Lecture: Technology as a bridge between generations - is that even possible?

on May 16th, 2014 I gave a talk at a private event of the Joint Israel.

they released a new plan for volunteering that involves elderly together with youth doing good deed for the community together.

i talked about how technology could bridge the gap between the generations. 

outlines of the lecture:

1. game and play can change routine behavior relatively quickly
2. similarities between challenges of elderly and challenges of teens
3. technologies i showed:
• motion tracking: dancing and physiotherapy
• GPS: family tracker and SOS
• Health monitor: digestible pill, word lens (augmented reality)
• Robotics: help around the house, life companion
• Smart homes: carpet senses when something is wrong
4. dealing with technology
5. sometimes a weird connection is highly innovative (without technology)
• multi-generation project: kids and elderly make a presentation about how life were 60 years ago.
• elderly as marathon mentors for runners
6. more stuff i had there:
• safer driving: google's self driving car, mobileye saving from crash
• communication: google glass, pebble watch, innovega contact lens
• emotion tracking: intel, microsoft, 
• power of crowd: crowd sourcing, play with others, big data

above all, it was one of the happiest lectures i ever gave. i felt a significant amount of positive energy and vibe  in the air. 

feedback:

• some voices were saying those are good ideas
• some didnt understand a lot of what i said. when i explained more, they said it wont work for them
• some said they have other solutions already

i answered i am very happy they have found their way and developed confidence to face the difficulties the technology offers. i do my best to help others feel the same way.

Oz, S. (2014). Technology as a bridge between generations- is that even possible? Jerusalem: Joint Israel

Lecture: gestures within reach- Omek's Grasp TM

In brief:

gesture-based interfaces offer a wide variety of opportunities to create an awesome user experience. on the other hand, it poses significant challenges such as feeling the moment of pressing a button. the lecture shows several examples and possible solutions. we would identify design principles to the design process for the gesture recognition technology.

Done as part of my work as a UX designer at Omek Interactive.

showcased at UX on Beer conference, at May 22nd, 2013, organized by NetCraft.

Human Computer Interaction course certificate

a few weeks ago I "graduated" an online course under the topic Human Computer Interactions by the great Scott Klemmer. i truly recommend this course to anyone developing applications in the modern age.

Bare Knuckles: boxing motion capture game

Bare Knuckles is one of the first game titles of Omek Interactive. It is a classic ring boxing game, only each character has a special twitch. 

Choose your avatar: "D for Dragon" who can blow fire, "the Blob" could swallow his opponent and "Bruce le Sharque" who uses his dead alligator for powerful smacks.

I was one of the two game designers of this title.

created at: 2010


team:
+Eli Elhadad
+Yaron Yanai
+Yinon Oshrat
+Barak Segal
+Bar S
+Amir Rosenberger
+Noam Gat
Edna Nuama

Lecture: Similarities between game design and instructional design

On July 10th 2012, I gave a lecture about the similarities between designing a game and designing a lesson in classroom, at one of the biggest educational conferences in Israel: IUCEL Meital.

the lecture strove to show that educational and instructional design could learn from game design at how to tangle the users into the web of curiosity, challenge and fun.
I talked about 9 main design principals in the game design theory that can be used also in instructional design:

1. the player as the Messiah. let the user feel that without him the session cannot be over. if the user will not make the right move, nothing will happen. make sure you put it all into a good story.
2. rules. setup rules for the game/ lesson. only when you have rules, the users will try and break them. without rules, they will try and break the teacher... 
3. feeling of control. let the user feel they are in control, but actually you should control all the possible routes and choices they could make.
4. immediate feedback. give feedback as fast as you can, as precise as possible.
5. goals. setup big goals and smaller goals to keep the users on track.
6. balance the amount of content. no content is boring. too much content confuse.
7. balance the challenge and the ability. don't be afraid to challenge your users, just make sure they feel competent to the task. 
8. develop the feeling of success. make sure your users succeed. after a hard task, give an easy one.
9. reflection. always assist the user to reflect their performance.

my presentation for download (hebrew).
all other lectures' from the conference can be downloaded as well (hebrew). 

