2022
|
 | Pearly Chen; Mark Griswold; Hao Li; Sandra Lopez; Nahal Norouzi; Greg Welch Immersive Media Technologies: The Acceleration of Augmented and Virtual Reality in the Wake of COVID-19 Journal Article In: World Economic Forum, 2022. @article{Chen2022ky,
title = {Immersive Media Technologies: The Acceleration of Augmented and Virtual Reality in the Wake of COVID-19},
author = {Pearly Chen and Mark Griswold and Hao Li and Sandra Lopez and Nahal Norouzi and Greg Welch},
url = {https://sreal.ucf.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/WEF_Immersive_Media_Technologies_2022.pdf
https://www.weforum.org/reports/immersive-media-technologies-the-acceleration-of-augmented-and-virtual-reality-in-the-wake-of-covid-19},
year = {2022},
date = {2022-06-20},
urldate = {2022-06-20},
journal = {World Economic Forum},
abstract = {The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted whole economies. Immersive media businesses, which focus on technologies that create or imitate the physical world through digital simulation, have been no exception. The Global Future Council on Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality, which is comprised of interdisciplinary thought leaders in immersive technology and media, has examined the transformative impact of the pandemic and the speed of adoption of these technologies across industries.},
howpublished = {url{https://www.weforum.org/reports/immersive-media-technologies-the-acceleration-of-augmented-and-virtual-reality-in-the-wake-of-covid-19}},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}
The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted whole economies. Immersive media businesses, which focus on technologies that create or imitate the physical world through digital simulation, have been no exception. The Global Future Council on Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality, which is comprised of interdisciplinary thought leaders in immersive technology and media, has examined the transformative impact of the pandemic and the speed of adoption of these technologies across industries. |
 | Nahal Norouzi; Kangsoo Kim; Gerd Bruder; Jeremy Bailenson; Pamela J. Wisniewski; Greg Welch The Advantages of Virtual Dogs Over Virtual People: Using Augmented Reality to Provide Social Support in Stressful Situations Journal Article In: International Journal of Human Computer Studies, 2022. @article{Norouzi2022b,
title = {The Advantages of Virtual Dogs Over Virtual People: Using Augmented Reality to Provide Social Support in Stressful Situations},
author = {Nahal Norouzi and Kangsoo Kim and Gerd Bruder and Jeremy Bailenson and Pamela J. Wisniewski and Greg Welch},
url = {https://sreal.ucf.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/1-s2.0-S1071581922000659-main.pdf},
year = {2022},
date = {2022-05-01},
urldate = {2022-05-01},
journal = {International Journal of Human Computer Studies},
abstract = {Past research highlights the potential for leveraging both humans and animals as social support figures in one’s real life to enhance performance and reduce physiological and psychological stress. Some studies have shown that typically dogs are more effective than people. Various situational and interpersonal circumstances limit the opportunities for receiving support from actual animals in the real world introducing the need for alternative approaches. To that end, advances in augmented reality (AR) technology introduce new opportunities for realizing and investigating virtual dogs as social support figures. In this paper, we report on a within-subjects 3x1 (i.e., no support, virtual human, or virtual dog) experimental design study with 33 participants. We examined the effect on performance, attitude towards the task and the support figure, and stress and anxiety measured through both subjective questionnaires and heart rate data. Our mixed-methods analysis revealed that participants significantly preferred, and more positively evaluated, the virtual dog support figure than the other conditions. Emerged themes from a qualitative analysis of our participants’ post-study interview responses are aligned with these findings as some of our participants mentioned feeling more comfortable with the virtual dog compared to the virtual human although the virtual human was deemed more interactive. We did not find significant differences between our conditions in terms of change in average heart rate; however, average heart rate significantly increased during all conditions. Our research contributes to understanding how AR virtual support dogs can potentially be used to provide social support to people in stressful situations, especially when real support figures cannot be present. We discuss the implications of our findings and share insights for future research.},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}
Past research highlights the potential for leveraging both humans and animals as social support figures in one’s real life to enhance performance and reduce physiological and psychological stress. Some studies have shown that typically dogs are more effective than people. Various situational and interpersonal circumstances limit the opportunities for receiving support from actual animals in the real world introducing the need for alternative approaches. To that end, advances in augmented reality (AR) technology introduce new opportunities for realizing and investigating virtual dogs as social support figures. In this paper, we report on a within-subjects 3x1 (i.e., no support, virtual human, or virtual dog) experimental design study with 33 participants. We examined the effect on performance, attitude towards the task and the support figure, and stress and anxiety measured through both subjective questionnaires and heart rate data. Our mixed-methods analysis revealed that participants significantly preferred, and more positively evaluated, the virtual dog support figure than the other conditions. Emerged themes from a qualitative analysis of our participants’ post-study interview responses are aligned with these findings as some of our participants mentioned feeling more comfortable with the virtual dog compared to the virtual human although the virtual human was deemed more interactive. We did not find significant differences between our conditions in terms of change in average heart rate; however, average heart rate significantly increased during all conditions. Our research contributes to understanding how AR virtual support dogs can potentially be used to provide social support to people in stressful situations, especially when real support figures cannot be present. We discuss the implications of our findings and share insights for future research. |
 | Nahal Norouzi; Matthew Gottsacker; Gerd Bruder; Pamela Wisniewski; Jeremy Bailenson; Greg Welch Virtual Humans with Pets and Robots: Exploring the Influence of Social Priming on One’s Perception of a Virtual Human Inproceedings In: Proceedings of the IEEE Conference on Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces (IEEE VR), Christchurch, New Zealand, 2022., pp. 10, IEEE, 2022. @inproceedings{Norouzi2022,
title = {Virtual Humans with Pets and Robots: Exploring the Influence of Social Priming on One’s Perception of a Virtual Human},
author = {Nahal Norouzi and Matthew Gottsacker and Gerd Bruder and Pamela Wisniewski and Jeremy Bailenson and Greg Welch},
url = {https://sreal.ucf.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/2022007720.pdf},
year = {2022},
date = {2022-03-16},
urldate = {2022-03-16},
booktitle = {Proceedings of the IEEE Conference on Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces (IEEE VR), Christchurch, New Zealand, 2022.},
pages = {10},
publisher = {IEEE},
abstract = {Social priming is the idea that observations of a virtual human (VH)engaged in short social interactions with a real or virtual human bystander can positively influence users’ subsequent interactions with that VH. In this paper we investigate the question of whether the positive effects of social priming are limited to interactions with humanoid entities. For instance, virtual dogs offer an attractive candidate for non-humanoid entities, as previous research suggests multiple positive effects. In particular, real human dog owners receive more positive attention from strangers than non-dog owners. To examine the influence of such social priming we carried out a human-subjects experiment with four conditions: three social priming conditions where a participant initially observed a VH interacting with one of three virtual entities (another VH, a virtual pet dog, or a virtual personal robot), and a non-social priming condition where a VH (alone) was intently looking at her phone as if reading something. We recruited 24 participants and conducted a mixed-methods analysis. We found that a VH’s prior social interactions with another VH and a virtual dog significantly increased participants’ perceptions of the VHs’ affective attraction. Also, participants felt more inclined to interact with the VH in the future in all of the social priming conditions. Qualitatively, we found that the social priming conditions resulted in a more positive user experience than the non-social priming condition. Also, the virtual dog and the virtual robot were perceived as a source of positive surprise, with participants appreciating the non-humanoid interactions for various reasons, such as the avoidance of social anxieties sometimes associated with humans.},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {inproceedings}
}
