For the very first time, Japan Creative Centre (JCC) will be transformed into 特撮 (Tokusatsu: Japanese style special filming effect/diorama set for drones to fly in! Join us as we delve into the fun and sometimes curious world of drones and the brains behind that give them character. The unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), having been around in mainstream society for a decade now, may no longer a technology novelty, but have you seen drones racing in an environment that can be adapted to look like anywhere using augmented reality? What about a drone designed to look like a crow that facilitates communication between human beings and crows?

JCC is excited to welcome Dr. Sueda Koh of NUS and Red Dot Drone for Drone Madness, a 2-day event that will feature a talk on 20 September (Friday) where Dr Sueda will share with us his creation, Crowmunication, a drone that allows its users to speak to crows, and an augmented reality drone race presented by Red Dot Drones right here at JCC!

Dr. Koh Sueda is a senior research fellow in National University of Singapore. He joined NUS to pursue a new vision for human computer interaction (HCI) in 2010. The keywords of his research are augmented reality, social life logging, social geographical information systems, talking drone to communicate with birds and mobile/ubiquitous entertainment (or sports). Dr. Sueda received his B.A in architecture from Musashino Art University in 2000, M.Sc. in information and telecommunication from Waseda University in 2003, and Ph.D. in Information Studies from the Graduate School of Interdisciplinary Information Studies of the University of Tokyo.

Sueda works in multiple areas of computer human interfacing (CHI): Media art/design, ubiquitous computing and architecture. He has presented his own works at a variety of academic, industrial design, and media art venues including ACM SIGGRAPH and ArsElectronica. His graduate work for his master degree, “Communication Grill Chang-tei” received prizes in many competitions.

Red Dot Drone is a drone startup focusing on autonomous aerial filming technology for sports events. Their solution uses the autonomous flight of drones to tag sportsmen during sporting events to capture how the event unfolds from multiple angles. This allows the audience to have an immersive experience of the sport from an aerial view of the action as well as how specific sportsmen navigate through the sport. They also do Drone racing (event organisation, video streaming solution) and drone related software development.

Couger Inc. Is a Japanese startup developing the technology platform “Connectome” which realizes the human-like virtual AI assistants. The goal is to create a future where humans can trust in and live alongside AI technologies that will increase the quality of communication between humans, as well as between humans and technology. Couger will provide the overview of Connectome and the demo of its virtual AI assistant “Rachel”.

This event is partially supported by Panasonic Singapore, HAYAO NAKAYAMA Foundation for Science & Technology and Culture