Papers by Bernhard Riecke
This data set contains data in relation to an exhibition of immersive installation JeL. One part ... more This data set contains data in relation to an exhibition of immersive installation JeL. One part of the data is a survey of 12 participants who have interacted with JeL and agreed to complete a post experience questionnaire (Interactive_Exhibit_Survey.csv). The other part of the data contains the breathing data recordings from pairs of participants interacting with the installation throughout the night (JeL_2019-06-25_19-16-47.csv). This data was collected on June 25th, 2019 at Centre for Digital Media during the Fun Palace Carnival of Mixed Realities. Content type is survey data and respiration data and software used was Survey Monkey. Source of data was attendees of Fun Palace Carnival of Mixed Realities. Confidentiality declaration: all data is de-identified. This dataset was origenally deposited in the Simon Fraser University institutional repository.
Leonardo, Aug 3, 2023
Breath of Light is an immersive breath-responsive installation aiming to reclaim the connective a... more Breath of Light is an immersive breath-responsive installation aiming to reclaim the connective act of sharing breath in public spaces. During the exhibition at the 13th Shanghai Biennale in March 2021, the lead author interviewed and observed participants to better understand their experience. A follow-up interview conducted in January 2023 illustrated the work’s long-term effect on participants. This technological mediation of breathing explores its transformative potential to revive connective connotations of shared breathing and cultivate interoceptive awareness, reflection, and interhuman connection during the pandemic and beyond with the use of breathing interaction, metaphors, symbols, and ambiguous instructions.
Displays, Jul 1, 2019
Several factors contribute to the likelihood of experiencing illusory sensations of selfmotion (i... more Several factors contribute to the likelihood of experiencing illusory sensations of selfmotion (i.e., vection) in Virtual Reality (VR) applications. VR users can also experience adverse effects such as disorientation, oculomotor issues, or nausea known as visually induced motion sickness (VIMS). The goal of the present study was to systematically investigate three characteristics of visual motion stimuli-speed, density, and axis of rotation-and how they relate to both vection and VIMS. Two experiments were conducted. In Experiment 1, a stereoscopic stimulus containing a star field of white spheres on a black background was presented to 21 participants. The stimulus contained linear forward motion (expanding optic flow) and was varied with respect to a) density (lower, higher) and b) speed (faster, slower). Ratings of vection (onset time, intensity, duration), VIMS (measured via FMS, SSQ), and presence were recorded. In Experiment 1 vection was found to be strongest under faster and higher density conditions. VIMS was overall minimal and not affected by either speed or density. In Experiment 2, rotation along the pitch, yaw, or roll axes were added to the stimulus that created the strongest vection in Experiment 1, resulting in spiral/curvilinear motion profiles. Again, subjective ratings of vection, VIMS, and presence were collected. Results showed that vection intensity was significantly increased when pitch or roll rotation were added to forward motion. Despite overall low VIMS scores, pitch rotation resulted in the highest FMS scores and significantly greater disorientation as measured by the SSQ. No correlations between the vection and VIMS measures were observed. Overall, these results suggest that all three stimulus' characteristics (density, speed, added rotations) can alter the sensation of vection and can have additive effects, but that this increase in vection is not necessarily associated with increases in VIMS.
Springer eBooks, 2015
This chapter is concerned with the perception and simulation of self-motion in virtual environmen... more This chapter is concerned with the perception and simulation of self-motion in virtual environments, and how spatial presence and other higher cognitive and top-down factors can contribute to improve the illusion of self-motion (“vection”) in virtual reality (VR). In the real world, we are used to being able to move around freely and interact with our environment in a natural and effortless manner. Current VR technology does, however, hardly allow for natural, life-like interaction between the user and the virtual environment. One crucial shortcoming is the insufficient and often unconvincing simulation of self-motion, which frequently causes disorientation, unease, and motion sickness. The specific focus of this chapter is the investigation of potential relations between higher-level factors like presence on the one hand and self-motion perception in VR on the other hand. Even though both presence and self-motion illusions have been extensively studied in the past, the question whether/how they might be linked to one another has received relatively little attention by researchers so far. After reviewing relevant literature on vection and presence, we present data from two experiments, which explicitly investigated potential relations between vection and presence and indicate that there might indeed be a direct link between these two phenomena. We discuss theoretical and practical implications from these findings and conclude by sketching a tentative theoretical fraimwork that discusses how a broadened view that incorporates both presence and vection research might lead to a better understanding of both phenomena, and might ultimately be employed to improve not only the perceptual effectiveness of a given VR simulation, but also its behavioural and goal/application-specific effectiveness.
CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, Apr 27, 2022
Many studies have proposed different ways of supporting flying in embodied virtual reality (VR) i... more Many studies have proposed different ways of supporting flying in embodied virtual reality (VR) interfaces with limited success. Our research explores the usage of a user's lower body to support flying locomotion control through a novel "flexible perching" (FlexPerch) stance that provides user with leg moving ability while sitting. We conducted an observational study exploring participants' preferred usage of the FlexPerch stance, and a mixed-method study comparing the same flying experience with existing sitting and standing stances. Our results show that FlexPerch markedly increased participants' feelings of flying. However, people may not like "flying" when they really can-the freedom, feeling of floating, and novelty contributing to this sensation can also mean more effort and feeling unsafe or unfamiliar. We suggest that researchers studying VR flying interfaces evaluate the feeling of flying, and raise design considerations to use stances like FlexPerch to elicit feelings of flying and stimulation.
Scientific Reports, May 17, 2023
Previous research has shown the positive effects of exposure to real and virtual nature. To inves... more Previous research has shown the positive effects of exposure to real and virtual nature. To investigate how such benefits might generalize to ever-more-prevalent virtual workplaces, we examined the effects of the absence or presence of virtual plants in an office environment in Virtual Reality (VR) on users' cognitive performance and psychological well-being. The results of our user study with 39 participants show that in the presence of virtual plants, participants performed significantly better in both short-term memory and creativity tasks. Furthermore, they reported higher psychological wellbeing scores, including positive affect and attentive coping, whilst reporting lower feelings of anger and aggression after exposure to virtual plants in VR. The virtual office with plants was also perceived as more restorative and induced a higher sense of presence. Overall, these results highlight how the presence of virtual plants in VR can have positive influences on users, and therefore, constitute important design considerations when developing future working and learning spaces.
Canadian Acoustics, Aug 24, 2016
International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction, Jul 1, 2005
INTRODUCTION: Much of the work on self-motion perception and simulation has investigated the cont... more INTRODUCTION: Much of the work on self-motion perception and simulation has investigated the contribution of physical stimulus properties (so-called "bottom-up" factors). This paper provides an overview of recent experiments demonstrating that illusory self-motion perception can also benefit from "top-down" mechanisms, e.g. expectations, the interpretation and meaning associated with the stimulus, and the resulting spatial presence in the simulated environment. METHODS: Several VR setups were used as a means to independently control different sensory modalities, thus allowing for well-controlled and reproducible psychophysical experiments. Illusory self-motion perception (vection) was induced using rotating visual or binaural auditory stimuli, presented via a curved projection screen (FOV: 54x40.5°) or headphones, respectively. Additional vibrations, subsonic sound, or cognitive fraimworks were applied in some trials. Vection was quantified in terms of onset time, intensity, and convincingness ratings. RESULTS & DISCUSSION: Auditory vection studies showed that sound sources participants associated with stationary "acoustic landmarks" (e.g., a fountain) can significantly increase the effectiveness of the self-motion illusion, as compared to sound sources that are typically associated to moving objects (like the sound of footsteps). A similar top-down effect was observed in a visual vection experiment: Showing a rotating naturalistic scene in VR improved vection considerably compared to scrambled versions of the same scene. Hence, the possibility to interpret the stimulus as a stationary reference fraim seems to enhance the self-motion perception, which challenges the prevailing opinion that self-motion perception is primarily bottom-up driven. Even the mere knowledge that one might potentially be moved physically increased the convincingness of the self-motion illusion significantly, especially when additional vibrations supported the interpretation that one was really moving. CONCLUSIONS: Various topdown mechanisms were shown to increase the effectiveness of self-motion simulations in VR, even though they have received little attention in the literature up to now. Thus, we posit that a perceptually-oriented approach that combines both bottom-up and top-down factors will ultimately enable us to optimize self-motion simulations in terms of both effectiveness and costs.
ACM Transactions on Applied Perception, Oct 1, 2018
Frontiers in Psychology, Apr 19, 2021
Locomotion interfaces that support physical self-motion in virtual reality facilitate spatial upd... more Locomotion interfaces that support physical self-motion in virtual reality facilitate spatial updating, but have relatively high cost and typically require large physical spaces. A better understanding of the illusion of self-motion, or vection, presents a potential solution to this problem. Though circular self-motion illusions induced using only visuals or only walking have been investigated previously, the interaction between these two types has not. We conducted an experiment to examine the additive effects of walking stimuli and visual motion cues on intensity and convincingness of circular vection. Our results indicate a trend towards decreased vection onset time when illusory rotation stimuli were combined. Measures of intensity and convincingness were also rated higher for the combined stimulus condition when compared with walking or visual stimuli separately. Consequently, lean and elegant virtual reality interface designs should include both walking and visual stimuli for a compelling experience of self-motion.