Social priming is the idea that observations of a virtual human (VH)engaged in short social interactions with a real or virtual human bystander can positively influence users’ subsequent interactions with that VH. In this paper we investigate the question of whether the positive effects of social priming are limited to interactions with humanoid entities. For instance, virtual dogs offer an attractive candidate for non-humanoid entities, as previous research suggests multiple positive effects. In particular, real human dog owners receive more positive attention from strangers than non-dog owners. To examine the influence of such social priming we carried out a human-subjects experiment with four conditions: three social priming conditions where a participant initially observed a VH interacting with one of three virtual entities (another VH, a virtual pet dog, or a virtual personal robot), and a non-social priming condition where a VH (alone) was intently looking at her phone as if reading something. We recruited 24 participants and conducted a mixed-methods analysis. We found that a VH’s prior social interactions with another VH and a virtual dog significantly increased participants’ perceptions of the VHs’ affective attraction. Also, participants felt more inclined to interact with the VH in the future in all of the social priming conditions. Qualitatively, we found that the social priming conditions resulted in a more positive user experience than the non-social priming condition. Also, the virtual dog and the virtual robot were perceived as a source of positive surprise, with participants appreciating the non-humanoid interactions for various reasons, such as the avoidance of social anxieties sometimes associated with humans. |
 | Jesus Ugarte; Nahal Norouzi; Austin Erickson; Gerd Bruder; Greg Welch
Distant Hand Interaction Framework in Augmented Reality Inproceedings In: Proceedings of the 2022 IEEE Conference on Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces (VR), pp. 962-963, IEEE IEEE, Christchurch, New Zealand, 2022. @inproceedings{Ugarte2022,
title = {Distant Hand Interaction Framework in Augmented Reality},
author = {Jesus Ugarte and Nahal Norouzi and Austin Erickson and Gerd Bruder and Greg Welch
},
url = {https://sreal.ucf.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Distant_Hand_Interaction_Framework_in_Augmented_Reality.pdf},
doi = {10.1109/VRW55335.2022.00332},
year = {2022},
date = {2022-03-16},
urldate = {2022-03-16},
booktitle = {Proceedings of the 2022 IEEE Conference on Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces (VR)},
pages = {962-963},
publisher = {IEEE},
address = {Christchurch, New Zealand},
organization = {IEEE},
series = {2022 IEEE Conference on Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces Abstracts and Workshops (VRW)},
abstract = {Recent augmented reality (AR) head-mounted displays support shared experiences among multiple users in real physical spaces. While previous research looked at different embodied methods to enhance interpersonal communication cues, so far, less research looked at distant interaction in AR and, in particular, distant hand communication, which can open up new possibilities for scenarios, such as large-group collaboration. In this demonstration, we present a research framework for distant hand interaction in AR, including mapping techniques and visualizations. Our techniques are inspired by virtual reality (VR) distant hand interactions, but had to be adjusted due to the different context in AR and limited knowledge about the physical environment. We discuss different techniques for hand communication, including deictic pointing at a distance, distant drawing in AR, and distant communication through symbolic hand gestures.},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {inproceedings}
}
Recent augmented reality (AR) head-mounted displays support shared experiences among multiple users in real physical spaces. While previous research looked at different embodied methods to enhance interpersonal communication cues, so far, less research looked at distant interaction in AR and, in particular, distant hand communication, which can open up new possibilities for scenarios, such as large-group collaboration. In this demonstration, we present a research framework for distant hand interaction in AR, including mapping techniques and visualizations. Our techniques are inspired by virtual reality (VR) distant hand interactions, but had to be adjusted due to the different context in AR and limited knowledge about the physical environment. We discuss different techniques for hand communication, including deictic pointing at a distance, distant drawing in AR, and distant communication through symbolic hand gestures. |
2021
|
 | Nahal Norouzi The Social and Behavioral Influences of Interactions with Virtual Dogs as Embodied Agents in Augmented and Virtual Reality PhD Thesis 2021. @phdthesis{Norouzi2021c,
title = {The Social and Behavioral Influences of Interactions with Virtual Dogs as Embodied Agents in Augmented and Virtual Reality},
author = {Nahal Norouzi},
url = {https://sreal.ucf.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/The-Social-and-Behavioral-Influences-of-Interactions-with-Virtual.pdf},
year = {2021},
date = {2021-12-18},
urldate = {2021-12-18},
abstract = {Intelligent virtual agents (IVAs) have been researched for years and recently many of these IVAs have become commercialized and widely used by many individuals as intelligent personal assistants. The majority of these IVAs are anthropomorphic, and many are developed to resemble real humans entirely. However, real humans do not interact only with other humans in the real world, and many benefit from interactions with non-human entities. A prime example is human interactions with animals, such as dogs. Humans and dogs share a historical bond that goes back thousands of years. In the past 30 years, there has been a great deal of research to understand the effects of human-dog interaction, with research findings pointing towards the physical, mental, and social benefits to humans when interacting with dogs. However, limitations such as allergies, stress on dogs, and hygiene issues restrict some needy individuals from receiving such benefits. More recently, advances in augmented and virtual reality technology provide opportunities for realizing virtual dogs and animals, allowing for their three-dimensional presence in the users' real physical environment or while users are immersed in virtual worlds. In this dissertation, I utilize the findings from human-dog interaction research and conduct a systematic literature review on embodied IVAs to define a research scope to understand virtual dogs' social and behavioral influences in augmented and virtual reality. I present the findings of this systematic literature review that informed the creation of the research scope and four human-subjects studies. Through these user studies, I found that virtual dogs bring about a sense of comfort and companionship for users in different contexts. In addition, their responsiveness plays an important role in enhancing users' quality of experience, and they can be effectively utilized as attention guidance mechanisms and social priming stimuli.},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {phdthesis}
}
Intelligent virtual agents (IVAs) have been researched for years and recently many of these IVAs have become commercialized and widely used by many individuals as intelligent personal assistants. The majority of these IVAs are anthropomorphic, and many are developed to resemble real humans entirely. However, real humans do not interact only with other humans in the real world, and many benefit from interactions with non-human entities. A prime example is human interactions with animals, such as dogs. Humans and dogs share a historical bond that goes back thousands of years. In the past 30 years, there has been a great deal of research to understand the effects of human-dog interaction, with research findings pointing towards the physical, mental, and social benefits to humans when interacting with dogs. However, limitations such as allergies, stress on dogs, and hygiene issues restrict some needy individuals from receiving such benefits. More recently, advances in augmented and virtual reality technology provide opportunities for realizing virtual dogs and animals, allowing for their three-dimensional presence in the users' real physical environment or while users are immersed in virtual worlds. In this dissertation, I utilize the findings from human-dog interaction research and conduct a systematic literature review on embodied IVAs to define a research scope to understand virtual dogs' social and behavioral influences in augmented and virtual reality. I present the findings of this systematic literature review that informed the creation of the research scope and four human-subjects studies. Through these user studies, I found that virtual dogs bring about a sense of comfort and companionship for users in different contexts. In addition, their responsiveness plays an important role in enhancing users' quality of experience, and they can be effectively utilized as attention guidance mechanisms and social priming stimuli. |
 | Connor D. Flick; Courtney J. Harris; Nikolas T. Yonkers; Nahal Norouzi; Austin Erickson; Zubin Choudhary; Matt Gottsacker; Gerd Bruder; Gregory F. Welch Trade-offs in Augmented Reality User Interfaces for Controlling a Smart Environment Inproceedings In: In Symposium on Spatial User Interaction (SUI '21), pp. 1-11, Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 2021. @inproceedings{Flick2021,
title = {Trade-offs in Augmented Reality User Interfaces for Controlling a Smart Environment},
author = {Connor D. Flick and Courtney J. Harris and Nikolas T. Yonkers and Nahal Norouzi and Austin Erickson and Zubin Choudhary and Matt Gottsacker and Gerd Bruder and Gregory F. Welch},
url = {https://sreal.ucf.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/SUI2021_REU_Paper.pdf},
year = {2021},
date = {2021-11-09},
urldate = {2021-11-09},
booktitle = {In Symposium on Spatial User Interaction (SUI '21)},
pages = {1-11},
publisher = {Association for Computing Machinery},
address = {New York, NY, USA},
abstract = {Smart devices and Internet of Things (IoT) technologies are replacing or being incorporated into traditional devices at a growing pace. The use of digital interfaces to interact with these devices has become a common occurrence in homes, work spaces, and various industries around the world. The most common interfaces for these connected devices focus on mobile apps or voice control via intelligent virtual assistants. However, with augmented reality (AR) becoming more popular and accessible among consumers, there are new opportunities for spatial user interfaces to seamlessly bridge the gap between digital and physical affordances.
