NUS ICT in the Environment: Telework Essay

Complete five of the computer-related experiences listed below and write a report on each of the five you choose, being sure to make connections between your experiences and the readings and other academic materials you have encountered in this course. You may have to go outside the course materials to find supporting or relevant research, scholarly work, or other sources to elaborate on your experience. Each report should be no more than five double-spaced pages (approximately 1,500 words). Use either MLA or APA style, and cite all sources both in the body of your report, as you quote or discuss others’ ideas, and in a list of references at the end of your report.

Choose 5 options from those listed below. Each of your selections must come from a different unit. At least 2 must come from the Core units (Units 1—4) and at least 2 must come from the Applications units (Units 5—8). For example, you could choose to do Options 1c, 2d, 4a, 5b, and 7c.

UNIT 1: OVERVIEW

1a. Steven Johnson — Everything Bad is Good for You. Steven Johnson, bestselling author of Everything Bad Is Good For You, presents his thesis regarding the evolution of media and its ability to make us all smarter. Johnson covers changes in video games, the Internet, film, and television in his book and discusses some of his thinking in this keynote at the Association for Educational Publishing (AEP) Summit.

1b. Immersive Digital Audio According to Drs. Kevin Donohue and Jens Hannemann of the University of Kentucky, the phrase selective listening has a whole new meaning. These engineers at the Center for Visualization and Virtual Environments explore new developments in microphone systems that electronically focus on the speech of a single individual in noisy room.

1c. Mapping Memory in the Brain Eric R. Kandel, Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator, probes into the mind to demonstrate how it is much more complex than just a series of processes carried out by the brain. The brain produces our every emotional, intellectual and athletic act. It allows us to acquire new facts and skills, and to remember them for as long as a lifetime. Memory exists in two major forms, each located in different brain regions. Explicit memory is for people, places, and objects. In contrast, implicit memory serves perceptual and motor skills. In concert, these two memory systems help make us who we are.

1d. Digitizing Petroglyphs in Puerto Rico Brent Seales, professor of computer science engineering and director of the petroglyph project, leads a technical team from the University of Kentucky that records petroglyphs, stone carvings, in Puerto Rico using advanced 3D imaging techniques. The ancient petroglyphs are digitized for preservation and further study. Learn about this groundbreaking technique which has the potential to transform how people can understand their cultural heritage and access the past.

1e. Reading the Unreadable Dr. Brent Seales, professor of computer science at the University of Kentucky, reveals new research that may make it possible to read ancient scrolls and manuscripts that are unable to be physically unrolled. By scanning the objects, we may be able to virtually unroll these delicate objects without harming them.

1f. Behind the Code with Terry Crowley In this Microsoft Research program, Terry Crowley, a technical fellow and director of development for Microsoft Office, speaks on his integral role in the early history and evolution of the Internet. It is hard to imagine a time when the Internet wasn’t a part of our lives, but it has only been a little over a decade since the Internet became so widespread. Find out more about the internet as Crowley shares his reflections on the Internet, the origins and evolution of FrontPage, experiences in Office and his expectations for where this technology may lead us.

1g. Libraries, Coffee and Surfing In this program by the California State University (CSUMB), Monterey Bay, Gil Gonzales, CIO of CSUMB, leads a group of expert panelists in a discussion of the librarys role in the university community. The library’s longstanding function as the academic center of a campus has shifted to an encompassing, multi-functional facility and virtual space – i.e., cafes, and new social spaces. Today’s library faces many challenges including digital rights, copyright practices, accessibility issues, and the next generation of collections. These will be used by the increasing numbers of students who have yet to enter the physical library, but who regularly use the Internet as the complimentary and competing path and source for content in an age of DRM, P2P, and FairPlay.

1h. Surveillance Privacy Protection In this University of Kentucky program, Samson Cheung, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Kentucky, discusses society’s dilemma of wanting greater surveillance at home and work without compromising the right to privacy. Cheung of the University of Kentucky creates programs that can manipulate video surveillance all the way down to the pixel level. For example, an individual in a video can be erased, with that image then embedded into a secure watermark. If the complete video is needed for legal purposes, the stream can be recreated.

