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Inspiration, Students

What is Mogees? Gesture recognition with contact-microphones (Bruno Zamborlin)

In this video PhD student Bruno Zamborlin shows how it is possible to perform gesture recognition just with contact microphones and transform every surface into an interactive board.


Bruno explains:

Through gesture recognition techniques we detect different kind of fingers-touch and associate them with different sounds.

In the video we used two different audio synthesis techniques:
1- physic modelling, which consists in generating the sound by simulating physical laws;
2- concatenative synthesis (audio mosaicing), in which the sound of the contact microphone is associated with its closest frame present in a sound database.

The system can recognise both fingers-touches and objects that emit a sound, such as the coin shown in the video.
More details: www.brunozamborlin.com/mogees

Careers

An introduction to our new BSc Games Programming

We are building on the success of Msc Games and Entertainment and our close links with the Games Industry to launch our new BSc Games Programming. We have talked extensively to the games industry to know what they want out of the degrees for the next generation of games programmers. They said they want is strong technical computing skills that will enable graduates to develop AAA games on the latest platforms That is why we are developing a hardcore degree that teaches the programming and maths skills you will need as a games programmer.

The games industry, first and foremost, want strong programming and computer science skills which is why BSc Games Programming is our most technically challenging computing degree with a strong emphasis on programming. But industry also wants graduates that are passionate about games and know how to develop games. That is why we have designed the degree so that you learn everything you need to learn by actually creating games. From the very beginning you will develop games in an environment modelled on the industry and with a particular focus on team work. In your first term you will be developing a a mobile game based on your own design, which you will pitch to our games industry experts. From then on you will work with a variety of industry standard engines and platforms such as Unity3D, Cryengine, iPhone, Android and Xbox, each time developing a full playable game of your own design.

 

Careers

An Introduction to our new BSc Business Computing

We are working in partnership with Goldsmiths’ Institute of Management and Institute for Creative and Cultural Entrepreneurship to launch our new BSc Business Computing. This degree will teach you how to develop and work with

Dr James Ohene-Djan, Programme Leader for BSc Business Computing

computing technologies for the 21st century’s innovative hi-tech businesses. Our unique creative approach to computing will uniquely place you to work in contemporary business where design is a vital part of technology development, from London’s vibrant start up scene to global players such as google and apple. This course will teach you to develop new technology driven business propositions with an entrepreneurial, innovation driven approach that is vital both to business start ups and the most forward thinking global corporations.

The course will teach you core technology skills based around computer programming and software development together with a range of business skills such as marketing, business planning and project management. Throughout your degree you will combine these skills in hands on projects that in which you will design technology based business propositions and implement them in software. From your first few weeks you will develop websites and mobile apps design for particular markets ranging from pre-school children to hardcore gamers. Your degree will culminate in the final year with a major project in which you will write a full business case for a software product and implement a prototype which could be the starting point of your own creative high tech business

 

Events

Congratulations to our Postgraduate Students – graduation 2012

What a wonderful way to end 2012  – with a celebration of the achievements of our wonderful postgraduate students. We are so proud of them and wish them all the very best of luck for the future. Please stay in touch!

Above: Patricia Afari – MSc Computing.Well done to Patricia and all our new graduates.

What programme of study are you graduating from?
MSc in Computing, Departing of Computing

Tell us a bit about yourself: where are you from, what led you to university, why did you pick Goldsmiths?
I was born in south London and have spent most of my life there, working self-employed for more than 10 years as a driving instructor. I felt the need for a change in career, to pursue the things that I am really passionate about, which are sound and computing. In 2011, I received my BA Hons in Digital Music and Sound Arts from the University of Brighton. It was on this course that I learned audio programming which I found fascinating. I wanted to continue studying this area in more depth and it was one my lecturers there who spoke highly of Goldsmiths and encouraged me to apply to do my Masters here.

How did you find your course?
The course was great and I think one of the most flexible of the computing programmes available in terms of subject choices. It was highly interdisciplinary – which is another reason why I chose to study here.

What is the best thing about studying at Goldsmiths?
The first thing I noticed when walking around was the relaxed atmosphere and great mix of people of different ages. I really enjoyed speaking with the lecturers and professors; they are all extremely knowledgeable in their fields of practice, always willing to give advice, and to introduce you to their contacts and people within the industry.

What advice would you give to a student considering a postgraduate degree a Goldsmiths?
Be prepared to be challenged, at times it can feel very intensive, but remembering why you are there will get you through it. Don’t be surprised if your initial ideas and research plans flow into completely new and unexpected areas – come here with an open mind.

What are your plans now you’ve graduated?
My plan is to find a role where I can develop gestural interactive educational software for children with physical and learning difficulties [read more about Patricia’s work with gestural interfaces in The Daily Telegraph].

What words would you use to describe Goldsmiths?
Flexible, open, interdisciplinary, challenging, creativity, self-discovery.

This interview with Patricia is courtesy of the Goldsmiths Comms team and originally posted here

 

 

News

Computing at Goldsmiths top in the UK for student satisfaction

Goldsmiths’ Computing Department is celebrating after coming top in the UK for student satisfaction with teaching for their subject area in the 2012 National Student Survey (NSS).* The Department also came joint first for academic support, joint first for learning resources and joint second in the UK for overall student satisfaction in computer science.