Adventure Park: motion capture video game

Evil Master has taken over the famous adventure park and the Dragon family come to the rescue. Evil Master has a plan to capture the family of heroes in order to be able to take over the world!

Play the family heroes in six different levels, from entering the park, capturing the huge evil Mage and fighting Evil Master. six different gameplays, combining: boxing, magics (fireball, shield, etc), sliding on rails and more.

The game is now available as a part of a new Chinese TV and game console, called CT510, from Eedoo, a publisher from Lenovo.

created at: 2009-2011


team:
+Eli Elhadad
+Yaron Yanai
+Yinon Oshrat
+Barak Segal
+Bar S
+Amir Rosenberger
+Noam Gat
Edna Nuama
and the rest of Omek Interactive

Galactic Surfers: motion capture game

concept: motion capture based video game. created by the Omek Interactive studios where I work as a game designer and level designer.

released at: 2011

team:
+Eli Elhadad
+Yaron Yanai
+Yinon Oshrat
+Barak Segal
+Bar S
+Amir Rosenberger
+Noam Gat
Edna Nuama

and the rest of Omek's team

Lecture: Challenges in Designing a Menu System with Depth Sensor Technology

on February 22nd, in a conference meetup of the Israeli User Experience group, I gave a talk about designing a menu with the depth sensor techonology.

here's the abstract:

Touch-less technologies, such as augmented reality, depth camera sensor and voice recognition, are entering our lives. They confront user experience designers with the challenge to invent new interface and control scheme to allow users to interact with a simple menu system and select items.

This lecture would analyze the menu system and its UX guidelines; then we would describe the properties of the depth sensor and emphasis the challenges around it. Possible solutions would be offered and demonstrated.

Omek Interactive Studios create games and applications with the power of depth motion sensors. It has  deals with Intel, Lenovo, Panasonic and more market leaders.

here is the presentation of the lecture

TowerDefensAR: Augmented Reality video game

Goal: Defend your treasure box as long as you can!

How it works:

the 2 markers draw an electricity line between them, which can destroy the monsters who wish to steal your treasure.

Live Play:

play here on a bigger screen.

How to play:

1. print the two markers.
2. allow the application to activate your webcam.
3. start a new game and fight for your treasure.

created at: 2011

Lecture: The Future Of Augmented Reality Gaming & Hands-on AR In Flash

on 23 of December, 2010 I have talked at the Israeli Flash&Flex group conference about the current vibes and future directions of Augmented Reality gaming. Moreover, I have released an open source code of functional AR flash application and thoroughly explained its code. The action-script developers have learned about the technology, how it influences UI and game design and also how to create one of their own.

Covered subjects:

1. what is augmented reality? what types of AR are there from the technical point of view? what do one need in order to see an augmented reality and to develop one?

2. Limitations and advantages of augmented reality is flash.

3. The augmented reality user interface. how AR influences the creation of UI? what types of UI have already been tried before?

4. AR gaming and influences of game design. how can we design our game to make it most suitable to the advantages and limitation of the technology? Example games and game designs.

5. Creating your first AR in Flash. how does the 3D world works in Flash? what are the basic elements in creating and programming a 3D world? I have released a fully-functional AR application and explained how to continue from there: how to add more objects, interaction and GUI elements. 

Lecture: Using Augmented Reality & video games inside your classroom

On December 9th, 2010, I have presented the AR technology and video games to the Information & Communication Technology, a course meant to improve the tech-accessibility skills for teachers and educators at Mofet institute. 

The teachers have understood the new technologies and learned about the role of the teacher in the "tech-classroom".  

The lecture goals were:

1. Lowering the hesitation and fear from technology at teachers and empowering them with tools allowing them to examine and test video games.

2. Showing the similarity between a good educational content and a good video game: gradual learning, continuous challenge, giving the feeling of "I can", and FUN.

3. There is no substitute for the teacher. Technology is just a tool. 

4. Showing that technology exists. The ball is in the educators court. They have to show the industry where and what to develop.

Here is the Prezi presentation I used during the lecture. 