1i. Crime Scene Investigation and Forensic Anthropology In this program, three distinguished University of Maryland professors, Marilyn London, professor of anthropology, Tom Mauriello, professor of criminology and criminal justice, and Andrew Wolvin, professor of communication, come together to discuss how scientists assist in criminal investigations. They take a look at the lives, research, and education of criminal investigators and forensic anthropologists to show how science is being used to solve crimes.

UNIT 2: ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (AI)

TOP

2a. Deep Blue beat G. Kasparov in 1997 Short documentary about computer chess history up to the third millennium and especially about the 1997 chess match between Garry Kasparov World Chess Champion and IBM’s computer Deep Blue. The computer won the match 3.5 – 2.5 and Kasparov lost a chess match for the first time in his life.

2b. A New Marriage of Brain and Computer Google TechTalk with Stuart Hameroff, Professor of Anaesthesiology and Director of Consciousness Studies at the University of Arizona.

2c. Teaching Your Car to Drive In this Virginia Tech program, Charles Reinholtz, distinguished professor of mechanical engineering at Virginia Tech, discusses the development of autonomous vehicles and what the future of the automobile industry may look like.

2d. Self-Improving Artificial Intelligence October 24, 2007 lecture by Steve Omohundro for the Stanford University Computer Systems Colloquium (EE 380). Steve presents fundamental principles that underlie the operation of “self-improving systems,” i.e., computer software and hardware that improve themselves by learning from their own operations.

2e. The Future of Robotics and Artificial Intelligence Andrew Ng (Stanford University) is building robots to improve the lives of millions. From autonomous helicopters to robotic perception, Ng’s research in machine learning and artificial intelligence could result one day in a robot that can clean your house.

2f. Jeff Hawkins on Artificial Intelligence (Part 1/5) The founder of Palm, Jeff Hawkins, solves the mystery of Artificial Intelligence and presents his theory at the RSA Conference 2008. He gives a brief tutorial on the neocortex and then explains how the brain stores memory and then describes how to use that knowledge to create artificial intelligence. This lecture is insightful and his theory will revolutionize computer science. Video parts 2-5:

(Part 2/5 – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pjpWISEIl44).

(Part 3/5 – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pngRexsrmGk).

(Part 4/5 – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GpekuvG4JMg).

(Part 5/5 – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FthvUpHzwfA).

UNIT 3: ROBOTICS & VIRTUAL REALITY

3a. Art and Media Doreen Maloney and Dmitry Strakovsky, professors of fine arts at the University of Kentucky, talk about their current work that examines the fields of fine arts and technology intersect to create an exciting new synergy. Virtual environments.

3b. Cyberknife: New & Emerging Treatments. Iris Gibbs, co-director of the Stanford CyberKnife Program, discusses Stanford’s world-leading CyberKnife program and its impact on the medical world. A frameless robotic radio surgery system, the CyberKnife allows for a more accurate delivery of radiotherapy. Discover more about this innovative, minimally invasive technology, invented and pioneered at Stanford. Find out how CyberKnife may provide an additional option for patients diagnosed with previously inoperable or surgically complex tumors, or patients looking for an alternative to surgery. CyberKnife has been used to treat tumors in the head and neck, spine, lung, prostate, liver and pancreas without surgery, in as little as one week of one to five pain-free sessions.

3c. Why Reality is a Computed Simulation Words from NASA/DoD physicist Thomas Campbell, author of “My Big TOE,” about how physics is altering our notion of what reality is.

3d. The Semantic Web – Shadbolt, Nigel. Nigel Shadbolt, a professor of AI, examines “the extent to which intelligent web services are evolving to cope with diverse sources of information on a global scale.”

3e. Thornton, Chris. POPBUGS: A simulation environment for track-driven robots. This website offers a series of videos demonstrating the sorts of tracking problems a robot encounters.

3f. Chico McMurtrie & Ric Sayre – Tumbling Man, Humanoid Pneumatic Robot, 1991-92 A series of short videos showing advances in robotics.

