Funded Graduate Research Assistant in Immersive Interactive Media
Sona Research

San Francisco or New York

Sona Research is seeking a brilliant, self-motivated and creative Research Assistant. You will be working on an initial three-month NSF funded project to research, prepare and submit one or more academic publications summarizing the novel interactive techniques and technologies from several projects created over the last decade by Scott Snibbe and his studios. The publications will focus on immersive full-body interaction techniques, primarily with projector-computer-camera systems that incorporate computer vision and computer graphics.

Sona Research is an independent laboratory established in 2002 by Scott Snibbe for the research and development of socially beneficial applications of immersive interactive art and technology. Sona Research is being re-launched in 2008 as a standalone nonprofit organization and we received our first grant from the National Science Foundation last year. Our collaborations have included work with New York University, University of California Berkeley, University of California Davis, The Beall Center for Art and Technology, and the California Institute of the Arts. Our work has received support from the National Science Foundation, National Video Resources, the Rockefeller Foundation and the Ford Foundation.

Requirements:

•Working towards a graduate degree (M.Sc. or Ph.D.), or a postdoc in Human Computer Interaction or a related field (e.g. Game Design, Computer Graphics, Computer Vision, Usability, Communication Theory)
•You should have a strong intuition and understanding of the human element of human-computer interaction, including a feeling for how people intuitively understand interactive systems, and the emotional and social aspects of interactive systems.
•You should be an extremely good written and verbal communicator.
•You should have a demonstrated ability to prepare and revise academic publications and to communicate with academics in the Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) field.
•You should have an interest in creating social benefit with new technologies.

Responsibilities:

•You will research the current state of the art in HCI publications dealing with projector-computer-camera systems and related fields.
•You will work with Scott Snibbe to systematically analyze and categorize the interaction techniques embodied in several dozen completed interactive installations.
•You will prepare one or more academic papers for peer-reviewed submission to academic journals summarizing these techniques. Depending on your level of contribution, you may be asked to be a co-author.
•You may be asked to travel in order to present these papers to academic and research institutions.
•You may be communicating and collaborating with related research groups at American universities.

The candidate will be compensated with a competitive monthly stipend or as a sponsored graduate student in an existing program. The candidate must be based either in New York or the San Francisco bay area to work closely with Scott Snibbe. Please send a curriculum vitae, writing samples and samples of published papers to jobs@sonaresearch.com. For the right candidate, this position has the opportunity for growth into longer-term contract or full-time employment with Sona Research for new research work, research partnerships, or as a leader in Sona Research as it grows. For examples of Snibbe’s work, please see www.snibbe.com and www.snibbeinteractive.com where his work as a fine artist and museum developer are currently showcased.