Reviewerly/exHarmony huggingface dataset:
Enhancing Professional Training with Single-User Virtual Reality: Unveiling Challenges, Opportunities, and Design Guidelines

An immersive single-user virtual reality system possesses the potential to induce a paradigm shift in the realm of professional training, particularly within safety-intensive and complex procedural domains. This innovative system offers a safe, adaptable, engaging, and efficacious training experience, thereby fostering better task performance, reduced errors, and more favorable outcomes. Our goal is to delve into the opportunities and challenges associated with such training programs, while also providing guidelines for their seamless integration into educational curricula. Three case studies were conducted to gauge the efficacy of single-user VR training: the electricians' scenario (N=30), a spatial orientation scenario (N=20), and a medical trolley scenario (N=21). Employing mixed methodologies, encompassing workshops, semi-structured interviews, and observatory data collection, insights were gathered. The core objective of this investigation was to assess the perceptions of potential users, notably those partaking in apprenticeships or vocational training, toward prototypes of single-user VR training. The study's findings emphasize the inherent value and constructive attributes of integrating single-user VR training within the realm of professional development. This integration fosters practical experiential learning in procedures and essential competencies for ensuring safety, resulting in enhanced training outcomes. The study showcased augmented individualized learning tempos, expanded opportunities for repetition, heightened concentration, and deeper engagement within the VR-based instructional environment. Moreover, the study underscored the crucial role of personalized design enhancements and continuous content evolution to maximize the effectiveness of VR-based training methodologies. Integral to the comprehensive evaluation was the significance of user experience and the perceived value of the VR system. In parallel with the empirical investigation, foundational design principles were derived from the challenges and prospects unveiled across all three case studies.
Tourism in the Metaverse: Digital Twin of a City in the Alps

This demo paper explores a possible way to construct a commercially viable 3D metaverse world, utilizing field studies and discusses tests to create a vibrant, user-attractive digital twin of a touristic city. A popular Austrian downtown will be digitally reimagined and integrated into the metaverse as a foundational case study. The creation of this digital double offers substantial potential for companies aiming to establish a metaverse presence, enabling local businesses to deliver an immersive, interactive customer experience through a virtual exploration of its streets and shops. Incorporating interactive elements, such as virtual shops, info points, and collectibles where users can explore and purchase products, is vital. This approach, providing an accurate, immersive, and interactive digital replica, facilitates a compelling user journey, encourages repeat visits, and offers businesses an effective means to engage customers in a richly interactive experience.
The Absence of Athletic Avatars' Effects on Physiological and Perceptual Responses while Cycling in Virtual Reality

Virtual reality (VR) allows to embody avatars—the digital self-representation of the user. An avatar's appearance can change users' perception and behavior—a phenomenon known as the Proteus effect. Previous work found that athletic avatars can reduce heart rate and perceived exertion during physical effort. Although these findings are promising to create more effective VR exercises, they have not been replicated yet. Hence, the reliability and consistency of such effects is unknown. Therefore, we conducted a study with 32 participants to investigate physiological and perceptual effects of athletic avatars while cycling in VR following a standardized exercise protocol. We could not find effects of the avatars' athletic appearance on heart rate, perceived exertion, and imagined velocity. Our findings indicate that athletic avatars do not necessarily affect users during physical exertion. We discuss potential factors that can cause the Proteus effect fail to occur.
An Exploration of Hidden Data: Identifying and Physicalizing Personal Virtual Data to Extend Co-located Communication

Communication is crucial for interpersonal connection, but sometimes we simply cannot find the right words. Some data, such as complex emotions, are either hard to quantify or are otherwise difficult to communicate. We have access to numerous personal statistics from quantified self devices, but hidden data are either untracked or require abstraction. In this paper, we explore physicalizations to communicate hidden data between couples. We recruited six couples (N=12 participants, 163 telegram responses) to participate in a two-week sensitization diary study followed by two participatory co-design sessions. We then hosted a one-day expert prototyping workshop (N=5) to create tangible artifacts based on the findings of the participatory phase. By iterating on the topic in three ways, we contribute (i) a design framework for understanding and tangibly representing hidden data, (ii) a discussion on the appropriateness of these methodologies, and (iii) open research questions to guide future research in the field.
Examining the Effects of Eye-tracking on Dyadic Conversations in Virtual Reality

This paper examines the effects of eye-tracking-driven social gaze on the quality of communication in a virtual environment between two participants engaging in dyadic conversation in Virtual Reality (VR). While the importance of social gaze on quality of communication has been well documented, determining if its effects carry over into VR has not. This paper will outline the design and implementation of a multi-user VR experiment, focusing on developing the humanoid avatars and their gaze interactions and the findings of a comparative between-subjects study on three conditions: eye-tracking, without eye-tracking, and simulated gaze. The findings of this study indicate that for the specified implementation, eye-tracking-driven social gaze did not produce a statistically significant effect on the quality of conversation. However, it provided a more realistic conversation than a simulated social gaze.
Hand-in-Hand: Investigating Mechanical Tracking for User Identification in Cobot Interaction

