IEEE Consumer Electronics Magazine - January/February 2020 - 14

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Figure 3. Justin Berry presenting on the Clamshell
modular digital interface.

Figure 4. Peter Burr's keynote presentation on Day
1 of IEEE GEM 2019.

immersive audio and atmospheric lighting of the
stage with more conventional modes of artistic
expression.
In some cases, a VR element was incorporated into the performance and the audience
was surrounded by a virtual reality mimicing the
real-world performance. This was enhanced in
some case by providing a video window, within
the VR world back onto the audience themselves. Thus, we appeared to be participating in
two distinct, yet interrelated performances. In
VR new physical constructs could appear, actors
could grow, or shrink in size, sprout wings and
even fly. The key was to maintain a realistic connection between both performances to engage
the audience and maintain the immersiveness of
the experience.
Watching these artistic performances at
IEEE GEM 2019 gives important clues to engineers and game designers (see Figure 3), on
how to create immersive environments for
other, more traditional gaming, and simulation
use cases.

followed by the opening ceremony, reception
and keynote talks by Angela Washko and Peter
Burr (see Figure 4).
Technical sessions opened on June 20th
with parallel sessions on game platforms for
learning, medical applications, and evaluating
education, chaired, respectively, by Johannes
deYoung, Kai Erenli, and Kathleen Ruiz. In the
afternoon parallel tracks on new performance
practices, chaired by Elena Bertozzii, and
immersive learning chaired by Ashwini Naik,
ran together with a session featuring dynamic
demonstrators.
In between the technical sessions, there were
three plenary keynotes. To close the day, the
late afternoon keynote, presented by Hyphen
Labs, was followed by a performance of the fascinating mixed reality show.
Friday sessions opened with a keynote from
Kimberly Hieftje, (see Figure 2) followed by sessions on immersive visualizations, chaired by
Naomi Keena, and applied science, chaired by
Gregory Luther. A lunchtime panel session discussed Forms and Functions: Better Unions in Creative Process and featured Thomas Oberender
(Berliner Festspiele), Stephanie Riggs (author
of The End of Storytelling) Johannes DeYoung
(Carnegie Mellon University), and Kay Meseberg
(head of Mission Innovation, ARTE). This panel
discussed how developments in consumer electronics have radically altered platforms for
storytelling.
An afternoon technical session on expressive
interfaces, chaired by Elena Bertozzi, emerging
industry standards, chaired by Gregory Luther, and

TECHNICAL PROGRAM AT
IEEE GEM 2019
In addition to exploring new modes of exhibition and presentation, IEEE GEM 2019 also featured a strong technical program spread across
three parallel conference tracks. It was very challenging to fit everything into a three-day program, so some workshops and sessions ran onto
the Saturday morning. The main program
opened on the afternoon of June 19th with exhibits and demonstrators running in the CCAM,

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