Pablo Cesar – Towards Volumetric Video Conferencing
Tuesday June 18, 2024
With Social Extended Reality (XR) emerging as a new medium, where users can remotely experience immersive content with others, the vision of a true feeling of ‘being there together’ has become a realistic goal. This keynote will provide an overview about the challenges to achieve such a goal, based on results from practical case studies like the TRANSMIXR and MediaScape XR projects. We will discuss about different technologies, like point clouds, that can be used as the format for representing highly-realistic digital humans, and about metrics and protocols for quantifying the quality of experience. The final intention of the talk is to shed some light on social XR, as a new group of virtual reality experiences based on social photorealistic immersive content. We will discuss about the challenges regarding production and user-centric processes, and discover the new opportunities open by this new medium.
Bio: Pablo Cesar has led the Distributed and Interactive Systems (DIS) group at CWI and is Professor of Human-Centered Multimedia Systems in the Department of Intelligent Systems (INSY) at TU Delft. He has received the prestigious 2020 Netherlands Prize for ICT Research. He is IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) Senior member, the highest grade for which IEEE members can apply, and ACM (Association for Computing Machinery) Distinguished Member, cited for significant achievements across the computing field recognizing up to 10 percent of ACM worldwide membership. His research focuses on measuring and evaluating the way users interact and communicate with each other using a wide range of decentralized digital systems. Cesar has co-directed over 15 externally funded research projects (H2020, FP7, FP6, PPP, NWO).
Pablo Cesar
CWI, The Netherlads
(Photography: Elodie Burrillon | https://hucopix.com)
David Granberg – Exploring Immersive Learning Landscapes
Wednesday June 19, 2024
In an era where experiential and situated learning are pivotal, our keynote explores the transformative potential of Extended Reality (XR) technology across various educational and professional domains. From virtual graduation ceremonies to immersive technical training, and from remote career fairs to VR-enabled leadership development, this presentation showcases a series of innovative pilots that redefine traditional learning and interaction paradigms. By integrating XR into activities like professional networking, sales training, and virtual field trips, we illustrate how these technologies create rich, engaging environments that foster not only knowledge acquisition but also critical thinking, interpersonal skills, and a profound sense of community among participants. Join us to discover how XR is shaping the future of learning and development, making every experience not just learned, but lived.
Bio: David Granberg is a Learner Experience Designer at Ericsson, deeply engaged in crafting and disseminating immersive experiences. With a focus on peer-to-peer knowledge sharing and learning via XR technologies, he aims to enhance organizational learning culture and create impactful learning experiences. David’s efforts are geared towards leveraging XR to facilitate situated learning, advocating for learning within authentic environments that mirror or augment real-world settings.
David Granberg
Ericsson
Fatuma Simba – Quality of Multimedia Experience and Connectivity Infrastructure in Africa
Thursday June 20, 2024
As we are discussing current and future research on multimedia quality, quality of experience (QoE) and user experience (UX), it is important to consider 1) the status of broadband connectivity in Africa where most users are accessing the Internet via mobile devices, 2) the existence of digital divide, and 3) affordability challenges. This talk is intended to inform and motivate the audience to come up with contributions in developing and adapting multimedia technologies (along with parameters to measure multimedia quality, QoE and UX) to the African infrastructure context.
Bio: Dr. Fatuma Simba is a senior lecturer at the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, College of Information and Communication Technologies (CoICT), University of Dar es Salaam (UDSM), Tanzania. She received her PhD degree in 2012 for the research titled “Determination of Viable Connectivity Technology for e-Learning in Tanzania: Case Study of Rural Secondary Schools” awarded by the University of Dar es Salaam (UDSM), Tanzania. The viability aspects were on Quality of Service (QoS), coverage and cost/affordability. Her research areas of interest, in which she publishes and offers consultancy services, focus on broadband communication networks in the African context, especially access networks for rural areas, e-learning, cybersecurity, and software engineering. She is a member of the IEEE Communication Society. In 2023, she contributed to a Dagstuhl seminar of Quality of Sustainable Experience (QoSE).
Fatuma Simba
University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania