Speakers: Sebastian Mealla and Dr. Aleksander Valjämäe (BCI Lab, TU Graz)
Title: Multimodal Display of Brain and Body Signals in Collaborative Experiences Using a Tabletop Interface and Physiology-driven Tangible Objects
Date: Tuesday, Nov 22nd, 2011
Location: Interface Culture Lab (Universität für Künstlerische und Industrielle Gestaltung in LINZ)

Abstract: Physiological Computing has been applied in different disciplines such as Human-Computer Interaction, neuroscience and medical rehabilitation, and is becoming widespread due to device miniaturization and improvements in real-time processing. However, most of the current physiology-based technology focuses on single-user paradigms and traditional Graphical User Interfaces. Therefore, Its application in collaborative scenarios is still emerging. Our  work explores how sonification and visualization of human brain and body signals, and its presentation through tangible objects (physiopucks), can enhance user experience in collaborative, multiuser tasks. We present a multimodal interactive system built using a musical tabletop interface (Reactable) and an electro-physiology sensing system measuring Electroencephalogram (EEG) and heart rate (Enobio headset, Starlab) that allows performers to generate and control sounds using their own or their fellow team member’s physiology, and visualize all ongoing processes in an interactive surface.

Bio: Aleksander Väljamäe has received his PhD in applied acoustics at Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden, in 2007. During his PhD studies concerning multisensory perception he has being a visiting researcher at University of Barcelona (Dr. Soto-Faraco) and NTT Communication Science Labs, Japan (Dr. Kitagawa). He has being active in a number of EU funded projects: POEMS, PRESENCCIA, BrainAble, Future BNCI. In 2007-2010 he has being a postdoc and a psychophysiology lab director at Laboratory for Synthetic Perceptive, Emotive and Cognitive Systems (SPECS), Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain, obtaining several grants as PI from national Spanish funding (TEC2009-13780, TEC2010-11599-E). Currently he is a senior postdoctoral researcher at BCI Lab, Technical University of Graz, Austria. His psychophysiology research concerns how audiovisual media influence humans on perceptual and cognitive level, with particular stress on the novel methods for diagnosis and treatment of various brain disorders (e.g. autism, depression, chronic pain, migraine) and new applications (BCI, neurocinema).