[Graphics-net] Re: [Fwd: 4 Vacancies PhD students Game & MediaTechnology]

[Alexander Agathos]

Θα ήθελα να ενισχύσω το hotness αυτών των positions λέγοντας ότι τα
Position 1 & Position 2 αφορούν άμεσα τις emerging τεχνολογίες που
αναφέρθηκαν στην σημερινή ημερίδα εικονικής πραγματικότητας που
διοργανώθηκε από το network of excellence INTUITION για την οποία πρέπει
να είστε ενήμεροι από το γράμμα του κου. Πρατικάκη. Tο position 2 αφορά
άμεσα τον θόλο εικονικής πραγματικότητας του Ιδρύματος Μείζονος Ελληνισμού
διότι παρατήρησα ότι δεν υπάρχουν (τουλάχιστον προς το παρόν) δυναμικοί
virtual characters.

Αλέξανδρος.

> Kalimera,
>
> Sas stelnw prokirijeis 8esewn gia PhD sthn Outrexth (ollandia), einai apo
> ta
> kalutera eurwpaika groups se efarmosmenh gewmetria.
>
> Yiannis
>
>
> ---
>
> From: Remco Veltkamp <Remco.Veltkamp at cs.uu.nl>
> To: info2all at aim-at-shape.net
> Date: Thu, 08 Feb 2007 13:39:15 +0100
> Subject: 4 Vacancies PhD students Game & Media Technology
>
>                  4 Vacancies PhD students Game & Media Technology
>
> The department of Information and Computing Sciences of Utrecht University
> is looking for 4 PhD-students for the project "GATE" (Game Research for
> Training
> and Entertainment).
>
> At the Department of Information and Computing Sciences of Utrecht
> University
> there are four openings for PhD students for 4 years within the Game
> Research
> for Training and Entertainment (GATE) project.
>
> Position 1: Automatic world generation based on real data
> Building virtual worlds from real data such as panorama images is still a
> very
> labor intensive work, error prone, slow, and expensive. Therefore, the
> results
> is often small-scale, of low resolution, and not accurate. Our objectives
> are to
> research new algorithms to build virtual worlds automatically and from
> multiple
> data sources in order to alleviate these problems. From the various data
> sources
> we will identify salient points and landmark objects. Then we will find a
> correspondence between them, derive the transformation to put the data in
> a
> common coordinate frame, merge the data, and construct the final virtual
> world.
> The envisioned results are methods that build virtual worlds fast and
> accurately. In this way, the quality of training people, mission planning,
> contingency planning, and decision making can be improved.
> This research is performed in collaboration with TNO Defence, Security and
> Safety.
>
> Position 2: Modeling planning behavior
> Computer games are inhabited by virtual characters. Such characters move
> around
> in the virtual world to perform certain actions. So an important task of
> virtual
> characters is to plan their paths to a required destination. Such a path
> must be
> natural. A natural path can be defined as a path that would be taken in
> the
> real
> world, or that is at least convincing to a viewer. A natural path will
> depend on
> the environment, the task of the character, its knowledge of the world,
> the
> presence and motion of other entities, and possibly its emotional state.
> The
> goal of this project is to develop path planning algorithms that lead to
> natural
> paths, while they put only a small load on the processor. To this end we
> will
> employ our motion capture system to record natural motion and combine this
> with
> algorithmic planning techniques.
>
> Position 3: Navigation and manipulation
> One of the research objectives within GATE addresses navigation and
> manipulation
> tasks within virtual environments. Usually the interface with the virtual
> environment is established by controlling an avatar represented by an
> animated
> virtual character. It is not an easy task to find an animation model that
> is
> capable of handling both manipulation and navigation tasks and that can
> dynamically switch between them. An example of such behaviour is to pick
> up
> an
> object from a table while waking past it, or walking toward a door and
> opening
> it, without an unnatural transition between walking (navigation) and
> manipulating the object. The goal of the intended research is to address
> such
> types of problems, by using motion capture and motion synthesis
> techniques,
> ultimately resulting in natural animation behaviour in real-time.
>
> Position 4: Detecting, interpreting and affecting user behavior
> In many applications, computer vision based analysis motion, gestures, and
> facial expressions of groups of people is desired. Current techniques are
> still
> limited to a single person, and to fixed position in from of a camera. The
> ability to robustly track persons in room opens many new applications. The
> objectives of this project are to develop fast and robust algorithms that
> can
> detect, track, and model accurately and robustly individual persons in the
> real
> 3D world. We also want to recognize gestures and motion of individuals, to
> identify the interaction between persons such as looking or gesturing at
> each
> other, and to design interaction between humans and computer systems. For
> all
> these techniques we will first choose application domains, in order to
> identify
> the needs, and to evaluate the methods against the requirements.
> This research is performed in collaboration with Technical University
> Delft.
>
> GATE
> The GATE (Game Research for Training and Entertainment) project aims to
> set
> up the leading edge research center in Europe (and world-wide) that
> advances
> the
> state-of-the-art in gaming and simulation with strong ties to production
> companies and users of gaming and simulation. The goal of the center is to
> create technology for highly effective entertainment, learning and
> training
> experiences.
>
> We ask
> MSc degree in Computer Science, Mathematics, or any other relevant
> discipline.
> Knowledge and experience in programming (C++), algorithms and data
> structures,
> pattern recognition, computer vision.
>
> More information about salary and how to apply can be found at
> http://www.cs.uu.nl/vacatures/en/62704.html
> Closing date: February 28, 2007
>
> --
> --------------------------------------------------------------------
> Remco.Veltkamp at cs.uu.nl, http://www.cs.uu.nl/people/remcov
> Department of Information and Computing Sciences, Utrecht University
> Padualaan 14, 3584 CH Utrecht, The Netherlands
> phone: +31-30-2534091, fax: +31-30-2513791
>