FutureMedia
February 7-8, 2002 in Pasadena, CA

special members' Field Trip
California Institute of Technology
Wednesday, February 6, 2002,
12:30 - 4:00 pm

conference overview
At the office or on the road, people expect isochronous global communication. This phenomenon is relatively new… near-universal e-mail is less than 6 years old. How does this change our approach to traditional activities? Be they from the hardware or software side, what new technologies will we need? And how can we enhance and expand broad- scale human communications? Will we be able to transfer emotions from one person to another, whether in the commercial or personal realm?

New tools will allow us to communicate and express ourselves in ways we couldn't before. No longer will we be constrained by one-to-one or one-to-many conversations. As we turn more and more atoms into bits, storage options come into play. Can we make significant advances to a paperless office? What is the role of digital libraries? Can we achieve digital immortality (take that Andy Warhol!)? These changes apply not only to the connection architectures, but also to the means of expression themselves, including special effects and bandwidth. We will have new ways of getting attention, holding it, and expanding it. Simulations of reality will become affordable.

These changes will have profound consequences for the content industry and the ways in which audiences deal with what's being communicated. The law and the way it defines technology will affect interpersonal understanding and awareness of the larger world around us.

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speakers
Dr. Ronald Blum, Founder and President, The Egg Factory
Mr. Stewart Brand, Co-founder, All Species Inventory
Professor Cynthia Breazeal, Principal Investigator, Robotic Presence Group, MIT Media Lab
Mr. Tom Holman, President, TMH Corporation and Inventor, THX Sound System
Dr. Steve Lerman, Director, MIT Center for Educational Computing Initiatives
Mr. Richard Lindheim, Executive Director, Institute for Creative Technologies, University of Southern California
Dr. Raymond Lorie, Research Fellow, IBM Almaden Research Center
Mr. Rod MacGregor, President & CEO, NanoMuscle, Inc.
Mr. Alex McDowell, Production Designer, Minority Report
Dr. R.C. Mercure, Chairman & CEO, CDM Optics, Inc.
Dr. James A. Moorer, Senior Vice President, Advanced Development, Sonic Solutions
Mr. F. Joseph Pompei, Researcher, MIT Media Lab
Dr. William Swartout, Director of Technology, Institute for Creative Technologies, University of Southern California
Mr. Jon Taplin, CEO, Intertainer, Inc.
Mr. Jack Valenti, President & CEO, Motion Picture Association of America
Mr. Stan Winston, President and CEO, Stan Winston Studio, Stan Winston Productions and Stan Winston Creatures

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Field Trip description
The California Institute of Technology (Caltech) is one of the world's premiere research universities because of its exceptional faculty and students, unique research facilities, and close ties to government and industry. These characteristics are strengthened by Caltech's size: among the nation's top-ten universities, as ranked by U.S. News and World Report, Caltech is the smallest in terms of faculty (approximately 290) and student populations (900 undergraduates, 1,000 graduates). Caltech's size allows it to do science differently, with a strong tradition of interdisciplinary investigation, and an assurance of personal interaction.

Caltech is committed to moving its technology from the laboratory to the marketplace. In a recent (September 2001) ranking by Technology Review, Caltech was ranked fourth in the number of patents granted, behind only three larger universities (the University of California, MIT, and Stanford). Again, given Caltech's small size, this is a remarkable demonstration of inventiveness and entrepreneurial energy. In addition to licensing technology to established companies, Caltech as spun off or helped start approximately 60 companies since its Office of Technology Transfer was established in 1995. For more information, please visit the Office of Technology Transfer's webpage at: http://www.caltech.edu/ott/index.html

The TTI/Vanguard tour of Caltech will feature several Caltech faculty members and their laboratories:

Dr. David Baltimore, President

Stephen R. Quake, Associate Professor of Applied Physics
Dr. Quake is interested in biophysics, primarily from the point of view of single molecule science and the development of integrated microfluidic devices including DNA and single-cell sorters.
http://www.aph.caltech.edu/people/quake_s.html

Axel Scherer, Bernard Neches Professor of Electrical Engineering, Applied Physics, and Physics
Dr. Scherer's research laboratory is built around producing nanostructures by combining electron beam lithography and dry etching and applying these structures to new optelectonic, magneto-optic and high-speed electronic devices.
http://nanofab.caltech.edu/members/scherer.shtml

Pietro Perona, Professor of Electrical Engineering and Director, Center for Neuromorphic Systems Engineering
Dr. Perona's research interests include computer vision, recognition, navigation, human-computer interfaces, texture analysis, multiresolution image analysis, diffusions, perception of shape-from-shading, and perception of texture.
http://www.vision.caltech.edu/html-files/Perona.html

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