In this paper, we present a human-subject study evaluating and comparing four user interfaces for smart connected environments: gaze input, hand gestures, voice input, and a mobile app. We assessed participants’ user experience, usability, task load, completion time, and preferences. Our results show multiple trade-offs between these interfaces across these measures. In particular, we found that gaze input shows great potential for future use cases, while both gaze input and hand gestures suffer from limited familiarity among users, compared to voice input and mobile apps.},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {inproceedings}
}
Smart devices and Internet of Things (IoT) technologies are replacing or being incorporated into traditional devices at a growing pace. The use of digital interfaces to interact with these devices has become a common occurrence in homes, work spaces, and various industries around the world. The most common interfaces for these connected devices focus on mobile apps or voice control via intelligent virtual assistants. However, with augmented reality (AR) becoming more popular and accessible among consumers, there are new opportunities for spatial user interfaces to seamlessly bridge the gap between digital and physical affordances.
In this paper, we present a human-subject study evaluating and comparing four user interfaces for smart connected environments: gaze input, hand gestures, voice input, and a mobile app. We assessed participants’ user experience, usability, task load, completion time, and preferences. Our results show multiple trade-offs between these interfaces across these measures. In particular, we found that gaze input shows great potential for future use cases, while both gaze input and hand gestures suffer from limited familiarity among users, compared to voice input and mobile apps. |
 | Matt Gottsacker; Nahal Norouzi; Kangsoo Kim; Gerd Bruder; Gregory F. Welch Diegetic Representations for Seamless Cross-Reality Interruptions Conference Proceedings of the IEEE International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality (ISMAR), 2021. @conference{Gottsacker2021,
title = {Diegetic Representations for Seamless Cross-Reality Interruptions},
author = {Matt Gottsacker and Nahal Norouzi and Kangsoo Kim and Gerd Bruder and Gregory F. Welch},
url = {https://sreal.ucf.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/ISMAR_2021_Paper__Interruptions_.pdf},
year = {2021},
date = {2021-10-15},
urldate = {2021-10-15},
booktitle = {Proceedings of the IEEE International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality (ISMAR)},
pages = {10},
abstract = {Due to the closed design of modern virtual reality (VR) head-mounted displays (HMDs), users tend to lose awareness of their real-world surroundings. This is particularly challenging when an-other person in the same physical space needs to interrupt the VR user for a brief conversation. Such interruptions, e.g., tapping a VR user on the shoulder, can cause a disruptive break in presence (BIP),which affects their place and plausibility illusions, and may cause a drop in performance of their virtual activity. Recent findings related to the concept of diegesis, which denotes the internal consistency of an experience/story, suggest potential benefits of integrating registered virtual representations for physical interactors, especially when these appear internally consistent in VR. In this paper, we present a human-subject study we conducted to compare and evaluate five different diegetic and non-diegetic methods to facilitate cross-reality interruptions in a virtual office environment, where a user’s task was briefly interrupted by a physical person. We created a Cross-Reality Interaction Questionnaire (CRIQ) to capture the quality of the interaction from the VR user’s perspective. Our results show that the diegetic representations afforded the highest quality inter-actions, the highest place illusions, and caused the least disruption of the participants’ virtual experiences. We found reasonably high senses of co-presence with the partially and fully diegetic virtual representations. We discuss our findings as well as implications for practical applications that aim to leverage virtual representations to ease cross-reality interruptions},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {conference}
}
Due to the closed design of modern virtual reality (VR) head-mounted displays (HMDs), users tend to lose awareness of their real-world surroundings. This is particularly challenging when an-other person in the same physical space needs to interrupt the VR user for a brief conversation. Such interruptions, e.g., tapping a VR user on the shoulder, can cause a disruptive break in presence (BIP),which affects their place and plausibility illusions, and may cause a drop in performance of their virtual activity. Recent findings related to the concept of diegesis, which denotes the internal consistency of an experience/story, suggest potential benefits of integrating registered virtual representations for physical interactors, especially when these appear internally consistent in VR. In this paper, we present a human-subject study we conducted to compare and evaluate five different diegetic and non-diegetic methods to facilitate cross-reality interruptions in a virtual office environment, where a user’s task was briefly interrupted by a physical person. We created a Cross-Reality Interaction Questionnaire (CRIQ) to capture the quality of the interaction from the VR user’s perspective. Our results show that the diegetic representations afforded the highest quality inter-actions, the highest place illusions, and caused the least disruption of the participants’ virtual experiences. We found reasonably high senses of co-presence with the partially and fully diegetic virtual representations. We discuss our findings as well as implications for practical applications that aim to leverage virtual representations to ease cross-reality interruptions |
 | Nahal Norouzi; Gerd Bruder; Austin Erickson; Kangsoo Kim; Jeremy Bailenson; Pamela J. Wisniewski; Charles E. Hughes; and Gregory F. Welch Virtual Animals as Diegetic Attention Guidance Mechanisms in 360-Degree Experiences Journal Article In: IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics (TVCG) Special Issue on ISMAR 2021, pp. 11, 2021. @article{Norouzi2021,
title = {Virtual Animals as Diegetic Attention Guidance Mechanisms in 360-Degree Experiences},
author = {Nahal Norouzi and Gerd Bruder and Austin Erickson and Kangsoo Kim and Jeremy Bailenson and Pamela J. Wisniewski and Charles E. Hughes and and Gregory F. Welch},
url = {https://sreal.ucf.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/IEEE_ISMAR_TVCG_2021.pdf},
year = {2021},
date = {2021-10-15},
urldate = {2021-10-15},
journal = {IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics (TVCG) Special Issue on ISMAR 2021},
pages = {11},
abstract = {360-degree experiences such as cinematic virtual reality and 360-degree videos are becoming increasingly popular. In most examples, viewers can freely explore the content by changing their orientation. However, in some cases, this increased freedom may lead to viewers missing important events within such experiences. Thus, a recent research thrust has focused on studying mechanisms for guiding viewers’ attention while maintaining their sense of presence and fostering a positive user experience. One approach is the utilization of diegetic mechanisms, characterized by an internal consistency with respect to the narrative and the environment, for attention guidance. While such mechanisms are highly attractive, their uses and potential implementations are still not well understood. Additionally, acknowledging the user in 360-degree experiences has been linked to a higher sense of presence and connection. However, less is known when acknowledging behaviors are carried out by attention guiding mechanisms. To close these gaps, we conducted a within-subjects user study with five conditions of no guide and virtual arrows, birds, dogs, and dogs that acknowledge the user and the environment. Through our mixed-methods analysis, we found that the diegetic virtual animals resulted in a more positive user experience, all of which were at least as effective as the non-diegetic arrow in guiding users towards target events. The acknowledging dog received the most positive responses from our participants in terms of preference and user experience and significantly improved their sense of presence compared to the non-diegetic arrow. Lastly, three themes emerged from a qualitative analysis of our participants’ feedback, indicating the importance of the guide’s blending in, its acknowledging behavior, and participants’ positive associations as the main factors for our participants’ preferences.},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}