3g. Pirjanian, Paolo. Part 1. Vision: Extraordinary computing experiences. Part 2. Robots for the masses: Fiction or reality. Microsoft Research. In this video presentation, Paulo Pirjanian talks about the possibilities of combining computer vision technologies with robotics. “Imagine walking into a room with your camera phone, seeing a book you like, and in one snap of the camera the book is yours.”

3h. Robotics for Rehabilitation Independent robots like C-3PO from the film Star Wars may be a long way off, but advanced robotic devices are moving away from the assembly line and into our everyday lives. The FT’s Jonathan Soble visits a Japanese hospital and talks to experts about the latest frontier in robotics.

3i. Robots: The Next Generation They can dance, check your heart rate, vacuum your room, make dinner, or wash the dishes — all without complaining, or asking for a raise. A new generation of robots not only looks human, but is taking on human tasks. Constantino De Miguel reports from Europe’s largest robotics exposition in Lyon, France, where it’s clear that it’s only a matter of time before robots populate our homes, schools, hospitals, and cities. Earth Focus reports.

3j. Infinite Reality: Avatars, Eternal Life and New Worlds (April 29, 2011) Jeremy Bailenson shares his research on virtual reality, avatars, transformed social interaction, and related communication and psychological theories, as well as implications for citizens living in the digital age.

3k. Augmented vs. Virtual Reality In response to the class reading of “Remediation: Understanding New Media,” by Jay David Bolter and Richard Grusin, this comparison of augmented and virtual reality demonstrates how remediation can impact user experiences based on previous media.

3l. Augmented Reality Sandbox with Real-Time Water Flow Simulation Video of a sandbox equipped with a Kinect 3D camera and a projector to project a real-time colored topographic map with contour lines onto the sand surface. The sandbox lets virtual water flow over the surface using a GPU-based simulation of the Saint-Venant set of shallow water equations.

3m. Augmented Reality Magic Mirror using Kinect The Kinect allows tracking of users without additional markers. We develop a magic mirror that generated an overlay of a video image with volume visualization from a CT volume. Such a system could be used for education of anatomy. (by Tobias Blum, Nassir Navab)

UNIT 4: THE INTERNET

TOP

4a. Techno-rage — The pace at which technology has improved does not seem to be keeping pace with the rate at which it is invading our lives. As technology proliferates, more and more “nontechnical” people are called upon to use technology-driven devices, from ATMs to in-car mapping programs. Techno-rage, like road rage, seems to be an underlying current in many work environments. For examples, studies and other resources please go to the AU Library at http://0-search.ebscohost.com.aupac.lib.athabascau.ca/login.aspx?direct=true&bquery=techno-rage&type=0&site=eds-live.

4b. SocioSite: Networks, groups and social interaction — This website provides sociological and psychological resources on, and research into, the effects of computers on social interaction.

4c. The Wayback Machine: Preserving the History of Web Pages Founder Brewster Kahle discusses the inner workings of the Internet Archive’s most famous service, the Wayback Machine. He explains that in addition to providing users a dose of nostalgia, it can also be used to prevent people from rewriting history. As founder and librarian of the storied Internet Archive (deemed impossible by all when he started it in 1996), Brewster Kahle has practical experience behind his universalist vision of access to every bit of knowledge ever created, for all time, ever improving.

4d. ICT in the Environment: Telework. Explores how ICT enables telework to help organizations lower its carbon footprint, support work-life balance and reduce real estate expenses.

UNIT 5: CELL PHONES

5a. Healthy Use of Smartphones — a clever short wordless video that could be used in any country.

5b. Cell Phone History — Website provides an overview of the development of the cell phone and briefly touches on safety issues related to its use.

5c. Douglas Rushkoff — “Everything Wireless” — this website links to an archive of articles on wireless culture written by Douglas Rushkoff between 2003 and 2005.

5d. The Future of Communication — a charming prediction about the future of human experience online. What do you think about the forecasts?

5e. Spotlight on Africa – Mobile Statistics & Facts 2012 (Mobile Phones in Africa) — one of the fastest growing markets for mobile phones is in Africa; how does this compare to knowledge you have of other places around the world?

