Speaker(s): Sean Kelly, Google, United States of America
Samantha Cordingley, Google, Australia
Patrick Nolan, Opera Queensland, Australia
Christoph Rhemann, Google, United States of America
Sean Fanello, Google, United States of America
Danhang Tang, Google, United States of America
Jude Osborn, Google, Australia
Jay Busch, Google, United States of America
Philip Davidson, Google, United States of America
Paul Debevec, Google, United States of America
Peter Denny, Google, United States of America
Graham Fyffe, Google, United States of America
Kaiwen Guo, Google, United States of America
Geoff Harvey, Google, United States of America
Shahram Izadi, Google, United States of America
Peter Lincoln, Google, United States of America
Wan-Chun Alex Ma, Google, United States of America
Jonathan Taylor, Google, United States of America
Xueming Yu, Google, United States of America
Matt Whalen, Google, United States of America
Jason Dourgarian, Google, United States of America
Genevieve Blanchett, Genevieve Blanchett, Australia
Narelle French, Opera Queensland, Australia
Kirstin Sillitoe, Google, Australia
Tea Uglow, Google, Australia
Brenton Spiteri, Opera Queensland, Australia
Emma Pearson, Opera Queensland, Australia
Wade Kernot, Opera Queensland, Australia
Jonathan Richards, Google, Australia

Description: Pushing mobile computing to bold new limits that were not possible as recently as March this year, we have designed an end-to-end pipeline for reconstruction, compression and streaming that generates 3D assets for a mixed reality opera experience rendered in real time on high end mobile phones.

Bio of Speaker: Sean G. Kelly is a Creative Technologist at Google’s Creative Lab and the lead developer on Project AR-ia. He has developed and researched XR in professional and artistic applications ranging from dance and opera to neurosurgery and aerospace.

Samantha Cordingley is a Creative Producer at Google’s Creative Lab, who works with globally recognised partners in the Arts and Culture sector to create immersive digital work. Throughout her career as a producer she has led brands and teams across the Design, Film and Fashion industries.

Patrick Nolan is the Artistic Director & CEO of Opera Queensland. He has worked in theatre, film, opera, large scale outdoor performance, creating productions for London 2012 Cultural Olympiad, Glasgow Commonwealth Games, Sydney Opera House, Sydney Chamber Opera, Opera Australia, New Zealand Opera, Seattle Opera, Sydney Theatre Company, Belvoir St, Griffin Theatre, Melbourne Theatre Company, and all the major Australian capital city festivals.

Christoph Rhemann works as a Research Scientist at Google. He obtained his Microsoft Research sponsored PhD from the Vienna University of Technology in 2010. In the previous 7 years he worked at Vienna University of Technology, Microsoft Research and perceptiveIO. His research is focused on depth estimation, image segmentation and matting. Key projects include HoloLens, Holoportation (shown at TED 2016), PatchMatch Stereo and CostFilter Stereo. He is now working on volumetric reconstruction of humans.

Sean Fanello is a Research Scientist and Manager at Google where he leads the Volumetric Capture efforts. He obtained his PhD in Robotics at the Italian Institute of Technology and University of Genoa in 2014. Previously he was a Senior Scientist at perceptiveIO and he also spent 3 years at Microsoft Research working on Hololens and Holoportation - the first real-time 3D telepresence system for augmented and virtual reality.

Danhang Tang is a Senior Research Scientist at Google, interested in applying machine learning to 3d compression, 3d hand gesture recognition, object pose estimation, etc. He was previously a founding team member at perceptiveIO, Inc., and a visiting researcher at Microsoft Research. He received a PhD degree from Imperial College London, his MSc degree from University College London with distinction, as well as his BSc degree from Sun Yat-sen University.

Jude Osborn leads creative development at Google’s Creative Lab in Sydney. Jude has been tinkering with tech and writing software longer than he’d care to admit, having led countless development projects at Creative Lab and previously the startup and non-profits spaces.

Jonathan Richards is a Creative Lead at Google's Creative Lab in Sydney, where he works on projects which explore the intersection between technology and the arts. Previously he was at the Guardian newspaper in London where he ran the Interactive team, and prior to that he was an editor, writer, and developer at the Times of London.

