Every year, the MAGIC lab at the University of British Columbia opens it’s doors to the public for a hands-on opportunity to test drive the latest technologies, and to speak with the Master’s students, PhDs and post-docs whose prototypes are on display. Demo Day, held November 5, was a huge success.

Among the cutting edge exhibits, GRAND was represented by two displays: Interactive Community Displays and Mingleverse.

GRAND researchers and UBC professors Sid Fels and Rodger Lea together with PhD student Roberto Calderon are investigating how mobile devices, large display screens and social media can be used in public spaces for the purpose of building and strengthening the communities that use them.

Their prototype, Interactive Community Displays (ICD), is a network of integrated private and public displays (from small personal mobile screens to large public ones) that users can connect to through their social media tools and geographic location.  ICDs create engaging, interactive community or public spaces (otherwise known as Third Places) and have the potential to mirror the impact that public radio, television and home internet has had on society.

ICDs are one aspect of a much larger GRAND research project called SHRDSP (Understanding Roles and Rules for Shared Display Environments).  SHRDSP investigates the novel ways people use shared display environments for work and play.  Not restricted to visual displays, SHRDSP will also explore audible, haptic as well as olfactory modalities.

Mingleverse, a 3D virtual world meeting space currently being used by the GRAND project team, VIRTPRES (Enhanced Virtual Presence and Performance), was also on display.  One of Mingleverse’s unique features is the ability to view digital content such as videos, pictures and presentations within the same virtual meeting space.

Other Demo Day exhibits covered areas of research in visual analytics, interactive technologies, mobile and ubiquitous computing, music, health, sensing, sustainability and cloud computing.  Photos of the event can be viewed here and here, courtesy of Phillip Jeffrey and Johnty Wang.

GRAND is a federally funded research network and commercialization engine exploring the application and advancement of graphics, animation and new media. GRAND supports 32 projects involving 63 researchers at 24 Canadian universities.  For a comprehensive list of GRAND projects, click here.