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News & Announcements

ICT’s Paul Debevec Named Director-at-Large of ACM SIGGRAPH Executive Committee

Paul Debevec, ICT’s associate director for graphics research, has been elected a director-at-large of of the Association for Computing Machinery’s Special Interest Group in Computer Graphics. He will serve a three-year term on this executive…

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Bill Swartout to Give Honorary Award Lecture at IAAI-09

Bill Swartout, director of technology at ICT, will give the Robert Engelmore Memorial Award Lecture at the 2009 Innovative Applications of Artificial Intelligence conference 10:30 a.m., Tuesday, July 14, in Pasadena, Calif.. Swartout, is this…

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Paul Debevec Named One of CGI’s Most Important Pioneers by 3D World Magazine

3D World Magazine has named Paul Debevec, ICT’s associate director for graphics research, as one of the seven most important pioneers in the history of computer graphics imagery. The article credits Debevec for developing many…

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Game Innovation Conference to Feature ICT Training Aid

ICT’s Distribution Management Cognitive Trainer (DMCT) prototype will be presented in a special session at the First International IEEE Consumer Electronics Society’s Games Innovation Conference, Aug 25 – 28,…

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ICT Research Featured in Films Promoting Science and Math to Middle Schoolers

Many ICT projects are highlighted on the web in segments on LabTV, a project of the National Defense Education Fund. LabTV’s aim is to bring science, math, engineering and technology to life for…

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Randall Hill Discusses ICT Innovations

The USC Chronicle’s “Capital Connections” section featured a recent trip to Washington, D.C. by ICT Executive Director Randall W. Hill, Jr.  Hill met with congressional staff in the offices of Sens. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), Dianne…

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PBS Frontline Hosts Online Discussion of Military and Technology with ICT’s Skip Rizzo

As part of it’s continuing coverage of the ways technology shapes how we live today, the team from PBS Frontline’s Digital Nation today hosted a live online discussion about the U.S. military’s applications of modern…

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Congresswoman Roybal-Allard Christens New Military Social Work Program

The USC School of Social Work and the USC Institute of Creative Technologies held a reception to celebrate the school’s new military social work and veteran services program, the first of its kind at a…

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ICT Featured in Wall Street Journal Story about Creating Realistic Digital Characters

An article describing advances in and efforts to create convincing computer-animated characters featured the face scanning work of Paul Debevec and the ICT Graphics Lab. The article noted…

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ICT’s Abhijeet Ghosh Named Research Assistant Professor

The department of computer science of the USC Viterbi School of Engineering appointed Abhijeet Ghosh a research assistant professor. Ghosh is a member of the ICT Graphics Lab team where he specializes in realistic modeling…

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Executive Director Randall W. Hill Jr. Interviewed on DoD’s BlogTalk Radio

Dr. Randall Hill, participated in a blogger’s roundtable where he spoke about the mission and accomplishments of ICT, with a particular focus on how ICT works with the entertainment and game industries to create cutting-edge…

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USC to Award Honorary Degree to Early ICT Champion

Anita K. Jones a professor, computer scientist, and former federal director of defense research and engineering is being recognized for her insightful leadership that paved the way for the founding of USC’s Institute for Creative…

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ICT’s Paul Debevec Honored with Elan Visionary Award

The ELAN awards honor achievement in the visual effects, animation and video game industry. Paul Debevec, ICT’s associate director for graphics research, is this year’s recipient of the peer-selected “VISIONARY AWARD” for VFX, Paul is…

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ICT Research Highlighted at Inaugural TEDx USC Conference

Paul Debevec, ICT’s associate director for graphics research, was one of the featured presenters at the first-ever TEDx event. The TED conference began 25 years ago a to bring together some of the world’s greatest…

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The Sweet Smell of Success

ICT Scent Collar Wins Patent

Full sensory immersive worlds are the holy grail of games and simulations. The newly-patented Scent Collar is a personal scent release device for use by an individual in…

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Virtual Reality Therapy Featured on the Huffington Post

A post by blogger Sam Spear features ICT’s Skip Rizzo and the virtual reality treatment for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. The story notes, that in this project the clinician will have control…

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ICT’s Stacy Marsella Predicts a Future with Virtual Humans Indistinguishable from Real People

