Under the leadership of ACIM Director and Chair Professor Richard Allen, SCM's Center for Applied Computing and Interactive Media promotes an integrated artistic and scientific research strategy where domain specialists collaborate to innovate in art tech research and emergent forms of creative media, in order to realize new forms of creative practice and knowledge in the field. ACIM actively promotes collaboration and affiliation among SCM faculty as well as outside researchers.
Current Projects
CITY IN TIME II
CITY IN TIME II is a ground-breaking augmented reality (AR) urban heritage experience, developed in collaboration with the Hong Kong Tourism Commission, which allows users to immerse themselves in Hong Kong's historical landscapes on various locations using their mobile devices. It builds upon the success of CITY IN TIME, which invited users to explore and engage with the rich cultural history of Hong Kong through an innovative blend of art and technology. Originally launched in March 2021 at 28 heritage-rich sites, CITY IN TIME II extends CITY IN TIME to 16 additional locations in Lei Yue Mun, Tai Hang, and Kowloon City.
Led by Artistic Director, Jeffrey Shaw (HKBU) and Project Director, Richard William Allen (ACIM/SCM), CITY IN TIME II introduces a range of new features including 360-degree panoramic videos of intangible cultural heritage (ICH) events and clips that feature matching locations from celebrated Hong Kong movies. The historical landscapes are enhanced with 3D animated elements, and a selfie feature allows users to record short videos with audio and share their experiences. Historical accuracy is ensured by the expertise of historian Calvin Wong Hoi To, supported by young graduates of CityU who sourced photographs from various archives. A collaborative effort involving sound design, website development, 3D scanning, modeling, panoramic photography, and landscape painting by local Hong Kong artists brings CITY IN TIME II to fruition.
FUTURE CINEMA SYSTEMS
Future Cinema Systems: Next Generation Art Technologies is an unprecedented Hong Kong art tech initiative to build the next generation fully interactive and immersive cinematic architecture and applications. It is led by Professor Jeffrey Shaw (former director of ACIM) at HKBU, in collaboration with Professor Sarah Kenderdine at EPFL, and Richard Allen at the Center for Applied Computing and Interactive Media at CityU. It is funded by the ITF Platform Grant.
The project is developing three technical architectures. The first of these is a high-resolution, 360-degree, LED panoramic, stereoscopic projection environment, which has been built at HKBU's new Visualization Research Centre and is integrated with both ACIM's newly enhanced immersive 360 system at CityU and a similar system at EPFUL. The second is a human-computer interaction engine—an integrated array of sensing inputs which will identify, correlate, and integrate a wide range of sensory cues from the participating spectators. The third is a co-evolutionary narrative engine, which is a software that allows inputs to be organized, orchestrated, and variously prioritized, to ensure that the audio-visual manifold seamlessly reacts and responds to the active and passive sensory inputs of the participants over time.
A wide range of new artistic and cultural heritage applications are being developed that will realize the interactive and immersive affordances of these architectures. Currently, five CityU faculty are directly contributing to Future Cinema Systems: Miu Ling Lam (SCM), Kening Zhu (SCM), Hector Rodriguez (SCM), RAY LC (SCM), and Rosa Chan (EE).
