52 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 3, 2018
The Effect of Computer-Generated Descriptions on Photo-Sharing Experiences of People with Visual Impairments
Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing (CSCW)
Like sighted people, visually impaired people want to share photographs on social networking services, but find it difficult to identify and select photos from their albums. We aimed to address this problem by incorporating state-of-the-art computer-generated descriptions into Facebook’s photo-sharing feature.
By: Yuhang Zhao, Shaomei Wu, Lindsay Reynolds, Shiri Azenkot
Data Science November 1, 2018
Social media governance: Can companies motivate voluntary rule following behavior among their users
Social Media Governance Workshop
The question of how to effectively enforce rules on social media mirrors the general question of how to enforce laws in society. One model for both governments and private companies is incapacitation—preventing people from taking particular actions.
By: Tom Tyler, Matt Katsaros, Tracey Meares, Sudhir VenkateshOctober 12, 2018
Conveying Language through Haptics: A Multi-sensory Approach
International Symposium on Wearable Computers 2018
We propose using a multi-sensory haptic device called MISSIVE, which can be worn on the upper arm and is capable of producing brief cues, sufficient in quantity to encode the full English phoneme set.
By: Nathan Dunkelberger, Jenny Sullivan, Joshua Bradley, Nickolas P Walling, Indu Manickam, Gautam Dasarathy, Ali Israr, Frances Lau, Keith Klumb, Brian Knott, Freddy Abnousi, Richard Baraniuk, Marcia K. O’MalleyJuly 30, 2018
A Phonemic-Based Tactile Display for Speech Communication
IEEE Transactions on Haptics
Despite a long history of research, the development of synthetic tactual aids to support the communication of speech has proven to be a difficult task. The current paper describes a new tactile speech device based on the presentation of phonemic-based tactile codes.
By: Charlotte M. Reed, Hong Z Tan, Zachary D Perez, E. Courtenay Wilson, Frederico M. Severgnini, Jaehong Jung, Juan S. Martinez, Yang Jiao, Ali Israr, Frances Lau, Keith Klumb, Robert Turcott, Freddy Abnousi
Facebook AI Research July 29, 2018
Online Optical Marker-based Hand Tracking with Deep Labels
Special Interest Group on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques (SIGGRAPH)
We propose a technique that frames the labeling problem as a keypoint regression problem conducive to a solution using convolutional neural networks.
By: Shangchen Han, Beibei Liu, Robert Wang, Yuting Ye, Christopher D. Twigg, Kenrick Kin
Computer Vision 
Machine Learning June 25, 2018
“I’m Never Happy with What I Write”: Challenges and Strategies of People with Dyslexia on Social Media
International Conference on Web and Social Media
This work studies the experiences, challenges, and strategies of people with dyslexia when using social media. We interviewed 11 people with dyslexia to understand their general experiences with reading and writing content on Facebook. The interview study findings highlight the challenges they face when writing content on Social Networking Sites (SNSs), and their strategies for mitigating these challenges.
By: Lindsay Reynolds, Shaomei WuJune 13, 2018
A Comparative Study of Phoneme- and Word-Based Learning of English Words Presented to the Skin
Eurohaptics
Past research has demonstrated that speech communication on the skin is entirely achievable. However, there is still no definitive conclusion on the best training method that minimizes the time it takes for users to reach a prescribed performance level with a speech communication device. The present study reports the design and testing of two learning approaches with a system that translates English phonemes to haptic stimulation patterns (haptic symbols).
By: Yang Jiao, Frederico M. Severgnini, Juan S. Martinez, Jaehong Jung, Hong Z Tan, Charlotte M. Reed, E. Courtenay Wilson, Frances Lau, Ali Israr, Robert Turcott, Keith Klumb, Freddy AbnousiJune 13, 2018
Improving Perception Accuracy with Multi-sensory Haptic Cue Delivery
Eurohaptics
This paper presents a novel, wearable, and multi-sensory haptic feedback system intended to support the transmission of large sets of haptic cues that are accurately perceived by the human user. Previous devices have focused on the optimization of haptic cue transmission using a single modality and have typically employed arrays of haptic tactile actuators to maximize information throughput to a user.
By: Nathan Dunkelberger, Joshua Bradley, Jennifer L. Sullivan, Ali Israr, Frances Lau, Keith Klumb, Freddy Abnousi, Marcia K. O’MalleyJune 1, 2018
The Immersive VR Self: Performance, Embodiment and Presence in Immersive Virtual Reality Environments
Book chapter from A Networked Self and Human Augmentics, AI, Sentience
Virtual avatars are a common way to present oneself in online social interactions. From cartoonish emoticons to hyper-realistic humanoids, these online representations help us portray a certain image to our respective audiences.
By: Raz Schwartz, William Steptoe