LiveScience highlighted research by Stacy Marsella, a research associate professor at ICT.  “I think eventually we’ll be able to convince people that they’re interacting with a human,” Marsella told LiveScience, but he added that he…

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ICT Director of Technology Honored by AI Community

Bill Swartout, ICT’s director of technology, has been selected as the seventh recipient of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence Robert S. Engelmore Memorial Lecture Award, sponsored by IAAI and AI Magazine. The…

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PBS Frontline Films at ICT

A crew from Ark Media recently visited ICT and filmed many of our researchers for an upcoming PBS Frontline documentary currently titled, “Digital Nation”. The program, set to air in the fall, is a far-reaching…

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ICT Scientist Earns Appointment in USC’s Computer Science Department

ICT’s Louis-Philippe Morency has been appointed as a research assistant professor in the computer science department of the USC Viterbi School of Engineering. The goal of Morency’s research is to recognize, model and predict human…

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Army News Service Covers ICT

A story about ICT in the Army News Service discussed how ICT programs are being used to develop better, more immersive training experiences. ICT Executive Director Randall W. HIll, Jr. was interviewed for the story.…

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Science Springs to Life for Students

Researchers at the USC Institute for Creative Technologies show how they use science to create special effects, virtual humans and much more.

Don’t ignore your artistic side. That was the message delivered to…

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PBS’s SoCal Connected Covers Virtual Therapy and Patients at ICT

A crew from PBS-affiliate KCET came to ICT and interviewed Skip Rizzo about his virtual reality exposure therapy for treating PTSD. In the segment, he discusses the growing issue…

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Investor’s Business Daily Features ICT’s 3-D Videoconferencing Technology

A story about the promise and progress of 3-D videoconferencing featured the recently unveiled 3-D videoconferencing system developed by Paul Debevec and the ICT Graphics Lab.  “We’re…

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NPR Features ICT’s Paul Debevec and Light Stage Technology

NPR’s Laura Sydell interviewed Paul Debevec of the ICT Graphics Lab in a story about the technologies behind creating a convincing digital Brad Pitt for the movie “The Curious Case of…

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ICT’s PTSD Virtual Therapy Featured on NBC News Chicago

Chicago NBC affiliate WMAQ-TV featured the virtual reality technology used to treat veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder, developed by ICT. The technology is now being used in a Chicago area hospital,…

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ICT 3D Teleconferencing Mention in the Wall Street Journal

Sarah McBride of the Wall Street Journal talks about new media including ICT’s 3D teleconferencing technology that creates a hologram effect.

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ICT Graphics Lab team unveils 3D “holographic-like” display at the 26th Army Science Conference

Paul Debevec, a research associate professor at the University of Southern California’s Institute for Creative Technologies, has helped develop a holographic videoconferencing system just like the fictional one depicted in recent Star…

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Healing Psychological Trauma

Highlighted as the cover story in National Defense Magazine, soldiers relive sights and sounds of war in “Virtual Iraq” as a way to heal their mental scars. Researchers at the University of Southern California Institute…

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Training for Iraq, Virtually

A new game-based training application recently was adopted by the U.S. Army to enhance negotiation skills and cultural understanding of soldiers overseas with an instructional method that emphasizes experience over more conventional learning models.

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Two ICT Projects Win Army Modeling and Simulation Awards for FY08

Under the theme “Pushing MS to the Tactical Edge,” James C. Cooke, Director, Army Modeling and Simulation, Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff, announced winners of the Army Modeling and Simulation Awards for FY08. …

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ICT Scientists Earn Appointments in USC’s Computer Science Department

Anton Leuski, an ICT research scientist working in the areas of interactive information retrieval, information organization and document visualization, and Pieter Peers, a senior computer scientist with the ICT Graphics Lab,…

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ICT Research Recognized at Two International Conferences

Two different ICT papers recently received awards for best paper. Work by ICT’s Louis-Philippe Morency was recognized at the International Conference for Multimodal Interfaces in Greece. His paper, “Context-based Recognition during Human Interactions: Automatic Feature…

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The LA Times: ICT Virtual Patients to Train USC Social Work Students in New Military Specialization

ICT will be collaborating with the USC School of Social Work in a first-of-its-kind master’s specialization program to help prepare social workers for caring for the needs of soldiers, veterans and thier families. The Military…

