Broadway Off-Broadway Off-Off Broadway Cabaret Dance Opera Classical Music Nashville Minneapolis / St. Paul Connecticut Atlanta Chicago Los Angeles WEST END UK Regional Canada Australia / New Zealand Europe Asia Latin America Africa / Middle East TV/Movies Music The performance will take place on May 17 at 7:30pm. Music events will continue at Annisquam Village Church on Saturday evening May 17th at 7:30pm with an unforgettable performance by the Laszlo Gardony Trio, led by internationally acclaimed jazz pianist and composer Laszlo Gardony, who blends soulful improvisation with vibrant rhythms and rich harmonies. Bassist John Lockwood and drummer Yoron Israel complete the trio and promise an exhilarating musical journey through original compositions and reimagined well-known standards. The Annisquam Village Church is located at 820 Washington Street, Gloucester MA. Tickets: $35, suggested donation. A reception to follow the concert.  Greater Boston Stage Company is now presenting world premiere of FOUNDING F%!#ERS: The Story of Ethan Allen and Benedict Arnold. Check out all new photos from the show here! The iconoclastic Brooklyn collective ChamberQUEER (CQ) teams up with Grammy-winning Boston institution the Handel and Haydn Society (H+H) for BaroQUEER: Historically Informed. Stage star Carolee Carmello has played a wide range of roles in her career – from “Cordelia, the kosher caterer,” in the original Broadway production of “Falsettos,” Lucille Frank in the Broadway premiere of “Parade,” Donna Sheridan in “Mamma Mia!” Dolly Gallagher Levi in “Hello, Dolly!” now she's starring in the national tour of Kimblerly Akimbo. Read our interview! The Lowell Chamber Orchestra has unveiled its seventh season, promising an ambitious lineup of performances that continue to challenge the conventional boundaries of classical music. 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Privacy Policy NATICK, Mass. – U.S. Army researchers are asking for industry's help in developing new ways for soldiers to communication and interact with mixed-reality and autonomous robots to speed operations and enhance situational awareness Officials of the Army the Cognitive Science and Applications Branch of the Army Combat Capability Development Command Soldier Center in Natick issued a request for information (W911QY-25-R-MHMI) last week for the Multimodal Human-Machine Interface for Mixed Reality (XR) and Robotic Autonomous Systems (RAS) Control project The project seeks to assess industry's ability to develop cutting-edge technology for multimodal human-machine interfaces to control mixed reality and autonomous robotic systems Proposed solutions should help soldiers interface with mixed-reality and autonomous robots to minimize cognitive load and training requirements; enhance situational awareness; and enable soldiers to offload risk and work to robots and instead help them focus on higher-level tasks Related: Artificial intelligence (AI) in unmanned vehicles Researchers are interested in human-machine interfaces that use mixed-reality displays and intuitive graphical user interfaces; voice commands and natural language processing; force feedback devices and gesture recognition; as well as physiological monitoring Proposals solutions should address the Modular Open System Architecture (MOSA) design approach; integrated inertial measurement units; surface electromyography; electroencephalogram; eye tracking and voice; and mature software development kits and application programming interfaces System latency should be between 50 and 200 milliseconds; have input recogitation accuracy of between 80 and 95 percent; be set up and broken down in between two and 10 minutes; have battery power for two to six hours; have cyber security; and use Windows-based computing Companies interested should email responses and questions to the Army's Aaron Gardony no later than 15 Nov. 2024 at [email protected]. More information is online at https://sam.gov/opp/94b628e4144e42f0820d829d7c23dbf7/view Military & Aerospace Electronics Magazine--provides extensive coverage and analysis of enabling electronics and optoelectronic technologies in military space and commercial aviation applications John has been a member of the Military & Aerospace Electronics staff since 1989 and chief editor since 1995 Hungarian energy giant MOL has recently faced significant environmental challenges with two oil pipeline spills revealing systemic infrastructure problems The Gárdony incident involved a spillage of 487 m³ of diesel and petrol as confirmed by MOL Greenpeace believes that reporting the release of only 10 m³ of fuel into the environment to the authorities while being aware of a significantly larger fuel shortage may have resulted in slower reactions and less effective response measures The contamination in the water of a resident’s well right next to the accident exceeds the groundwater limits for benzene and petroleum hydrocarbons The pollution can also be detected in lower concentrations in nearby wells.  the Hungarian environmental authority has instructed MOL to complete an inquiry by the end of February identifying the precise extent of contamination and the necessary interventions and remediation efforts According to MOL’s recent statements the water supply to Lake Velence and the town are not at risk neither Greenpeace nor any media outlets have received detailed results or protocols from the pollution measurements despite these being considered data of public interest The two incidents raise critical questions about the effectiveness of inspection and maintenance practices on the ageing pipelines it is particularly concerning  that  MOL has not been able to identify the causes of the fuel leakages These reveal significant vulnerabilities in MOL’s infrastructure monitoring and maintenance protocols This is not the first time MOL has not taken the necessary responsibility for their faulty/damaged infrastructure a gas platform belonging to the Croatian oil-gas company INA (in which MOL Group has a controlling stake) sank in the Adriatic Sea The platform has not yet been recovered since Greenpeace emphasises that fossil fuels do not only impact climate change but also pose multiple environmental risks The organisation advocates for their accelerated phase-out A Mátrai Erőmű környezetvédelmi engedélye ügyében folyó perében úgy döntöttünk hogy a Greenpeace nem akar hatósági feladatokat A Greenpeace üdvözli a környezetvédelmi biztosítás szabályairól szóló új kormányrendelet tervezetét ha egyes hulladéktermelőknek és hulladéklerakó-üzemeltetőknek pénzügyi garanciákat kell adniuk 2021.05.21-én érkezett egy 30.000 Ft-os adomány a Greenpeace Magyarország Egyesület bankszámlájára többször is ellenőriztük az átutaló bankszámlaszámát hogy egy magánszemély számlájáról érkezett… Laszlo Gardony was in the midst of a typically busy run of regional performances when he played a 5 p.m solo piano set at the Lilypad in Inman Square on a Saturday in late September The room quickly filled to its capacity of 60 or so patrons seated on cushioned benches Gardony opened his set with a piece he improvised on the spot from four random notes supplied by audience members “I love this place because a lot of experimental music happens here,” he told the audience “What would it be like if everybody picks a note and I make a song from it?” genre-crossing mix of Gardony originals and covers Among the highlights: three pieces from his 2019 live solo-piano album “La Marseillaise” (“O sole mio,” the Denny Zeitlin tune “Quiet Now,” and his own “Bourbon Street Boogie”) John Coltrane’s “Naima,” Stevie Wonder’s “You Are the Sunshine of My Life,” and a pair of classics associated with Ray Charles (the Hoagy Carmichael standard “Georgia on My Mind” and the David “Fathead” Newman feature “Hard Times”) In the mix as well was Gardony’s “Irrepressible,” which also opens his most recent album “Close Connection,” the fourth he has made since 2003 with his regular trio featuring bassist John Lockwood and drummer Yoron Israel they’re professors at Berklee College of Music At Scullers on Friday, Gardony’s trio will be performing as a quartet, joined by tenor saxophonist Don Braden, who leads the Jazz Combo Initiative at Harvard. (On Sunday afternoon, Gardony will give another solo piano performance in South Yarmouth at the Cultural Center of Cape Cod.) These include classical and European folk music three months before the Soviet Union deployed tanks to crush the Hungarian Uprising Gardony graduated from the Béla Bartók Conservatory (as well as the ELTE Science University where he earned a master’s degree in education) He subsequently auditioned at Berklee in 1983 rising through the faculty ranks from instructor to full professor Asked to name some pianists he has taught at Berklee through the years he mentions two who are well-known in England (Julian Joseph) and Japan (Chihiro Yamanaka) and the Cuban-American musical director of “Hamilton,” Alex Lacamoire and he noted that Miwa is one of 11 colleagues in the Berklee piano department who were once his students When it’s suggested that his Lilypad concert called to mind Keith Jarrett both for Jarrett’s renowned album “The Köln Concert” and for incorporating gospel and other genres in their work Gardony accepts the compliment but emphasizes his own origins as an improviser “Then I was fascinated with blues and rock ‘n’ roll as a teenager But that led to improvising three hours a day So it was a very personal connection with improvisation that led to this wonderful It wasn’t until Gardony got to the conservatory that he became aware of Jarrett and the fact that I was an improviser since a kid Gardony learned that Jarrett’s maternal grandmother was from Segovci “So it was a very interesting kindred-spirit feeling needless to say he was a much better pianist than me at the time” — he laughs — “when I was 22 But I didn’t feel that I fell in love with something other than what I’m feeling in my own heart But I was just as influenced and interested in Bill Evans and McCoy Tyner.” Gardony notes that Braden recognized the Tyner influence right away that it’s an interesting combination of the gospel elements of Keith Jarrett and McCoy Tyner’s energy and power And I think that’s because I never just listened to one genre and many of the folk musicians — folk music the economy of it and the beautiful melodic content of it that’s where you get a lot of energy and resilience elaborates on how he hears Tyner fitting into Gardony’s sound but he’s got very strong kind of New Orleans-style roots So you hear some of those grooves from the New Orleans guys in the chords and harmony it’s not the mix of styles and genres his playing references that’s important “I think it’s just an amalgam of various styles that naturally influenced me,” he summarizes ”I find music such a unique way of communication I moved to a completely different country with a completely different culture And music was always there to connect with people I met So music is to me maybe the most effective language and I don’t find one dialect only to my liking “But I think bad music is only the music that doesn’t come from the heart or doesn’t come from really being humble with your creativity but I never get haughty about it — that this is good because I wrote it You really do have that responsibility that what you put out there At Scullers, 400 Soldiers Field Road. Nov. 17 at 7 p.m. $35-$50. scullersjazz.com. At the Cultural Center of Cape Cod, South Yarmouth. Nov. 19 at 3 p.m. $25. cultural-center.org Bill Beuttler can be reached at bill@billbeuttler.com. Home Delivery Gift Subscriptions Log In Manage My Account Customer Service Delivery Issues Feedback News Tips Help & FAQs Staff List Advertise Newsletters View the ePaper Order Back Issues News in Education Search the Archives Privacy Policy Terms of Service Terms of Purchase Work at Boston Globe Media Internship Program Co-op Program Do Not Sell My Personal Information PLYMOUTH – Jazz pianist Laszlo Gardony will perform at 8 p.m March 27 at the Spire Center for the Performing Arts has released a dozen albums of jazz music and performs as a soloist and with jazz groups and orchestras His most recent release is a live solo album “La Marseillaise.”  