Valentin Schwind

• Dr
• Professor at Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences

Virtual reality (VR) allows to embody avatars. Coined the Proteus effect, an avatar's visual appearance can influence users' behavior and perception. Recent work suggests that athletic avatars decrease perceptual and physiological responses during VR exercise. However , such effects can fail to occur when users do not experience avatar ownership an...

The lack of social acceptability for wearable devices such as orthopedic foot orthoses can lead to irregular usage and missed health benefits, as shown in prior studies. While AI-generated designs have been explored for prototyping aesthetic hand orthoses, their impact on social acceptability, particularly for foot orthoses, remains unknown. The cu...

Obtaining informed consent is a fundamental ethical requirement in research involving human subjects, designed to ensure autonomy, respect, and the protection of participants. However, new technologies and research methodologies in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) present unique challenges in maintaining ethical standards and require a deeper under...

Increasing research on intelligent wearable technologies, such as smart insoles for mobile health (mHealth) monitoring, brings new challenges for user-centered design, particularly in data visualization. Research shows various developments in mobile apps for monitoring foot health with smart insoles, while emerging trends like chatbot interactions...

Mixed Reality (MR) increasingly gained importance over the last decade leading to the commercial breakthrough in recent years. Consequently, experts predict that users will spend considerable amounts of time in MR in the near future and possibly replace the smartphone. When MR becomes ubiquitous and will be used in everyday contexts as the smartpho...

Virtual reality enables embodying different avatars. Coined the Pro-teus effect, previous work found that the visual characteristics of an avatar can cause behavioral, attitudinal, and perceptual effects. Recent work suggests that avatars' muscularity can even have physiological effects while cycling in virtual reality. As the effects have not been...

Virtual reality (VR) allows to embody any possible appearance using avatars. Previous work found that the visual characteristics of an avatar can cause behavioral, attitudinal, and perceptual changes-a phenomenon known as the Proteus effect. Recent work revealed that athletic avatars can even change heart rate responses while exercising in VR. Howe...

Balance board training is a promising method to enhance physical rehabilitation for humans with motor problems through interactive exercises. Previous work highlighted the benefits of balance board training in virtual reality (VR) compared to conventional methods. However, it is still unclear how visual target feedback and the presence of an avatar...

Previous work shows that high latency, a prolonged delay between player in-and system output, negatively affects player experience and performance. However, previous work also comes to contrary conclusions about how the in-game perspective alters the latency sensitivity of video games. Currently, it is unclear if the in-game perspective independent...

The augmentation of smart insoles gained increased interest due to the possibilities in foot-related rehabilitation, medical treatment, and postural risk prevention. As shown by previous work, the technology offers a personalized solution for individual foot morphology and biomechanics, which can monitor the health status and healing process. Howev...

Latency in virtual reality (VR) can decrease the feeling of presence and body ownership. How users perceive latency, however, is malleable and affected by the design of the virtual content. Previous work found that an avatar's visual appearance, particularly its perceived fitness, can be leveraged to change user perception and behavior. Moreover, p...

Incorrect gait patterns and foot positioning can lead to serious consequences for the entire musculoskeletal system of the human body. While previous work indicates that training with an agility ladder in immersive environments such as in virtual reality (VR) is helpful for training foot positioning using visual feedback, it remains unknown how the...

Humans' thermal regulation and subjective perception of temperature is highly plastic and depends on the visual appearance of the surrounding environment. Previous work shows that an environment's color temperature affects the experienced temperature. As virtual reality (VR) enables visual immersion, recent work suggests that a VR scene's color tem...

Using biosignals through electromyography (EMG) and rendering them as feedback for hands-free interaction finally migrates to engaging virtual reality (VR) experiences for health and fitness-related applications. Previous work proposes various body locations as input sources and different output modalities for creating effective biofeedback loops....

Avatars are used to represent users in virtual reality (VR) and create embodied experiences. Previous work showed that avatars' stereotypical appearance can affect users' physical performance and perceived exertion while exercising in VR. Although sweating is a natural human response to physical effort, surprisingly little is known about the effect...

Feeling ownership of a virtual body is crucial for immersive experiences in VR. Knowledge about body ownership is mainly based on rubber hand illusion (RHI) experiments in the real world. Watching a rubber hand being stroked while one's own hidden hand is synchronously stroked, humans experience the rubber hand as their own hand and underestimate t...

Latency is inherently part of every interactive computing system and particularly important for video games. Previous work shows that constant latency above 25 ms reduces game experience and player performance. However, latency in the wild varies and is never constant due to multiple factors, such as updates in routing tables, users changing their...