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ICT Researcher Wins Best Paper Award

ICT Research Scientist Louis-Philippe Morency received the best paper award at the 8th International Conference on Automatic Face and Gesture Recognition. The research, co-authored by UCSD’s Jacob Whitehill and Javier Movellan, advances the field of…

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PTSD Virtual Exposure Therapy Featured in German Science Magazine

ICT’s virtual reality exposure therapy was the subject of a lenghty article in the October issue of German science magazine “Bild der Wissenschaft”. Reporter Desiree Karge visited ICT and interviewed…

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ICT to Create Virtual Human Guides with Museum of Science, Boston

The collaboration receives $2 million NSF grant to build life-like computer characters showcasing museum exhibits and the technologies enabling these digital docents to think, feel and interact.  Visitors to the Museum…

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Congresswoman Jane Harman Visits ICT

Congresswoman Jane Harman (D-Calif) visited ICT to learn more about our work using interactive characters, virtual reality and immersive technologies for training, education and health. ICT Executive Director Randall W. Hill, Jr. presented an overview…

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San Diego Union Tribune Covers ICT’s Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy for Treating PTSD

Skip Rizzo was interviewed for this story which reports positive results for ICT’s virtual reality exposure therapy for treating PTSD. The San Deigo Naval Medical Center and Camp Pendleton…

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Watch In-Depth Coverage of the ICT Graphics Lab on Mahalo Daily

The work of Paul Debevec and the ICT Graphics Lab was featured on Mahalo Daily, an online video program about all things new and exciting across the web. Correspondent Leah D’Emilio visited…

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ICT Research Leading to More Natural and Fluid Virtual Human Conversation Wins Award

ICT research scientist Louis-Philippe Morency won the best paper award at the highly selective Intelligent Virtual Agent’s Conference in Japan. In the paper, Morency and colleagues Iwan de Kok and Jonathan Gratch propose a new…

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Army Team Demos ICT’s Sgt. Star Installation in Army Interactive Van

Sgt. Star, the life-sized virtual Army guide created by the ICT mixed reality research and development group, paid a visit to ICT in the 18-wheel Army Interactive Van that is one of…

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Virtual Reality as a Rehabilitation Tool

ICT research was highlighted in this Philidelphia Inquirer story about the research and use of virtual reality systems for stroke victims. The piece mentions ICT’s work using virtual reality therpaies for treating PTSD and as…

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More Coverage for ICT’s Facial Animation Collaboration with Image Metrics

KCAL News featured a story about the Emily project which showcases ICT and Image Metrics’ advances in creating believable facial animation and tech writer David Pescovitz blogged about the project on boingboing.net.…

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ICT Graphics Lab Collaboration Lauded for Advancing Realistic Facial Animation

A collaboration between Paul Debevec’s Graphics Lab and facial animation solutions provider Image Metrics has produced a computer-generated human character so convincing that it is easy to mistake her for being…

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ICT’s Intelligent Forces Project Featured in Popular Mechanices

A story in the May issue of Popular Mechanics titled, “10 Genius Inventions We’re Still Waiting For,” describes the goal of ICT’s Intelligent Forces project, which is to use artificial intelligence…

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ICT’s 3D Display Featured in Wired

The 3D display work of the ICT Graphics Lab is explained in a recent Wired.com blog which calls the technology a breakthrough that is “way more realistic” than any other 3D technology.…

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ICT’s 3D Display Featured in ESPN The Magazine

A story exploring what the future of sports will look like calls the ICT Graphics Lab’s 3D Display, “something as fantastic and futuristic as anything in Tinseltown.” Graphics Lab Director Paul Debevec says in the…

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ICT’s Diane Piepol To Chair LA Chapter of ACM SIGGRAPH

Diane Piepol, project director at ICT’s Flatworld was elected chair of the Los Angeles chapter of ACM Siggraph for the 2008-2009 year. As a professional chapter of the Association for Computing Machinery’s Special…

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ICT’s Paul Debevec in VFX World Magazine

The work of Paul Debevec and the ICT Graphics Lab is featured in this visual effects, 3D animation and computer graphics magazine. Under the headline, “Captain of the Light”, the article shines…

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