Gardony earned a full scholarship to attend Berklee College of Music in 1983 His debut album was 1988’s “The Secret,” and was followed by  1989’s “The Legend of Tsumi” with Dave Holland and Bob Moses The Plymouth concert includes solo performances as well as performances by Gardony’s  trio featuring bassist John Lockwood and drummer Yoron Israel Tickets are $25 and can be bought by calling 508-746-4488 or online at spirecenter.org Laszlo Gardony returns to celebrate his live solo album La Marseillaise (Sunnyside Records) with a solo piano concert Hailed by JazzTimes as “one of contemporary music’s truly original voices,” Laszlo’s performances convey the joy of inspired creation Gardony’s concerts are one-of-a-kind performances drawing from deep feeling and a playful curiosity that thrives on interpreting each unique moment a re-imagination of an iconic French revolutionary song and spontaneously created pieces “Music has a direct effect on our emotions and also on our well-being.” Not to be missed “Serious Play” was named one of the “10 Best Jazz Albums of 2017” by the Boston Globe’s Jon Garelick by Arts Fuse’s Michael Ullman and by Patriot Ledger’s Jay Miller hsba@harvardsquare.com Denise Jillson William Manley Amanda Henley, Communications and Office Administrator Volume 3 - 2022 | https://doi.org/10.3389/frvir.2022.982010 This article is part of the Research TopicHuman Spatial Perception, Cognition, and Behaviour in Extended RealityView all 13 articles implemented in head-mounted and in-vehicle augmented reality (AR) displays can enhance human performance in military operations the visual appearance and delivery of AiTR may impact other important critical aspects of human performance like decision making and situational awareness (SA) Previous research suggests salient visual AR cueing such as found in Computer-Aided Detection diagnostic systems orient attention strongly toward cued targets leading to missed uncued targets an effect which may be lessened by providing analog information about classification uncertainty and using less visually salient cueing techniques The objective of this research was to quantify the human performance impacts of two different types of AR AiTR visualizations in a simulated virtual reality defensive security task Participants engaged in a visual camouflage discrimination task and a secondary SA Task in which participants observed and reported a peripheral human target we manipulated the type of AiTR visualization used: 1) a traditional salient bounding box Results revealed minimal impacts of the visual appearance of AiTR on target acquisition and SA but an observable reduction in user experience associated with soft highlight AiTR Future research is needed to explore novel AiTR designs that effectively cue attention intuitively and interpretably visualize uncertainty investigating the cognitive impacts of AiTR through quantitative assessments of human performance in a virtual reality (VR) lethal force decision making scenario incorporating simulated AiTR AR overlays have been developed and validated in low-stakes visual search contexts rather than the high-stakes contexts in which AiTR systems are intended to be used (e.g. extant research examining human performance impacts of AiTR has primarily examined visual search of static images rather than dynamic scenes involving the type of tasks and decision making military operators using future AiTR systems would potentially encounter In the present study we investigated the human performance impact of simulated AiTR AR cues in a VR Lethal Force Decision Making (LFDM) task focusing on three performance areas: target acquisition Participants categorized a single animated Soldier avatar advancing towards them amongst non-combatant civilians as friendly or enemy based upon their worn camouflage pattern deciding to shoot them or let them pass using handheld VR controllers Participants completed the LFDM task in three blocks As a first step we rendered AiTR without incorporating uncertainty information but subtly varied AiTR appearance and included incorrect civilian overlays (i.e. false alarms) to reflect limitations of current AiTR systems We also incorporated a simultaneous secondary detection task (“SA Task”) in which participants responded when they observed a non-combatant civilian in their periphery response time) and eye tracking metrics (e.g. glance latency) to assess how AiTR impacted performance in the LFDM and SA Tasks One participant was removed from analysis due to an error in data collection SDage = 2.86) were ultimately included in the analysis The experiment was run on a Lenovo ThinkStation P920 Workstation with an Intel Xeon Gold 6,246 processor and NVIDIA Quadro RTX 8000 dedicated graphics card Behavioral and eye tracking data were logged via custom Unity scripts and Varjo’s Unity XR SDK The LFDM task was designed to evaluate the impact of AiTR overlays on target acquisition The task approximated a defensive security task (DST) in which the participant is stationed on patrol at an Entry Control Point and tasked to defend it from potential threats Threats took the form of a Soldier advancing toward the Entry Control Point and participants had to make lethal force decisions about whether to shoot the Soldier or let them pass This task captured metrics related to target acquisition and categorization A simultaneous secondary task (“SA Task”) involved “radioing in” non-combatant civilians who appeared in nearby windows in the periphery we describe implementation details for each embedded task (A) Example trial of the Defensive Security Task (DST) from the No AiTR condition We have added arrows depicting the four possible Soldier spawn locations and the four possible SA Target spawn locations Example SA Target is shown in top-right window (B) Example Soldier avatars in the six possible blended camouflage patterns Left side depicts Bounding Box overlay (BB) Right side depicts Soft Highlight overlay (SH) A LFDM trial consisted of a single Soldier avatar emerging from one of four locations adjacent to the scenario’s central corridor and walking toward the participant at a brisk walking pace The near-distance and far-distance Soldier spawn locations were positioned approximately 50 m (approximately 16 s from spawn position to red line) and 100 m (approximately 22 s from spawn position to red line) from the participant on either side of the central corridor the Soldier spawned after a random delay ranging from 1 to 5s following the start of the trial the SA Target’s spawn times were randomly delayed based on the Soldier spawn location: the SA Target spawned 3–12 s following a near-distance Soldier spawn and 3 – 18 s following a far-distance Soldier spawn the SA Target would not spawn unless the random delay had elapsed and the participant was currently gazing at the Soldier Such gaze-contingent SA Target spawns were designed to encourage attentional focus on the DST and to prevent visual scanning strategies of the adjacent buildings and windows throughout the trial 15 civilian non-player characters walked around the environment to provide an element of realism and visual clutter This resulted in ∼10 civilians being in view at any given time on average Civilian movements were restricted to areas outside the central corridor to prevent significant overlap with the advancing Soldier The trial ended once the Soldier was categorized as friendly or enemy or if the Soldier crossed the red line directly in front of the participant this meant that a trial could end prior to the SA Target appearing We developed two simulated AR AiTR overlays, a bounding box and a soft highlight overlay, leveraging a commercially-available Unity asset package (Kronnect, 2021), depicted in Figure 1C. Consistent with previous research demonstrating its utility, we rendered AiTR overlays in yellow (Tombu et al., 2016; Reiner et al., 2017; Larkin et al., 2019) Bounding boxes surrounded the Soldier without overlaying their body or the camouflage pattern the soft highlight emanated from the Soldier without overlaying their body or the camouflage pattern To approximate current technological limitations we introduced random dynamic jitter to the AiTR display subtly shifting the X and Y scale of the bounding box overlays and the “glow width” parameter of the soft highlight every 0.25s We also introduced error in the form of false alarm AiTR each civilian had a one third chance of being assigned an AiTR overlay this resulted in three to four civilians in view being highlighted at any given time on average This design choice was intended to increase visual clutter and reflect inconsistency of the AiTR accurately extracting the Soldier from the civilians The LFDM task manipulated several factors of interest The advancing Soldier was either friendly or enemy (Soldier Type: Friendly Enemy) and was wearing one of three camouflage pattern mixtures which influenced the underlying uncertainty of the categorization process (Camo Clarity: 51 the AiTR was manipulated such that the advancing Soldier (and “false alarm” civilians) either had No AiTR overlays The LFDM task recorded several performance measures across the embedded DST and SA Tasks encompassing participants’ behavioral response (i.e. button responses) and measures of visual attention derived from eye gaze the behavioral dependent variables were Categorization Error of the advancing Soldier (i.e. the proportional rate of error responses in the friend-foe categorization task) and Categorization Distance (i.e. how far away the Soldier was in meters from the participant at response) Soldier Glance Latency was recorded as the latency (in seconds) from when the advancing Soldier first appeared in view and when the participant glanced at the Soldier We also recorded Relative Dwell Time as the proportional amount of time the participant’s gaze point overlayed or “dwelled” on various features of the VR scenario It should be noted that the accuracy of gaze-based measures is influenced by