by Christy Levy
UIC NEWS announced the winners of the third annual Image of Research contest, highlighting first-place winner Sangyoon Lee, a PhD student in the Department of Computer Science and a Research Assistant in the Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL), for his work on generating realistic avatars. Lee's winning image shows a digital image of a real human head. His work is part of the NSF-funded “Project LifeLike,” a collaboration among EVL, the UIC Communications Department and the University of Central Florida (UCF). The Image of Research, sponsored by the Graduate College and the University Library, is an annual interdisciplinary exhibit competition to showcase the breadth and diversity of UIC research. See the complete article.
Additional media coverage
Image of Research contest winners were first announced online on April 6, 2010
EVL subsequently featured the Image of Research and Lee's winning entry on its website.
New Scientist magazine published the article "Immortal avatars: Back up your brain, never die" by Linda Geddes, on June 7, 2010, in which Project LifeLike was discussed.
The Washington Post published the article "The High-Tech Future of Body Language" by Carol Kinsey Goman on October 22, 2009, on the importance of non-verbal queues for "face-to-face" meetings mediated by a screen in the middle; one of the advancements profiled was "Project LifeLike." This article referenced the May 18th article "LifeLike - EVL Lab Sets Out To Simulate Your (Evil) Twin," on the website Scientific Blogging - Science 2.0.
The Discovery Network's Science Channel's television show "Popular Science's Future Of Immortality," hosted by Baratunde Thurston, featured "Project LifeLike" on October 12, 2009.
NSF interviewed Project LifeLike leaders Jason Leigh (UIC) and Avelino Gonzalez (UCF) in the article and video "The Next Best Thing to You" on May 15, 2009.
US News and World Report subsequently published the NSF article above.
Project Lifelike receives major funding from the National Science Foundation, award # 0703916 to UIC and UCF.
