Flavia Sparacino

Last updated
Flavia Sparacino
Born
Italy
NationalityItalian
Known forPioneering augmented reality, virtual studios, Kinect-like tracking systems and applications, wearable computing, and multi-touch technology.
Academic background
EducationPhd - Media Arts and Sciences Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Thesis Sto(ry)chastics a Bayesian network architecture for combined user modeling, sensor fusion, and computational storytelling for interactive spaces (2003)
Website http://sensingplaces.com/

Flavia Sparacino is an American-based space maker and scientist. She is currently CEO/Founder of Sensing Places, a MIT Media Lab spinoff that specializes in immersive space design and technology.

Contents

Influenced by MIT Media Lab Professor Alex Pentland and Glorianna Davenport, Sparacino was one of the first people to develop augmented reality, virtual studios, Kinect applications, wearable computing, and multi-touch technology.

Biography

Sparacino was part of the MIT Media Lab from 1994 – 2002 and received her PhD in Media Arts and Sciences [1] at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2002. She also holds Masters in Cognitive Sciences and Media Arts and Sciences, and degrees in Electrical Engineering and Robotics.

MIT granted her 13 technology licenses for her inventions, one of the highest numbers of intellectual property licenses ever awarded to one person. Sparacino holds more than a 1000 academic paper citations [2] for her contribution to entertainment technology and gesture-driven interactive environments.

Italian-born, she was nominated Knight of the Republic of Italy in 2000 for her numerous contributions to innovative communication of art and culture supported by emerging technologies.[ citation needed ]

Sparacino was awarded the Women in Tech Awards America for Arts in 2023.

Work

Through her company Sensing Places, [3] Sparacino specializes in providing innovation consulting for large companies, business strategies for technology products, customized technology for the next-generation retail stores, showroom architecture and design, and designing futuristic museum exhibits and pavilions.

She is also the founder of two SaaS product companies - Presentize and Beam, which were built to overcome the challenge many businesses face of not being able to share and display content on screens quickly and easily.

Her background covers ambient and body sensors, statistical mathematical models, interactive multimedia, and 3D graphics. Her work on gesture recognition and body-driven dance, music, and gaming applications came 12 years before the launch of Microsoft Kinect and 5 years before Spielberg's Minority Report movie was released, as documented by the Discovery Channel feature on her work. Sparacino built wearable computers and sensors for use in museums and performance spaces almost 10 years before the launch of Google Glass.

Sparacino designed museum installations for MOMA, SFMOMA, the National Library of Medicine, Milan's La Scala Opera theater, the National Museum of American Jewish History, and the MIHL (Museo Interactivo de la Historia de Lugo). She designed interactive spaces for Gehry Partners, Zaha Hadid Architects, the FX Luxury Developers Group in Las Vegas, and the governments of Dubai and Qatar. She designed Vodafone Italy's headquarter showroom inclusive of visitor and content management software and interactive installations.

Sparacino was cited by Anna Italian Magazine as "one of the leading Italian women scientists' who are following along the footsteps of Nobel Prize Winner, Rita Levi-Montalcini, for her work that connects art and culture."

She is a regular speaker and panelist at conferences including American Alliance of Museums, SEDG, [4] and Los Angeles Idea Project and has had her work featured in The Boston Globe, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and the Discovery Channel.

Projects and inventions

Early work

Sparacino released a thesis in 2003 on Sto(ry)chastics: A Bayesian Network Architecture for User Modeling and Computational Storytelling for Interactive Spaces. [5] Her work was guided by understanding people's preferences in an unobtrusive manner so as to present them only with relevant information at the right time.

In 2000, she created the first museum wearable [6] which used real-time sensor-driven technology to create a personalized augmented reality experience for the visitor. Later that year she developed interactive space software architecture for dance, [7] theater, and museum exhibits which was used in conjunction with real-time computer-vision-based body tracking [8] and gesture recognition techniques to choreograph digital media together with human performers or museum visitors.

