Jean-Luc Lugrin

• Assistant Professor in HCI / Würzburg University
• Professor (Assistant) at University of Wuerzburg

This article explores the effect of one's body representation on time perception. Time Perception is modulated by a variety of factors including, e.g., the current situation or activity, it can display significant disturbances caused by psychological disorders, and it is influenced by emotional and interoceptive states, i.e., “the sense of the phys...

This paper examines the relationship between time and motion perception in virtual environments. Previous work has shown that the perception of motion can affect the perception of time. We developed a virtual environment that simulates motion in a tunnel and measured its effects on the estimation of the duration of time, the speed at which perceive...

The Proteus effect in Virtual Reality (VR) happens when the user's behavior or attitude are affected by their avatar's appearance. The virtual body appearance is somehow affecting the emotional, behavioral and psychological state of its user. In recent years, manipulation of an avatar has become a more common situation because of social VR platform...

This article presents a novel method for controlling a virtual audience system (VAS) in Virtual Reality (VR) application, called STAGE, which has been originally designed for supervised public speaking training in university seminars dedicated to the preparation and delivery of scientific talks. We are interested in creating pedagogical narratives:...

The purpose of this study is to examine whether pre-service teachers studying classroom management (CM) in a virtual reality (VR)-supported setting enhance their CM competencies more than students do in a setting using conventional methods. With this aim in mind and to address a lack of available situations of practicing and reflecting CM competenc...

Interactive Storytelling techniques are attracting much interest for their potential to develop new game genres but also as another form of procedural content generation, specifically dedicated to game events rather than objects or characters. However, one issue constantly raised by game developers, when discussing gameplay implications of Interact...

Psycho-pathological conditions, such as depression or schizophrenia, are often accompanied by a distorted perception of time. People suffering from this conditions often report that the passage of time slows down considerably and that they are “stuck in time.” Virtual Reality (VR) could potentially help to diagnose and maybe treat such mental condi...

In this paper, we present a virtual audience simulation system for Virtual Reality (VR). The system implements an audience perception model controlling the nonverbal behaviors of virtual spectators, such as facial expressions or postures. Groups of virtual spectators are animated by a set of nonverbal behavior rules representing a particular audien...

Having a mixed-cultural membership becomes increasingly common in our modern society. It is thus beneficial in several ways to create Intelligent Virtual Agents (IVAs) that reflect a mixed-cultural background as well, e.g., for educational settings. For research with such IVAs, it is essential that they are classified as non-native by members of a...

The perception of time is closely related to our well-being. Psychopathological conditions such as depression, schizophrenia and autism are often linked to a disturbed sense of time. In this paper we present a novel framework called Metachron, which is intended to support research in the field of time perception and manipulation in Virtual Reality...

Multimodal Interfaces (MMIs) have been considered to provide promising interaction paradigms for Virtual Reality (VR) for some time. However, they are still far less common than unimodal interfaces (UMIs). This paper presents a summative user study comparing an MMI to a typical UMI for a design task in VR. We developed an application targeting crea...

In this paper, we describe the implementation and performance of a Virtual Audience perception model for Virtual Reality (VR). The model is a VR adaptation of an existing desktop model. The system allows a user in VR to easily build and experience a wide variety of atmospheres with small or large groups of virtual agents.The paper describes results...

This paper presents a novel technique of navigation in Virtual Reality (VR) called Drone-Steering. This technique has been designed to facilitate path learning and traveling in VR by reducing both cybersickness and disorientation. We compared this technique to traditional Hand-Steering in a landmark-free environment. Our first experiment confirmed...

This article investigates the impact of waiting in Virtual Reality (VR) on the perception of time. We manipulated the visual quality of a virtual room replicating a real one (360-picture vs. 3D-model) with and without avatar embodiment (no-avatar vs. avatar). We only observed a significant difference in the estimated time duration between the real...

Virtual Reality (VR) has always been considered a promising medium to support designers with alternative work environments. Still, graphical user interfaces are prone to induce attention shifts between the user interface and the manipulated target objects which hampers the creative process. This work proposes a speech-and-gesture-based interaction...

