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PS3 investing in tangible user interfaces
During the Sony press conference earlier today, there was a sneak preview of a technological concept that takes the PS2's current motion detection (EyeToy) one step further. Using a camera and barcoded physical cards, a card game can become digitally visualised. Augmented reality and tangible user interfaces are two research areas that various academics have been pursuing for some time, but are only just making it into the mainstream. While these ideas seem cool in theory, in reality we have to ask ourselves what value is added to a game by providing this interface. Perhaps we'll see this technology being used to strike out in innovative, unusual directions -- or perhaps, like many research ideas that are nice in theory but fall flat in practice, it will become a selling point that isn't taken any further.
Professors banning in-class laptop use
In yet another sign that Luddism is alive and well in academia (remember Lakehead University's silly WiFi ban?), the Associated Press has picked up on a disturbing "trend" of professors banning laptops in their classrooms. Unlike the WiFi brouhaha, which revolved around fears that the wireless signals might be dangerous, keeping laptops out of the lecture hall is seen as a way of forcing students to pay attention. The AP article cites several law school professors who have enacted the ban, including one whose inspiration came while serving as an expert witness in a trial, when he realized the court stenographer wasn't absorbing any of the content that he/she was transcribing. If you ask us, not only does this policy fail to address the root of a problem -- hey Prof, try making your classes more interesting if you want people to pay attention -- but considering what students are paying for a higher education these days, they should be allowed to lug a mainframe and three monitors to class if that's how they like to get their learnin' done.
'Games and Culture' academic journal launched
Gaming, and the myriad disciplines which overlap with the concept of video games, are gaining ground in academic circles as a valid field of research and study. With MMOs used for social and anthropological experiments, film-making papers focusing on machinima, and computer scientists investigating hardware and algorithms, computer games research can cover a wide range of subjects, and it's often hard to find exactly what's going on in the field.A new journal called "Games and Culture" will help with this, as it plans to cover everything from gaming culture to development and even the political ramifications of games. Often fantastic ideas occur in academia before they hit the mainstream, so it should be worth a read for anyone interested in games--there's a free trial of the first volume to get you started, and many of the first issue's papers are on the topic "Why Game Studies Now?"[update: fixed typo]