Her Narrative Spaces: bridging architecture and entertainment via interactive technology [9] project in 2002 described technological platforms built at the MIT Media Lab, through 1994-2002, that contribute to defining new trends in architecture that merge virtual and real spaces, and are reshaping.

In 2004 Sparacino created Scenographies of the past and museums of the future: from the wunderkammer to body-driven interactive narrative spaces. [10] This project included numerous innovative technological solutions adopted for the exhibit: "Puccini Set Designer" organized with the support and collaboration of Milan's renown La Scala opera theater.

In 2005 her Museum Intelligence: Using Interactive Technologies for Effective Communication and Storytelling [11] project developed a series of high-end interactive technologies designed to support the communication needs and strategies of the Puccini Set Designer museum exhibit.

Recent work

In 2010 Sparacino worked on the Museo Interactivo de la Historia de Lugo project in Galicia, Spain. Her design showcased the latest sensing technologies that allow visitors to engage with the stories on display through immersive embodied interactions. She designed a highly theatrical space in which technology animates historical characters and places to foster playful learning driven by the public's own spontaneous curiosity and engagement.

Sparacino collaborated with Zaha Hadid Architects in 2011 on the National Art Museum of China project (NAMOC). Inspired by the ancient Chinese art of calligraphy, her contribution involved designing large-scale interactive projections that transformed the museum floor into beautifully rendered calligraphic brushstrokes that guided visitors through the exhibits. A mobile application was also created to conduct customized tours based on a visitor's preferences.

In 2012 she worked with KR Architects to create the winning bid for the Museum of Contemporary Architecture (MoCA) [12] in Hangzhou, China. In this project Sparacino designed a reconfigurable street using two parallel screens up to six meters high and concealed projectors to reproduce the experience of walking in a major city.

In 2013 Sparacino worked with Vodafone Italy [13] to design, engineer, and develop software for an invite-only 10,000 sq feet interactive showroom to creatively unveil new enterprise products to CEOs, high-level executives, city officials, and journalists. The showroom articulated the experience through eight different interactive environments controlled by a dedicated software running on a tablet. Her custom mobile user interface and back-end server software allowed for easy content management and controls of all screens, audio, and lighting levels in all areas of the showroom.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Augmented reality</span> View of the real world with computer-generated supplementary features

Augmented reality (AR) is an interactive experience that combines the real world and computer-generated content. The content can span multiple sensory modalities, including visual, auditory, haptic, somatosensory and olfactory. AR can be defined as a system that incorporates three basic features: a combination of real and virtual worlds, real-time interaction, and accurate 3D registration of virtual and real objects. The overlaid sensory information can be constructive, or destructive. This experience is seamlessly interwoven with the physical world such that it is perceived as an immersive aspect of the real environment. In this way, augmented reality alters one's ongoing perception of a real-world environment, whereas virtual reality completely replaces the user's real-world environment with a simulated one.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Interactive art</span> Creative works that rely on viewer input and feedback to provoke emotional responses

Interactive art is a form of art that involves the spectator in a way that allows the art to achieve its purpose. Some interactive art installations achieve this by letting the observer walk through, over or around them; others ask the artist or the spectators to become part of the artwork in some way.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">MIT Media Lab</span> Research laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology

The MIT Media Lab is a research laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, growing out of MIT's Architecture Machine Group in the School of Architecture. Its research does not restrict to fixed academic disciplines, but draws from technology, media, science, art, and design. As of 2014, Media lab's research groups include neurobiology, biologically inspired fabrication, socially engaging robots, emotive computing, bionics, and hyperinstruments.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Tech Interactive</span> Science and technology center in San Jose, California, United States

The Tech Interactive is a science and technology center that offers hands-on activities, labs, design challenges and other STEAM education resources. It is located in downtown San Jose, California, adjacent to the Plaza de César Chávez.

