In 2020, I applied and was accpted to remotely join the Virtual Internship Programme run by Mark Billinghurst at the Empathic Computing Lab (ECL) in NZ. Mark heads up the ECL and HIT Lab NZ. The Empathic Computing Laboratory (ECL) is an academic research laboratory at the University of South Australia in Adelaide, Australia, and at the University of Auckland in Auckland, New Zealand. Directed by Prof. Mark Billinghurst, the ECL is exploring new ways for technology to enable people to better understand one another.
Operating since 2002, the Human Interface Technology Laboratory New Zealand (HIT Lab NZ) is a multidisciplinary research centre located at the University of Canterbury in the Faculty of Engineering. The HIT Lab is recognised internationally as a leader in Human Interface Technology research and education.
In August 2023, I finally got to meet Mark at SIGGRAPH LA where I volunteered to work with his team on his project presentations. The projects were shared across the volunteers. My role was to join Mark and Prof. Hirokazu Kato from the Nara Institute of Science and Technology (NAIST), Japan and present the MagicBook to visitors at SIGGRAPH using Google Cardboard and a pair of Magic Leap glasses (see Slide 44). Read more about MagicBook here.
I found Mark and the Lab to be incredibly kind and generous with their knowledge and their time, it was an honour to be involved, even remotely, with their work. It certainly inspired me during my time lecturing part-time at the University of Gloucestershire’s Park Campus.
Mark shares all of his lecture slides in Slide Share. You can read the October 5th 2024 lecture slides here, and find others from here. At the time of posting, there are 242 shares.
The Research Directions in Heads-Up Computing 2024 lecture slides discuss the progression of HMD computing technologies over time, paying particular attention to the Reality-Virtuality Continuum. Mark discusses different AR glasses and technologies, the affordances and limitations of the technologies, and introduces the concepts of Cross Reality (CR) and Diminished Reality (DR). There is also a discussion about the team’s experiements with Galea, an advanced bio-sensing headset.
Mark has included a slide of photos of all of his lab team and interns. You can spot me on Slide 75, column 8, row 3.