Speaker(s): Ryo Hajika, The University of Auckland, New Zealand
Kunal Gupta, The University of Auckland, New Zealand
Prasanth Sasikumar, The University of Auckland, New Zealand
Yun Suen Pai, The University of Auckland, New Zealand

Description: HyperDrum, which is about leveraging this cognitive synchronization to create a collaborative music production experience with immersive visualization in virtual reality. Participants will wear an electroencephalography (EEG) head-mounted display to create music and VR space together using a physical drum.

Bio of Speaker: Ryo Hajika is a postgraduate certificate student in Engineering and a research internship at the Empathic Computing Laboratory, the University of Auckland, under the supervision of Professor Mark Billinghurst. He obtained his Bachelors Degree in Engineering at the Ritsumeikan University, Japan. His research interest is rooted in the human-computer interaction design to enhance people's communication; especially VR/AR technique and physiological sensing. He also interested in media art and has working experience as a designer or a software engineer for several installations.

Kunal Gupta is a Ph.D. candidate at the Empathic Computing Laboratory, The University of Auckland, New Zealand, under the supervision of Prof. Mark Billinghurst. His research topic revolves around emotion recognition and representation in VR/AR using physiological sensing and contextual information. Prior to this, he worked as a User Experience Researcher at Google Inc. (Contract) and as an Interaction Designer at a startup in India with a total of around 5 years of industry experience. He obtained his masters from HITLab NZ at Unversity of Canterbury under the supervision of Prof Mark Billinghurst in 2015.

Prasanth Sasikumar is a Ph.D. candidate at the Empathic Computing Laboratory, The University of Auckland, New Zealand, under the supervision of Prof. Mark Billinghurst. His research topic revolves around multimodal input in remote collaboration and dense scene reconstruction. Prior to this, he worked as an XR Developer at JIX, and as a software developer at IBS, India with a total of around 3 years of industry experience. He obtained his masters from HITLab NZ at Unversity of Canterbury under the supervision of Prof Rob Lindeman in 2018.

Yun Suen Pai is currently a research fellow at the Empathic Computing Laboratory, University of Auckland, New Zealand, directed by Mark Billinghurst. He obtained his Bachelors Degree in Computer-Aided Design and Manufacturing Engineering, as well as Masters Degree in Engineering Sciences at the University of Malaya, Malaysia. Then, he proceeded to obtain his Ph.D. in Media Design at Keio University, Japan. His research interest is the effects of VR/AR/MR towards human behavior, perception and learning using physiological signals and artificial intelligence.

Speaker(s): Enrique Eduardo Klein Garcia-Godos, University of Queensland, Australia
Valerie Williams Eguiguren, SUQ, Australia
Arindam Dey, University of Queensland, Australia

Description: This virtual reality story lets the viewers experience the narrative from different perspectives of different characters. The story revolves around a family dispute between a couple who has an unfortunate son who can do little to stop his father leaving the house but tries his best.

Bio of Speaker: Enrique Klein is a Game Designer from Peru involved with educational games since the start of his career. Enrique started his journey studying a Bachelor of IT, major in Games Modelling, at The University of Queensland. Then, he specialized in Game Design at Vancouver Film School. After a few years of working in educational and non-educational games back in Peru, Enrique is now a Masters of Philosophy student at The University of Queensland exploring the intersection of Narrative and Virtual Reality, in particular how to modify a virtual environment to better align the storyteller’s creative intentions with the participant’s experience.

Valerie Williams is a Graphic Designer with over 4 years of experience in different fields such as web design, 3D modelling, mobile UI design, VR experience design, corporate identity, editorial design, packaging design. She studied Graphic Design at the Peruvian University of Applied Sciences (UPC). Valerie has skill in creating VR experiences from concept to release: conceptualisation, narrative design, scope management, core interaction mechanics design, interface design, 3D asset creation including modelling, texturing and lighting.

Arindam Dey is a Lecturer at the School of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering and Co-Director of the Empathic Extended Reality and Pervasive Computing Laboratory. His research is focused on making extended reality interfaces capable of measuring, sharing, and adapting to user’s real-time emotional and cognitive states. Before joining the University of Queensland, he was a Research Fellow at the Empathic Computing Laboratory (University of South Australia). Earlier, he held postdoctoral positions at the University of Tasmania, Worcester Polytechnic Institute (USA), and James Cook University.

