Ekaterina R. Stepanova

Simon Fraser University · School of Interactive Arts and Technology

Despite being an embodied medium, virtual reality (VR) prioritizes vision and sound over the other senses. While touch has been demonstrated to foster a sense of presence and embodiment, most haptic research in VR focuses on uncanny vibration motors or limited experiences of touch with simple props. Meanwhile, immersive performances such as Eve 3.0...

Recently, we saw a trend toward using physiological signals in interactive systems. These signals, offering deep insights into users' internal states and health, herald a new era for HCI. However, as this is an interdisciplinary approach, many challenges arise for HCI researchers, such as merging diverse disciplines, from understanding physiologica...

In search of missing tactile sensations in telepresent virtual reality (VR), we set of to explore how we might be able to apply pseudo-haptics to elicit an embodied illusion of social touch. We developed ETC (Embodied Telepresent Connection), a prototype that allows two participants to interact remotely through pseudo-haptic touch via their abstrac...

Breath of Light is an immersive breath-responsive installation aiming to reclaim the connective nature of sharing breath in public spaces. During the exhibition at the 13th Shanghai Biennale in March 2021, the lead author observed and interviewed participants to better understand their experience. A subsequent follow-up interview was conducted in J...

Self-transcendent experiences are often an integral component of ancient cultural practices that use psychedelic substances during spiritual ceremonies, such as ayahuasca ceremonies. Yet, ayahuasca contains dimethyltryptamine (DMT), which is illegal in many countries. Due to its illegality, ayahuasca experiences are scarce despite potential benefit...

Human connection is essential for our personal well-being and a building block for a well-functioning society. There is a prominent interest in the potential of technology for mediating social con- nection, with a wealth of systems designed to foster the feeling of connection between strangers, friends, and family. By surveying this design landscap...

Body RemiXer is a mixed reality installation that connects immersants across the virtual/actual divide through emergent tactility and abstract embodiment. Using a virtual reality headset, Kinect and projections, the installation explores the potential of immersive technology to create copresent experiences that foster intercorporeal relationships b...

Bio-responsive immersive Virtual Reality can transform our interactions to bring awareness to our physiological rhythms fostering connection with our bodies, each other and nature. JeL is an immersive installation that aims to foster a feeling of connection through the process of breathing synchronization. Two immersants synchronize their breathing...

Immersive technology, such as virtual reality, provides us with novel opportunities to create and explore affective experiences with a transformative potential mediated through awe. The profound emotion of awe, that is experienced in response to witnessing vastness and creates the need for accommodation that can lead to restructuring of one's world...

JeL is an interactive, breath-responsive Virtual Reality (VR) installation that subtly and playfully encourages two users to synchronize their breathing. JeL explores a novel form of interpersonal interaction in VR that aims to connect users to their physiological state through biofeedback, to each other through physiological synchronization, and t...

We present JeL-a bio-responsive immersive installation for interpersonal synchronization through breathing. In JeL, two users are immersed in a virtual underwater environment, where their individual breathing controls the movement of a jellyfish. As users synchronize their breathing, a virtual glass sponge-like structure starts to grow, representin...

A select small group of people have an amazing opportunity to see the Earth from a unique perspective-from space. The effect this experience has on an individual has been described as extraordinary and profound, consisting of a cognitive shift in worldview that leads to a deeper understanding of the fragility and vulnerability of our planet, and an...

Some life experiences can generate profound and long-lasting shifts in core beliefs and attitudes, including subjective transformation. These experiences can change what individuals know and value, their perspective on the world and life, evolving them as a grown person. For these characteristics, transformative experiences are gaining increasing a...

The paper describes AWE (2018), an immersive mixed and virtual reality installation designed to elicit feelings of awe and wonder. Experiences of awe are found to prompt feelings of interconnectedness and an improvement to perceived well-being. To address the challenging prospect of designing for a specific emotional experience in a wellness applic...

Virtual Reality (VR) has immersive powers that can teleport an im-mersant into a virtual world and provide them with an experience of being somewhere that they may not have been able to go to. These powers of VR are most often used for games and entertainment, creating a space for escapism and isolation that may have negative psychological and soci...

Profound, positive emotional experiences in life, such as witnessing natural wonders and phenomena, can lead to cognitive shifts and changes to moral attitudes. These experiences are, however, rare and thus understudied. The immersive potential of virtual reality (VR) present an opportunity to both induce and study such experiences. Our work explor...

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....

Many theories of complex cognitive-motor skill learning are built on the notion that basic cognitive processes group actions into easy-to-perform sequences. The present work examines predictions derived from laboratory-based studies of motor chunking and motor preparation using data collected from the real-time strategy video game StarCraft 2. We e...

In this paper, we describe a user study comparing five different locomotion interfaces for virtual reality locomotion. We compared a standard non-motion cueing interface, Joystick (Xbox), with four motion cueing interfaces, NaviChair (stool with springs), MuvMan (sit/stand active stool), Head-Directed (Oculus Rift DK2), and Swivel Chair (everyday o...

We used an online point-to-origin tasks to investigate potential influences of stimuli type (video vs. textual) and response format (textual vs. pictogram multiple choice answers). Using an online survey tool, participants (N=124) either saw a simulated 2-segment outbound path (two straight segments with a 60° or 90° turn in-between) or a textual d...

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-origin" task where participants pointed back to the origin of locomotion after a simulated 2-s...

Here we introduce a simple actor-critic model of eye movements during category learning that we call RLAttn (Reinforcement Learning of Attention). RLAttn stores the rewards it receives for making decisions or performing actions, while attempting to associate stimuli with particular categories. Over multiple trials, RLAttn learns that a large reward...