February 2005 Archives

Well, I did the presentation. Actually three groups presented - we were the first. I noticed that the other groups had multiple presenters. Oh well.

It went OK. There were some stumbling points, of course, but they weren't unbearable. I got the points across. As I predicted, I read most of the speech. The length, after all was said and done, was thirty-five minutes - five above the required length. This was due not only to the material we added, but also some stall tactics that I used. I hate to do this kind of stuff in the name of preserving presentation length, but it's really no big deal.

So, of course the presentation was about non-zero sum games, a subject with which - surprisingly - only a few of the audience were acquainted. I didn't know if it went so well, but I was asked four or five questions during Q&A, and many people asked me about it afterwards. There was even interest in the games we created. We played one and people really got into it. It was really engaging to be able to share a new concept with people.

On the recommendation of a friend, Heather recently discovered Nakano library in nearby Nakano. Every Tuesday she has lessons nearby, so she makes a point of stopping by. This week she picked up a book about her financial idol, Warren Buffett. The book looks pretty interesting - I'll have to set apart some time this weekend to at least glance through it.

My 評価会 (evaluation meeting) presentation is tomorrow. Today we had one last meeting "ironing out" the details - but really, we ended up making some major changes in content. I'm going to be reading most of the presentation, I can already see that. The length of the presentation is only ten minutes, but it's supposed to be around half an hour. They told me just to ad lib for fifteen or twenty minutes about the games that we created. I hope they're not expecting the quality of the presentation to be anything better than mediocre.

I saw a flier on my way back from work this evening. There's a call for actors in a play - I don't know if it's community or what - in Nogata, which is the next town over from Koenji. I'm trying to convince Heather to join up. She said it sounded interesting. I don't know what that means.

So, at work this Friday I'm to give this presentation about non-zero sum games - in front of the whole company. The content is pretty much done, and it's been translated mostly into Japanese (thanks to Edward). Unfortunately, I emailed the draft to Edward on Saturday, and he didn't have enough time to translate it until this afternoon (Tuesday). Today was supposed to be the "dress rehearsal," but I hadn't read through the presentation flow at all. There were a few words that I didn't know, and it was a bit embarrassing. But on the whole, I think it'll be no problem. An hour or so practice and I'll have it down pat.

I don't know why they're having a foreigner give the presentation, when the other three members of the team are native Japanese speakers. Maybe they think it's cool to have a foreigner do it. Not that I'm complaining - I think it's a great opportunity!

So, a main guy on the Prisoner's Dilemma (the canonical non-zero sum game) is Robert Axelrod. I've read quite a bit by this guy, and all of his essays and books are really quite interesting. Anyway, Axelrod is a professor at Michigan, and it turns out that Edward, who went to Michigan, took some classes from him. Man, that guy knows everybody.

I saw a really cool flier for a Japanese digital media festival today in Shinjuku station. The festival itself takes place near Tokyo station. I'm looking forward to checking it out - maybe this weekend? I'm mainly posting it here as a reminder to myself.

Well, here goes. Special thanks to Heather for setting me up.

I read a great article on Wired News today. Rowan Hooper and James Condron have developed a machine that measures a subject's "excitement" and takes photographs of said subject at their peak. It's very similar to technology used in lie detectors - when a person becomes excited, his or her "skin sweats and becomes more conductive." This phenomenon is known as the Galvanic Skin Response (GSR).

What I'm most excited about is their next project, which has applications in the computer gaming field. Imagine a game that can measure the amount of excitement and adjust the state of the game based on this measure to hone the experience. The article illustrates this point with an example from the horror game Doom 3. If a particular monster does something that surprises or excites you, it could detect this and add more of it - in real time.

It makes me wonder if there are other easily-detectable GSR-like emotive responses. Imagine a game that dynamically measured and influenced its players based on his or her current happiness, anger, love, envy, or guilt. It's crazy.