the child who did not inherit the genetic mutation. While physically fortunate in avoiding the illness, in effect they are also excluded from a substantial part of the familyʼs narrative.

With the increased availability of genetic information, the view of our body and identity as a sequence of genes is becoming prevalent. This perception of ourselves has the power to reconstruct our familial relationships and challenge our conception of responsibility, risk and autonomy. Gold and silver, much like a number of genetic cancers, are traditionally passed down the generations as inheritance. The emerging use of precious metals in medicine and especially in cancer treatment draws parallels between material heirloom and genetic ancestry. This series of speculative heirloom objects is based on the medical applications of nanogold particles and responds to the new moral codes of genetic responsibility. Each object address a certain issue within this context; focusing on the emotional and psychological implications of genetic knowledge.How does the comprehension of genetic vulnerability change our behaviour? Can new materials have an effect on our morals and social structures?

Genetic Heirloom by designer Revital Cohen with Partner — The Wellcome Trust. Collaborators: Professor Richard Ashcroft, Professor of Bioethics, School of Law, Queen Mary University,London. Dr Ainsley Newson, The Centre for Ethics in Medicine, University of Bristol. Professor Andy Miah, Professor in Ethics & Emerging Technologies at the University of West of Scotland.Photography by Gary Hamill

Very compelling visual and sound work by Ryoichi Kurokawa, rheo: 5 horizons, 2010. Discovered on We Make Money Not Art.

See-Through 3D desktop done by Jinha Lee and Cati Boulanger in the Applied Sciences Group

I thought it deserved a spot on my blog too! So our See-Through 3D Desktop offers a behind-the-screen interaction with a transparent OLED with view-dependent, depth-corrected gaze.

Despite advances in 3D sensing and display technologies, our interactions with computer desktops have remained stagnant from the form that evolved under 2D I/O modalities. Our See Through 3D desktop is a 3D spatial operating environment that allows the user to directly interact with her virtual desktop. The user can reach into the projected 3D output space with his/her hands to directly manipulate the windows.

Users can casually open up the See-Through 3D Desktop and Type on the keyboard or use a trackpad as in traditional 2D operating environment. Windows or files are perceived to be placed in a 3D space between a screen and the input plane.

The user can lift up her hands to reach the displayed windows and arrange them in this 3D space.A unique combination of a transparent display and 3D gesture detection algorithm collocates input space and 3D rendering without tethering or encumbering users with wearable devices. See-through 3D desktop is a term for the entire ensemble of necessary software hardware and design technological components for realizing this volumetric operating environment.

Voilà!