360-degree experiences such as cinematic virtual reality and 360-degree videos are becoming increasingly popular. In most examples, viewers can freely explore the content by changing their orientation. However, in some cases, this increased freedom may lead to viewers missing important events within such experiences. Thus, a recent research thrust has focused on studying mechanisms for guiding viewers’ attention while maintaining their sense of presence and fostering a positive user experience. One approach is the utilization of diegetic mechanisms, characterized by an internal consistency with respect to the narrative and the environment, for attention guidance. While such mechanisms are highly attractive, their uses and potential implementations are still not well understood. Additionally, acknowledging the user in 360-degree experiences has been linked to a higher sense of presence and connection. However, less is known when acknowledging behaviors are carried out by attention guiding mechanisms. To close these gaps, we conducted a within-subjects user study with five conditions of no guide and virtual arrows, birds, dogs, and dogs that acknowledge the user and the environment. Through our mixed-methods analysis, we found that the diegetic virtual animals resulted in a more positive user experience, all of which were at least as effective as the non-diegetic arrow in guiding users towards target events. The acknowledging dog received the most positive responses from our participants in terms of preference and user experience and significantly improved their sense of presence compared to the non-diegetic arrow. Lastly, three themes emerged from a qualitative analysis of our participants’ feedback, indicating the importance of the guide’s blending in, its acknowledging behavior, and participants’ positive associations as the main factors for our participants’ preferences. |
 | Kangsoo Kim; Nahal Norouzi; Dongsik Jo; Gerd Bruder; and Gregory F. Welch The Augmented Reality Internet of Things: Opportunities of Embodied Interactions in Transreality Book Chapter Forthcoming In: Nee, A. Y. C.; Ong, S. K. (Ed.): vol. Handbook of Augmented Reality, pp. 60, Springer , Forthcoming. @inbook{Kim2021,
title = {The Augmented Reality Internet of Things: Opportunities of Embodied Interactions in Transreality},
author = {Kangsoo Kim and Nahal Norouzi and Dongsik Jo and Gerd Bruder and and Gregory F. Welch},
editor = {A. Y. C. Nee and S. K. Ong},
year = {2021},
date = {2021-09-01},
urldate = {2021-09-01},
volume = {Handbook of Augmented Reality},
pages = {60},
publisher = {Springer },
abstract = {Human society is encountering a new wave of advancements related to smart connected technologies with the convergence of different traditionally separate fields, which can be characterized by a fusion of technologies that merge and tightly integrate the physical, digital, and biological spheres. In this new paradigm of convergence, all the physical and digital things will become more and more intelligent and connected to each other through the Internet, and the boundary between them will blur and become seamless. In particular, Augmented/Mixed Reality (AR/MR) combines virtual content with the real environment and is experiencing an unprecedented golden era along with dramatic technological achievements and increasing public interest. Together with advanced Artificial Intelligence (AI) and ubiquitous computing empowered by the Internet of Things/Everything (IoT/IoE) systems, AR can be our ultimate interface to interact with both digital (virtual) and physical (real) worlds while pervasively mediating and enriching our lives. In this chapter, we describe the concept of transreality that symbiotically connects the physical and the virtual worlds incorporating the aforementioned advanced technologies, and illustrate how such transreality environments can transform our activities in it, providing intelligent and intuitive interaction with the environment while exploring prior research literature in this domain. We also present the potential of virtually embodied interactions—e.g., employing virtual avatars and agents—in highly connected transreality spaces for enhancing human abilities and perception. Recent ongoing research focusing on the effects of embodied interaction are described and discussed in different aspects such as perceptual, cognitive, and social contexts. The chapter will end with discussions on potential research directions in the future and implications related to the user experience in transreality.},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {forthcoming},
tppubtype = {inbook}
}
Human society is encountering a new wave of advancements related to smart connected technologies with the convergence of different traditionally separate fields, which can be characterized by a fusion of technologies that merge and tightly integrate the physical, digital, and biological spheres. In this new paradigm of convergence, all the physical and digital things will become more and more intelligent and connected to each other through the Internet, and the boundary between them will blur and become seamless. In particular, Augmented/Mixed Reality (AR/MR) combines virtual content with the real environment and is experiencing an unprecedented golden era along with dramatic technological achievements and increasing public interest. Together with advanced Artificial Intelligence (AI) and ubiquitous computing empowered by the Internet of Things/Everything (IoT/IoE) systems, AR can be our ultimate interface to interact with both digital (virtual) and physical (real) worlds while pervasively mediating and enriching our lives. In this chapter, we describe the concept of transreality that symbiotically connects the physical and the virtual worlds incorporating the aforementioned advanced technologies, and illustrate how such transreality environments can transform our activities in it, providing intelligent and intuitive interaction with the environment while exploring prior research literature in this domain. We also present the potential of virtually embodied interactions—e.g., employing virtual avatars and agents—in highly connected transreality spaces for enhancing human abilities and perception. Recent ongoing research focusing on the effects of embodied interaction are described and discussed in different aspects such as perceptual, cognitive, and social contexts. The chapter will end with discussions on potential research directions in the future and implications related to the user experience in transreality. |
2020
|
![[Demo] Towards Interactive Virtual Dogs as a Pervasive Social Companion in Augmented Reality](https://sreal.ucf.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/demoFig-e1607360623259.png) | Nahal Norouzi; Kangsoo Kim; Gerd Bruder; Greg Welch [Demo] Towards Interactive Virtual Dogs as a Pervasive Social Companion in Augmented Reality Inproceedings In: Proceedings of the combined International Conference on Artificial Reality & Telexistence and Eurographics Symposium on Virtual Environments (ICAT-EGVE)., pp. 29-30, 2020, (Best Demo Audience Choice Award). @inproceedings{Norouzi2020d,
title = {[Demo] Towards Interactive Virtual Dogs as a Pervasive Social Companion in Augmented Reality},
author = {Nahal Norouzi and Kangsoo Kim and Gerd Bruder and Greg Welch },
url = {https://sreal.ucf.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/029-030.pdf},
doi = {https://doi.org/10.2312/egve.20201283},
year = {2020},
date = {2020-12-04},
booktitle = {Proceedings of the combined International Conference on Artificial Reality & Telexistence and Eurographics Symposium on Virtual Environments (ICAT-EGVE).},
pages = {29-30},
