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               Department of Systems Engineering and Engineering Management

                       The Chinese University of Hong Kong

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Date: Friday, November 12, 2021, 16:30-17:30 HK time

Venue: Room 513 (face-to-face), William M.W. Mong Engineering Building (ERB), The Chinese University of Hong Kong

Title：Enriching VR Experience Through Non-Visual Sensations: An Empirical Investigation Approach

Speaker: Professor Mingming Fan

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.

Biography:

Mingming Fan is an Assistant Professor in the Computational Media and Arts (CMA) 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. He is the Postgraduate (PG) Coordinator for CMA. 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.

Everyone is welcome to attend the talk!

SEEM-5201 Website: http://seminar.se.cuhk.edu.hk

Email: seem5201@se.cuhk.edu.hk