Yuen C. Law

Previous research has investigated the effects of the plausibility paradox using simple objects. We aimed to determine whether this effect also occurs when interacting with complex virtual objects. We conducted a within-subjects experiment to assess whether a mismatch exists between perceived realism and the correct approximation of realism in the behavior of a simulated whip. We compared two whip conditions: the experimental condition using assisted targeting and the control condition, which involved the correct approximation of the behavior of a whip. We found an increase in accuracy using the assisted whip; however, the participants did not perceive any difference in realism between the two conditions. These findings suggest that, at the very least, we can manipulate the physical behavior properties of complex virtual objects without breaking the plausibility of the interaction.

The integration of immersive technologies in education and training has shown significant promise for enhancing learning experiences. However, the high cost of common virtual reality (VR) equipment, such as Meta Quest and HTC Vive, has limited widespread adoption in classrooms. Low-cost alternatives like Google Cardboard offer economic accessibility but present challenges in interaction design due to limited input options. This paper presents an elicitation study to gather user preferences while performing 3D actions with Google Cardboard. This study aims to inform the development of effective interactions for cost-effective immersive learning experiences. The findings contribute to understanding the feasibility of employing low-cost viewers in educational settings and provide guidance for optimizing interaction design, particularly for applications where external input devices are not readily available.

This paper introduces ChronoShore, an immersive virtual reality (VR) experience designed to explore diegetic time manipulation mechanics within a semi-realistic coastal environment. Traditional 2D video scrubbing methods fall short in immersive settings, particularly for understanding time-bound processes such as simulations of geology or biology. ChronoShore addresses this by allowing users to interact with celestial bodies to dynamically control and experience the passage of time, currently showcasing different weather events and atmospheric phenomena.

Cybersickness poses a significant barrier to the widespread adoption of VR applications, particularly when virtual movement occurs without corresponding physical movement. While current strategies to mitigate cybersickness exist, none are entirely effective, especially if virtual movement is essential. Further research is needed, and this requires controlled induction of cybersickness in empirical studies. In this demo, we introduce Cybersicker, a simulator designed to bridge the gap between high-intensity, proprietary simulators and less engaging alternatives. The simulator provides controlled translational and rotational vection while encouraging user participation.

We propose the use of a Virtual Tour to substitute in-person visits to a manufacturing plant for a lecture on Enterprise Productivity at the School of Business Administration at our University. Traditionally, during this lecture, students are required to visit a production site to observe its process and apply their knowledge in a real-life scenario. However, finding businesses that are willing to participate and offer the right learning conditions has become a challenge. This situation is now worse due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In this paper, we present a prototype of a virtual tour of an assembly line in a simulated environment, where students can explore and learn about the manufacturing process of car seats. We performed a mixed method user study, with quantitative and qualitative data, to determine whether the application can help learn the intended concepts and improve the learning experience and motivation of students. Results show that the use of the virtual tour application increased motivation in learning.

Although habits are a well-researched topic within psychology, habits enacted at the workplace received limited attention in the organizational literature. In this article we examine habits that employees show at the workplace. Because workplace habits are not always functional for performance or affective outcomes, and because employees themselves may regard specific habits as undesirable, it is important to identify ways of how employees can abandon such unwanted habits. We report findings from a daily-survey study (N = 145 persons) in which we examined if self-regulatory processes predict disengagement from undesirable habits and engagement in more desirable alternative behaviors. Multilevel path analysis showed that day-specific implementation intentions and day-specific vigilant monitoring were negatively related to day-specific habitual behavior and positively related to day-specific alternative behaviors, both in the morning and in the afternoon. Analysis of follow-up data (N = 126 persons) showed that change in habit strength was stable over a 2-month period, suggesting that implementation intentions, vigilant monitoring, and the associated enactment of alternative behavior indeed may help to disengage from unwanted habits, particularly with respect to task-related habits and when consistency in vigilant monitoring is high. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Gathering qualitative user data in a user-centered design process is one of the very early steps to create interactive systems. However, generating structured models from qualitative data towards descriptions that can be used for the implementation of interactive systems and prototypes raises various challenges, such as a strong influence of the modeler's knowledge and their interpretation of the gathered qualitative data. Introducing the modeler's bias may result in a system implementation which does not fully represent the information provided in the original qualitative data, generating an unwanted gap between what the user needs and what the system provides. To address this challenge, in this paper we present a structured and manual transformation method, which enables a modeler to create BPMN models from interview data by reducing the modeler's individual influence on the resulting BPMN model. We evaluate this approach in the context of the implementation of persuasive systems, which should support changing unwanted work-related habits. Therefore, we conducted unstructured interviews with office workers, thinking aloud interviews, in which we asked office workers to imagine a situation where they showed an unwanted work-related habit and to describe this habit together with an alternative behavior. In a quantitative experimental study, we then asked study participants to create BPMN models either with or without our new transformation method. Our analyses showed that when using our method, different participants created very similar BPMN models of the habits, even with little training. We conclude that the major contribution of our work is that the presented method can be applied to the creation of structured models from unstructured interview data. This method that makes use of rich interview data is suitable for the design and implementation of interactive systems.

In contrast to the wide-spread use of 6-DOF pointing devices, free-hand user interfaces in Immersive Virtual Environments (IVE) are non-intrusive. However, for gesture interfaces, the definition of trigger signals is challenging. The use of mechanical devices, dedicated trigger gestures, or speech recognition are often used options, but each comes with its own drawbacks. In this paper, we present an alternative approach, which allows to precisely trigger events with a low latency using microphone input. In contrast to speech recognition, the user only blows into the microphone. The audio signature of such blow events can be recognized quickly and precisely. The results of an user study show that the proposed method allows to successfully complete a standard selection task and performs better than expected against a standard interaction device, the Flystick