abstract = {Pets and animal-assisted intervention sessions have shown to be beneficial for humans' mental, social, and physical health. However, for specific populations, factors such as hygiene restrictions, allergies, and care and resource limitations reduce interaction opportunities. In parallel, understanding the capabilities of animals' technological representations, such as robotic and digital forms, have received considerable attention and has fueled the utilization of many of these technological representations. Additionally, recent advances in augmented reality technology have allowed for the realization of virtual animals with flexible appearances and behaviors to exist in the real world. In this demo, we present a companion virtual dog in augmented reality that aims to facilitate a range of interactions with populations, such as children and older adults. We discuss the potential benefits and limitations of such a companion and propose future use cases and research directions.},
note = {Best Demo Audience Choice Award},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {inproceedings}
}
Pets and animal-assisted intervention sessions have shown to be beneficial for humans' mental, social, and physical health. However, for specific populations, factors such as hygiene restrictions, allergies, and care and resource limitations reduce interaction opportunities. In parallel, understanding the capabilities of animals' technological representations, such as robotic and digital forms, have received considerable attention and has fueled the utilization of many of these technological representations. Additionally, recent advances in augmented reality technology have allowed for the realization of virtual animals with flexible appearances and behaviors to exist in the real world. In this demo, we present a companion virtual dog in augmented reality that aims to facilitate a range of interactions with populations, such as children and older adults. We discuss the potential benefits and limitations of such a companion and propose future use cases and research directions. |
 | Nahal Norouzi; Kangsoo Kim; Gerd Bruder; Austin Erickson; Zubin Choudhary; Yifan Li; Greg Welch A Systematic Literature Review of Embodied Augmented Reality Agents in Head-Mounted Display Environments Inproceedings In: In Proceedings of the International Conference on Artificial Reality and Telexistence & Eurographics Symposium on Virtual Environments, pp. 11, 2020. @inproceedings{Norouzi2020c,
title = {A Systematic Literature Review of Embodied Augmented Reality Agents in Head-Mounted Display Environments},
author = {Nahal Norouzi and Kangsoo Kim and Gerd Bruder and Austin Erickson and Zubin Choudhary and Yifan Li and Greg Welch},
url = {https://sreal.ucf.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/IVC_ICAT_EGVE2020.pdf
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IsX5q86pH4M},
year = {2020},
date = {2020-12-02},
urldate = {2020-12-02},
booktitle = {In Proceedings of the International Conference on Artificial Reality and Telexistence & Eurographics Symposium on Virtual Environments},
pages = {11},
abstract = {Embodied agents, i.e., computer-controlled characters, have proven useful for various applications across a multitude of display setups and modalities. While most traditional work focused on embodied agents presented on a screen or projector, and a growing number of works are focusing on agents in virtual reality, a comparatively small number of publications looked at such agents in augmented reality (AR). Such AR agents, specifically when using see-through head-mounted displays (HMDs)as the display medium, show multiple critical differences to other forms of agents, including their appearances, behaviors, and physical-virtual interactivity. Due to the unique challenges in this specific field, and due to the comparatively limited attention by the research community so far, we believe that it is important to map the field to understand the current trends, challenges, and future research. In this paper, we present a systematic review of the research performed on interactive, embodied AR agents using HMDs. Starting with 1261 broadly related papers, we conducted an in-depth review of 50 directly related papers from2000 to 2020, focusing on papers that reported on user studies aiming to improve our understanding of interactive agents in AR HMD environments or their utilization in specific applications. We identified common research and application areas of AR agents through a structured iterative process, present research trends, and gaps, and share insights on future directions.},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {inproceedings}
}
Embodied agents, i.e., computer-controlled characters, have proven useful for various applications across a multitude of display setups and modalities. While most traditional work focused on embodied agents presented on a screen or projector, and a growing number of works are focusing on agents in virtual reality, a comparatively small number of publications looked at such agents in augmented reality (AR). Such AR agents, specifically when using see-through head-mounted displays (HMDs)as the display medium, show multiple critical differences to other forms of agents, including their appearances, behaviors, and physical-virtual interactivity. Due to the unique challenges in this specific field, and due to the comparatively limited attention by the research community so far, we believe that it is important to map the field to understand the current trends, challenges, and future research. In this paper, we present a systematic review of the research performed on interactive, embodied AR agents using HMDs. Starting with 1261 broadly related papers, we conducted an in-depth review of 50 directly related papers from2000 to 2020, focusing on papers that reported on user studies aiming to improve our understanding of interactive agents in AR HMD environments or their utilization in specific applications. We identified common research and application areas of AR agents through a structured iterative process, present research trends, and gaps, and share insights on future directions. |
 | Celso M. de Melo; Kangsoo Kim; Nahal Norouzi; Gerd Bruder; Gregory Welch Reducing Cognitive Load and Improving Warfighter Problem Solving with Intelligent Virtual Assistants Journal Article In: Frontiers in Psychology, vol. 11, no. 554706, pp. 1-12, 2020. @article{DeMelo2020rcl,
title = {Reducing Cognitive Load and Improving Warfighter Problem Solving with Intelligent Virtual Assistants},
author = {Celso M. de Melo and Kangsoo Kim and Nahal Norouzi and Gerd Bruder and Gregory Welch},
url = {https://sreal.ucf.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Melo2020aa-2.pdf},
doi = {10.3389/fpsyg.2020.554706},
year = {2020},
date = {2020-11-17},
journal = {Frontiers in Psychology},
volume = {11},
number = {554706},
pages = {1-12},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}
|
 | Alexis Lambert; Nahal Norouzi; Gerd Bruder; Greg Welch
A Systematic Review of Ten Years of Research on Human Interaction with Social Robots Journal Article In: International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction, pp. 10, 2020. @article{Lambert2020,
title = {A Systematic Review of Ten Years of Research on Human Interaction with Social Robots},
author = {Alexis Lambert and Nahal Norouzi and Gerd Bruder and Greg Welch
},
editor = {Constantine Stephanidis},
url = {https://sreal.ucf.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/8_25_2020_A-Systemat.pdf},
doi = {10.1080/10447318.2020.1801172},
year = {2020},
date = {2020-08-25},
journal = {International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction},
pages = {10},
abstract = {While research and development related to robotics has been going on for decades, the past decade in particular has seen a marked increase in related efforts, in part due to technological advances, increased technological accessibility and reliability, and increased commercial availability. What have come to be known as social robots are now being used to explore novel forms of human-robot interaction, to understand social norms, and to test expectations and human responses. To capture the contributions of these research efforts, identify the current trends, and future directions, we systematically review ten years of research in the field of social robotics between 2008 and 2018, which includes 86 publications with 70 user studies. We classify the past work based on the research topics and application areas, and provide information about the publications, their user studies, and the capabilities of the social robots utilized. We also discuss selected papers in detail and outline overall trends. Based on these findings, we identify some areas of potential future research.},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}
