News & Announcements
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…
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.
…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. …
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, were both named research…
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…
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…
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…
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 psychologist Skip Rizzo about the…
ICT to Create Virtual Human Guides with Museum of Science, Boston
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 of Science, Boston…
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…
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 both participated in studies testing the…
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 ICT for a…
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…
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 his current homes.…
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…
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.
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 real.
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 to “simulate the behavior…
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.
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…
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 Interest Group…
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 a spotlight on…
ICT’s PTSD Virtual Therapy Featured on NPR Programs
Skip Rizzo was interviewed on “Talk of the Nation” about his research.
Rizzo has led the development of Virtual Iraq, an immersion therapy video
game for psychologists treating veterans struggling with…
ICT’s Virtual Humans and Real Researchers Featured on NBC News
Reporter Patrick Healy of Los Angeles NBC station KNBC reports on our virtual human work. The story features Sgt. Star, the SASO-EN negotiation scenario and our virtual patient. Patrick Kenny, Diane Piepol, Skip Rizzo and…
ICT’s PTSD Treatment Featured in the New Yorker
This week’s New Yorker has a lengthy feature about ICT’s virtual reality PTSD treatment, with quotes and ancecdotes from ICT psychologist Skip Rizzo. The article also mentions ICT’s FlatWorld demo. Writer Sue Halpern visited ICT…
ICT’s PTSD Treatment in the Riverside Press-Enterprise
An article reported on the ongoing tests of ICT’s virtual reality PTSD treatment at the Naval Medical Center in San Diego. In the article, Naval Cmdr. Scott L. Johnston says nine out of 10 subjects…
ICT’s Jacquelyn Ford Morie to Chair ACM SIGGRAPH Digital Arts Community Committee
Dr. Jacquelyn Ford Morie was named Chair of the ACM SIGGRAPH Digital Arts Community Committee. She will lead SIGGRAPH’s new efforts to address the creative spirit and needs of all artists in the digital arts…
Researchers Nominated for Best Paper Award
The paper on ICT’s SmartBody research project is one of three papers nominated for best paper at the upcoming AAMAS conference (Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems), the premiere Agent conference in Portugal, May 12 -…
ICT Computer Scientist Honored for Bright Ideas
Abhijeet Ghosh, a computer scientist with the Graphics Lab at USC’s Institute for Creative Technologies, has been named the winner of the 2007 Alain Fournier Thesis Award. The prize recognizes the top Ph.D dissertation in…
ICT’s PTSD Treatment on KFI
ICT’s Virtual Iraq exposure therapy for treating PTSD was featured on Los Angeles newsradio station KF1 1070. Reporter Michael Linder visited ICT and interviewed Skip Rizzo for the story.
Executive Director Randall W. Hill Jr. Talks about ICT on Radio Legend Michael Jackson’s Program
Randall W. Hill, Jr spoke about ICT’s work in virtual reality and PTSD exposure therapy on a radio talk show about some of the difficulties soldiers face upon returning from Iraq. The program aired live…
ICT’s PTSD Therapy Wins Major European Virtual Reality Award
ICT’s virtual reality exposure therapy treatement for PTSD was honored with the Best Medical Application award at the 10th Virtual Reality International Conference in Laval, France.
USC’s ICT and Cinematic Arts Photosharing Project in the New York Times
A recent story featured Viewfinder, a new photo-placing system developed by the USC School of Cinematic Arts’ Interactive Media Division and the USC Institute for Creative Technologies. The system, created with a grant from Google,…
ICT and USC Keck School Collaborate on Virtual Patient Project
ICT and USC’s Keck School of Medicine teamed up to apply ICT’s virtual human technology, orginally developed for Army training, to develop a program to enhance and elevate the quality of psychiatric education. Funded by…
ICT Featured in Law Enforcement Technology Magazine
A story about using games and simulations for supplementing real-life training featured ICT’s law enforcement incident command training program. ICT Project Director Todd Richmond was interviewed about the training, which aims to create a sympathetic…
ICT’s PTSD Virtual Therapy Featured on NPR
ICT’s Skip Rizzo was interviewed on NPR’s “News & Notes” about developing and using virtual reality exposure therapy to treat PTSD. “In order to treat PTSD effectively, we often rely on what’s called exposure therapy,…
Interactive Ethics Course Gets High Marks
An ICT collaboration with the USC Marshall School of Business leveraged ICT’s AXL application to bring issues of leadership and ethics to life for MBA students. The project is one of several ICT partnerships across…
ICT Research Scientist Earns Prestigious Nod
Louis-Philippe Morency is named one of “AI’s 10 to Watch” by IEEE Intelligent Systems, a leading artificial intelligence journal. The honor recognizes Morency’s multi-disciplinary work providing computers an understanding of gestures and movement.
ICT’s PTSD Virtual Therapy in the Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal’s online health blog features ICT’s virtual reality exposure therapy. The treatment was created here at ICT and is being tested and used nationwide to treat Iraq war veterans with post-traumatic stress…
ICT’s Virtual Patients in Psychology Today
The February 2008 issue of Psychology Today features ICT virtual characters Justin and Justina, two life-like patients being developed to help teach students at USC’s Keck School of Medicine to interview patients and diagnose their…
Jacquelyn Ford Morie Adds to ICT Duties with Posts at UK Univeristy
Dr. Jacquelyn Ford Morie was named Adjunct Faculty and Post-Doc Research Fellow with the University of East London’s SMARTLab Research Centre, London, UK. Her SMARTLab work focuses on online virtual communities and identity and performance…
ICT Computer Graphics Featured in Nova Documentary
Photorealistic imagery of the Parthenon created by Paul Debevec and his team at the ICT Graphics Lab can be seen in an upcoming Nova documentary, “Secrets of the Parthenon.”
The footage was built…
Coverage of ICT Technology at Camp Pendleton
Various news outlets covered Camp Pendleton’s new Infantry Immersive Trainer, a high-tech training simulation that leveraged ICT’s expertise designing and developing immersive mixed-reality systems. The project incorporates ICT’s digital projection techniques, immersive audio and multi-sensory…
Army Office of Video Games
The U.S. military has been using games for decades to train its troops. Now, for the first time, the Army has set up a project office, just for building and deploying games.
ICT Paper Wins Award
A paper authored by ICT researchers was honored with a best paper award for the Emerging Concepts and Innovative Technologies subcommittee and nominated for best paper overall at the Interservice/Industry Training,Simulation and Education Conference (I/ITSEC)…
ICT Researcher Named to Leadership Post
Jonathan Gratch has been named president-elect of the newly-formed Human-Machine Interaction Network on Emotion (HUMAINE) Association. The group, founded in June 2007, is a professional, world-wide association for researchers in emotion-oriented/affective computing. Gratch is associate…
Army’s Newest Recruit: A Fully Interactive Virtual Human
Sgt. Star never sleeps. He doesn’t stop to eat or drink either. It is not just that the strapping 6-foot-tall soldier is devoted to his job - traveling the country with Army recruiters answering questions…
ABC 7 Features ICT’s PTSD Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy
ABC 7’s John North interviews ICT’s Skip Rizzo and experiences our innovative PTSD therapy firsthand.
NY Times Looks at PTSD Treatment
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a growing problem, especially with the increasing number of veterans returning from duty in the Middle East. Traditional treatments have varying sucess rates, and often require extended personal therapy…
ICT Research Wins Award at Siggraph ‘07
Computer graphics have transformed many aspects of life. But while a great deal of imagery is modeled and rendered in 3D, almost all of it is shown on a 2D display such as a computer…