This paper presents a framework to develop and investigate location-based Virtual Reality (VR) applications. We demonstrate our framework by introducing a novel type of VR museum, designed to support a large number of simultaneous co-located users. These visitors are walking in a hangar-scale tracking zone (600 m2), while sharing a ten times bigger...

This paper presents an experiment evaluating the effects of virtual agents' language proficiency on whether they are perceived as a native speakers or not. Our first results indicate that beyond 10% word order mistakes and 25% infinitive mistakes, virtual agents are perceived as non-native speakers, even though their appearance and non-verbal behav...

In this paper, we propose the integration of audience atmosphere generation techniques into Interactive Storytelling (IS) engines to obtain more realistic and variable Virtual Reality (VR) training systems.We outline a number of advantages of this novel combination compared to current atmosphere generation techniques. The features of recent IS engi...

In this paper, we investigated the impact of an egocentric simulated frame of reference, the so-called simulated CAVE, on three type of travel techniques: Steering, Jumping and Sliding. Contrary to suggestions from previous work, no significant differences were found regarding spatial awareness between all techniques with or without the simulated C...

This article investigates performance and user experience in Social Virtual Reality (SVR) targeting distributed, embodied, and immersive, face-to-face encounters. We demonstrate the close relationship between scalability, reproduction accuracy, and the resulting performance characteristics, as well as the impact of these characteristics on users co...

In this paper, we present the first results of a user-defined approach for designing gesture-driven commands for a firstperson shooter (FPS) game in Virtual Reality (VR). We identified and categorized a set of common gestures for two in-game actions as well as two system control operations. We believe our preliminary results will interest VR game d...

This paper demonstrates the integration and evaluation of different atmosphere models into Virtual Reality (VR) training for teacher education. We developed three behaviour models to simulate dif- ferent levels of class discipline. We evaluated their performances using a combination of objective and subjective measurements. Our initial results sugg...

In this paper, we present a scale construction and its initial test as a step towards a standardized measure of the illusion of virtual body ownership (IVBO) in virtual simulations. The IVBO describes the effect of users partly or fully perceiving a virtual body as their own. We analyzed components for a scale we call "Alpha IVBO" by using data fro...

This article presents an immersive virtual reality (VR) system for training classroom management skills, with a specific focus on learning to manage disruptive student behavior in face-to-face, one-to-many teaching scenarios. The core of the system is a real-time 3D virtual simulation of a classroom populated by twenty-four semi-autonomous virtual...

This paper introduces a fake mirror system as a research tool to study the effect of avatar embodiment with non-visually immersive virtual environments. The system combines marker-less face and body tracking to animate the individual avatars seen in a stereoscopic display with a correct perspective projection. The display dimensions match typical d...

This article presents a fully immersive portable low-cost Virtual Reality system to train classroom management skills. An instructor controls the simulation of a virtual classroom populated with 24 semi-autonomous virtual agents via a desktop-based graphical user interface (GUI). The GUI provides behavior control and trainee evaluation widgets alon...

This paper presents an exploratory experiment measuring the role of audio feedback on the illusion of virtual body ownership (IVBO) under non-immersive mixed reality (MR) settings with Human and Non-Human avatars. Our preliminary results revealed that all avatars elicited a similar level of IVBO, despite the addition of audio feedback.

Figure 1: Experiment Condition and Task: Participant saw their avatars body from a first person perspective and synchronized with their real body in space and time. Each participant experienced both an avatar with a Human body (either an adult female A) or male (B) and one with Non-Human body (a robot (C). Participants had to find and touch white s...

Classical reminiscence therapy has been shown to effectively enhance the stability of memory and identity in people with dementia. Typically, reminiscence therapy uses biography artifacts like photos and personal items and objects. Today, many of these artifacts are from the digital realm providing new options to adapt or even improve the purely an...

In this paper, we compare a full body marker set with a reduced rigid body marker set supported by inverse kinematics. We measured system latency, illusion of virtual body ownership, and task load in an applied scenario for inducing acrophobia. While not showing a significant change in body ownership or task performance, results do show that latenc...