Robots play a vital role in modern automation, with applications in manufacturing and healthcare. Collaborative robots integrate human and robot movements. Therefore, it is essential to ensure that interactions involve qualified, and thus identified, individuals. This study delves into a new approach: identifying individuals through robot arm movements. Different from previous methods, users guide the robot, and the robot senses the movements via joint sensors. We asked 18 participants to perform six gestures, revealing the potential use as unique behavioral traits or biometrics, achieving F1-score up to 0.87, which suggests direct robot interactions as a promising avenue for implicit and explicit user identification.
User Interactions with Internet of Things (IoT) Devices in Shared Domestic Spaces

This doctoral research aims to understand the dynamics and challenges faced by 'secondary users' within shared smart home environments—individuals who interact with smart home technology in their homes but do not initiate or maintain it. It delves into potential power imbalances within shared smart homes, which may reinforce traditional gender roles and lead to conflicts. The research examines how roles are distributed within partnerships and families, focusing on involving secondary users in the design process for designing more inclusive smart home environments. The work is based on a series of interconnected studies, such as co-design workshops and expert interviews with book designers, to inform the design process of tangible user interfaces that can provide control, facilitate effective communication with other household members, and empower secondary users to actively shape their shared smart home environments.
Exploring the Effects of Head-Mounted Augmented Reality on Helping Behaviour

Augmented Reality (AR) can alter environments and steer attention. While prior work dominantly focuses on exploring performances of augmentations, this work aims to understand the societal impact of AR in complex social situations. Focusing on prosocial helping behaviour, we created two scenarios and designed five augmentations aiming to motivate a user to help. We wanted to understand (1) the impact on situation perception and (2) the impact on the social structure. In an online video experiment (n=294), we found that augmenting can impact anxiety about the situation and significantly increase the perceived reason to help being directed towards the augmentation. Similarly, we found that the helped rated the "reason" and "thankfulness" significantly higher towards AR than the helper, creating a disagreement around agency and responsibility. We discuss the implications of AR in complex social structures and how responsibility and agency will become important when embedding AR in our social lives.
Padlock, the Universal Security Symbol? - Exploring Symbols and Metaphors for Privacy and Security

The use of symbols and metaphors can be a fast and effective way of conveying abstract concepts. At the same time, misconceived symbols can lead to misunderstandings and errors. Therefore, when it comes to privacy and security, clear communication is essential to avoid putting users' personal data at risk. In this paper, we elicit 32 symbols and metaphors associated with privacy and security through two brainstorming sessions (n = 8, each). Six experts further separated this collection into security and privacy-related symbols and generated clusters based on similarity. Using participants' clusters, we derived underlying themes. As a result, we present a symbol and metaphor space for privacy and security and discuss their perceived meaning. Our findings can serve researchers, designers, and developers to find suitable symbols or metaphors for a given scenario (e.g., to decide on the interaction metaphor for a tangible security mechanism) and to understand if a symbol is ambiguous or how it may be understood (e.g., is an eye associated with privacy configurations?). Our work provides an initial knowledge base supporting effective communication in this field.
BikeSimWS: Workshop on Simulators, Scenarios, and Test Standard for Bicycle Research

Research on cyclists' safety and comfort is a growing topic. Existing works address support systems with novel interaction concepts such as augmented reality but also the design and evaluation of high-fidelity bicycle simulators. Since the field is still in its exploratory phase, there have been few attempts to systematically provide guidance for conducting experiments. For example, there is no consensus on the choice of representative driving scenarios, the proper choice of different bicycle simulators, and measurement standards to systematically compare the results of different studies. With this workshop, we want the community to gather and discuss a roadmap for the future of HCI bicycle research so that these issues can be overcome.
VRow-VRow-VRow-Your-Boat: A Toolkit for Integrating Commodity Ergometers in Virtual Reality Experiences

Exergames, video games designed to blend entertainment with physical activity, aim to improve users' physical fitness by combining gaming with exercise. However, integrating exercise equipment, such as rowers, bikes, and ski ergometers into Virtual Reality (VR) environments remains challenging. In this poster, we introduce a toolkit that simplifies the integration of ergometers into Unity-based projects. Researchers can access detailed ergometer data for logging and use inside their projects, while our toolkit handles tedious tasks, like connection-handling or parsing. VRow offers valuable support for creating immersive and interactive fitness experiences.
Extending the Interaction Space of Rotary Knobs by Multi-touch-based Grasp Recognition