the distance of the gaze target; further gaze targets subtend a smaller visual angle leading to reduced accuracy the task implemented a dynamically sized gaze intersection zone surrounding the advancing Soldier and civilians that continuously subtended 2° visual angle (vertical and horizontal) the rate at which the participant glanced at the SA Target given the target appeared during the trial the latency (in seconds) from when the SA Target first appeared in the windows and when the participant glanced at the SA Target Data were collected in a single 2-h experimental session We used a within-participants design with participants completing the LFDM task across three AiTR blocks the order of which was counterbalanced across participants the researcher instructed participants on how to don the HMD Detailed task instructions were given later in the HMD The researcher explained that participants would engage in a defensive security task in which they were tasked with identifying whether an approaching Soldier was friendly or enemy based on the type of camouflage pattern on their uniform advancing Soldiers were highlighted in yellow Participants were told that AiTR technology is not perfect and that it may highlight civilians who are not wearing camouflage They were asked to ignore these civilians and only focus on the advancing Soldier No highlighting was present on either the Soldier or civilians in the block without AiTR Participants marked Friendly Soldiers with a trigger button on the Vive controller in their left hand and Enemy Soldiers with the trigger button in their right hand Participants were also tasked to observe and report the appearance of a civilian in the windows (SA Task) pressing the left trackpad when they detected a civilian in a left window and the right trackpad for a civilian detected in a right window Each AiTR block comprised 24 randomized-order trials that fully combined four Soldier spawn locations near-distance (left/right) far-distance (left/right) and six Camo Clarity levels (100% friendly the researcher debriefed the participant on the purpose of the study and answered any questions We expected individuals would vary in their baseline performance and we included by-participants random intercepts across our analyses model = DV ∼ Factor1 * Factor 2 Prior to analysis we first removed non-response trials where the advancing Soldier crossed the red line (<1%) we removed trials where the participant never glanced at the advancing Soldier or if Soldier Glance Latency exceeded 5 s If this procedure resulted in greater than 50% of trials being discarded for a participant’s block we discarded the entirety of the data for that block which was intended to omit poor quality data from experimental blocks with technical difficulties and/or high levels of participant drowsiness Percentages of removed trials did not significantly differ across the three AiTR conditions Removed trials did not differ in any systematic way across our manipulated factors of interest errors were significantly higher for Friendly Soldiers relative to Enemy in the 51CC and 65CC conditions but this difference reversed in the 100CC condition We also observed a Camo Clarity × AiTR interaction however no notable pairwise comparisons emerged significant making the interaction difficult to interpret so we do not discuss it further No other AiTR effects or others emerged significant (A) Mean Categorization Error as a function of Camo Clarity and Soldier Type Errors were significantly higher for Friendly Soldiers relative to Enemy Soldiers in the 51CC and 65CC conditions (p < 0.001) Errors were significantly higher for Enemy Soldiers relative to Friendly Soldiers in the 100CC condition (p < 0.001) (B) Mean Categorization Distance (m) as a function of Camo Clarity and Soldier Type Enemy Soldiers were significantly different in the 100CC condition (p < 0.001) Error bars depict standard error of the mean the differences in Categorization Distance for Friendly and Enemy Soldiers were driven by 100CC trials We also observed a significant AiTR main effect Categorization Distances in the Soft Highlight (M = 27.3 m) and No AiTR (M = 27.7 m) conditions were significantly longer than the Bounding Box condition (M = 25 m) and did not significantly differ from each other we scrutinized eye gaze movement in the DST We first investigated Soldier Glance Latency to understand if the manipulated factors influenced visual acquisition of the advancing Soldier We submitted these data to a 2(Soldier Type) x 3 (AiTR) x 3(Camo Clarity) repeated measures LMM Latencies were fastest in the 100CC condition (M = 0.68s) followed by the 65CC (M = 0.74s) and 51CC (M = 0.86s) conditions Pairwise comparisons revealed 100 and 65CC latencies were significantly faster than 51CC (p < 0.001 respectively) but did not differ from each other No AiTR effects or others emerged significant we investigated Relative Dwell Time to the scenario’s environmental features We first calculated the intersection point of the participant’s gaze vector to relevant scenario features: 1) the Soldier every scene element not falling into one of the other categories) and computed the by-trial total duration that participants’ gaze intersected with each feature Dwell time toward the SA Target was very low (M = 0.15 s) because participants rapidly responded upon seeing the SA Target so we removed the SA Target from the Relative Dwell Time analysis We then computed a proportional Relative Dwell Time metric by dividing by-trial dwell time for each scenario feature by the total trial dwell time (excluding SA Target dwell times) We then submitted these data to a 4 (Scenario Feature) x 2 (Soldier Type) x 3 (AiTR) x 3 (Camo Clarity) repeated measures LMM We expected Relative Dwell Times across scenario features would vary between individuals in addition to varying baseline performance and so we included random slopes for Scenario Feature as well as by-participants random intercepts Taken together with the Categorization Distance findings this suggests that the shorter Enemy Categorization Distances observed in the 100CC condition can be plausibly explained by differences in visual interrogation of the advancing Soldier Mean Relative Dwell Time on LFDM Scenario Features across AiTR conditions (NO: No AiTR SH significantly increased Relative Dwell Time toward the environment compared to NO and BB conditions (p < 0.001) Mean Relative Dwell Time on LFDM Scenario Features as a function of Camo Clarity and Soldier Type Participants dwelled on the advancing enemy Soldiers relatively longer than Friendly Soldiers when they wore the clearest camo pattern (100CC) (p < 0.01) we removed trials where SA Targets never appeared This resulted in the removal of an additional 20% of the data Recall that on each trial a single SA Target appeared in one of four window locations SA Target spawns were either Timed or Gaze-Contingent the appearance of which depended on the participant dwelling on the advancing Soldier participants successfully responded 87.5% of the time (MT = 89% MGC = 86%) and glanced at it 58% of the time (MT = 61% P(SA Response) and P(SA Glance) were significantly associated When participants glanced at the SA Target during a trial they still successfully responded 72% of the time suggesting the SA Target was reliably detectable in peripheral vision participants responded to the SA Target 1.33s (MT = 1.37 s MGC = 1.3 s) after stimulus onset and glanced at it 0.85s (MT = 0.88 s MGC = 0.82 s) after stimulus onset We first separately examined P(SA Response) and P(SA Glance) of the SA Target (binomial responses:0,1) submitting both to a 2(SA Target Spawn Type) x 2 (Soldier Type) x 3 (AiTR) x 3 (Camo Clarity) repeated measures binomial LMMs and computed df and p values using LRTs Gaze-Contingent SA Targets were responded to and glanced at (MResponse = 86% MGlance = 56%) less often than Timed targets (M Response = 89% The P(SA Response) main effect was qualified by a SA Target Spawn Type × AiTR interaction Pairwise comparisons revealed that while P(SA Response) was numerically lower for Gaze-Contingent vs the SA Target Spawn Type main effect appeared to be driven by differences in the Soft Highlight AiTR condition (MT = 90% We also observed a Soldier Type x AiTR x Camo Clarity interaction however no pairwise comparisons emerged significant making the interaction difficult to interpret so we do not discuss it further We next examined Detection Response Time of the SA Target and Glance Latency to the SA Target submitting both to a 2(SA Target Spawn Type) x 2 (Soldier Type) x 3 (AiTR) x 3 (Camo Clarity) repeated measures LMM Radar plot depicting mean NASA-TLX subscale scores across AiTR conditions (NO: No AiTR Frustration with SH (M = 46.4) was higher than with NO (M = 36.2) We first computed the six NASA-TLX subscales (Mental Demand Frustration) across the three AiTR conditions and then individually submitted subscale data to repeated measures LMMs with AiTR as the sole fixed effect and by-participant random intercepts Frustration scores significantly differed across AiTR conditions Frustration with Soft Highlight AiTR (M = 45) was higher than with No AiTR (M = 36.2) Bounding Box AiTR (M = 38.3) did not significantly differ from No AiTR and Soft Highlight AiTR All other NASA-TLX subscales did not differ across the three AiTR conditions (all ps > 0.05) Given that Soft Highlight AiTR increased frustration we next investigated whether this frustration related to performance in the LFDM task We found a significant positive correlation between Frustration scores and Categorization Error in the Soft Highlight AiTR condition (r = 0.36 suggesting that the more frustrated participants were using Soft Highlight AiTR the more error-prone they were when categorizing the advancing Soldier as friendly or enemy Frustration scores were not correlated with any of the other performance metrics differ from traditional bounding boxes with respect to target acquisition A well-established benefit of AiTR is enhanced target detectability and acquisition (Ratches, 2011) We operationalized target acquisition performance with Soldier Glance Latency by investigating the delay between when the advancing Soldier first appeared in view and when the participant first glanced at the Soldier we did not observe any such latency reductions for AiTR vs No AiTR the only significant result observed was faster latency under conditions of relative certainty vs uncertainty; Glance Latency toward Soldiers with 100% (100CC) and 65% (65CC) Camo Clarity was significantly faster than 51CC though the numerical differences were slight (<0.2s) These unexpected results may have been due to limitations in our virtual reality (VR) scenario design The lack of an AiTR effect on target acquisition may have stemmed from the limited Soldier spawn locations (4) making it relatively predictable to detect the appearance of a Soldier the observed faster Soldier Glance Latency for clearer camo patterns may be attributable to their higher visual contrast than the more ambiguous 51CC mixed camo patterns Future studies on human performance impacts