[CSEE-colloq] talk: Peck on Interaction with Virtual Environments, 1pm Tue 3/27, ITE325b, UMBC

[Tim Finin]

                 Interaction with Virtual Environments

                            Tabitha C. Peck
                   Event Lab, University of Barcelona

              1:00pm Tuesday 27 March 2012, ITE32bb, UMBC

Immersive virtual environments (VEs) enable user-controlled
interactions within a computer-generated virtual world, such as
head-controlled point-of-view, user-controlled locomotion, and
user-controlled self-avatars. In this talk I will present three
projects focusing on the development of VE systems through
understanding human interactions within the VE. The first project
presents a VE system that enables users to really walk through VEs
that are larger than the tracker-space by manipulating the
imprecisions of the human visual system. The remaining two projects
focus on virtual embodiment. The theory of embodiment is based on the
plasticity of the human mind and its ability to accept a virtual
avatar’s body as its own. One theory as to why embodiment works,
following the same underlying principles thought to cause the “rubber
hand illusion” from cognitive psychology, is that when given
appropriate visual and/or haptic stimuli, people will accept an
external representation of a body part as their own. This effect has
been shown to extend to full-body avatars in virtual environments. I
will present one project that demonstrates, through
electroencephalography (EEG), that people respond to a virtual avatar
as if it is their own body, and a second project that explores
harnessing the powers of embodiment to reduce racism and study other
psychological issues.

Dr. Tabitha C. Peck is a post-doctoral researcher at the Event Lab in
Barcelona, Spain working with Professor Mel Slater. She received my
PhD from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill under the
supervision of Professors Henry Fuchs and Mary C. Whitton. Her PhD
research focused on locomotion interfaces in virtual environments and
enabling people to physically walk in small spaces while walking in
much larger virtual spaces. Dr. Peck is currently working in the
European project, Virtual Embodiment and Robotic Re-Embodiment (VERE),
and her current research focuses on the psychological effects of
embodiment in virtual environments. Her research interests include
immersive virtual environments, virtual embodiment, human-computer
interaction, 3D user interfaces, locomotion, navigation, system design
and evaluation, and human perception.

See http://csee.umbc.edu/talks for more information