While research and development related to robotics has been going on for decades, the past decade in particular has seen a marked increase in related efforts, in part due to technological advances, increased technological accessibility and reliability, and increased commercial availability. What have come to be known as social robots are now being used to explore novel forms of human-robot interaction, to understand social norms, and to test expectations and human responses. To capture the contributions of these research efforts, identify the current trends, and future directions, we systematically review ten years of research in the field of social robotics between 2008 and 2018, which includes 86 publications with 70 user studies. We classify the past work based on the research topics and application areas, and provide information about the publications, their user studies, and the capabilities of the social robots utilized. We also discuss selected papers in detail and outline overall trends. Based on these findings, we identify some areas of potential future research. |
 | Austin Erickson; Nahal Norouzi; Kangsoo Kim; Ryan Schubert; Jonathan Jules; Joseph J. LaViola Jr.; Gerd Bruder; Gregory F. Welch Sharing gaze rays for visual target identification tasks in collaborative augmented reality Journal Article In: Journal on Multimodal User Interfaces: Special Issue on Multimodal Interfaces and Communication Cues for Remote Collaboration, vol. 14, no. 4, pp. 353-371, 2020, ISSN: 1783-8738. @article{EricksonNorouzi2020,
title = {Sharing gaze rays for visual target identification tasks in collaborative augmented reality},
author = {Austin Erickson and Nahal Norouzi and Kangsoo Kim and Ryan Schubert and Jonathan Jules and Joseph J. LaViola Jr. and Gerd Bruder and Gregory F. Welch},
url = {https://sreal.ucf.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Erickson2020_Article_SharingGazeRaysForVisualTarget.pdf},
doi = {https://doi.org/10.1007/s12193-020-00330-2},
issn = {1783-8738},
year = {2020},
date = {2020-07-09},
journal = {Journal on Multimodal User Interfaces: Special Issue on Multimodal Interfaces and Communication Cues for Remote Collaboration},
volume = {14},
number = {4},
pages = {353-371},
abstract = {Augmented reality (AR) technologies provide a shared platform for users to collaborate in a physical context involving both real and virtual content. To enhance the quality of interaction between AR users, researchers have proposed augmenting users’ interpersonal space with embodied cues such as their gaze direction. While beneficial in achieving improved interpersonal spatial communication, such shared gaze environments suffer from multiple types of errors related to eye tracking and networking, that can reduce objective performance and subjective experience. In this paper, we present a human-subjects study to understand the impact of accuracy, precision, latency, and dropout based errors on users’ performance when using shared gaze cues to identify a target among a crowd of people. We simulated varying amounts of errors and the target distances and measured participants’ objective performance through their response time and error rate, and their subjective experience and cognitive load through questionnaires. We found significant differences suggesting that the simulated error levels had stronger effects on participants’ performance than target distance with accuracy and latency having a high impact on participants’ error rate. We also observed that participants assessed their own performance as lower than it objectively was. We discuss implications for practical shared gaze applications and we present a multi-user prototype system.},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}
Augmented reality (AR) technologies provide a shared platform for users to collaborate in a physical context involving both real and virtual content. To enhance the quality of interaction between AR users, researchers have proposed augmenting users’ interpersonal space with embodied cues such as their gaze direction. While beneficial in achieving improved interpersonal spatial communication, such shared gaze environments suffer from multiple types of errors related to eye tracking and networking, that can reduce objective performance and subjective experience. In this paper, we present a human-subjects study to understand the impact of accuracy, precision, latency, and dropout based errors on users’ performance when using shared gaze cues to identify a target among a crowd of people. We simulated varying amounts of errors and the target distances and measured participants’ objective performance through their response time and error rate, and their subjective experience and cognitive load through questionnaires. We found significant differences suggesting that the simulated error levels had stronger effects on participants’ performance than target distance with accuracy and latency having a high impact on participants’ error rate. We also observed that participants assessed their own performance as lower than it objectively was. We discuss implications for practical shared gaze applications and we present a multi-user prototype system. |
 | Kangsoo Kim; Celso M. de Melo; Nahal Norouzi; Gerd Bruder; Gregory F. Welch Reducing Task Load with an Embodied Intelligent Virtual Assistant for Improved Performance in Collaborative Decision Making Inproceedings In: Proceedings of the IEEE Conference on Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces (IEEE VR), pp. 529-538, Atlanta, Georgia, 2020. @inproceedings{Kim2020rtl,
title = {Reducing Task Load with an Embodied Intelligent Virtual Assistant for Improved Performance in Collaborative Decision Making},
author = {Kangsoo Kim and Celso M. de Melo and Nahal Norouzi and Gerd Bruder and Gregory F. Welch},
url = {https://sreal.ucf.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/IEEEVR2020_ARDesertSurvival.pdf
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_iZ_asjp3I&t=6s, YouTube Presentation},
doi = {10.1109/VR46266.2020.00-30},
year = {2020},
date = {2020-03-23},
booktitle = {Proceedings of the IEEE Conference on Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces (IEEE VR)},
pages = {529-538},
address = {Atlanta, Georgia},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {inproceedings}
}
|
 | Austin Erickson; Nahal Norouzi; Kangsoo Kim; Joseph J. LaViola Jr.; Gerd Bruder; Gregory F. Welch Effects of Depth Information on Visual Target Identification Task Performance in Shared Gaze Environments Journal Article In: IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics, vol. 26, no. 5, pp. 1934-1944, 2020, ISSN: 1077-2626, (Presented at IEEE VR 2020). @article{Erickson2020c,
title = {Effects of Depth Information on Visual Target Identification Task Performance in Shared Gaze Environments},
author = {Austin Erickson and Nahal Norouzi and Kangsoo Kim and Joseph J. LaViola Jr. and Gerd Bruder and Gregory F. Welch},
url = {https://sreal.ucf.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/shared_gaze_2_FINAL.pdf
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQO_iosY62Y&t=6s, YouTube Presentation},
doi = {10.1109/TVCG.2020.2973054},
issn = {1077-2626},
year = {2020},
date = {2020-02-13},
journal = {IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics},
volume = {26},
number = {5},
pages = {1934-1944},
abstract = {Human gaze awareness is important for social and collaborative interactions. Recent technological advances in augmented reality (AR) displays and sensors provide us with the means to extend collaborative spaces with real-time dynamic AR indicators of one's gaze, for example via three-dimensional cursors or rays emanating from a partner's head. However, such gaze cues are only as useful as the quality of the underlying gaze estimation and the accuracy of the display mechanism. Depending on the type of the visualization, and the characteristics of the errors, AR gaze cues could either enhance or interfere with collaborations. In this paper, we present two human-subject studies in which we investigate the influence of angular and depth errors, target distance, and the type of gaze visualization on participants' performance and subjective evaluation during a collaborative task with a virtual human partner, where participants identified targets within a dynamically walking crowd. First, our results show that there is a significant difference in performance for the two gaze visualizations ray and cursor in conditions with simulated angular and depth errors: the ray visualization provided significantly faster response times and fewer errors compared to the cursor visualization. Second, our results show that under optimal conditions, among four different gaze visualization methods, a ray without depth information provides the worst performance and is rated lowest, while a combination of a ray and cursor with depth information is rated highest. We discuss the subjective and objective performance thresholds and provide guidelines for practitioners in this field.},