of AiTR should include many more possible spawn locations to reduce stimulus predictability and should carefully consider the visual perceptibility and discriminability of stimuli used AiTR did not appreciably impact categorization performance in the LFDM task Categorization Error did not differ between AiTR conditions We did observe further Categorization Distances for Soft Highlight vs suggesting faster friend-foe discrimination it should be noted that this difference was numerically slight (∼2 m) These results may be partially explained by the previously discussed null AiTR target acquisition results Consider that AiTR could improve categorization performance in two main ways: 1) directly by conveying information about target categorization and 2) indirectly though enhanced target acquisition speed maximizing the amount of time available to make a discriminative judgment Given that our AiTR cues did not convey information about target categorization and did not enhance target acquisition speed it unsurprising that AiTR did not impact categorization performance Participants demonstrated an overall tendency to categorize advancing Soldiers as enemy rather than friendly (58 vs This trend was especially apparent in the uncertain Camo Clarity conditions (51 and 65%) where participants tended to miscategorize Friendly Soldiers as Enemy suggesting that under conditions of relative uncertainty participants’ friend-foe decision making was biased towards perceiving the advancing Soldier as a threat participants allowed the advancing Soldier to get closer before making their decision This effect was driven by the 100CC condition in which participants judged Friendly Soldiers much more rapidly compared to Enemy Soldiers these results suggest a speed-accuracy tradeoff: under conditions of relative certainty identifying Friendly vs Enemy Soldiers is faster but less accurate AiTR did not result in degraded SA due to attentional tunneling a common pitfall of Computer-Aided Detection participants engaged in a secondary SA Task in which they detected non-combatant civilian activity in their visual periphery (i.e. Attentional tunneling in AiTR conditions could have manifested as decreased detection rates of the SA Target we observed no notable impacts of AiTR on these measures Average detection rates and latencies were near ceiling The high overall levels of performance observed for the SA Task may have stemmed from limitations of the scenario design the SA Target subtly but continuously moved (“jittered”) after appearing which likely increased its detectability the SA Target could appear in one of four locations; participants could have capitalized on this predictability SA Target spawn locations were positioned in the near periphery ranging from 12–31° visual angle We chose the spawn locations to fall within the field-of-view of the VR head-mounted display (HMD) to ensure SA Targets were visible real-world peripheral stimuli occur at larger eccentricities (>60°) extending beyond the field-of-view capabilities of current generation VR HMDs while SA Target presentation location and timing were randomized the SA Target could appear on every trial and in practice did frequently (80% of trials) This stimulus frequency may have shifted the SA Task from an unpredictable secondary task to a predictable dual-task while SA Target detection performance was high overall we observed lower detection rates for Gaze-Contingent SA Targets which appear only if the participant is currently dwelling on the advancing Soldier which do not consider the participant’s gaze this difference appeared to be driven by Soft Highlight AiTR raising the possibility that soft highlighting degrades SA for peripheral targets future studies assessing SA impacts of AiTR should incorporate both gaze-contingent and stationary SA Targets in secondary detection tasks to accurately calibrate stimulus detectability in dynamic VR scenarios Despite the null results of the main phenomena of interest additional analyses reveal useful insights regarding how to implement AiTR in head-mounted AR displays effectively an analysis of participants’ eye gaze across elements in the visual scene pointed to a potential issue with our Soft Highlight AiTR implementation we found that participants spent most of their time overall (55%) dwelling on the advancing Soldier compared to other scenario features Participants also tended to dwell on Enemy Soldiers longer than Friendly Soldiers under conditions of relative certainty This finding aligns with the Categorization Distance findings and suggests that the relatively shorter Categorization Distances observed for 100CC Enemy vs Friendly Soldiers were due to participants visually inspecting Enemy Soldiers longer Soft Highlight AiTR increased relative dwell time toward the environment at the expense of other scenario features several participants reported that Soft Highlight AiTR induced ocular discomfort The Soft Highlight AiTR was rendered with dithering a process by which random noise is intentionally applied for visual effect Our intent was to simulate the real-world resolution limitations of current generation AR HMDs the Soft Highlight AiTR’s dithered screen door-like appearance yoked to the advancing Soldier may have produced a flickering visual effect leading to the ocular discomfort reported This discomfort in turn could explain why participants in the Soft Highlight condition spent less time dwelling at the highlighted Soldier and more toward the environment there is evidence of such discomfort in the NASA-TLX survey data which demonstrated that participants were more frustrated by the Soft Highlight condition relative to No AiTR our findings suggest that while soft highlighting may be effective at highlighting targets in static images such as when inspecting satellite imagery or histology slides it negatively impacted task performance and user experience in our dynamic AiTR task One notable aspect of our research was our unique participant pool comprised of all-male Soldiers Although this offers valuable insight into the behaviors of active-duty Soldiers performing a Soldier-relevant task it also limits the generalizability of the present study’s findings Previous eye tracking research investigating sex differences in attentional cueing found no observed sex differences for exogenous cueing (Bayliss et al. we would not expect sex differences based on AiTR in LFDM task performance sex differences in violent and aggressive behavior (Staniloiu & Markowitsch 2012) may suggest the possibility of behavioral differences in the LFDM task future work should investigate if biological sex interacts with AiTR We also elected to incorporate current limitations of real-world AiTR systems rather than testing a perfectly accurate simulated system some civilians (typically 3–4) were erroneously highlighted with AiTR While this was intended to increase visual clutter and reflect inconsistency of the AiTR it may have decreased participants’ trust and reliance on AiTR confounding its effects on perception and decision making Future research should consider how false alarms and trust in automation interact with perceptual and cognitive impacts of AiTR The present study’s findings and limitations offer suggestions for future research. Current generation commercial VR HMDs offer increasingly high resolution displays and embedded eye tracking capabilities with precision and accuracy approaching laboratory-grade eye trackers (Gardony et al., 2020; Kapp et al., 2021) with readily accessible development platforms (e.g. Unreal) researchers can build rich and dynamic scenarios for the simulation and evaluation of novel and emerging AR capabilities like AiTR Future work should continue to leverage these increasingly accessible and capable technologies to perform psychological and user experience research It is critically important that researchers carefully balance controlling the psychometric properties of stimuli and faithfully reflecting real-world scenarios in which to test the perceptual and cognitive impacts of factors of interest It is also important to understand and address the technical limitations of the hardware used in the experimental design phase we incorporated design choices like eye gaze colliders surrounding relevant scenario features that subtended a constant visual angle to address eye tracking accuracy limitations of commercial VR HMDs designed the scenario to remain within the HMD’s field-of-view and incorporated gaze-contingent presentation of secondary stimuli to ensure visibility of peripheral stimuli Our results also suggest that user experience metrics are important to collect alongside quantitative behavioral and gaze data our results demonstrated the increasing frustration with Soft Highlight AiTR was associated with increasing friend-foe discrimination error may observe that AR capabilities do not substantively differ when scrutinizing human performance metrics alone but do when considering survey responses alongside them Future research is needed to explore novel AiTR designs that deliver acceptable user experience enhanced target acquisition and decision making and intuitive and interpretable uncertainty visualization The datasets presented in this article are not readily available because the funding agency does not permit public release of data products. Requests to access the datasets should be directed to AG, aaron.gardony.civ@army.mil The studies involving human participants were reviewed and approved by the United States Army Combat Capabilities Development Command Soldier Center Human Research Protection Program Office and the Tufts University Institutional Review Board Written informed consent for participation was not required for this study in accordance with the national legislation and the institutional requirements AG conceptualized the research and oversaw VR scenario development with critical input from GH AG and KO supervised data collection with all remaining authors contributing to data collection AG and KO drafted the manuscript with feedback and revisions provided by GH All authors reviewed and approved the final manuscript This work was supported by the United States Army Combat Capabilities Development Command Soldier Center (DEVCOM SC) under a cooperative agreement with Tufts University (W911QY-19-02-0003) and Draper (W911QY-20-C-0078) The views expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not reflect the official policies or positions of the Department of Army or any other department or agency of the United States Government We thank Daniel Grover and James Garijo-Garde for programming the VR scenario and Chloe Callahan-Flintoft for their helpful input on experimental design and James Garijo-Garde for assistance with data collection The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning; AR Army.mil (2022). 