67 Results
January 1, 2020
Designing Safe Spaces for Virtual Reality
Ethics in Design and Communication
Virtual Reality (VR) designers accept the ethical responsibilities of removing a user’s entire world and superseding it with a fabricated reality. These unique immersive design challenges are intensified when virtual experiences become public and socially-driven. As female VR designers in 2018, we see an opportunity to fold the language of consent into the design practice of virtual reality—as a means to design safe, accessible, virtual spaces.
Publication will be made available in 2020.
By: Michelle Cortese, Andrea Zeller
AR/VR 
Human Computer Interaction & UX November 9, 2019
Harassment in Social Virtual Reality: Challenges for Platform Governance
Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing (CSCW)
In immersive virtual reality (VR) environments, experiences of harassment can be exacerbated by features such as synchronous voice chat, heightened feelings of presence and embodiment, and avatar movements that can feel like violations of personal space (such as simulated touching or grabbing). Simultaneously, efforts to govern these developing spaces are made more complex by the distributed landscape of virtual reality applications and the dynamic nature of local community norms. To better understand this nascent social and psychological environment, we interviewed VR users (n=25) about their experiences with harassment, abuse, and discomfort in social VR.
By: Lindsay Blackwell, Nicole Ellison, Natasha Elliott-Deflo, Raz SchwartzJuly 12, 2019
A Balanced Hybrid Active-Passive Actuation Approach for HighPerformance Haptics
IEEE World Haptics Conference
Hybrid actuation approaches for haptic interfaces generally suffer from asymmetry in active and passive torque capabilities. This paper describes the design of a high-performance balanced hybrid haptic device, which addresses the asymmetry by combining a high-power, low-impedance active compliant actuation (series-elastic actuator) with energy absorbing high-force passive actuation in parallel with a fast, low-power secondary active actuation.
By: Chembian Parthiban, Patrick Dills, It Fufuengsin, Nick Colonnese, Priyanshu Agarwal, Michael ZinnJuly 12, 2019
Bellowband: A Pneumatic Wristband for Delivering Local Pressure and Vibration
IEEE World Haptics Conference
In this paper we present the design and control of Bellowband, a pneumatic wristband for localized pressure and vibration haptic feedback. The wristband has eight equally spaced pneumatic bellows that extend into the wrist, constructed from layers of polyester thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU), resulting in a flexible, lightweight (11 g) band capable of rendering complex pressure and vibration cues to the user.
By: Eric M. Young, Amirhossein H. Memar, Priyanshu Agarwal, Nick ColonneseJuly 12, 2019
Z-Qualities and Renderable Mass-Damping-Stiffness Spaces: Describing the Set of Renderable Dynamics of Kinesthetic Haptic Displays
IEEE World Haptics Conference
In this paper we define language and definitions to define the renderable set of dynamics that a general kinesthetic haptic display can render to a human operator.
By: Nick Colonnese, Sonny ChanJuly 8, 2019
Perceptual Limits of Visual-Haptic Simultaneity in Virtual Reality Interactions
IEEE World Haptics Conference
The goal of this work is to establish the range of visual-haptic asynchronies that go unnoticed when touching an object. To perform a psychophysical study, however, we would need asynchronous visual-haptic stimuli, but because the contact of the finger with a real object inevitably creates synchronized haptic feedback, here we employ instead a virtual reproduction of the interaction.
By: Massimiliano Di Luca, Arash MahnanJuly 8, 2019
Tactile Echoes: A Wearable System for Tactile Augmentation of Objects
IEEE World Haptics Conference
We present Tactile Echoes, a wearable system for augmenting tactile interactions with any object. This system senses vibrations in the fingertip that are produced by interactions of the finger with a touched object. It processes the vibration signals in real-time via a parametric signal network and returns them to the finger as “Tactile Echoes” of the touch interaction.
By: Anzu Kawazoe, Massimiliano Di Luca, Yon VisellJune 12, 2019
“I just want to feel safe”: A Diary Study of Safety Perceptions on Social Media
International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media (ICWSM)
While prior work has individually explored specific threats to safety—privacy, security, harassment—in this work we more broadly capture and characterize the full breadth of day-to-day experiences that influence users’ overall perceptions of safety on social media.
By: Elissa M. Redmiles, Jessica Bodford, Lindsay Blackwell
Security & Privacy May 17, 2019
Psychophysical Evaluation of Persistence- and Frequency-Limited Displays for Virtual and Augmented Reality
SID Display Week
Little is known about user sensitivity to flicker and eye movement-induced ghosting at refresh rates and persistence levels relevant for head-mounted displays (HMDs). In this report, we describe a pair of psychophysical experiments that we performed to comprehensively quantify these artifacts and make general recommendations for HMD design.
By: T. Scott Murdison, Christopher McIntosh, James Hillis, Kevin J. MacKenzieMay 9, 2019
Pseudo-Haptic Weight: Changing the Perceived Weight of Virtual Objects By Manipulating Control-Display Ratio
ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
In virtual reality, the lack of kinesthetic feedback often prevents users from experiencing the weight of virtual objects. Control-to-display (C/D) ratio manipulation has been proposed as a method to induce weight perception without kinesthetic feedback. Based on the fact that lighter (heavier) objects are easier (harder) to move, this method induces an illusory perception of weight by manipulating the rendered position of users’ hands—increasing or decreasing their displayed movements.
By: Majed Samad, Elia Gatti, Anne Hermes, Hrvoje Benko, Cesare Parise