Wendy W. Jacob is a multidisciplinary artist. She is best known for works in the areas of sculpture, public art and urban intervention.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Mount (Lenox, Massachusetts)</span> Historic house in Massachusetts, United States

The Mount (1902) is a country house in Lenox, Massachusetts, the home of noted American author Edith Wharton, who designed the house and its grounds and considered it her "first real home." The estate, located in The Berkshires, is open to the public. The property was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1971.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dava Newman</span> American aerospace engineer and civil servant (1964–)

Dava J. Newman is an American aerospace engineer. She is the director of the MIT Media Lab and a former deputy administrator of NASA. Newman is the Apollo Program Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics and Engineering Systems at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She has been a faculty member in the department of Aeronautics and Astronautics and MIT's School of Engineering since 1993.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rebecca Allen (artist)</span> American digital artist

Rebecca Allen is an internationally recognized digital artist inspired by the aesthetics of motion, the study of perception and behavior and the potential of advanced technology. Her artwork, which spans four decades and takes the form of experimental video, large-scale performances, live simulations and virtual and augmented reality art installations, addresses issues of gender, identity and what it means to be human as technology redefines our sense of reality.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mary Flanagan</span>

Mary Flanagan is an American artist, author, educator, and designer. She pioneered the field of game research with her ideas on critical play and has written several books. She is the founding director of the research laboratory and design studio Tiltfactor Lab and the CEO of the board game company Resonym. Flanagan's work as an artist has been shown around the world and won the Award of Distinction at Prix Ars Electronica in 2018.

A projection augmented model is an element sometimes employed in virtual reality systems. It consists of a physical three-dimensional model onto which a computer image is projected to create a realistic looking object. Importantly, the physical model is the same geometric shape as the object that the PA model depicts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wearable technology</span> Clothing and accessories incorporating computer and advanced electronic technologies

Wearable technology is any technology that is designed to be used while worn. Common types of wearable technology include smartwatches and smartglasses. Wearable electronic devices are often close to or on the surface of the skin, where they detect, analyze, and transmit information such as vital signs, and/or ambient data and which allow in some cases immediate biofeedback to the wearer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Interactive Museum of Economics</span>

Interactive Museum of Economics is the first museum in the world dedicated exclusively to economics. The museum was opened in 2006 and is located on Tacuba Street in the historic center of Mexico City. The museum is open to the public and features hands-on exhibits meant to make the basic concepts of economics fun and engaging. The museum is housed in the old Bethlehemite convent and hospital. Before the Bank of Mexico acquired the building in 1990, it was in ruins and filled with debris. It took fifteen years to restore the building to what it probably looked like in the 19th century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Neri Oxman</span> US-based Israeli architect, designer, scientist

Neri Oxman is an American–Israeli designer and professor known for art and architecture that combines design, biology, computing, and materials engineering. She coined the phrase "material ecology" to define her work.

Humanyze, founded as Sociometric Solutions in 2010 in Boston, Massachusetts, is a people analytics software provider. Humanyze was founded by MIT doctoral students Ben Waber, Daniel Olguin, Taemie Kim, Tuomas Jaanu, and MIT Professor Alex Pentland. Humanyze's people analytics platform is based on research from the MIT Media Lab people analytics and utilizes Organizational Network Analysis to measure corporate communication data, identifying patterns in how companies operate.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Daan Roosegaarde</span> Dutch artist

Daan Roosegaarde is a Dutch artist, pioneer and founder of Studio Roosegaarde, which develops projects that merge technology and art in urban environments. Some of the studio's works have been described as "immersive" and "interactive" because they change the visitors' surroundings in reaction to the behavior of those visitors. Other works are intended to increase environmental awareness and to add an aesthetic dimension that complements the technical solutions to environmental problems.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tamiko Thiel</span> American artist (born 1957)

