News

Invited talk at Elvytys 2022 Helsinki University Hospital 1 day seminar 24 Oct

Pia Tikka

 

My presentation “Hybrid intelligence – applications in virtual medical training” was part of the Enactive virtuality Lab’s efforts to implement the gained scientific findings and innovations of the XR field to serve the societal wellbeing and to find solutions for challenges in the domain of healthcare and medical training.

https://www.hus.fi/ajankohtaista/elvytys-2022-symposium-kokosi-elvytystoiminnan-kehittajat-yhteen

The Clarion Hall was filled with medical experts and healthcare workers, the  professional audience that elicits my greatest respect and admiration. Thank you for serving us — everyday.

Talk at « Art Interactif Numérique et Sciences Cognitives » Journée d’étude Octobre 14, 2022 l’Université Polytechnique Hauts de France, Valenciennes

« Art Interactif Numérique et Sciences Cognitives »

Journée d’étude Octobre 14, 2022

Au bâtiment Matisse de l’Université Polytechnique Hauts de France, Valenciennes https://www.uphf.fr/en

Avec expositions des artistes

 

Pia Tikka: Designing enactive co-precence with humanlike characters in narrative contexts

The scope of technologies available to filmmakers is expanding and apparently opening new avenues of storytelling. My focus is on the application of new findings in the fields of psychophysiological tracking and machine learning in order to create virtual characters, whose behavior resembles that of humans in the most natural ways.

In this talk I will share some recent updates in this fast developing domain and discuss their possible applications to the co-presence of human participants and humanlike virtual characters in narrative contexts. This  implies a range of multidisciplinary challenges. The core research question is what types of roles can the filmmaker give to machine learning and psycho-physiological tracking in the process of creating humanlike behaviors in narrative settings. The discussion draws from the holistic embodied approach to the mind,  which in my view provides useful explanatory frames for my claims. The talk aims to inspire discussions related to the use of adaptive artificial characters in the future of virtual storytelling.

Ülo Pärnits & Ülemiste City @ Tallinn University

Tallinn University and Ülemiste City signed a cooperation agreement on 12 October to confirm the interest of both parties in jointly promoting innovative education and supporting talents. The signing was preceded by a discussion about what knowledge, talents, and technologies the education system will need in the future. (…) At the heart of the memorandum between Ülemiste City and Tallinn University is the promise not to lose sight of the human being in an ever-technological world and to look for ways to support talents and their development.

In order to sign the memorandum, the founder of Ülemiste City and the long-time chairman of the board of Mainor, Ülo Pärnits, was ‘brought to life’ as an avatar created by Pia Tikka, the lead researcher of the Enactive Virtuality Lab of the Baltic Film, Media and Arts School of Tallinn University, and Ats Kurvet, a computer graphics specialist. It is a tribute to his influential work.

The work on Ülo Pärnits avatar was coordinated by Ermo Säks/ BFM.

An article about the whole event can be read in Estonian here: https://www.ulemistecity.ee/uudised-teated/tallinna-ulikool-ja-ulemiste-city-asuvad-koostoos-tulevikuharidust-edendama/ and in English here: https://www.ulemistecity.ee/en/news-messages/tallinna-ulikool-ja-ulemiste-city-asuvad-koostoos-tulevikuharidust-edendama/

Talk at CILECT2022 San Sebastian conference Oct, 2022

Image: The State of Darkness II (SOD II, working title) by Pia Tikka  & team. Char design Ats Kurvet, 2022

Exploring human-likeness of virtual characters in cinematic context


The scope of technologies available to filmmakers is expanding and apparently opening new avenues of storytelling. My focus is on the application of new findings in the fields of psychophysiological tracking and machine learning in order to create virtual characters, whose behavior resembles that of humans in the most natural ways. 

In this talk I will share some recent updates in this fast developing domain and discuss their possible applications to the co-presence of human participants and humanlike virtual characters in narrative contexts. This  implies a range of multidisciplinary challenges. The core research question is what types of roles can the filmmaker give to machine learning and psycho-physiological tracking in the process of creating humanlike behaviors in narrative settings. The discussion draws from the holistic embodied approach to the mind,  which in my view provides useful explanatory frames for my claims. The talk aims to inspire discussions related to the use of adaptive artificial characters in the future of virtual storytelling.
Speakers

Collaborative work with M-L Cazin and Nantes Univ fall 2022

Pia Tikka & Mati Mõttus worked 03.-07.10. with filmmaker and researcher Marie-Laure Cazin in Paris, Saint Maurice on the experimental psycho-physiological study where Cazin’s VR film “Freud’s Last Hypnosis” is viewed by French speaking participants. The currently on-going multidisciplinary art-science study is a natural extension of Cazin’s EU Mobilitas Pluss Postdoc year at the Enactive Virtuality Lab (09/2021-08/2022; a separate report t.b.d.). The target is a joint paper with Enactive Virtuality team, Cazin and Nantes University researchers. As Cazin’s VR film is a well-designed cinematic story that has strong emotional and intellectual components that trigger VR viewers’s affective-cognitive processes, it provides the MOBTT90 team with a perfect study case.

During the week in Paris we worked on analysis of the interviews of participants and the analysis of collected data, as well as the structure of the joint paper (in preparation). In this project we measure eye-movements, heart rate and skin conductance as indicators of dynamically changing mental states of the viewers, and the collected data is correlated with the annotations of the individual eye-tracking data layered on top of the performance video recording. Furthermore, these are related with the in person interview material collected by Cazin.

We are excited to collect new data with François BOUFFARD and colleagues at the Nantes Univ, Halle 6 – Pôle Universitaire interdisciplinaire des cultures numériques, in early December.

 

On the 6.10. Pia Tikka, Mati Mõttus and Marie Cazin did a three hour seminar with presentations of on our MOBTT90 research invited by prof. Jean-Marie Dallet at the École des arts de la Sorbonne, UNIVERSITÉ PARIS 1 PANTHÉON-SORBONNE.

State of Darkness meeting diary 2022

Diary for the Fall 2022 work-in-progress.

State of Darkness (SOD II; working title)

Image: Team meeting with the script writer Eeva R. Tikka, the designer o f the performative scenography Tanja Bastamow, and Pia Tikka, discussing the responses of the artificial character to the changes in the VR world.

Images: Enactive Virtuality team planning session with Victor Pardinho, consultant and CEO from the start-up Sense of Space, spring 2022

Image by Pia Tikka. Enactive virtuality team discussing the biofeedback Ilkka Kosunen) between different adaptive elements in the sound world (Matias Harju), scenography (Tanja Bastamow) and character design (Ats Kurvet).

Activities at the sTARTUp Day 2022

Pia Tikka, and Max Schich, the head of CUDAN (image) were invited by ETAg to participate in the SpeedDating with industry and start-ups https://www.startupday.ee

sTARTUp Day 2022

Wednesday 24. August at 09:00 – Friday 26. August at 18:00 EEST

The University of Tartu Academic Sports Club • Ujula 4A, 51008 Tartu, Tartu maakond

Images from Tartu event by Julii Selianko.

 

Symposium at ICON International conference of Cognitive neuroscience May 2022

International Conference of Cognitive Neuroscience. May,18th-22nd, 2022

https://www2.helsinki.fi/en/conferences/international-conference-of-cognitive-neuroscience-2020

Pia Tikka: Organiser of  Neurocinematics symposium at the ICON International conference of Cognitive neuroscience May 21

Speakers: Clare Grall, Uri Hasson, Heini Saarimäki, Pia Tikka