note = {Presented at IEEE VR 2020},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}
Human gaze awareness is important for social and collaborative interactions. Recent technological advances in augmented reality (AR) displays and sensors provide us with the means to extend collaborative spaces with real-time dynamic AR indicators of one's gaze, for example via three-dimensional cursors or rays emanating from a partner's head. However, such gaze cues are only as useful as the quality of the underlying gaze estimation and the accuracy of the display mechanism. Depending on the type of the visualization, and the characteristics of the errors, AR gaze cues could either enhance or interfere with collaborations. In this paper, we present two human-subject studies in which we investigate the influence of angular and depth errors, target distance, and the type of gaze visualization on participants' performance and subjective evaluation during a collaborative task with a virtual human partner, where participants identified targets within a dynamically walking crowd. First, our results show that there is a significant difference in performance for the two gaze visualizations ray and cursor in conditions with simulated angular and depth errors: the ray visualization provided significantly faster response times and fewer errors compared to the cursor visualization. Second, our results show that under optimal conditions, among four different gaze visualization methods, a ray without depth information provides the worst performance and is rated lowest, while a combination of a ray and cursor with depth information is rated highest. We discuss the subjective and objective performance thresholds and provide guidelines for practitioners in this field. |
2019
|
 | Myungho Lee; Nahal Norouzi; Gerd Bruder; Pamela J. Wisniewski; Gregory F. Welch Mixed Reality Tabletop Gameplay: Social Interaction with a Virtual Human Capable of Physical Influence Journal Article In: IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics, vol. 24, no. 8, pp. 1-12, 2019, ISSN: 1077-2626. @article{Lee2020,
title = {Mixed Reality Tabletop Gameplay: Social Interaction with a Virtual Human Capable of Physical Influence},
author = {Myungho Lee and Nahal Norouzi and Gerd Bruder and Pamela J. Wisniewski and Gregory F. Welch },
url = {https://sreal.ucf.edu/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/TVCG_Physical_Virtual_Table_2019.pdf},
doi = {10.1109/TVCG.2019.2959575},
issn = {1077-2626},
year = {2019},
date = {2019-12-18},
journal = {IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics},
volume = {24},
number = {8},
pages = {1-12},
abstract = {In this paper, we investigate the effects of the physical influence of a virtual human (VH) in the context of face-to-face interaction in a mixed reality environment. In Experiment 1, participants played a tabletop game with a VH, in which each player takes a turn and moves their own token along the designated spots on the shared table. We compared two conditions as follows: the VH in the virtual condition moves a virtual token that can only be seen through augmented reality (AR) glasses, while the VH in the physical condition moves a physical token as the participants do; therefore the VH’s token can be seen even in the periphery of the AR glasses. For the physical condition, we designed an actuator system underneath the table. The actuator moves a magnet under the table which then moves the VH’s physical token over the surface of the table. Our results indicate that participants felt higher co-presence with the VH in the physical condition, and participants assessed the VH as a more physical entity compared to the VH in the virtual condition. We further observed transference effects when participants attributed the VH’s ability to move physical objects to other elements in the real world. Also, the VH’s physical influence improved participants’ overall experience with the VH. In Experiment 2, we further looked into the question how the physical-virtual latency in movements affected the perceived plausibility of the VH’s interaction with the real world. Our results indicate that a slight temporal difference between the physical token reacting to the virtual hand’s movement increased the perceived realism and causality of the mixed reality interaction. We discuss potential explanations for the findings and implications for future shared mixed reality tabletop setups.
},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}
In this paper, we investigate the effects of the physical influence of a virtual human (VH) in the context of face-to-face interaction in a mixed reality environment. In Experiment 1, participants played a tabletop game with a VH, in which each player takes a turn and moves their own token along the designated spots on the shared table. We compared two conditions as follows: the VH in the virtual condition moves a virtual token that can only be seen through augmented reality (AR) glasses, while the VH in the physical condition moves a physical token as the participants do; therefore the VH’s token can be seen even in the periphery of the AR glasses. For the physical condition, we designed an actuator system underneath the table. The actuator moves a magnet under the table which then moves the VH’s physical token over the surface of the table. Our results indicate that participants felt higher co-presence with the VH in the physical condition, and participants assessed the VH as a more physical entity compared to the VH in the virtual condition. We further observed transference effects when participants attributed the VH’s ability to move physical objects to other elements in the real world. Also, the VH’s physical influence improved participants’ overall experience with the VH. In Experiment 2, we further looked into the question how the physical-virtual latency in movements affected the perceived plausibility of the VH’s interaction with the real world. Our results indicate that a slight temporal difference between the physical token reacting to the virtual hand’s movement increased the perceived realism and causality of the mixed reality interaction. We discuss potential explanations for the findings and implications for future shared mixed reality tabletop setups.
|
 | Kangsoo Kim; Nahal Norouzi; Tiffany Losekamp; Gerd Bruder; Mindi Anderson; Gregory Welch Effects of Patient Care Assistant Embodiment and Computer Mediation on User Experience Inproceedings In: Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Artificial Intelligence & Virtual Reality (AIVR), pp. 17-24, IEEE, 2019. @inproceedings{Kim2019epc,
title = {Effects of Patient Care Assistant Embodiment and Computer Mediation on User Experience},
author = {Kangsoo Kim and Nahal Norouzi and Tiffany Losekamp and Gerd Bruder and Mindi Anderson and Gregory Welch},
url = {https://sreal.ucf.edu/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/AIVR2019_Caregiver.pdf},
doi = {10.1109/AIVR46125.2019.00013},
year = {2019},
date = {2019-12-09},
booktitle = {Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Artificial Intelligence & Virtual Reality (AIVR)},
pages = {17-24},
publisher = {IEEE},
abstract = {Providers of patient care environments are facing an increasing demand for technological solutions that can facilitate increased patient satisfaction while being cost effective and practically feasible. Recent developments with respect to smart hospital room setups and smart home care environments have an immense potential to leverage advances in technologies such as Intelligent Virtual Agents, Internet of Things devices, and Augmented Reality to enable novel forms of patient interaction with caregivers and their environment.
