I have worked on four different continents. Having worked in Australia, USA, Germany, Ireland and China provides me with an international perspective.

RMIT University

I am currently directing the Exertion Games Lab at RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia.

Stanford University

I have been a Fulbright Visiting Scholar at Stanford University, USA, working with the Human-Computer Interaction group, the Persuasive Technology group, the Center for Design Research and the d.school.

The University of Melbourne

Before that, I spent over 4 years in the Interaction Design group at the University of Melbourne, Australia's premier lab for human-computer interaction research. The results are detailed at:

http://exertioninterfaces.com

Microsoft Research Asia

As a Microsoft Fellow, I was invited to work with Microsoft Research Asia in Beijing, China, where I researched with the human-computer interaction group and the Xbox Kinect team. My exertion games work was disseminated to Microsoft staff through a series of workshops, and also attraced Nokia.

Distance Lab

My collaboration with Distance Lab resulted in Remote Impact, a "brute force" game that became a commercial product and was shortlisted for the European Innovation Games Award (together with Nintendo's WiiFit). Furthermore, the underlying multitouch large-scale sensing system became an international patent. My work on Jogging over a Distance received an honorary mention at the Nokia Ubimedia Award.

The University of London

I worked with the London Knowledge Lab through a Ubicomp grant we received on an international study between expat joggers in the UK and Australia, allowing them jog together despite the distance, receiving a tremendous amount of press coverage: Jogging over a Distance. We also developed a body-building training device for asynchronous exertion gaming and coaching: Pushing Pixels

University of Technology Sydney

I collaborated with the Interactivation Lab at the University of Technology Sydney based on a grant we won and taught design studies the art of exertion game design. One result was Hanging off a Bar.

RMIT

I have also taught exertion computer games at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT), Australia. The resulting games were featured on HealthGamers and Gamasutra.

CSIRO

Before becoming an academic, I was a Principal Scientist at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research organization (CSIRO), leading my own research group "Connecting People" of 12 staff, researching the future of distributed teams. I was also a founding member of the human-computer interaction roundtable in Australia, representing all three major research organisations CSIRO, NICTA and DSTO. My group's work received an honorary award for the successful commercialization of health care technology innovation using high-speed telecommunication networks research. We also successfully applied technology innovation to an industrial context, engaging with General Motor's Australia division Holden, to design novel augmented reality support systems for production line maintenance staff. We were also collaborating with a major hospital to develop novel technology support systems for shift workers. The design process included ethnographic studies and technology development that was suitable for missing-critical hospital contexts.

Media Lab Europe

Before that, I worked for Media Lab Europe in Dublin, Ireland, where I was a researcher in the Human Connectedness group, developing the future of Sports: Sports over a Distance. Media Lab Europe's goal was to bring together scientists, engineers and artists from different disciplines to aid the creation of technologies. My research accomplishments include the design, concept and development of a "Sports over a Distance" project, which allows two players to play a soccer-like game together although they are in distant locations. This work got accepted at ACM SIGCHI (Conference on Human Factors in Design), the most prestigious conference in this field. It also got accepted to UIST (User Interface and System Technology), another prestigious conference. My other work on "Transparent Headphones" received "best practice" recognition from CHI. This resulted in me presenting research work to Fortune 100 companies, international research labs, prestigious universities, non-profit organizations, CEOs and governmental institutions from developing countries. Even Bono from U2 was there.

MIT Media Lab

Before Media Lab Europe, I worked for its "mother", the MIT Media Lab (USA). I was responsible for research in the Digital Life consortium, and later switched to the Affective Computing group under Rosalind Picard. My key accomplishments include publications for ACM Multimedia and CHI, both prestigious conferences in the field. I developed and designed a camera ("LAFCam") that automatically edits the footage based on biofeedback of the camera operator. I also developed a TV that you can throw physical objects at in order to switch channels, for example, in order to watch basketball, you throw a basketball, for tennis, you throw a tennis ball: "ImpactTV". Another project was "Marble Maze" that uses a wooden marble maze toy to teach editing guidelines. Lastly, the work on a "Mouse That Reads Your Mind" via analyzing movement patterns using artificial intelligence was featured in Science Today and on the BBC.

FX Palo Alto Laboratory

I arrived there through my work at the FX Palo Alto Research Laboratory, USA, the combined research lab of Fuji and Xerox in Palo Alto, California, USA. I worked in the Smart Media Spaces group, researching new ways of how to interact with video, rooms, and remote spaces. I invented the "mediacaptain" online video system, a web-based application that allows easy indexing, browsing, retrieving and summarizing of streaming video content. The resulting research findings were presented at ACM Multimedia. I conducted user surveys and carried out prototype studies to find a compelling novel way to approach the problem of simple access to video content beyond the traditional metaphor of a fast-forward button. Furthermore, the "mediacaptain" received a significant achievement award.

Xerox PARC

Next door from FX Palo Alto Research Laboratory is Xerox' Palo Alto Research Center, or PARC, in the Silicon Valley, California, USA. I worked in the Human Document Interaction group, helping to create a new user interface for an innovative document service over the Internet. For example, it would upload an image into the system, and then perform optical character recognition and transform it into a PDF file, print it out 5000 times, bind it and ship it to you overnight. I also developed the interface to track these shipments together with FedEx.

Virtual Artists

I also worked for Virtual Artists in Adelaide, Australia, where I was a VRML2 expert and researcher for new technologies. My favourite work the website for youth centers in under-developed areas. Another unique experience was the Internet workshop we held for underprivileged indigenous people of Australia.

Springer Publisher

Springer Publisher is a major publisher for scientific books and journals worldwide, and I worked in their German headquarters on the online journals integration with New York.

Queensland Open Learning Network

I also worked for the Queensland Open Learning Network, Brisbane, Australia, which is a provider for Distance Education Institutions, supporting the rural population in the Australian outback.

Civil Service at Freiburg University

After High School, I conscientiously rejected the German compulsory army service and did civil service instead. This lasted 15 months instead of 12. I did this at the Institute of Medical Biology and Informatics at the University of Freiburg, Germany. My task was to teach, instruct and assist medical postgraduate students in the use of Statistical Analysis System (SAS). During this post, I learned statistical analysis as well as profound Unix and networking skills. I also appreciated the fact that I was in a teaching role and learned how to pass knowledge onto other people.