Tamiko Thiel is an American artist, known for her digital art. Her work often explores "the interplay of place, space, the body and cultural identity," and uses augmented reality (AR) as her platform. Thiel is based in Munich, Germany.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Naziha Mestaoui</span> Belgian artist (1975–2020)

Naziha Mestaoui was a Belgian artist trained in architecture, who lived and worked in Paris. She worked both collectively and individually, and received awards in several countries. As an environmental artist and activist, she was best known for One Heart, One Tree at the United Nations Climate Conference (COP21) in December 2015. The participatory art installation supports reforestation on several continents.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Beijing Air and Space Museum</span>

The Beijing Air and Space Museum is a museum in Haidian, Beijing, China. The museum is part of the Beihang University, one of China's most prestigious engineering schools. It was founded in 1985 under its original name the Beijing Aviation Museum. The museum has 8,300 square meters of exhibition area.

Lauren Lee McCarthy is a Chinese-American artist and computer programmer based in Los Angeles. McCarthy creates artworks that use a variety of media and techniques, including performance, artificial intelligence and programmed computer-based interaction. She created p5.js, an open-source and web-based version of the software Processing.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Behnaz Farahi</span> Iranian-born American architect and designer

Behnaz Farahi is an Iranian-born American interdisciplinary designer and educator whose work melds architecture, fashion, interaction design, computational design, wearable technology and the human body. Her designs often explore the possibilities of human interaction with the environment and how technology can facilitate this interplay. Her work engages with the human body's relationship to its surroundings and how wearable technology can respond to, or be influenced by stimuli such as human emotions or environmental factors. Leveraging technology and art, Farahi's works are commentaries on power dynamics, society, and identity, frequently drawing inspiration from her cultural background and Western theories and practices, underpinned by theoretical concepts including socio-political feminist theory and anthropology.

References

  1. MIT Alumni
  2. List of academic citations
  3. The Hacker/Maker Culture at Sensing Places SEDG, 2015
  4. SEGD 2015 XLab New York talk on Transforming Business
  5. Sparacino, Flavia (2003): "Sto(ry)chastics: A Bayesian Network Architecture for User Modeling and Computational Storytelling for Interactive Spaces." In: Dey, Anind K., Schmidt, Albrecht, McCarthy, Joseph F. (eds.) UbiComp 2003 Ubiquitous Computing - 5th International Conference October 12–15, 2003, Seattle, WA, USA. pp. 54-72.
  6. Sparacino, Flavia. (2002) "The Museum Wearable: Real-Time Sensor-Driven Understanding of Visitors' Interests for Personalized Visually-Augmented Museum Experiences."
  7. F Sparacino, C Wren, G Davenport, A Pentland (1999)"Augmented performance in dance and theater" International Dance and Technology 99, 25-28
  8. F Sparacino, K Larson, R MacNeil, G Davenport, A Pentland (1999)"Technologies and Methods for Interactive Exhibit Design: From Wireless Object & Body Tracking to Wearable Computers". ICHIM, 147-154
  9. Sparacino, Flavia. (2002)"Narrative Spaces: bridging architecture and entertainment via interactive technology" [ permanent dead link ], 6th International Conference on Generative Art, Milan, Italy.
  10. Sparacino, Flavia (2004) "Scenographies of the past and museums of the future: from the wunderkammer to body-driven." In:Schulzrinne, Henning, Dimitrova, Nevenka, Sasse, Martina Angela, Moon, Sue B., Lienhart, Rainer (eds.) Proceedings of the 12th ACM International Conference on Multimedia October 10–16, 2004, New York, NY, USA. pp. 72-79.
  11. Sparacino, Flavia. (2004)"Museum intelligence: using interactive technologies for effective communication and storytelling in the "Puccini Set Designer" exhibit"
  12. Urban Constellation - Museum of Contemporary Architecture Exhibition Scheme / K/R Architects
  13. An Experiential Customer Journey with Vodafone , 2015

Flavia Sparacino