One of Dominique's friends. Good writing, nice insights. http://soloflite.blogspot.com/

Went to the SFC open research forum last 2004.11.23 to meet Mark Chignell, director of UToronto's Interactive Media Lab. I was a bit nervous about meeting him, as he seems to be the best fit adviser for my graduate studies. Unfortunately, had forgotten to bring a print-out of my CurriculumVitae and my StatementOfPurpose. Although Dr. Chignell said I could e-mail it to him, I decided not to waste the opportunity, so I went to a cybercafe in Shinjuku after lunch. Also noticed some interesting booths listed in the forum guide that I'd missed during my first pass, so definitely wanted to pass by again.

Wandered around the other booths before dropping off the print-outs. Research projects included ambient computing and augmented reality, and were all very well-done. I'd like to get the Philippines to that level of research. Materials were in Japanese, of course. Must study more so that next time something like this happens, I can understand the posters and explanations!

Dr. Chignell demonstrated his spatialized audio conferencing project with Wang and Pierre. Wang used a wireless Sony Vaio U50 in the same room. Pierre was in Canada, but the sound quality was still very good. Spatialization was interesting, although I could have distinguished their voices even without it.

A lot of people were interested, so explanations kept Dr. Chignell very busy. I even had the opportunity to help demonstrate it by chatting in Japanese. Also chatted with Pierre a bit about his research. Apparently, he wasn't associated with the same group, but helped out as their programmer. He knew how useful spatialization could be for audioconferencing, but wasn't sure if there were other applications for it. I mentioned the Nomadic Radio project I read about when I was doing my wearable computing project in fourth year. When Dr. Chignell heard that, he lit up and started recounting tidbits about that paper off the top of his head. Was rather surprised, as I thought he wasn't paying attention to my conversation with Pierre. (It can get very boring when you can hear only one side of the conversation!) Now feel somewhat guilty, as wonder if I missed the opportunity to talk to him about possible research projects.

Am really excited about UToronto and hope I can join their mobile computing and personal information management group. =) Will work on identifying possible research projects and funding opportunities now.

Random personal snippet: I like watching ice-skating on TV. Ballroom dancing too, but that's aired much less often.