Today’s physics engines mainly simulate classical mechanics and rigid body dynamics, with some late advances also capable of simulating massive particle systems and some approximations of fluid dynamics. An accurate numerical simu- lation of complex non-mechanical processes in real-time is beyond the state-of-the-art in the respective fields. This...

In this paper we present a novel experiment to explore the impact of avatar realism on the illusion of virtual body ownership (IVBO) in immersive virtual environments, with full-body avatar embodiment and freedom of movement. We evaluated four distinct avatars presenting an increasing level of anthropomorphism in their detailed compositions. Our re...

Computer games are ideally placed to form the content of future Immersive Media, but this prospect is faced with both technical and usability issues. This paper describes an experiment in immersive gaming using a state-of-the-art computer First Person Shooter (FPS) game, in which we analyze user experience and performance through a combination of i...

Precise, accurate, fast, and low-latency motion tracking is a core requirement of real-time human-computer interfaces. The choices of tracking systems for a particular set of 3D interaction techniques are manifold. Hence, guidance in this task is greatly beneficial. In this paper, we propose to establish a set of canonical and simple game-based ben...

Simultaneous Lightness Contrast (SLC) is the phenomenon whereby a grey patch on a dark background appears lighter than an equal patch on a light background. Interestingly, the lightness difference between these patches undergoes substantial augmentation when the two backgrounds are patterned, thereby forming the articulated-SLC display. There are t...

Previous attempts at developing immersive versions of game engines have faced difficulties in achieving both overall high performance and preserving reusability of software developments. In this paper, we present a high-level VR middleware based on one of the most successful commercial game engines: the Unreal® Engine 3.0 (UE3). We describe a VR fr...

This paper describes an experiment comparinng immersive and non-immersive gaming using a state-of-the-art first person shooter game (FPS) in which we analyse user experience and performance through a combination of in-game metrics, questionaires and subjective reports. Our results show an overwhelming subjective preference for the immersive version...

Abstract Interactive storytelling (IS) is a promising new entertainment technology synthesizing preauthored narrative with dynamic user interaction. Existing IS prototypes employ different modes to involve users in a story, ranging from individual avatar control to comprehensive control over the virtual environment. The current experiment tested wh...

The Entertainment potential of Virtual Reality is yet to be fully realised. In recent years, this potential has been described through the Holodeck#8482; metaphor, without however addressing the issue of content creation and gameplay. Recent progress in Interactive Narrative technology makes it possible to envision immersive systems. Yet, little is...

Game programmers rely on artificial intelligence techniques to encode characters' behaviors initially specified by game designers. Although significant efforts have been made to assist their collaboration, the formalization of behaviors remains a time-consuming process during the early stages of game development. We propose an authoring tool allowi...

Interactive Storytelling techniques are attracting much interest for their potential to develop new game genres but also as another form of procedural content generation, specifically dedicated to game events rather than objects or characters. However, one issue constantly raised by game developers, when discussing gameplay implications of Interact...

3D graphics systems increasingly rely on sophisticated event systems derived from collision detection mechanisms, which support the discretisation of Physics as well as high-level programming and scripting. By contrast, augmented reality systems have not yet adopted this approach. We describe the development of a high-level event system on top of t...

Causality is an important aspect of how we construct reality. Yet, while many psychological phenomena have been studied in their relation to virtual reality (VR), very little work has been dedicated specifically to causal perception, despite its potential relevance for user interaction and presence. In this paper, we describe the development of a v...

In this paper, we describe a small-scale, yet complete, integration of a real-time immersive interactive storytelling system. While significant progress has been achieved in recent years on the individual component technologies of interactive storytelling, the main objective of this work is to investigate the concept of interactive storytelling in...

Most Interactive Storytelling systems developed to date have followed a task-based approach to story representation, using planning techniques to drive the story by generating a sequence of actions, which essentially "solve" the task to which the story is equated. One major limitation of this approach has been that it fails to incorporate character...

In this paper, we describe the integration of Natural Language Processing (NLP) within an emotional planner to support Interactive Storytelling. Our emotional planner is based on a standard HSP planner, whose originality is drawn from altering the agents’ beliefs and emotional states. Each character is driven by its own planner, while characters ar...