In this paper, we present a human-subjects study in which we compared four types of simulated patient care environments for a range of typical tasks. In particular, we tested two forms of caregiver mediation with a real person or a virtual agent, and we compared two forms of caregiver embodiment with disembodied verbal or embodied interaction. Our results show that, as expected, a real caregiver provides the optimal user experience but an embodied virtual assistant is also a viable option for patient care environments, providing significantly higher social presence and engagement than voice-only interaction. We discuss the implications in the field of patient care and digital assistant.},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {inproceedings}
}
Providers of patient care environments are facing an increasing demand for technological solutions that can facilitate increased patient satisfaction while being cost effective and practically feasible. Recent developments with respect to smart hospital room setups and smart home care environments have an immense potential to leverage advances in technologies such as Intelligent Virtual Agents, Internet of Things devices, and Augmented Reality to enable novel forms of patient interaction with caregivers and their environment.
In this paper, we present a human-subjects study in which we compared four types of simulated patient care environments for a range of typical tasks. In particular, we tested two forms of caregiver mediation with a real person or a virtual agent, and we compared two forms of caregiver embodiment with disembodied verbal or embodied interaction. Our results show that, as expected, a real caregiver provides the optimal user experience but an embodied virtual assistant is also a viable option for patient care environments, providing significantly higher social presence and engagement than voice-only interaction. We discuss the implications in the field of patient care and digital assistant. |
 | Kendra Richards; Nikhil Mahalanobis; Kangsoo Kim; Ryan Schubert; Myungho Lee; Salam Daher; Nahal Norouzi; Jason Hochreiter; Gerd Bruder; Gregory F. Welch Analysis of Peripheral Vision and Vibrotactile Feedback During Proximal Search Tasks with Dynamic Virtual Entities in Augmented Reality Inproceedings In: Proceedings of the ACM Symposium on Spatial User Interaction (SUI), pp. 3:1-3:9, ACM, 2019, ISBN: 978-1-4503-6975-6/19/10. @inproceedings{Richards2019b,
title = {Analysis of Peripheral Vision and Vibrotactile Feedback During Proximal Search Tasks with Dynamic Virtual Entities in Augmented Reality},
author = {Kendra Richards and Nikhil Mahalanobis and Kangsoo Kim and Ryan Schubert and Myungho Lee and Salam Daher and Nahal Norouzi and Jason Hochreiter and Gerd Bruder and Gregory F. Welch},
url = {https://sreal.ucf.edu/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Richards2019b.pdf},
doi = {10.1145/3357251.3357585},
isbn = {978-1-4503-6975-6/19/10},
year = {2019},
date = {2019-10-19},
booktitle = {Proceedings of the ACM Symposium on Spatial User Interaction (SUI)},
pages = {3:1-3:9},
publisher = {ACM},
abstract = {A primary goal of augmented reality (AR) is to seamlessly embed virtual content into a real environment. There are many factors that can affect the perceived physicality and co-presence of virtual entities, including the hardware capabilities, the fidelity of the virtual behaviors, and sensory feedback associated with the interactions. In this paper, we present a study investigating participants' perceptions and behaviors during a time-limited search task in close proximity with virtual entities in AR. In particular, we analyze the effects of (i) visual conflicts in the periphery of an optical see-through head-mounted display, a Microsoft HoloLens, (ii) overall lighting in the physical environment, and (iii) multimodal feedback based on vibrotactile transducers mounted on a physical platform. Our results show significant benefits of vibrotactile feedback and reduced peripheral lighting for spatial and social presence, and engagement. We discuss implications of these effects for AR applications.},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {inproceedings}
}
A primary goal of augmented reality (AR) is to seamlessly embed virtual content into a real environment. There are many factors that can affect the perceived physicality and co-presence of virtual entities, including the hardware capabilities, the fidelity of the virtual behaviors, and sensory feedback associated with the interactions. In this paper, we present a study investigating participants' perceptions and behaviors during a time-limited search task in close proximity with virtual entities in AR. In particular, we analyze the effects of (i) visual conflicts in the periphery of an optical see-through head-mounted display, a Microsoft HoloLens, (ii) overall lighting in the physical environment, and (iii) multimodal feedback based on vibrotactile transducers mounted on a physical platform. Our results show significant benefits of vibrotactile feedback and reduced peripheral lighting for spatial and social presence, and engagement. We discuss implications of these effects for AR applications. |
 | Nahal Norouzi; Austin Erickson; Kangsoo Kim; Ryan Schubert; Joseph J. LaViola Jr.; Gerd Bruder; Gregory F. Welch Effects of Shared Gaze Parameters on Visual Target Identification Task Performance in Augmented Reality Inproceedings In: Proceedings of the ACM Symposium on Spatial User Interaction (SUI), pp. 12:1-12:11, ACM, 2019, ISBN: 978-1-4503-6975-6/19/10, (Best Paper Award). @inproceedings{Norouzi2019esg,
title = {Effects of Shared Gaze Parameters on Visual Target Identification Task Performance in Augmented Reality},
author = {Nahal Norouzi and Austin Erickson and Kangsoo Kim and Ryan Schubert and Joseph J. LaViola Jr. and Gerd Bruder and Gregory F. Welch},
url = {https://sreal.ucf.edu/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/a12-norouzi.pdf},
doi = {10.1145/3357251.3357587},
isbn = {978-1-4503-6975-6/19/10},
year = {2019},
date = {2019-10-19},
booktitle = {Proceedings of the ACM Symposium on Spatial User Interaction (SUI)},
pages = {12:1-12:11},
publisher = {ACM},
abstract = {Augmented reality (AR) technologies provide a shared platform for users to collaborate in a physical context involving both real and virtual content. To enhance the quality of interaction between AR users, researchers have proposed augmenting users' interpersonal space with embodied cues such as their gaze direction. While beneficial in achieving improved interpersonal spatial communication, such shared gaze environments suffer from multiple types of errors related to eye tracking and networking, that can reduce objective performance and subjective experience.
In this paper, we conducted a human-subject study to understand the impact of accuracy, precision, latency, and dropout based errors on users' performance when using shared gaze cues to identify a target among a crowd of people. We simulated varying amounts of errors and the target distances and measured participants' objective performance through their response time and error rate, and their subjective experience and cognitive load through questionnaires. We found some significant differences suggesting that the simulated error levels had stronger effects on participants' performance than target distance with accuracy and latency having a high impact on participants' error rate. We also observed that participants assessed their own performance as lower than it objectively was, and we discuss implications for practical shared gaze applications.},
note = {Best Paper Award},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {inproceedings}
}
Augmented reality (AR) technologies provide a shared platform for users to collaborate in a physical context involving both real and virtual content. To enhance the quality of interaction between AR users, researchers have proposed augmenting users' interpersonal space with embodied cues such as their gaze direction. While beneficial in achieving improved interpersonal spatial communication, such shared gaze environments suffer from multiple types of errors related to eye tracking and networking, that can reduce objective performance and subjective experience.
In this paper, we conducted a human-subject study to understand the impact of accuracy, precision, latency, and dropout based errors on users' performance when using shared gaze cues to identify a target among a crowd of people. We simulated varying amounts of errors and the target distances and measured participants' objective performance through their response time and error rate, and their subjective experience and cognitive load through questionnaires. We found some significant differences suggesting that the simulated error levels had stronger effects on participants' performance than target distance with accuracy and latency having a high impact on participants' error rate. We also observed that participants assessed their own performance as lower than it objectively was, and we discuss implications for practical shared gaze applications. |