Speaker(s): Till Sander-Titgemeyer, Filmakademie Baden-Wurttemberg, Animationsinstitut, Germany
Jiayan Chen, Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg, Animationsinstitut, Germany
Ramon Schauer, Filmakademie Baden-Wurttemberg, Animationsinstitut, Germany
Mario Bertsch, Filmakademie Baden-Wurttemberg, Animationsinstitut, Germany
Sebastian Selg, Filmakademie Baden-Wurttemberg, Animationsinstitut, Germany
York von Sydow, Filmakademie Baden-Wurttemberg, Animationsinstitut, Germany
Ihab Al-Azzam, Filmakademie Baden-Wurttemberg, Animationsinstitut, Germany
Verena Nomura, Filmakademie Baden-Wurttemberg, Animationsinstitut, Germany

Description: The player will take on the role of an overweight superhero trying to save the day. In order to do so, the player who is wearing a tracked fat-suit has to use his belly in order to prevent a bank robbing.

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Speaker(s): Gregory W. Bennett, Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand
Liz Canner, Astrea Media, United States of America

Description: Lost City of Mer is a virtual reality experience combined with a smartphone app that immerses players in a fantasy undersea civilization devastated by ecological disaster caused by global warming. Harnessing the empathetic potential of VR players are given agency regarding their personal carbon footprint in combating climate change.

Bio of Speaker: Gregory Bennett is currently Head of Department for Digital Design and Visual Arts at the School of Art & Design at Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand. His academic teaching and research include collaborative work on Virtual Reality projects in science, heritage and health. He is also a digital artist who works with 3D animation, motion capture, and interactive and immersive technologies. He has exhibited internationally in New Zealand, Australia, the USA, and Europe, including ISEA, Rencontres Internationales Paris/Berlin, Supernova, Currents, AA|LA Gallery, Centre for Contemporary Photography, and his work is represented in both public and private collections.

Liz Canner is a multi-award-winning filmmaker, artist and writer who creates films, cross-platform digital media projects, and installations. She is director of Astrea Media Inc., a non-profit media company dedicated to creating innovative projects on human rights and environmental issues. Notable projects include the public cyber art documentary Symphony of a City about the housing crisis, and the feature documentary Orgasm Inc. about the pharmaceutical industry and women’s health which was a New York Times “Critic's Pick”. Her work has screened at over 100 film festivals, been widely theatrically released, broadcast globally, and streamed on Sundance Now, Netflix and Kanopy.

Speaker(s): Mairi Gunn, University of Auckland, New Zealand
Huidong Bai, University of Auckland, New Zealand
Prasanth Sasikumar, University of Auckland, New Zealand

Description: Come to the Table! employs an extended reality interface, centred around a domestic kitchen table, as a first step towards overcoming racial tensions by inviting indigenous Māori, people from migrant backgrounds and all others to join viewers, thereby fostering intercultural relationship building.

Bio of Speaker: An award-winning filmmaker and cinematographer, Mairi is currently a senior lecturer in Digital Design at Auckland University of Technology and a PhD candidate at the Elam School of Fine Arts, University of Auckland. Her practice-led research has broken away from traditional flat screen aspect ratios, using PanOptica software to create ultra-widescreen (48:9) moving images for her installation Common Ground. It highlighted commonalities between her Scottish ancestors and the indigenous Māori of Aotearoa New Zealand. In her PhD thesis common/room, working with Māori and immigrants, she uses 3D/360° image-capture and XR at dining tables that serve as urban commons.

Speaker(s): Michael Goesele, Facebook, United States of America
Stefano Zanetti, Facebook, United States of America
Sarthak Ray, Facebook, United States of America

Description: The Oculus Space Sharing Demo “Together from Wherever” allows two users to interact in VR inside a photo-realistic re-creation of a real environment. Real world places (such as your living room) have meaning and lead to a greater sense of presence. With this demo, we can glimpse a future where it should be possible to experience that profound sense of presence with someone important in your life in virtual reality irrespective of physical distance. Contributors: John Abad, Matthew Banks, Justin Blosch, Anders Bond, Milton Cadogan, Christopher Dotson, Francesco Georg, Simon Green, Shiva Halan, Heath Liles, James Lin, Steven Lovegrove, Jeffrey Mancebo, Alessia Mara, Christopher Ocampo, Luis Pesqueira, Vyacheslav Rakityanskey, Sarthak Ray, Thomas Rubalcava, Ryan Rutherford, Christina Tanouye, Andrew Welch, Benjamin Wulfe, Mingfei Yan, Stefano Zanetti Facebook

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