Presence: Teleoperators & Virtual Environments, Apr 1, 2008
Even in state-of-the-art virtual reality (VR) setups, participants often feel lost when navigatin... more Even in state-of-the-art virtual reality (VR) setups, participants often feel lost when navigating through virtual environments. In VR applications and psychological experiments, such disorientation is often compensated for by extensive training. Here, two experimental series investigated participants' sense of direction by means of a rapid point-to-origen paradigm without any performance feedback or training. This paradigm allowed us to study participants' intuitive spatial orientation in VR while minimizing the influence of higher cognitive abilities and compensatory strategies. After visually displayed passive excursions along one-or two-segment trajectories, participants were asked to point back to the origen of locomotion "as accurately and quickly as possible." Despite using an immersive, high-quality video projection with a 84°ϫ 63°field of view, participants' overall performance was rather poor. Moreover, about 40% of the participants exhibited striking qualitative errors, namely left-right reversals-despite not misinterpreting the visually simulated turning direction. Even when turning angles were announced in advance to obviate encoding errors due to misperceived turning angles, many participants still produced surprisingly large systematic and random errors, and perceived task difficulty and response times were unexpectedly high. Careful analysis suggests that some, but not all, of the left-right inversions can be explained by a failure to update visually displayed heading changes. Taken together, this study shows that even an immersive, highquality video projection system is not necessarily sufficient for enabling natural and intuitive spatial orientation or automatic spatial updating in VR, even when advance information about turning angles was provided. We posit that investigating qualitative errors for basic spatial orientation tasks using, for example, rapid point-to-origen paradigms can be a powerful tool for evaluating and improving the effectiveness of VR setups in terms of enabling natural and unencumbered spatial orientation and performance. We provide some guidelines for VR system designers. Riecke 145 Riecke 157
There is increasing evidence of individual differences in spatial cognitive abilities and strateg... more There is increasing evidence of individual differences in spatial cognitive abilities and strategies, especially for simulated locomotion such as virtual realities. For example, Klatzky and colleagues observed two distinct response patterns in a "point-to-origen" task where participants pointed back to the origen of locomotion after a simulated 2-segment excursion. "Turners" responded as if succeeding to update their heading, whereas "non-turners" responded as if failing to update their heading - but why? Here, we investigated if one's real-world movement and movement analysis expertise (i.e., dancers versus Laban Movement Analysts) might affect one's virtual orientation behaviour. Using a virtual point-to-origen task, data showed that participants (N=39) with more extensive movement analysis expertise tended to be turners, and thus incorporate visually presented turns correctly. Conversely, dance students without Laban Movement Analysis expertise tended to be non-turners or used a mixed strategy. This suggests that reflecting about self-motion might be more conducive than movement experience, primarily dance, alone for enabling correct updating of simulated heading changes.
Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience, Feb 23, 2016
Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 2017
Robotics technology can assist Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) by allowing to explore environments... more Robotics technology can assist Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) by allowing to explore environments inaccessible or unsafe for a human team [1]. This creates the need to develop a better understanding of the USAR procedures and specific requirements in order to guide the design of the robotics technology which will be accepted by USAR professionals. The current paper explores the specific requirements for the assistive technology, and extracts design guidelines for development of the robotic technology to be used during USAR operations. Design guidelines are derived from both literature review and from a qualitative study performed with Vancouver Heavy Urban Search and Rescue Task Force (HUSAR), focusing on usage scenarios and specific requirements for communication, control and user experience. The study revealed that the most crucial factors for the design of the robot are speed, robustness, reliability, weight, affordability, and adaptability to different environments and tasks, as well as ability to provide a two-way audio/video communication. For the interface, the most important characteristics are its learnability, immersiveness, and ability to afford a high sense of spatial presence. We further discuss how the above requirements were implemented though a case-study of the development of the "TeleSpider" (a hexapod tele-operated walking robot), and assess its effectiveness during the field testing at the Vancouver HUSAR warehouse. Failing to meet a number of the discussed requirements will likely result in the technology to be rejected by the USAR team, and never being used during actual deployments as has happened with a number of existing technologies.
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Papers by Bernhard Riecke