Keynotes

Hiroshi Ishiguro

Bio: Hiroshi Ishiguro is one of the most recognizable faces in robotics. His work on human-like androids has attracted wide media coverage around the world and received multiple awards. One of his most popular creations is the “Geminoid” – an android that looks, talks and moves exactly like himself and features realistic lifelike appearance and advanced believable behaviour such as facial movements, breathing, idle gaze, blinking, reaction to touch, etc.

Hiroshi Ishiguro received a D. Eng. in systems engineering from the Osaka University, Japan in 1991. He is currently Professor of Department of Systems Innovation in the Graduate School of Engineering Science at Osaka University (2009-) and Distinguished Professor of Osaka University (2017-). He is also visiting Director (2014-) (group leader: 2002-2013) of Hiroshi Ishiguro Laboratories at the Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute and an ATR fellow. His research interests include sensor networks, interactive robotics, and android science.

Mark Sagar

Bio: Double Academy Award winner Dr. Mark Sagar is the CEO/co-founder of Soul Machines and director of the Laboratory for Animate Technologies at the Auckland Bioengineering Institute.

Mark and his team are bringing technology to life, pioneering new animation techniques combining biologically inspired models of neural systems and realistic faces together with live interactive systems, capable of real-time learning and emotional response, to help create the next generation of human interaction with artificial intelligence.

Mark has a Ph.D. in Engineering from the University of Auckland, and was a post-doctoral fellow at M.I.T. He previously worked as the Special Projects Supervisor at Weta Digital and Sony Pictures Imageworks and developed technology for the digital characters in blockbusters such as Avatar, King Kong, and Spiderman 2. His pioneering work in computer-generated faces was recognized with two consecutive Scientific and Engineering Oscars in 2010 and 2011.

Liko-Paul Pinsonnault

Bio: Liko-Paul Pinsonnault is a Technical Director at Wargaming Sydney where he focuses on game technologies and development across multiple studios. Eager to understand
the universe in a practical manner, Liko completed a physics engineering degree early into the new century. He then stumbled upon the games industry and joined the fun as a
simulation programmer for Behaviour Interactive and later Ubisoft Montreal’s Technology Group. It is at the later that he succumbed to the dark side and went in production to directly deliver AAA titles such as Assassin’s Creed Unity and Rainbow Six Siege.

Mike Seymour

Bio: Mike Seymour has a B Sc. focused on CGI and Pure Maths from the University of Sydney where he also did his Masters (MBA) and he is currently doing his PhD. His research is into using interactive realtime photoreal faces in new forms of Human Computer Interfaces (CHI). Mike has worked for many years in the visual effects area of the entertainment industry, in R&D and in film production, winning an AFI and being nominated for a Prime time Emmy in the USA. He has worked as a compositor, vfx supervisor and second unit director on various TV shows here and in the UK. He is also well known for his work as a writer, consultant and educator with the web sites fxguide.com and fxphd.com. These sites provide an important link between the film and vfx community and the research community who constantly push the limits of technology.  Mike has lectured and presented at NAB, ACM SIGGRAPH, CVMP and SMPTE. He regularly can be heard on the company’s own podcasts, as well as having contributed to Warner Bros., Paramount,  News Corp, the BBC (radio) and WIRED Magazine (- over 70 times). Mike is based in Sydney, but has previously worked in Hollywood and London.

Mike does research into the use of photo real, realtime, computer generated faces for new forms of effective communication and education, and the issues that need to be resolved for adoption and acceptance.