Author Archives: Megan Severson

LAIT Awarded Seed Grant

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The LAIT project has been selected as one of ten proposals to be developed on behalf of the Illinois Learning Sciences Design Initiative (ILSDI). Facilitated by the College of Education, this initiative features the work of emerging technologies being developed on-campus by competing teams of interdisciplinary researchers.

This fall, LAIT collaborators are working on two fronts to make the project more robust. The technical team is increasing the modes of communication between audience and facilitator. The aesthetics team is writing a conceptual reflection of LAIT’s potential, outlining future applications and thematic considerations. In November, the aesethetics and technical team will put forth a proposal for deploying LAIT in educational settings, both in the classroom and beyond.

The goal of ILSDI is to foster collaboration among different departments and make use of Illinois’ outstanding faculty and research facilities. At the kickoff luncheon on September 18, 2015 John Toenjes outlined the current status of LAIT’s technical capabilities.

LAIT Day on May Day

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Workshop on Research Directions in the Aesthetics of Mobile Devices in the Theater: Cross-disciplinary Perspectives

Friday, May 1, 2015  Krannert Art Museum, Lower Level

The Laboratory for Interactive Audience Technologies (LAIT) is sponsoring a workshop to explore the implications of its new mobile device platform in the theater from a variety of academic perspectives, to foster new collaborations, and to uncover promising research directions.

We are hoping this will open up a can of worms of questions about the aesthetic and ethical questions surrounding mobile devices in the theater and concert hall!

See the LAITday page for more information!

End of Semester Demonstration Meeting

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Yesterday evening the two teams developing LAIT met for the first time together to share what they’ve accomplished this semester. First the students demonstrated the applications they’d developed. Afterwards we discussed some particulars of the software, and how we might integrate the two efforts into one product next semester.

First the CS492 students showed a system that accepted accelerometer data from two phones and changed color on each phone based upon the amount of activity in both phones. If one phone was shaking a moderate amount, only half of its screen would turn blue, while the other half remained dark. If both phones were shaking a moderated amount, then both sides of the screen would turn blue, indicating that the other phone was also shaking. The same system turned the phones red if the phones were being shaken more rapidly. Continue reading →