[dance-tech] Hands + Brains, lecture

Hi everyone,


Monday 19th June, 2006 @ 5pm (1700)
Ian Gulland Lecture Theatre
Goldsmiths
University of London
New Cross
SE14 6NW

Hands and Brains: Haptic Science, Technology, and Cultural Applications

Professor Mandayam A. Srinivasan, Director of Touch Lab (laboratory for
human and machine haptics), MIT, USA will be discussing his pioneering work
in haptics with reference to cultural applications and the developments that
have taken place during the year of his EPSRC Science Fellowship in the
Arts on MONDAY 19th JUNE 2006 at 5pm in the Ian Gulland lecture theatre, Goldsmiths, University of London.

Professor Srinivasan has not given such a keynote presentation in the UK
before. The lecture is free and also open to the public.

This Fellowship is hosted by the Constance Howard Resource and Research
Centre in Texiles and  supported by Goldsmiths Digital Studios and BT.

The project, Intimate Technologies has focused on:

developing and improving the quality of human-computer ‘touch and feel’
interfaces

addressing the impact of haptic visuality on the interpretation of textile
artefacts.


Dr. Srinivasan has caused paradigm shifts in multiple disciplines through
his pioneering research on the science, technology and applications of
human and machine touch over the past 20 years. In 1990, he started his
lab at MIT (Laboratory for Human and Machine Haptics, informally known as
The Touch Lab around the world) with a new broad vision of haptics that
includes all aspects of information acquisition and object manipulation
through touch by humans, machines, or a combination of the two; and the
environments can be real, teleoperated or virtual. Multiple disciplines
such as biomechanics, neuroscience, psychophysics, robot design and
control, mathematical modeling and simulation, and software engineering
for real-time human computer interactions converge to support it.
Applications range from medical trainers and smart prostheses to wearable
computers and tactile art. Through his research, papers, talks, and
interviews to the news media, he has conveyed this vision, and has played
a pivotal role in starting and establishing the multidisciplinary field of
modern Haptics. In fact, the term Haptics as it is used today comes from
several of his early papers, and the broad field it defines is being
pursued all over the world as a hot area of research.

At MIT, Dr. Srinivasan has led many multi-year research projects on
haptics and its applications, sponsored by a number of US federal agencies
including DARPA (Tactile Displays Realized Using MEMS Actuator Arrays;
Closed-loop Brain-Machine Interface for Augmenting Motor Performance), NIH
(Role of Skin Biomechanics in Mechanoreceptor Response), and ONR (Virtual
Environment Technology for Training) as well as Harvard University and
Massachusetts General Hospital (Integration of Touch Feedback in Virtual
Reality Based Training Systems). As a Principal Investigator, he has been
successful in obtaining peer reviewed grants of about 15 million dollars
over the past 10 years. He has supervised over 30 graduate theses and has
more than 150 publications and several patents. He has given over 60
invited talks internationally. Dr. Srinivasan has been featured or quoted
in print media such as the Scientific American, Time magazine, The Wall
Street Journal, The New York Times, Pravda and the Smithsonian, as well as
by worldwide radio and TV networks such as BBC and CNN in programs focused
on cutting edge research in information technology and its future
prospects. In the MIT Touch Lab, he currently leads a group of about 20
researchers composed of undergraduate and graduate students as well as
post doctoral fellows, research scientists and visiting faculty from
universities around the world.


For further details contact:
j.davin-smith@xxxxxxxxxx
02070785142

Please disseminate!

--
Maria Chatzichristodoulou [aka maria x] PhD Art & Computational Technologies 15 Rodmell Regent Square London WC1H 8HX

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