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The use distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited in accordance with accepted academic practice distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms *Correspondence: Aaron L. Gardony, YWFyb24uZ2FyZG9ueS5jaXZAYXJteS5taWw= Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher 94% of researchers rate our articles as excellent or goodLearn more about the work of our research integrity team to safeguard the quality of each article we publish Hungary’s great gift to the American jazz scene uses his dazzling keyboard mastery to enhance his soulful expressiveness rather than relying on pyrotechnical prowess as his sole claim to international fame While armed with shock-and-awe digital dexterity, rigorous conservatory training, and a mindset open to cerebral strategies, Gardony, a longtime professor of piano at Boston’s Berklee College of Music devoutly believes in the primal power of groove and feeling and in the necessity for his music to breathe with body and soul the Hungarian-born maestro devoutly believes in making an intimate almost as if he and they are sharing a journey of discovery together as his music unfolds live and in the moment All of which makes the Boston-based recording artist and globe-trotting performer an ideal headliner at the cozy, intimate setting at Middletown’s Buttonwood Tree. A warm The Buttonwood boasts not just free Wi-Fi but also a used bookstore -- a bibliophile browser’s delight -- and a coffee shop to keep concert-goers comfortably caffeinated Gardony returns for an encore appearance at the multi-faceted arts and cultural center on Saturday, July 9, at 8:00 pm. This time out he plays in a duo format with the noted Italian saxophonist Marco Pignataro who has performed throughout Europe and Central America who have toured the Dominican Republic and played at festivals in the United States will present their take on South American and Caribbean songs as well as originals and jazz standards with arrangements crafted for its mini-chamber format merely different routes to the same goal of expression and invention Among his premier works are his recordings and live performances which exhibit his keen interactive sense and sensibility as the leader of his premier jazz piano trio.   His longtime piano trio mates are bassist John Lockwood and drummer Yoron Israel bona fide Beantown jazz talents prove that Boston need not suffer from an inferiority complex — that infamous cultural cringe — because it is not the Big Apple and epicenter of the jazz universe Gardony is no stranger to Connecticut.   In 2015, for example, he and his two simpatico sidekicks, Lockwood and Israel, presented one of the triumphant highlights of The Hartford Public Library’s enormously popular, free series, Baby Grand Jazz filling the downtown library’s scenic atrium with much nurturing light and warmth In a previous appearance at The Buttonwood Tree -- a small venue in Middletown’s North End that has an uncanny propensity for presenting large talents -- Gardony showed up again with Lockwood and Israel, his rhythmic alter egos since 2001, plus, as a fine bonus, saxophonist Stan Strickland whose reeds brought a whole new set of colors and configurations to the pianist’s chamber group On Gardony’s latest CD, Life in Real Time (Sunnyside), he performs live with his regular trio buddies — New England’s three jazz musketeers — beefed up with a terrific triumvirate of tenor saxophonists, Stan Strickland (who doubles on bass clarinet), Bill Pierce, and Don Braden For all Gardony’s formal European and American training and his prestigious role as a professor at Berklee College of Music he’s also an unabashed pleasure seeker and jazz-loving ecumenist who readily embraces the freewheeling lover of all things musical New Orleans-inspired romp through an original called "Bourbon Street Boogie," a tasty slice of Crescent City cuisine cooked up by Gardony with added sauce and substance thrown onto the grill by Pierce and Braden the buoyant mood sounds like Boston’s Professor Gardony meeting with the Big Easy’s Professor Longhair in a summit meeting celebrating the pleasure principle Before all the stops are pulled out in the CD’s aptly titled grand finale Its ingredients include a fresh take on George Shearing’s "Lullaby of Birdland" and a moving re-harmonized version of "Motherless Child," plus several Gardony originals seasoned with variety and Gardony’s inspirations can come from anywhere and from any genre. So it’s no surprise that his deeply-felt homage to "Motherless Child" was inspired by the historic, passionate interpretation of the spiritual by the great Richie Havens at the Woodstock Festival in 1969 with more than a little bit of help from Strickland’s dark reverentially retains the soulful song’s woeful portrait of pain and despair Or as Gardony once said in an interview with Jazz Corridor “Jazz,” he explained of the music’s DNA link with emotion Jazz always speaks to your personal life in all periods of your life.” “It helps you sort things out,” he said of the music’s revitalizing “and makes you feel good about whatever you want to create in your life Tickets for Gardony’s Buttonwood concert/celebration: $15. The Buttonwood is at 605 Main Street, Middletown. Information: buttonwood.org and (860) 347-4957 Please submit press releases at least two weeks before publication date to omac28@gmail.com Receive daily news and talk from Connecticut Public Radio directly to your inbox  WORCESTER - The Brown Bag Concert Series returns for its 37th season at Mechanics Hall with four Wednesday noontime concerts this fall Produced by 90.5 WICN Public Radio and Mechanics Hall the series will feature a variety of artists that showcase a diversity of musical styles All concerts are free and open to the public the Brown Bag Concerts returned to Mechanics Hall for a spring series after a two-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic “The fall Brown Bag Concerts includes a wonderful range of music and performers,” said Kathleen M “We are looking forward to welcoming both old and new friends to enjoy this noontime musical experience at Mechanics Hall." she said “We are so excited to bring back the fall Brown Bag Concert series for the first time since November 2019,” said WICN general manager David Ginsburg “Collaborating with Mechanics Hall to provide free live music downtown is a tradition we are proud of and pleased to be able to continue.” 9) specializes in African and African-influenced music Using the universal influence and connectivity of African rhythms and melodies Crocodile River Music engages audiences of all backgrounds Internationally acclaimed Boston-based jazz pianist and composer Laszlo Gardony (Nov 16) is regarded as one of the most expressive and technically skilled pianists working in jazz today he has performed in 27 countries and released 13 albums on the Sunnyside and Avenue Jazz labels during his distinguished decades-long career He is a professor of piano at Berklee College of Music in Boston flutist and composer known for his dynamic His long and successful musical career includes 18 albums and a busy international performance schedule that takes him on the road 225 days a year Abate is an adjunct professor of Jazz Studies at Rhode Island College and was inducted into the Rhode Island Music Hall of Fame in 2016 7) is based at the United States Naval Station in Newport providing musical support for military ceremonies For what has become its annual holiday appearance at Mechanics Hall the Navy Band Northeast will perform favorite tunes for the holiday season When we first began arranging an interview with Boston jazz pianist Laszlo Gardony it was to preview a handful of his upcoming local dates including March 21 at Amazing Things Art Center in Framingham and April 4 at the James Library and Art Center in Norwell although the Spire Center concert was just rescheduled to September 11 to a more general discussion of his creative process his philosophy about connecting with his audiences and how he tries to impart the lessons of his lengthy career to his students at Berklee College of Music (Berklee had asked all students to vacate the campus by March 22 so Gardony was dealing with how to maintain contact and some semblance of normal lessons via online means.) “We will be having all remote teaching for the rest of this semester “You can see that something like this can be quite traumatic for these students Being a musician is not a very stable profession these days Our immediate concern is that many of our students come from all over the world and then there are many different time zones to consider as we try to figure out how to communicate with them for continued lessons.” Gardony of course has been a professional musician for many years after a lustrous career in his native Hungary and coming to the United States in the early 1980s where he quickly established himself as one of the most exciting figures in jazz With a fabulous technique and inherent lyricism that makes even his most complex works appealing he’s been a concert hall favorite whether with bands of various sizes Want news like this sent straight to your inbox? Head over to PatriotLedger.com to sign up for alerts and make sure you never miss a thing we deliver.We began by posing that question we often toss at jazz players which is since the genre’s sophistication leads many music fans to consider it too academic as if you almost need a master’s degree in music to appreciate it “You want to become a master of what you do but there is a certain genuine-ness of the process that you want to share with the audience That’s one reason I usually talk to them before I play a piece that ‘here’s something you’ve never heard before.’ I want it to be something genuinely touching After my concerts I am often very happy to look out and see the people are open and communicating with each other in a happy and unguarded way is that we always want to reach our full potential as (technical) musicians but we also want our music to connect,” Gardony added “The difficulty comes in communicating this music in an accessible way but that’s the way you connect And if the listeners come away feeling this music is real Gardony said he loves to provide his back stories to many of the tunes he plays “La Marseillaise,”  for example the song “Revolution” is based on the French anthem which appealed to the pianist because of its themes of resisting oppression and freedom.The album also includes his take on “O Sole Mio,” and a vivid improvisational trip through Erroll Garner’s signature tune “Misty.” But Gardony also has his own melodically delectable “Mockingbird,” and the rollicking “Bourbon Street Boogie.” One feature of his shows is that he likes to ask the audience to provide him input which he then crafts into a new tune on the spot and on this album it’s “Four Notes Given.” If that sounds like Gardony likes to engage his fans in everything from originals to reworked chestnuts to on-the-spot improvs  “I like to talk to the audience about the music,” he said “I think it helps me focus on what I’m about to do and also helps them know a little more about the music Some musicians might be into more self-realization and may not want anything but spiritual satisfaction out of it But I have found that the more you master what you’re doing the more of a genuine pleasure it is to share it I don’t believe you have to be in this bubble when you’re playing even if you are creating things you’ve never done before—you can reach out and connect it is to try to make the world a better place showcasing his wide-ranging sound and there is a huge improv quotient at work  “I have a lot of different ways of going about my original compositions,” said Gardony “Sometimes it starts with an improvisation you record and once you like what you’ve got it becomes more of a composition based on that certain melody and harmonic structure like I did with “Lullaby of Birdland” for instance you might try a different chord progression than the original  Gardony continued: "I’m constantly improvising 'Serious Play' is three-quarters improvisation that I did in the studio improvisation is a large part of my music and it is absolutely moment-to-moment within a certain structure the structure is not pre-determined; it emerges moment-to-moment “That’s why it is so important to find people who are like-minded when you play in a group,” Gardony pointed out We can build excitement by reading each other’s minds what emotions we have in mind when we’re playing The things you express can be beyond words Good players build on each other’s solos to make a cohesive whole It’s not just that the audience came to hear someone be great technically but to reveal themselves You can provide a genuine picture of yourself  As far as pianists whose work has always moved us we asked Gardony if he had been an influence on him as well  “He was one of the truly great ones,” said Gardony “And McCoy Tyner was someone who was always open to listening to all kinds of genres Fairly soon in my career at home I got a chance to hear him in a sort of a Coltrane Quartet reunion show I’ll never forget the time I saw him in New York City and we talked at intermission and I told him how much I liked his work and it turned out there were only three of us there for the second set But it was one of the greatest concerts I ever heard because he had such intensity and creativity with just three of us there in the audience he could have just gone through the motions but he played one of the greatest sets I’ve ever heard.” I heard McCoy Tyner play at The RegattaBar in Harvard Square and I was listening to his piano and the high harmonies McCoy could play and I swore it was like hearing Coltrane in my head and Tyner’s “Fly With the Wind’ and also his ‘Trident’ album were magnificent and I think McCoy Tyner had this fearless energy fearless energy that has to be part of the best music  Does Gardony adjust his concerts for his specific audiences perhaps aiming for more accessible material for suburban audiences which may not be as heavily into jazz in general  “I think it’s just a trait of my personality that I do not go out there with any attitude like that about my audiences,” said Gardony “I’m trying to create a level of communication we are very connected and there can be a quality that is almost telepathic about the way we work together I’m not just a pianist looking for my trio so you’re not feeling like you’re just listening to one person But I approach it all with the same openness and intensity and we played some of the same exact things we had played at Birdland [in New York City] Nobody felt they had to commit an intellectual exercise hopefully — they just got a genuine love for the music.”  “(Thelonious) Monk was not as close to me as an influence as people like Tyner and others,” Gardony added “But I did admire the way he always played all his own tunes I think that’s important - if you believe in yourself and your work or you’re not honoring your creative talent  And is it difficult to convey these philosophies of playing music to his students teaching has been helping me become a better artist ever since I started doing it,” said Gardony “There’s no textbook about how to reach students; how to reach your students as human beings with emotional intelligence the musical director of "Hamilton," talks of me as an influential teacher saying what he learned most from me was people skills and kindness how to make people happy and productive in their work I am very grateful he realized and could use that I think we are human beings first and musicians second.” it's a busy couple weeks of music with choices in virtually every genre WEDNESDAY:  There are few songwriters in rock more captivating than Marshall Crenshaw – and few more reminiscent of classic Beatles style – and he's marking 40 years in the music business at City Winery in Boston NOV. 17:  It's the annual Friends of Michael Troy concert all afternoon at the Narrows Center in Fall River where a long list of area musicians perform the late Fall River native's tunes and all proceeds go to support the music programs at his alma mater Jazz 24/7 from WGBH presents Eric in the Afternoon shows from our Boston Public Library studio for Jazz Appreciation Month I grew up in the years when “The Wizard of Oz” was shown on TV once a year and the whole family would gather to watch ― even those of us who were afraid of the flying monkeys In a different twist on the classic, families are invited to take a hands-on approach to “The Wizard of Oz” with a day of free activities, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. July 27 at the Cultural Center of Cape Cod, 307 Old Main St., South Yarmouth. “Build LEGO® creations in the ‘No Place Like Home’ room or test your skills at the ‘If I only Had a Brain-Teasers.’ Enjoy fun outdoor games like ‘Condiment Twister’ and cool off in the ‘Somewhere Over the Rainbow’ sprinkler,” reads a statement about the Family Fun Day Kicking off the night before and continuing through Sept. 7 will be “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” exhibition featuring The Dorothy Paintings by artist Christina Schlesinger Schlesinger's mural-sized paintings in various media employ different textures and colors to portray a balance of Dorothy’s independence and resilience as well as her youthful vulnerability in a new way I wanted to capture Dorothy's journey as a powerful metaphor for the challenges and triumphs young girls face in discovering their own strengths," Schlesinger said in the written statement about the exhibition  In “Over the Rainbow and Home Again,” a 3 p.m. concert on Sunday, July 28, renowned jazz pianist Laszlo Gardony will premiere his arrangement of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” and other pieces from the 1939 movie. Concert tickets are $25 and are available at cultural-center.org/, including “tiger mushroom tart with bechamel sauce followed by lion’s mane mushroom ‘steak’ with polenta and fried Brussels sprouts and finished with poppy seed cake with bearberry sauce,” according to the website Friday is sold out but spaces remain for Saturday at $60 per person alongside her wonderfully loyal and caring friends mirrors the universal quest for belonging and self-discovery making it a story that truly resonates across generations." It is also a journey that swept up Demeulenaere and Genna Clemen the cultural center’s arts educator in residence prompting them to turn the center’s vault into a tornado “All of the other galleries had something connecting them to ‘The Wizard of Oz’ so we’ve actually made a tornado installation We've created an 8-foot high by 4-foot in circumference wire sculpture that is a public art installation,” Demeulenaere said The number of visitors and overnight stays tripled due to the Balaton Sound festival accommodation revenues significantly increased during the Campus Festival and EFOTT and the week following the Valley of Arts (Művészetek Völgye) accounted for 93 per cent of the total monthly guest traffic—these are the remarkable tourism results observed in Hungary’s ‘festival towns.’ the major music and dance events attracted thousands of visitors The biggest beneficiaries of these multi-day events were the accommodation providers in the Velence Lake town of Gárdony as reported by the Hungarian Tourism Agency (MTÜ) on Friday the 2024 festival season kicked off with Balaton Sound from 3 to 6 July Data from the National Tourist Data Service Centre (NTAK) shows that during this time more than 12,000 guests spent 22,000 nights in the town’s accommodations This resulted in a three-and-a-half-fold increase in guest numbers and nearly tripled the number of overnight stays compared to the same period in the previous week and Kápolnásnyék also experienced growth between 10 and 14 July originally started as the National Tourism Meeting of University and College Students attracted approximately 3,600 guests to the area’s accommodations This led to a significant boost in peak season occupancy: guest numbers increased by more than 10 per cent and overnight stays by 20 per cent compared to the previous week The biggest winner of the festival was Kápolnásnyék and the number of nights spent increased by 143 per cent compared to the previous week Sukoró saw an increase of over 60 per cent and Gárdony experienced a 24 per cent rise in overnight stays during the festival The Valley of Arts, held from 19 to 28 July in Kapolcs, Taliándörögd, and Vigántpetend, in the Balaton Uplands Kapolcs’ popularity surged significantly: the three host towns welcomed more than 2,000 guests with over 6,000 of the nearly 8,000 nights spent registered at Kapolcs accommodations This means that 93 per cent of the village’s total July turnover occurred during the festival Debrecen saw a 25 per cent increase in guests during the Campus festival from 24-28 July Around 8,000 guests spent 15,000 nights in the city The number of domestic visitors was 66 per cent higher and the nights spent increased by 34 per cent compared to the previous week The festivals also significantly contributed to the revenue growth of local accommodations accommodation revenues in Zamárdi increased more than fourfold compared to the same period in the previous week accommodation revenues rose by more than 70 per cent during the Valley of Arts compared to the period before the festival accommodation revenues in Debrecen significantly increased during the Campus festival and Pákozd saw a 30 per cent rise in accommodation income during EFOTT The demographic distribution of guests also often shifts due to the festivals there was a 23 percentage point decrease in the proportion of guests under 18 and a 34 percentage point drop among those over 35 the proportion of guests aged 19-24 increased by 27 percentage points and those aged 25-34 rose by 29 percentage points compared to the previous week The EFOTT festival similarly led to an increase in the proportion of guests aged 19-24 and 25-34 around Lake Velence by 8 and 6 percentage points and campsites proved the most popular at festival locations more than 50 per cent of overnight stays were registered at campsites with 20 per cent more people staying there than from 26-29 June 40 per cent of guests preferred private and other accommodations more than a third of overnight stays in Gárdony and Kápolnásnyék were registered at private and other accommodations