EuroGraphics talk and poster beer party

Made it to Prague yesterday, just in time to see my colleague deliver our paper at EuroGraphics. I think he was glad I made it since I was first author. I wasn't sure I'd be able to schedule the flight such that I'd make it there for the talk, particularly since I could only guess at how long it might take for the bus to get there. As it happened, I had to leave Corey with all our luggage at a small table inside the hall where the talk was. EG is at the Czech Technical University, so it's being hosted in a typical European university building, in this case full of conference attendees and Czech students milling about. So not the best place for Corey to be sitting there, particularly with a nasty cold she caught in Leicester. However, she sat there patiently as I attended to business. The talk was delivered very well, better I think than what I would have done since it provided much more context for the project at hand. I did manage to field two questions from the audience, so it's a good thing I was there.

After the talk I got Corey and we dragged all our stuff down to the metro station and made our way to the hotel. Had dinner at a nice Czech place and then I left Core in the room while I went back to the conference to attend the poster beer party. I got there late so I didn't get a chance to look at the posters, but I did have time to grab a few of the beers they were serving (open bar). I found a really tasty one pronounced like "Kelt" but I don't know how they spell it in Czech. It's similar to Guinness, but may be a bit creamier with a stronger coffee taste. I'm hoping they serve it tonight at the conference dinner.

Last day in Leicester

COGAIN concluded (for me at least) yesterday with the exhibits. There are some more meetings going on today, but they're mainly for internal COGAIN participants, generally restricted to European partners. Exhibits contained demonstrations of the best entries from a student gaming competition. All games had to have gaze control to some extent. I tried one of them, a kind of asteroids FPS (First Person Shooter) where you orient the spaceship with gaze. It worked fairly well. I also conducted a short experiment on myself on a new eye tracker to test whether it was sensitive to vergence eye movements. I ran myself through three trials: control (stare at the target), convergence (cross eyes inward), and divergence (cross eyes outward). The last one is a bit difficult to do, particularly with no stimulus, but can be done if you force yourself to focus beyond the monitor. The data confirmed my introspective assessment that I had difficulty getting my eyes to diverge until the last few seconds of my 10 second trial. The good news is that this eye tracker could detect vergence eye movements. I'm not sure whether my eye trackers at home can do the same. I'll have to rerun this quick and dirty experiment at home.

After COGAIN we were treated to dinner by the conference organizer and then a night out at The Musician pub. We happened to be there during a fundraiser for Dan, this guy on a drum walk across the British isle (lengthwise) in an effort to raise awareness for prostate cancer. He showed up (although he was really supposed to be in Preston, halfway across his journey) and gave a speech in his entire outfit, including the marching drum he had strapped on. To raise funds a bunch of single classic guitar acts went up on stage. They were ok, but really the highlight of the night was Crooked Line, the band that came on around 11pm. These guys weren't bad. Showing their range, they did a bit of blues, a bit of funk, some country, and closed with Neil Young's Keep on Rockin' in the Free World. Btw, I didn't know you could dance to Pink Floyd's Time — it wasn't going very well as this song's lyrics are somewhat somber, but it picked up when they launched into the last number.

On the way to the hotel we snapped a few pics of the clock tower in the center of Leicester's pedestrian shopping district. I think you can just make out 00:24 or so on the clock face. Today we're up early (06:00) so that we can partake of the free breakfast downstairs and then hop on the cab to the airport. Should be in Prague by this afternoon. Our first stop is going to be the EuroGraphics conference so that I can attend my colleague's presentation of our paper and help field questions should any be thrown up out of the audience. At least that's the plan...its timing is a bit tight, so we'll see how it turns out.

Out of the Vaults

I think my second talk yesterday went smoothly and the paper was well received. Actually all the papers were of very high quality, I'd say. I learned some interesting things from several of them and had pretty good discussions with the authors. It's a good conference whenever you can say that. I wish I were staying for a couple more days, but we're off to Prague tomorrow morning.

After the paper presentations last night we all went to Out of the Vaults, a pub, where we first played two rounds of "quiz", or trivia. Apparently it's serious business here. Questions covered Europe, science, film, and books. Some of them were fairly difficult. After two rounds we were treated to a performance by the Morrismen. Here they are dancing around with funny hats and white handkerchiefs. Good fun.

After the hay dance, or something to that effect, back to the pub for two more rounds of quiz. Then, after announcing the winners (wasn't our group; we scored a respectable 20.5 to the winners' 23 points) two guys performed some good ol' blues on a guitar and harmonica. They were excellent. But they lacked a drummer! And there was one sitting out in the audience. Pity there wasn't a kit sitting back there, I would have gladly provided accompaniment. Another conference attendee did get up and sang along with the two gents. She was very good as well and seemed to be quite comfortable on the little stage. I think I heard someone say she's done this regularly at COGAIN. With her voice, why not?

At COGAIN

Here's the speaker's setup at COGAIN. This fellow went right after me, so my talk was given in similar conditions. I think the lack of a screen was a bit of a problem: the air vents on the projection wall tend to mask out the actual slide content. Otherwise though, I think the conference is quite well organized. We had a nice PA system so I did what I like to do just prior to giving a talk: play some tunes! Today I played the Blue Hawaiians which I thought set the mood nicely. Turns out I think I like these long talks. I had no trouble going on for 50 minutes. The timer on Apple's Keynote is very helpful. I just hope that I don't speak too quickly through my second talk later this afternoon.

Walking tour of Leicester

Started the day with a walking tour of Leicester. First task was to find the conference venue, which we did after a couple of wrong turns. Turns out it's pretty much a straight shot from the hotel through the castle yard, pictured here. Right through through the southern gateway and then down a narrow street and you're on the campus of De Montfort University, the institution hosting the event.

After we found the conference building we headed out to The Shire, a shopping mall within a large pedestrian shopping district in the center of town. Lots of shops and a few cafes. Had to stop by a Starbucks for a coffee, then ventured into a few of the more interesting places.

Finally returned to Marks & Spencer to get a few snacks for the hotel room. Dinner consisted of pub grub at a nearby pub. Now it's time to iron a few shirts, maybe watch the telly and then get ready for the conference tomorrow. Should be a full day of talks. I start it off the first session and then present first in the last session.