The development of complex interactive 3D systems raises the need for representations supporting more abstract descriptions of world objects, their behaviour and the world dynamics. The inclusion of Artificial Intelligence representations and their use within 3D graphic worlds face both fundamental and technical issues due to the difference in repr...

In entertainment applications, artificial intelligence techniques have most often been used to implement embodied agents or to automatically generate artistic content. A more recent development concerns using AI to support the user experience through new AI-based interactivity techniques. This is especially of interest for the development of artist...

Causal perception is an important cognitive phenomenon, which plays a central role in our understanding of the world. As such, its study is also relevant to interactive graphics systems. In this paper, we introduce a virtual reality system which can elicit causal perception. The system operates by intercepting the consequences of subjects’ actions...

Research in Interactive Narrative has developed new approaches to the behaviour of virtual actors, but has dedicated little attention to the physical behaviour of the environment in which the action takes place. In this paper, we describe a method supporting the AI-based simulation of object behaviour, so that interactive narrative can feature the...

The development of virtual reality (VR) art installations is faced with considerable difficulties, especially when one wishes to explore complex notions related to user interaction. We describe the development of a VR platform, which supports the development of such installations, from an art+science perspective. The system is based on a CAVE™-like...

In this paper, we introduce a novel approach to the use of AI technologies to support user experience in Virtual Reality Art installations. The underlying idea is to use semantic representations for interaction events, so as to modify the course of actions to create specific impressions in the user. The system is based on a game engine ported to a...

In this paper, we describe an approach to artificial life, which uses Qualitative Reasoning for the simulation of life within a 3D virtual environment. This system uses qualitative formalisms to describe both the physiology of a virtual creature and its environment. This approach has two main advantages: the possibility of representing integrated p...

We describe recent developments in the CaveUT software, which supports immersive virtual reality installations based on the Unreal Tournament game engine. CaveUT implements several high-end VR features such as real-time stereoscopy with head and hand tracking. We demonstrate the use of CaveUT in the SAS Cube™, a PC-based CAVE™-like immersive four-s...

In this paper, we discuss how a cognitive concept, causality, can be used for the conceptual underpinning of Virtual Reality Art installations. Causality plays an important role in our construction of reality and, as such, it makes sense to use it as a principle to define VR experiences. We have developed a VR platform using cognitive data on causa...

We introduce a novel approach to the creation of Virtual Reality Art installations, which supports the design of alternative worlds, in which laws of Physics can be redefined to induce new user experiences. To implement this concept of "Alternative Reality", we have used Artificial Intelligence techniques to support the definition of the virtual en...

Proceedings from the ninth International Conference on Artificial Life; papers by scientists of many disciplines focusing on the principles of organization and applications of complex, life-like systems. Artificial Life is an interdisciplinary effort to investigate the fundamental properties of living systems through the simulation and synthesis of...

We describe a new approach to the behaviour of 3D environments that supports the definition of physical processes and interactive phenomena. The work takes as a starting point the traditional event-based architecture that underlies most game engines. These systems discretise the environments' Physics by separating the objects' kinematics from the p...

Virtual Reality Artworks provide sophisticated user experiences but their development is a complex process. We describe the use of Intelligent Virtual Environments for VR Art. In this approach, virtual world behaviour is governed by a symbolic system. This supports news forms of experimentation with physical laws or with causality that we have term...

In this paper, we describe a new approach to the creation of virtual environments, which uses qualitative physics to implement object behaviour. We adopted Qualitative Process Theory as a qualitative reasoning formalism, due to its representational properties (e.g., its orientation towards process ontologies and its explicit formulation of process'...

Virtual Reality Art involves the design of artificial worlds that offer new experiences to spectators. An important aspect for the development of VR Art installations is the principled definition of behaviour for the environment as a whole, which would facilitate experiments with alternative laws of physics, time, and causality. We describe the fir...

In this paper, we present a fully implemented prototype of real-time cinematic control for character-based interactive storytelling approaches, where story diversity emerges from dynamic interaction between characters. We describe the specifities of real-time cinematic control within a dynamic virtual environment, where events occur at different lo...