resulting in a nearly 50 per cent increase compared to the same period in the previous week the largest music festival of the summer in Hungary will begin on 7 August Seeing the data regarding the other festivals it is expected that tourism numbers will see a significant rise in Budapest and cities close to the capital Hungarian Conservative is a quarterly magazine on contemporary political philosophical and cultural issues from a conservative perspective The scion of a Hungarian family of German ancestry and in his final years the resident of the scenic rural town of Eger Géza Gárdonyi is probably best known for his classic historical novel Egri csillagok (The Stars of Eger telling the tale of the Hungarian soldiers who defended the Eger castle against the Turks in 1552 Sándor Ziegler was from a family of German ironworkers who had lived and worked in the Sopron area for centuries He was already a wealthy factory-owner at the outbreak of the Hungarian War of Independence in 1848–49 he left Vienna and gave up financial security distinguishing himself as ‘Kossuth’s arms manufacturer’ in the fight against the Habsburgs but thanks to the testimonials of powerful protectors he was acquitted and lived in voluntary exile in Vienna until the 1850s This grand ancestry had probably defined the young Géza Gárdonyi who became on of the most well-read authors of the century Gárdonyi was born on 3 August 1823 in Agárdpuszta near Lake Velence — hence his pen name chosen after the name of another Lake Velence settlement He worked as a teacher before he became famous thanks to his first novels depicting rural Hungarian life and later with his grand historical novels (Egri csillagok 1901; A láthatatlan ember (Slave of the Huns Several of his works were turned into highly successful films, most prominently the 1968 The Stars of Eger feature film the young boy must again defend the girl from Turks only this time there are 200,000 Ottomans against only 2,000 Hungarians in the Fortress of Eger Gárdonyi’s legacy was hijacked by the Communists after WWII While in 1948 the Communist daily Szabad Nép suggested that he be ousted from Hungarian literature,[2] this hostility was oddly replaced by the lauding of his ‘democratic’ and socially sensitive works took from the fifties to the seventies,[3] likely due to the fact that a writer of his merits could not be simply eradicated from the annals of Hungarian literature such statements would end someone’s career—back then these misguided notions were more commonplace But the Communists were definitely wrong to declare Gárdonyi as one of their own—he was a nationalist nationalists would also be wrong to appropriate Gárdonyi—few authors penned such a devastating critique of the state of the Hungarian language culture and contemporary etiquette as he did He must be seen in the light of what he created with his insightful criticisms taken to heart [1] Új Barázda [2] Szabad Nép [3] Csillag [4] Pesti Hírlap [5] Pesti Hírlap [6] Magyarság [7] Egri Népújság [8] Múlt és Jövő 1910 — A Family Gathering: Blithewold Mansion Re-creation of Christmas weekend at Blithewold in 1910 Included with regular admission; reserved seats for additional $2 fee Self-guided tours of fully decorated mansion through Jan Christmas at the Newport Mansions: The Breakers Winter Passport ticket for daytime admission to any three houses $30 Santa Claus visits The Breakers on Sun noon to 3 p.m Eggnog and cookies served; visitors welcome to bring a camera for photos (no additional fee beyond admission) feature leisurely self-guided tour through the house New England Brass Band and Stephen Buella perform Sat Holiday Evenings admission: $35 in advance Christmas Cabaret: Park Place Congregational Church Christmas Festival of Lights: National Shrine of Our Lady of La Salette Attleboro; (508) 222-5410; lasaletteattleboroshrine.org Holiday display features 300,000 lights illuminating more than 10 acres; hundreds of crèches from around the world (Mon-Fri 5-9 p.m. Holiday Open House: Fall River Historical Society Decorated for the holidays with multiple trees Newport Historical Society Holiday Lantern Tours: Newport Hear the history of early American holiday traditions and learn how Newporters did Lantern-lit tours depart from the Museum of Newport History and Shop Audubon Photos With Santa and Tree Sale: Audubon Nature Center and Aquarium opportunity to pick a freshly cut tree from a local Rhode Island farm Bowen's Wharf Tree Lighting and Open House: America's Cup Avenue Santa's elves play Christmas favorites from the main stage area at 2 p.m Frosty the Snowman and caroling start at 4:30 p.m Christmas carol sing-along with Bianca Sings Christmas music continues until all children have had their chance to talk with Santa Caroling and Crafting with Newport County Youth Chorus and Emmanuel Church: Emmanuel Church Holiday caroling with the Newport String Project treats including popcorn and hot chocolate At 3:30 those interested can stroll through the neighborhood to sing for holiday shoppers on Thames Street and for residents of the St Song lyric sheets and jingle bells provided Celebrate Downcity Neighborhood Block Party: Westminster Street between Union and Eddy streets and Grant's Block Enjoy wassail and Christmas treats while viewing 18th-century Whitehall by candlelight Sponsored by the Colonial Dames of Rhode Island Tours of the museum featuring an exhibit of dolls representing the women of Smith's Castle who will entertain with music and stories for children holiday white elephant sale featuring wreaths and vintage Christmas decorations Sat: Beacon Pole Hill DAR Chapter Dulcimers Players and Brown University Madrigal Singers Wayne Patenaude and Alexandra Rothstein with pianist Jane Dean-Burkhart and percussionist Karen Mellor Christmas Cards for Mariners: Seamen's Church Institute Hot cocoa and cookies; write a Christmas card to be delivered to men and women serving on the seas Christmas Open House: Smith-Appleby House Museum Old-fashioned celebration with house decorated for the holidays City of Providence Winter Lights Market and Tree Lightings: Street between Alex and Ani City Center and Burnside Park Winter Lights Market features music and performance heated tent with artisan marketplace selling art 5 p.m.; juggling and fire spinning by Circus Dynamics Sat: Free ice skating at Alex and Ani City Center 10 a.m.-4 p.m.; visit by Santa; children's parade performances at Burnside Park and Alex and Ani City Center (public skating closed 4-7 p.m.) Show by champion figure skaters Mirai Nagasu and Kimmie Meissner Family concert and candle-lighting in the synagogue at 4 p.m Latkes with all the trimmings and holiday fun at Levi Gale House after concert Cranston Historical Society Christmas Open House: 944-9226 music from the Victorian era performed by pianist Andrew Kaplan on the mansion's 1800s Concerta D Grand Steinway traditional wassail and visit by the Pawtuxet Rangers Guests welcomed by hosts in Colonial attire tea and cookies served by the homestead fireplace keeping rooms and dining areas showcasing festive holiday decorations distinctive table settings and creative holiday arrangements Gingerbread House Decorating Contest: Artists' Exchange Prizes awarded to winners in each age-level category $13 per house in advance online; $15 per house at the door Gingerbread Lighthouse: Newport Visitor Information and Transportation Center A 16-foot-tall lighthouse made of 350 pounds of gingerbread and more than 2,400 pieces of candy created by Newport Marriott culinary staff Free to view; please bring non-perishable food items to fill the sleigh for local community food pantries Dozens of Christmas trees on display in the decorated 200-year-old mansion Sun: An Old-Fashioned Christmas Celebration at Hearthside children's performance at 1:30 and 2:30 p.m. Christmas at the Schoolhouse: $5 per family Hope Street Holiday Stroll: From Rochambeau to Seven Stars Bakery Newport Historical Society Holiday Open House: Colony House Costumed interpreters sing Colonial-era hymns Meet and Greet/Photos with Santa: Shamrock Financial Corporation Donations accepted for a Christmas Eve dinner for the homeless in Woonsocket Official Opening of Christmas in Newport: Washington Square Photos with Santa: Cardi's Furniture & Mattresses Rhode Island Historical Society Holiday Open House: Museum of Work & Culture $25 (includes trees and decorations) registration required Free activities include "Child's Play: A Brief History of the Children of New England," by Geralyn Ducady 3 p.m.; Wheeler School Concert Handbell Ringers 2 p.m.; cookie decorating with cookies from Wright's Dairy Farm and Bakery; help Santa's elves build and test toys in their workshop; write letters to Santa; holiday story time; Sat 1-5 p.m Part of Woonsocket's Main Street Holiday Stroll Visitors go behind the scenes to see how Doris Duke and the household staff celebrated the holidays and learn about past winter caretaking rituals and current practices of conservation at the museum First floor open for roaming at leisure with guided tours hourly 10:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m Smithfield's All-Lit Up Christmas Parade: Begins at Smithfield High School Touro Synagogue 255th Anniversary Open House: Touro Synagogue explore the exhibits in the visitors' center Wickford Village Festival of Lights: Wickford Village Thu: Town tree lighting and visit from Santa with music by the North Kingstown Community Youth Chorus and North Kingstown High School Band Fri: Christmas carols by North Kingstown Community Chorus Musical entertainment throughout village including Ye Olde English Carolers.Fri-Sun: Santa arrives by boat led by kayaking "reindeer" to the Town Dock Sat: Elf Parade forms at Wickford Collection Sat-Sun: The Ladies of the Rolling Pin perform traditional Morris-style dance North Kingstown Community Chorus and Youth Chorus Winter Concert walking tour of 10 historic village homes decorated for holidays features Santa's Parade beginning at Daggett Farms and proceeding to the Looff Carousel Claus welcomed at the Carousel by the Wonderland Elves Sat-Sun: Free visits with Santa; photos for small fee; hay rides light displays and multiple decorations and an 18-foot-tall talking snowman Food court selling hot dogs and hot chocolate tours of historic Daggett House decorated for the season sale at Rhode Island Water Color Society Art Gallery the Spire Center for the Performing Arts is a performance hall that hosts music theater and dance shows throughout the season There will be an open-mike night at the Spire at 7 p.m and upcoming performers at the center include jazz pianist Laszlo Gardony songwriters Grace Morrison and Sarah Blacker The venue also hosts a jazz jam show on select Wednesday nights Beal House: Operated by the South Shore Folk Music Club this venue is in the community building of the Unitarian Universalist Church at 222 Main St The club regularly hosts nationally recognized touring acoustic and folk musicians and it often has open-mike events for those just starting out The next upcoming show is blues duo Paul Rishell and Annie Raines at 8 