 

93% of respondents agreed that they had received the advice and support they needed, 96% agreed that Goldsmiths’ staff were good at explaining things, and 100% said they had been able to access general IT resources when they needed to.**

 

Computing Department Business Manager Wendy McDonald said, ‘We are really pleased with this result. The opinions of our students are very important to us and we take their feedback into close consideration as we continually work to improve the courses we offer.’

 

The Department hopes its new BSc in Games Programming, introduced by popular demand, will achieve a similar result in future student satisfaction surveys. Applications for the first intake opened in September 2012 and interest in the new programme, which is designed to prepare students for a career in the video games industry, has exceeded expectations.

 

Computing at Goldsmiths prides itself on its acclaimed approach to interdisciplinary teaching. It also boasts a wide range of opportunities for its students to gain practical experience through extensive industry partnerships; recent collaborations include projects with Google, Motorola and M & C Saatchi. Most programmes also include an optional one-year work placement, providing invaluable experience to enhance future career prospects. 100% of those who graduated from the MSc in Games and Entertainment Industries in 2011-12 were employed within a year in the games and entertainment industry.

*Based on mean score of respondents completing their first degree

** Based on percentage agreement

 

 

Students, Women in Computing

Meet Catherine M. Weir, MFA Computational Studio Arts

Catherine is in Year 2 of our MFA Computational Studio Arts programme here at Goldsmiths. Here Cat tells us more about herself and her Year 1 final project which was included in the MFA degee show, Nowhere in September 2012.

Catherine works with photographic and digital media to explore the ways in which our sense of memory, time and of place is shaped by evolving technologies.  Her work often blends elements of what may broadly be termed analogue and digital practices in an effort not to extol the virtues of one over the other, but to examine the relationship between the two and to reflect on their distinct material and emotive properties.

Her work has been exhibited widely at galleries in both Scotland and London, where she currently lives and works.  Past exhibitions include New Contemporaries 2011 at the Royal Scottish Academy in Edinburgh and Futureproof 2010 at StreetLevel Photoworks, Glasgow.

Her present research is concerned with the materiality of the photograph and the significance of the index within a digital framework.  By exploiting the meta-data embedded in every digital photograph to create locative, time-based works, she questions if this data may equate to a digitally-constructed index comparable to the physical trace carried by celluloid film.

Artist Statement
In a sense this project is something of a memento mori, only it is not about death.

If anything it is about Error 404, returned when an Internet user attempts to follow a link to a page to a page that no longer exists.  It is a reminder of the ephemeral nature of information stored online, where a broken link may be the only indication that there was anything there at all.

Photography and the Internet have become closely inter-twined in recent years, with millions of photographs uploaded everyday.  We take more photographs than ever before but in contrast with the snapshots of past generations many of these images are never printed.

These digital photographs, unlike their printed counterparts, can in theory last forever without decay, as pristine as the day they were taken.  But how many of these unprinted images – these moments rescued from everyday life – will in time be lost to deleted files, failed businesses or outdated technology?

The printed images here are not photographs.  They are pointers, links to photographs shared online via Flickr and an attempt to re-connect photography and physical artifacts.  They will last for as long as any printed photographs that have so far endured for decades, but ultimately they are destined to one day become broken links.

Please visit Catherine’s website here: www.cmweir.com

 

Staff profiles and activity

Game engines, Indie development and BSc Games Programming

As we are having two exciting new degrees starting next year (Games Programming and Business Computing) I will blog about the work we are doing to develop them, so that you can keep updated about them.

At the moment I am working on deciding what development environments will work for BSc Games Programming. The rise, in the last few years, of indie game development has been fantastic for students. It means that professional game engines aren’t just targeted at high end studios any more, they can be used by anyone. That means that you, as students, can use the same development environments as the pros, and who knows, you could be releasing your first indie game before you graduate (maybe even that is a bit late, we’ve had students release mobile games in their first year).

I’ll talk about some of the game engines we are thinking of using.

Unity3D

Unity is the hot game engine for indies at the moment. It is easy to use, with built in 3D modelling tools that integrate very easily with the scripting engine. The free version has plenty of features (physics, terrain engine, lightmapping, custom shaders) that make it possible to develop professional looking game for PCs, macs, consoles and web browsers (you have to pay a one off fee of $400 for iphone and android development).

Unity is a great engine for beginners. The only drawback as a teaching tool is that you can’t directly write code in C++ the hardcore programming language that the real pros use.

Unreal Engine

Unreal has been one of the most important engines for a long time, but it doesn’t shine for me as a student development environment. The learning curve is much steeper than Unity but the free version doesn’t let you access the hard core details of the C++ SDK so you won’t really be using the version the pros use (and the full version is only licenced to high end studios for lots of money).

Cryengine 3

Cryengine is my current favourite for 2nd and 3rd year students. It is a very powerful, cutting edge engine but the full version is free for students and indie developers, who only pay when their game starts making money. That means you will be working with exactly the same version as the pros using all the same C++ development tools.

HTML5

Finally, there is something that may be the future of casual and possibly even hardcore games. The new HTML5 standard has massively improved the 2D graphics capabilities of everyday web technologies and the 3D capabilities are developing fast. HTML5 is easy to develop and very easy to deploy as it can run in any browser including mobile browsers (you can even bundle HTML5 games as phone apps for the app store/android market). It may not be up to the pro engines quite yet, but it is one to watch. All our students learn HTML5 in the first term, so you will definitely have some experience developing on this platform.

Hope this is useful/interesting to some of you,

Marco

Marco Gillies, Director of Studies