Newsletter

IMSC eNews, June 2004

Contact: Nichole Phillips, (213) 740-3237 nicholep@imsc.usc.edu

NSF SITE VISIT & SAB MEETING - Both the annual site visit by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Scientific Advisory Board's (SAB) spring meeting went well in early June. IMSC faculty and students presented the Center's latest research to both groups. The SAB met on June 7 and 8, and the NSF team visited on June 8 and 9. The SAB, representing IMSC's industry members, met with the NSF site visit team to discuss the Center's industry program. (For photos, go to http://imsc.usc.edu/news/nsfsab_pics.html.)

NEW 3D GRAPHICS TECHNIQUE PROPOSED - Prof. Mathieu Desbrun, an IMSC key investigator, has developed a new technique to generate smaller and more efficient 3D graphics files. He will present the findings at the 2004 SIGGRAPH conference, August 8-12, in Los Angeles. The technique, called "variational shape approximation," produces highly accurate 3D graphics files many times smaller than today's methods. (For full details and illustrations, go to http://imsc.usc.edu/news/desbrun.html.)

IMSC IN THE NEWS - Media coverage of Prof. Shri Narayanan's voice recognition-call center project continued for the fifth month in June with an article in Texas Innovator, a publication on social trends published by the state of Texas for consumers throughout the state (http://imsc.usc.edu/press/pdfs/04_06_28.pdf), and a piece in Floral Management, a magazine published by the Society of American Florists for its members (http://imsc.usc.edu/press/pdfs/04_06_28_2.pdf). The system being developed by Prof. Narayanan and his team recognizes frustration by callers responding to an automated phone answering system that asks for verbal responses. Possible future capabilities include providing a soothing response by computer or transferring the call to a human immediately. The article in Floral Management pointed out that florists, among other retailers, should be aware of such projects since they rely on extensive phone contact with customers. (For more information on the system, go to http://imsc.usc.edu/research/project/emotionssound/index.html.)

The Integrated Media Systems Center is a National Science Foundation Engineering Research Center at the University of Southern California.