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

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.

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

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

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

professional code finder : costumized search engine

concept: create a professional search engine for codes on the web. this engine is ment to find real and effective help in any question you have. just type in the problem, and then set the language you write in.



created at: October 2007

Learning with games : costumized search engine

idea: create a dynamic and interactive resource environment based on Lib2.0 and Learning2.0 concepts.

we have chosen the field area of learning with games and how to combine these two fields.

result: an iGoogle group environment, which included unique RSS collection, a couple of customized search engines, and more apps and gadgets.
this search engine has been developed since. you are most invited to use it. its free of course.



created at: September 2007

created with: Yuval Shafriri, Ori Grundshtein, Ofir Rosenberg, Yuval Alis

caracteristics of interpersonal communication in VLE (virtual learning environment): Essay

concept: summary of ideas in that subject. not an academic research.

created at: January 2007