p.m Coffeehouse Off the Square: Old Ship Church hosts a monthly concert on the third Saturday of the month Attendees enjoy a cozy acoustic environment Most shows at Old Ship start out with an open-mike session that lets local musicians show off their talents will present Celtic music performers Katie McD's Cross County Band with Martin Butler the Friends of the Canton Public Library opened the volunteer-run Open Book Coffeehouse in the library building's community room this concert venue holds events on the third Saturday of the month and hot coffee and homemade baked goods are available for free The next show at the coffeehouse is soul singer-songwriter Louis Apollon on Saturday South Shore Conservatory: In addition to conservatory concerts holds a free "Coffee Break Concert Series" throughout the concert season These morning concerts include table seating and coffee The next upcoming Coffee Break concert is the Elan Mehler Trio at 11 a.m The leader of the opposition Socialist party has filed a report with the police over an oil leak in Gárdony over suspicion of environmental damage against perpetrators unknown Imre Komjáthi said in a statement that besides the report the Socialists plan to submit a parliamentary proposal and demand fair compensation “to try and serve justice to oil victims in Gárdony” While Hungarian oil and gas company Mol has taken steps to control the damage Komjáthi said samples taken from local wells showed that “the problem is much bigger than we thought at first” “The Mol oil leak in Gárdony has been surrounded by secrecy incomprehensible explanations and telltale reviews The amount of oil leaked and the degree of pollution remains unclear and the company is dragging its feet on clearing up the situation,” Komjáthi said Featured image: depositphotos.com and website in this browser for the next time I comment Y"},"category":false,"taxonomy":{"active":false,"name":"category"}},"markup":{"custom_html":true,"wpp-start":"","wpp-end":"<\/ul>","title-start":"","title-end":"<\/h2>","post-html":"{thumb} {title} {stats}<\/span>{excerpt}<\/p><\/li>"},"theme":{"name":""}} You have successfully joined our subscriber list SupportUs Newsletter © 2025 DailyNewsHungary | All rights reserved A Hungarian beach was evacuated because of a bomb threat near Lake Velence yesterday A WWII Soviet bomb was carried away from a Gárdony campsite near Lake Velence. Gárdony is one of the most popular beach villages around Hungary’s third biggest natural lake Special units of the Hungarian military took the bomb away on Saturday First Lieutenant Milán Gajdos said the military evacuated the campsite at Üdülő Street in Gárdony due to the risks posed by the Soviet bomb. Interestingly, the explosive was found by a bather. He took it out from the lake and took it to the campsite, origo.hu wrote pyrotechnists determined the device was a 15 kg WWII Soviet fragmentation bomb the military took it to their central collection point In THIS article we wrote about where the theft rate is the highest at Lake Balaton A Hungarian foreign ministry official expressed hope on Wednesday that Volodymyr Zelensky Ukraine’s recently elected president would help resolve the negative situation affecting ethnic Hungarian communities stemming from recent enactment of repressive laws The first statements by the new president are reason for “cautious hope” state secretary for communications and international relations focusing on Hungarian summer camps for children from families affected by conflict in eastern Ukraine Hungary has always pursued good neighbourly relations with Ukraine and it had supported Ukraine’s Euro-Atlantic aspirations as well as visa its liberalisation efforts “The language law approved during the time of the previous president was a stab in the back because it aimed at suppressing minority languages in all areas of life,” he said he noted that 242 children are spending their holidays at Lake Velence and the ministry has contributed 25 million forints (EUR 76,000) towards their upkeep When thinking about a summer holiday in Hungary Lake Balaton is the first thing that comes to everybody’s mind Lake Velence is an equally good option for those who would like to discover a new place that is not so far from Budapest Read our article to find out more about Hungary’s third largest natural lake and its surroundings One of the main advantages of Lake Velence is that it is easy and fast to reach Trains go twice every hour from Budapest Kelenföld Railway Station and it takes only 35 minutes to arrive at Velence station the estimated travel time is about 30 minutes the trains are cool thanks to the air conditioners so one does not have to worry about travelling in the hot weather This free beach offers a Mediterranean vibe: sandy beach shore The shallow water and jump castle make sure that children will have a good time here One can have a bite in the restaurants and cafés located on the shore and try out the famous Hungarian lángos The popular hotel in Velence offers a free beach interesting summer programmes and fun playgrounds for the whole family Guests at Velence Resort & Spa can enjoy the lake and the 10 swimming pools of the spa complex at the same time If you are looking for a grassy beach with trees this large shore is the perfect place for you a sandy handball or soccer field and a grassy soccer field are awaiting sporty guests the Crosswater watercraft rental is open for those who would like to choose a more demanding water sport Holdfény Sétány (Moonlight Promenade) operates as a free beach For those who would like to avoid the UV radiation there are several trees on the beach providing shadow as this is a beloved beach for people who do that sport One of the most famous restaurants in Velence lies on a peninsula in a magical setting Guests can try out Hungarian specialties such as halászlé (fish soup) in this fisherman’s inn with a 150-year-old history and good reputation The island is not only known for this outstanding restaurant but also for its scheduled boat ride just 100 metres from the fisherman’s inn one might take a simple yet completely relaxing walk on the island the Gulyás Csárda is waiting for its old and new guests in the centre of Agárd near Lake Velence The restaurant perfectly combines the classic flavours and hospitality of bygone times with today’s modern gastronomy The emphasis is on the home-made taste of traditional Hungarian dishes gypsy music is played to ensure an excellent and lively athmosphere This restaurant falls rather into the fast-food category hungry people stand in a queue to order their favourite greek meal to take it home If someone is looking for good quality greek food this place in Gárdony is the perfect choice The lookout tower was completed in 2018 and offers a spectacular view of Lake Velence the first successful grape grower of the area Hundreds of tourtists climb the Bence-hill to reach this modern building and take a look at the shining water of the lake from above The observation deck at the top of the 20-meter-high tower is accessible by 118 stairs Velence is not only famous for its beaches and restaurants Due to the proximity of Lake Velence and its favourable ecological conditions The wine is also special beacuse as cooler winds flow from the Mór wine region the essential ingredients of the wines do not burn The main grape varieties grown here are chardonnay this charming castle could fit into a fairytale Although the castle building became uninhabitable from the devastation of World War II the Dabasi Fisherman’s Castle and its 1.5-hectare park were renovated and opened for the public Discover this beautiful castle and its programmes Lake Velence is just 50 kilometres away from Budapest public transport also provides a pretty good option of making it to the lake – the train takes only 35 minutes from Kelenföld at the outskirts of Budapest to Velence The journey is really made easy with the new air-conditioned carriages where you can even take your bike with you The following ones are on the Southern part of the lake closest to the train stations and are definitely worth checking out just a 3-minute walk from the train station and now the spot near Lake Velence somewhat resembles a real sandy beach next to the sea There is a wide promenade and the beach is sandy with numerous beach umbrellas and deck chairs available a bouncy castle in the water and even a small department store where you can find a small Decathlon shop It is the perfect place for both families and friend groups considering it is hard to find a spot on the beach already on weekdays As for the numerous buffets – pretty much all of them serve fish A plain lángos costs 400 forints (1.24 EUR) the added sour cream and cheese on top makes it around 600 forints (1.86 EUR) which is more or less the same price as for a burger you have to pay around 400 forints (1.24 EUR) while a scoop of ice cream costs 220-250 forints (0.68-0.77 EUR) A plain lángos is at least 500 forints (1.55 EUR) it is around 700-800 forints (2.17-2.47 EUR) Those preferring fewer people and less sandy beaches should head to Velencefürdő There is an adorable little path leading from the train station to the beach where a beach with fresh grass and free restrooms await the customers The prices are similar to the ones at the Korzó: a plain lángos costs 400 forints with cheese and sour cream it is 600 forints It is the beer that is slightly more expensive It is best to arrive early since this is another rather popular beach that also happens to be free to enter It is also located next to the Tó-Party event’s beach where an adult ticket on weekdays is 800 (2.47 EUR) forints which rise to 1050 (3.25 EUR) at the weekend a ticket costs 500-650 forints (1.55-2.01 EUR) It is also important to note that a nudist beach is also quite close just the beach and lots and lots of naked people There is the Sport Beach which is not free but has a huge territory giant trees providing shelter from the sun and is also eco-conscious An adult ticket costs 730-1100 forints (2.26-3.40 EUR) while you have to pay 500-730 forints for the kids Another option is the Panorama beach on Trout Street where the prices are pretty much the same as in Velencefürdő The beach on the Moonlight Promenade is free You can do fun activities like renting a kayak or a paddle boat The Lakeside Street beach is also very close to a train station It is possibly the free beach which has the largest shore segment there is the option of renting beach umbrellas and deck chairs Although you can get a lángos for 400 forints and a pint of beer for 480 (1.48 EUR) this beach is also the home to the most expensive buffets at Lake Velence where a plain lángos costs 550 forints (1.70 EUR) the most famous and most popular beach in the area while children’s tickets cost 650-950 forints (2.01-2.94 EUR) where Hungarian goldies like Edda or Ferenc Demjén often visit and probably feel right at home which is the perfect plan B if the weather turns sour Make sure to check out this article about must-visit Hungarian lakes other than Lake Balaton. Featured image: Susulyka (Own work) CC BY-SA 3.0