Augmented Reality & Games in Education on Prezi

update:

here is a concept map that was drawn by one of the listeners, Lizi Cohen

ROSETA flowers - Interactive Design Project

concept:

Roseta's flowers deals with the interpersonal relationships inside a group of distant friends. Every given moment the flower pots visualize the strength of the relationship. Roseta's flowers encourage the group members to take an action in favor of the group. That very action together with its consequence provides the members with a feeling of bondage, the presence of the group, even if it is scattered physically.

created at: february-april 2008

with: Eyal David & Ariela Alt

ARIE - Augmented Reality Instructions Editor

concept:

ARIE changes the way we work with tools in the home and office environments. it solves us the dependency from opening the instructions manual or call a technician when wishing to operate a machine.

ARIE is a real-time instructions manual, activated while working on a specific instrument or tool, and more important- the information is presented exactly when and where we need it.

ARIE was presented at several conferences by now:

Synthetic Reality 2010, Israel

Green-Fields, Instructional Short Movie

concept: short, funny & instructive movie that explains how to use the new free fitness facilities scattered all over Israel by Green-Fields.
the script, filming, editing and lighting was made by Sarit Hayat, Ori Grundshtein, hila Amit and Myself. Green-Fields company has no hand in the making of the movie.

created at: January, 2007

De-Click Game v2.0: learn spelling

concept: further development of the first version. read description of gameplay there.

the improvements made in this version are:

1. player must click the letters by the order they are in the word itself.

2. difficulty level affects the amount of assistance the player receives during the game.

3. letters are visible to the player during the game. a correct click causes a feedback.

4. the gameplay is better explained.

"Living in the Holy Land", Educational Video Game

concept:
making the learning the bible more fun by playing the history of the biblical stories instead of reading it in the classroom. the game is a role play adventure game, where the student is playing characters from the biblical story and face the same problems and issues they needed to face. Living in the Holy Land is rich in full 3D graphics, similar quality to AAA known video games, in order to allow the student see every small detail in the biblical world. the game stages are parallel to bible chapters, in order to be easily adapted into the school's curriculum. learning the story is not the only thing the game teaches. a more thorough paper will be translated into English soon.

created at: February 2009 (project in process)

Augmented Reality Business Card - your portfolio inside your card!

Concept:

Have your business card present extra information about yourself to complete the picture about who you are and what can you do.

Use-cases:

- Real-time portfolio: show-off with your previous work.

- Show yourself and your agenda: record yourself on video or sound.

- Stay connected: link to your websites and social networks.

What can you do with your card:

- Add many types of media: video, photo, sound, Swf animation. In the future you could add 3D objects.

- Define the way your users will interact with the card. See all available options below.

- Each media can have one web link.

- Spread and embed the application wherever you want.

See it in action:

1. Print one or more of my business cards. each presents different example of design and interaction.

2. Scroll down to the application, and allow it to access your camera. Connect a webcam if you don't have any.

4. Hold one card in front of the camera.
5. Watch and interact with the content: videos, images, SWFs and sounds.

if you wish to have a card of your own- please contact me on:
shachar . oz @ gmail . com

created at: 2009

interaction design hands on! - exhibition movie

concept: interaction design is one of the hottest fields of interest nowadays. at HIT institute, an academic course called interaction design hands on!, and in short IDHO, was opened two years ago, setting the goal to confront the students with this important field. the students were taken from different backgrounds: industrial and product designers, electricity engineers and learning technology men.

this short film introduces the final exhibition of the march-August 2008 course, when i took part in. here a link to our final website, presenting all projects.

created at: August 2008

Data Representation of survey's results

concept: a visual representation of a survey's results which checked the differences between three academic departments in HIT academic institute in Israel. The survey's subject was of web and computer usage goals and habits among the students.

created at: may 2007

Simple Jigsaw Pazel Maker in Flash

concept: a simple jigsaw pazel maker. the only thinng left to do is to add the pazel pieces into the right place. an FLA file will be uploaded soon (as soon as i finish the usage instructions).

created at: 11 June 2008