Tuesday, May 16, 2006

Editing a manuscript (3): Bio-multimedia

As if I was talking about the devil this morning. I was definitely going to edit the manuscript. And one of the first articles was a rather controversial article on Bio-Multimedia. And whom did I walk into this morning entering the elevator of the grant factory: the author himself, Mr Arhur Lugmayer, an Austrian living in Finland. Just a coincidence.

The paper, written by Lugmayr of the Digital Media Institute in Tampere was an exploration beyond ambient multimedia. The researchers left user-interface design, high-quality video and audio, ubiquitous computing, pervasive designs, and advanced input devices behind them and jumped over multimedia and its related fields from ‘integrated presentation of information in one form’ (multimedia), to ‘computer generated simulated environments with its peripherals’ (virtual reality), ‘the surrounding and user is the interface’ (ambient multimedia) to a novel and newly introduced field of bio-multimedia: ‘integrated human capacity’. Lugmayer uses the definition: “Bio-Multimedia integrates human capacity for spanning a bio-space for leisure content. Human capacity convolves perceptive senses, bio-signals, and interface capabilities with machinery. A bio-space is a biological inspired generated realistic environment where human capacity is integrated with peripherals.

Multimedia and its derivates span a cyberspace for connecting people in an imaginary space for creating virtual communities, experience virtual sex or dive into virtual environments for the purpose of leisure. Bio-multimedia as factor for integrated human capacities in a Bio-Space has the same purpose: provision of leisure created on top of biological metaphors. The goal of this multidisciplinary scientific work ranging from the discipline of theoretical computer science, bioinformatics and systems biology, medicine, to multimedia is a substantial factor for the development of a world-class concept for the transition between ambient multimedia and its next generation: bio-multimedia. The underlying question is simple. Its answer lays far in the future - beyond current bio-technological possibilities. Which challenges, possibilities, and facilities are provided by bio-technology to span a bio-space for the creation of leisure content? The focus of this research is the creation and introduction of bio-multimedia as new branch of multimedia.

When the paper was presented it caused some uproar: multimedia as an extension of your body. Glorianna Davenport of MIT Mediawho was present objected to the implications and called for an ethical approach. In the final version the authors say “The quality and content of this paper highly benefited from the discussions with her, her email conversations and patient revision of this paper”.

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