5f. Your cell phone experience — Talk about your experience with your cell phone and/or your observations of how others around you use their cell phones.

UNIT 6: AUGMENTED REALITY: PORTABILITY, ACCESSIBILITY, AND WEARABILITY

6a. Borriello, Gaetano University of Washington. — Open Data Kit is a free and open-source set of tools which help organizations author, field, and manage mobile data collection solutions. ODK provides an out-of-the-box solution for users to build a data collection form or survey, collect the data on a mobile device and send it to a server, and aggregate the collected data on a server and extract it in useful formats. In addition to socio-economic and health surveys with GPS locations and images, ODK is being used to create decision support for clinicians and for building multimedia-rich nature mapping tools.

6b. Software-defined Radio — Article discusses how software-defined radio will re-define the wireless industry.

6c. Wearable Computing at the MIT Media Lab — Website declares that the personal computer should be worn and should interact with the user and the user’s context, and introduces a ground-breaking research group at MIT.

6d. “Teen fights back against tracking chips in school ID cards” Andrea Hernandez was told she’d be expelled from John Jay High School’s Science and Engineering Academy in San Antonio starting next week if she insists any further on disobeying a new policy that requires students to wear ID badges equipped with tiny Radio Frequency Identification (“RFID”) chips. A judge gave Hernandez a temporary restraining order from the school district and ruled on Wednesday that the principal’s orders to make the surveillance mandatory were a violation of the student’s speech and religion.

6e. Your Experience with Portable Computing—Talk about your experience with augmented reality or portable computing. For instance, describe your use of a favourite hand-held gaming device (Gameboy, for example), or how you use a PDA, or how you now use your cell phone as a multi-tasking handheld computer. Any experience with augmented reality/portable computing would be fine as topics here.

UNIT 7: VIDEO GAMES

7a. Taylor, T. L. Play Between Worlds: Exploring Online Game Culture — emphasizes that the social context of MMOGs (massively multi-player online games)—such as the game EverQuest, which is the focus of this study—is crucial to their success.

7b. Flanagan, Mary and Ken Perlin. RAPUNSEL & CREOL: Games that Teach Kids to Program — The goal of RAPUNSEL is to build “an online ‘self–teaching’ environment [that motivates children] to learn Java programming incrementally through a shared game.” CREOL treats programming as “a natural–language–like skill. . . . Children learn how to ‘converse’ with a computer in order to get the computer to do things and to answer questions algorithmically.”

7c. Media Smarts: Video games — Media Smarts, Canada’s Centre for Digital and Media Literacy, educates parents on how to transform video game play into “a positive family experience” and provides links to materials related to video game play.

7d. The video game revolution. PBS. — This comprehensive website by PBS provides links to the history of video gaming, takes viewers inside games, and explores the impacts of gaming. In the arcade, you can test your knowledge of video games.

7e. Your experience playing a video game. Play a video game and report on the experience.

UNIT 8: HEALTH INFORMATION AND DISABILITIES: COMPUTER APPLICATIONS

8a. Accessible Information Technology in Education: Building Toward a Better Future. In this video, “students with disabilities and experts in accessible IT . . . discuss the importance of ensuring that information technology is accessible in educational settings.”

8b. Brendon Allison. Brain computer interface systems: Progress and opportunities — explains how brain computer interfaces (BCIs), which “infer intent through direct measures of brain activity,” bring accessibility to the severely disabled and also bring benefits to other users.

8c.Kiera Henning, Crystal Hoyer, & Erin Earl. A Day in the Life – Each of these students is working with companies that are leaders in the software industry. Please watch
A Day in the Life: Erin
A Day in the Life: Kiera
A Day in the Life: Crystal

8d. Ability Hub. – provides information about assistive technologies, equipment, and methods that help make computers accessible for people with disabilities.

8e. Your experience with health issues and computers – Talk about any computer-related experiences you have had related to health. For example, you might write about repetitive strain injury, or how a blind person you know uses the Internet, or your experience with looking for health information online.