Rotary knobs are widely used input devices for computers, household appliances, cars and other machinery. So far, their input capabilities are limited since the rotation of a knob only controls one single parameter. This paper presents the concept of a rotary knob that is capable of recognizing a user's grasp for controlling different parameters, called MultiKnob. We contribute the hardware and software of a knob for detecting how many fingers are used when touching it. It uses IR light and FTIR-based multi-touch recognition. Within a target acquisition study, we used this new feature for allowing users to select the speed of a cursor for solving tasks. We found that users are able to leverage this novel device: Our 24 participants could make use of this new knob for being faster when moving a cursor into a target area compared to a fixed slow speed knob, and having less overshoots compared to a fixed fast speed knob. Further, we found that the MultiKnob gave rise to the strategy of changing grasp for switching from a fast and coarse-grained cursor movement to a slow and fine-grained cursor movement. We discuss different applications for using such a knob.
Eye and Face Tracking in VR: Avatar Embodiment and Enfacement with Realistic and Cartoon Avatars

Previous studies have explored the perception of various types of embodied avatars in immersive environments. However, the impact of eye and face tracking with personalized avatars is yet to be explored. In this paper, we investigate the impact of eye and face tracking on embodiment, enfacement, and the uncanny valley with four types of avatars using a VR-based mirroring task. We conducted a study (N=12) and created self-avatars with two rendering styles: a cartoon avatar (created in an avatar generator using a picture of the user's face) and a photorealistic scanned avatar (created using a 3D scanner), each with and without eye and face tracking and respective adaptation of the mirror image. Our results indicate that adding eye and face tracking can be beneficial for certain enfacement scales (belonged), and we confirm that compared to a cartoon avatar, a scanned realistic avatar results in higher body ownership and increased enfacement (own face, belonging, mirror) — regardless of eye and face tracking. We critically discuss our experiences and outline the limitations of the applied hardware and software with respect to the provided level of control and the applicability for complex tasks such as displaying emotions. We synthesize these findings into a discussion about potential improvements for facial animation in VR and highlight the need for a better level of control, the integration of additional sensing and processing technologies, and an objective metric for comparing facial animation systems.
P2 random walk: self-supervised anomaly detection with pixel-point random walk

Abstract In the domain of intelligent manufacturing, automatic anomaly detection plays a pivotal role and holds great significance for improving production efficiency and product quality. However, the scarcity and uncertainty of anomalous data pose significant challenges in this field. Data augmentation methods, such as Cutout, which are widely adopted in existing methodologies, tend to generate patterned data, leading to biased data and compromised detection performance. To deal with this issue, we propose an approach termed self-supervised anomaly detection with pixel-point random walk (P2 Random Walk), which combines data augmentation and Siamese neural networks. We develop a pixel-level data augmentation technique to enhance the randomness of generated data and establish a two-stage anomaly classification framework. The effectiveness of the P2 Random Walk method has been demonstrated on the MVTec dataset, achieving an AUROC of 96.2% and 96.3% for classification and segmentation, respectively, by using only data augmentation-based techniques. Specifically, our method outperforms other state-of-the-art methods in several categories, improving the AUROC for classification and segmentation by 0.5% and 0.3%, respectively, which demonstrates the high performance and strong academic value of our method in anomaly detection tasks.
Actor-Flower-Mesh-Work: Making Environments Together

Things simply push back. We had to grapple with this fact while working on our project Lichtsuchende and realising how things (which sometimes may feel inanimate) and their digital aspects continuously participate in the environments that they are part of and co-create, as well as in their own making. As researchers, we inevitably started to think about how we could better understand what was happening in this creative process and about how the combination of physical and digital agents and the entangled aspects of these and their complexities could be unpacked. How are we making these environments together? Through this process of inquiry a particular framework started to emerge which allowed us to explore and discuss the challenges and highlights of creating digitally (in our case an interactive installation) using a Latournian and an Ingoldian approach. Using Latour’s actor network and Ingold’s meshwork as theories helped us recognise the interrelations between the things in, within and outside the installation and their interrelations. We seek to understand the ways in which these two viewpoints can be applied as methodologies to unpack the factors involved in the creation of an artificial society and the emergence of a shared environment made of non-human and human things.
Close Encounters of the Immersive Kind: Embodied Fundamentals and Future Directions of Affective Virtual Reality (VR) Design

