2010 Tasmanian Creative Arts Summer School

From HIT Lab Australia

13 - 22 January 2010

Background

The Tasmanian Creative Arts Summer School is a cultural community-based partnership between the University of Tasmania, Newstead College, Launceston College, TAFE Tasmania, the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery and the Launceston City Council. The Summer School will be held 13 - 22 January 2010 at the Academy of the Arts, Launceston. The School of Computing and Information Systems and the Human Interface Technology (HIT) Lab Australia will be offering a summer school unit entitled "An Introduction to Virtual Reality and Advanced Media Technology". Tutor: Professor Young Choi and international experts. For details on how to apply visit the Tasmanian Creative Arts Summer School Application Process page.

An Introduction to Virtual Reality and Advanced Media Technology

This unit, offered in a group project setting and open to all students regardless of background, will explore the exciting field of mixed reality and concepts and technologies for interfacing humans to complex machines. Topics covered will include virtual space; cyberspace; virtual environments; simulation; animation and augmented reality. It will focus on the potential impact of virtual interfaces on the way we think about computers and the way we think with them. Interface design principles will be reviewed from human factors and technological perspectives. Hardware, software and mindware aspects of virtual interfaces and virtual environments will be investigated and applications postulated and designed in the fields of creative arts and entertainment, design, medicine and education. The unit will expose students of all disciplines and interests to modern virtual reality technology and cutting-edge tools in human computer interaction and virtual reality and will consider the future of advanced media technologies. Some experiments will be conducted in a cutting-edge facility, the ‘VisionSpace’, within the HIT Lab Australia.