Enriching VR Experience Through Non-Visual Sensations

We invite our very own Prof. Mingming Fan to give us a talk about Enriching VR Experience Through Non-Visual Sensations. Please see the detailed information about his talk on Sep 27 09:30AM via Mixed Mode. I look forward to seeing you there. For those of you who will join in person, please be noticed that the room has been changed to G002 CYT due to the classroom availability.

CMA Fall2021 - seminar Week 4 - Prof. Mingming FAN: Enriching VR Experience Through Non-Visual Sensations: An Empirical Investigation Approach

Time: Sep 27, 9:30AM-11:00AM HKT

Mixed mode Join in person: Rm G002, CYT building, HKUST clear water bayJoin online: Zoom link please see below

Abstract:Head-worn Virtual Reality (VR) has become prominent in recent years, endowing a host of applications in education, entertainment, skill training, creation, and so on. While visually and auditorily engaging, VR environments often lack engagement in other senses, such as feelings through the skin. In this talk, I will present our work in creating sensory illusions for VR users to better immerse themselves into VR environments. In particular, I will show how we design prototypes that allow VR users to feel wetness illusion on their fingertips and brief pain sensation on their skins. I will also demonstrate how we empirically evaluate the effects of our prototypes with VR users. Finally, I will discuss potential future directions to enrich the VR user experience through multi-sensory engagement. Speaker Bio:Mingming Fan is an Assistant Professor in the Computational Media and Arts Thrust and an Affiliated Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) in Guangzhou and Clear Water Bay campuses respectively. Before joining HKUST, he was a tenure-track Assistant Professor at Rochester Institute of Technology from 2019 to 2021. He received a Ph.D. from the Department of Computer Science at the University of Toronto in 2019.

Dr. Fan leads the Accessible & Pervasive User EXperience (APEX) Group to research in the field of Human-Computer Interaction and Accessibility. Specifically, his group applies user-centered design (UCD), AI/ML, VR/AR, visualization, sensing, and qualitative methods to 1) innovate User Experience (UX) Methodologies (e.g., Human-AI collaboration), 2) tackle Aging and Accessibility Challenges, and 3) Create Novel VR/AR Experience and Sensing Techniques. His research won Best Paper Award, Best Paper Honorable Mention Award, and Best Artifact Award from top-tier venues in HCI and Accessibility, such as ACM CHI, UbiComp, and ASSETS.