As the virtual reality (VR) landscape has evolved, so too has our understanding of the technology’s greater purposes. Of present interest to researchers and practitioners is not just the compelling experience of presence, but increasingly, its affective possibilities (Riva et al. 2007; Banacou et al. in Front Hum Neurosci, 2016; Milk in https://www.ted.com/talks/chris_milk_how_virtual_reality_can_create_the_ultimate_empathy_machine?language=en , 2015; ; Abraham in Contemp Theatr Rev 30:474–489, 2020; Herrera et al. in PLoS One 13, 2018; Flavian et al. in J Hosp Market Manag 30:1–20, 2020; Martins in https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/story/2020-04-26/coronavirus-vr-virtual-reality-theater-tender-claws-live-actors , 2021; Marcolin et al. in IEEE Comput Graph Appl 41:171–718, 2021). For example, participants have referred to the potency of emotions such as awe (Abraham in Contemp Theatr Rev 30:474–489, 2020), social connection (Martins in https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/story/2020-04-26/coronavirus-vr-virtual-reality-theater-tender-claws-live-actors , 2021) and empathy (Herrera et al. in PLoS One 13:e0204494, 2018) that can arise in response to VR environments. Researchers have therefore suggested that “affective VR” (Marcolin et al. 2021, p. 172) will play a crucial role in the future of VR design, with the potential to improve lives and behaviours (p. 172). In this chapter, I propose that the exploration of VR Narrative design practices, in highlighting embodied engagement techniques which extrapolate the platform’s affective possibilities, can contribute best practices which may have implications in a range of emerging VR design contexts, such as those which may one day comprise an “embodied internet” (Zuckerberg 2021) known as the Metaverse. In particular, the findings from my study draw attention to the choreography of encounters as a pivotal co-creational design strategy and precursor to affective potential.
haptic HONGI: Reflections on Collaboration in the Transdisciplinary Creation of an AR Artwork

This chapter explores the complexities of collaborative digital creation through haptic HONGI, an Augmented Reality (AR) project that is both transdisciplinary and intercultural in its conception. haptic HONGI aims to use contemporary digital technologies to bridge troubling intercultural relationships in Aotearoa New Zealand by creating a face-to-face tabletop encounter. The project both addresses the cultural divide between Māori and non- Māori in Aotearoa New Zealand, but also explores how the tension between artists and technologists can be overcome to create a transdisciplinary piece. In this chapter we describe the technology developed and reflect on lessons learned that could be useful for other teams creating transdisciplinary artwork using AR technologies.
Evaluation of Artificial Intelligence (AI) for Acute Graft-Versus-Host Disease(GVHD) Classification

Introduction Graft-Versus-Host Disease(GVHD) following hematopoietic stem cell transplant is a significant complication, causing a 10-30% mortality rate. Staging and grading are often performed by physicians in training, such as residents and fellows, and the assessments can be inconsistent between different physicians and clinical centers. This inconsistency may lead to confusion for both the medical team and the patients. This study evaluates the performance of an artificial intelligence (AI) tool in determining the grade of acute GVHD, exploring its potential role in the classification of GVHD. Method We conducted a performance assessment of Chat-GPT-3.5 and Chat-GPT-4 in grading acute GVHD. We constructed a dataset comprising simulated patients with acute GVHD grades 1-4. We then posed a question to both Chat-GPT-3.5 and Chat-GPT-4.0, asking for the severity of GVHD in each patient. The physicians' assessment was based on the modified Glucksberg criteria. Result Both Chat-GPT tools use the Glucksberg criteria as a reference source. Overall, Chat-GPT-4.0 demonstrated 75% concordance with physician assessment, whereas Chat-GPT-3.5 showed 62.5% concordance. When provided with numerical data, both tools successfully graded acute GVHD with 100% accuracy. However, when given subjective data, Chat-GPT-4.0 exhibited 50% concordance with physician assessment, whereas Chat-GPT-3.5 showed 25%. Although Chat-GPT was able to provide staging for each organ involvement, it struggled to estimate the volume of diarrhea based on the number of episodes. For instance, when asked about the grading of a patient experiencing more than 20 episodes of diarrhea per day, the system concluded that the patient had acute GVHD grade 4. This suggests that Chat-GPT-4.0 has difficulty accurately assessing the amount of diarrhea unless it's exceeding significant amount. Chat-GPT-3.5 exhibited challenges in accurately quantifying the Body Surface Area (BSA). It was unable to assess the BSA if it was less than 25%. Moreover, if the rash involved more than two areas of the body, even when described with alternative language (e.g., ‘torso’, ‘entire torso‘), it would disproportionately inflated the BSA. Conclusion The above results demonstrate that both tools are insufficient for accurately determining the grading of acute GVHD when only subjective data is provided, primarily due to the incapacity of Chat-GPT-3.5 to assess the Body Surface Area (BSA) and Chat-GPT-4.0 to evaluate the volume of diarrhea. However, both tools displayed 100% accuracy when objective data was provided, with Chat-GPT-4.0 notably capable of accurately indicating the stages of organ involvement. Healthcare professionals should not solely rely on Chat-GPT for assessment, and it is advisable to instruct patients against utilizing Chat-GPT to evaluate their own acute GVHD.