Assessing social acceptability is vital when designing body-worn mobile devices. Previous research found evidence that using stereotyping content model (SCM) mobile devices can systematically predict ratings of the warmth and competence of their wearers. However, it is currently unknown if other contextual dimensions of mobile device usage can also...

Understanding body ownership is essential when creating virtual reality (VR) applications using avatars. One of the most widely-used paradigm to investigate body ownership is the rubber hand illusion (RHI). When a real hand and a rubber hand are stroked synchronously, participants can experience the rubber hand as their own hand. Although the knowl...

Mixed Reality (MR) increasingly gained importance over the last decade leading to the commercial breakthrough in recent years. At the heart of MR systems is the avatar-the user's virtual representation within the virtual world. Avatars are not only necessary to interact with the virtual world but have also a large number of profound effects on the...

In face-to-face social interactions, emotional expressions provide insights into the mental state of an interactive partner. This information can be crucial to infer action intentions and react adaptively towards another person’s actions. Here we investigate how facial emotional expressions impact subjective experience and physiological and behavio...

Cloud gaming services and remote play offer a wide range of advantages but can inherent a considerable delay between input and action also known as latency. Previous work indicates that deep learning algorithms such as artificial neural networks (ANN) are able to compensate for latency. As high latency in video games significantly reduces player pe...

An avatar's athletic appearance can affect users' perceptual and physiological responses to physical exertion in virtual reality (VR). Although sweating during physical effort is a natural human response, it is currently unknown whether and how visualizing sweat on an avatar's skin affects the user while exercising in VR. Therefore, we plan to cond...

Social interaction requires fast and efficient processing of another person’s intentions. In face-to-face interactions, aversive or appetitive actions typically co-occur with emotional expressions, allowing an observer to anticipate action intentions. In the present study, we investigated the influence of facial emotions on the processing of action...

Measure user experience in MR (i.e., AR/VR) user studies is essential. Researchers apply a wide range of measuring methods using objective (e.g., biosignals, time logging), behavioral (e.g., gaze direction, movement amplitude), and subjective (e.g., standardized questionnaires) metrics. Many of these measurement instruments were adapted from use-ca...

Virtual reality (VR) allows users to embody any possible avatar. Previous work found that the appearance of avatars can change our perception and behavior. Such behavioral changes based on stereo-typical assessments are known as the Proteus effect. Exergames involve physical activities of players, however, it is currently unknown if behavioral chan...

Virtual Reality (VR) allows us to embody any possible appearance using avatars. Previous work found that the visual appearance of an avatar can affect the user's behavior-a phenomenon known as the Proteus effect. The illusory feeling of owning a virtual avatar-the body ownership illusion-modulates the Proteus effect. Prior investigations revealed t...

Reports on educational developments in the area of online lectures or video recording that involves human-computer interaction between students and the teaching community.

Navigating on large high-resolution displays (LHRDs) using devices built for traditional desktop computers can be strenuous and negatively impact user experience. As LHRDs transition to everyday use, new user-friendly interaction techniques need to be designed to capitalise on the potential offered by the abundant screen space on LHRDs. We conducte...

Museums are essential to make culture accessible to the mass audience. Human museum guides are important to explain the presented artifacts to the visitors. Recently, museums started to experiment with enhancing exhibitions through mixed reality. It enables cultural exhibitors to provide each visitor with an individualized virtual guide that adapts...

Virtual reality (VR) is becoming more and more ubiquitous to interact with digital content and often requires renderings of avatars as they enable improved spatial localization and high levels of presence. Previous work shows that visual-haptic integration of virtual avatars depends on body ownership and spatial localization in VR. However, there a...

Large high-resolution displays (LHRDs) are entering into our daily life. Today, we already see them in installations where they display tailored applications, e.g. in exhibitions. However, while heavily studied under lab conditions, real-world applications for personal use, which utilize the extended screen space are rarely available. Thus, today's...

Interacting with objects from a distance is not only challenging in the real world but also a common problem in virtual reality (VR). One issue concerns the distinction between attention for exploration and attention for selection -- also known as the Midas-touch problem. Researchers proposed numerous approaches to overcome that challenge using add...

Virtual reality (VR) enables users to experience informal learning activities, such as visiting museum exhibitions or attending tours independent of their physical locations. Consequently, VR offers compelling use cases by making informal learning and education accessible to a broader audience and simultaneously reducing the carbon footprint. For m...

Virtual Reality (VR) allows us to perceive the world through any possible embodiment-the avatar. Behavioral changes due to the strong bond between the user and the virtual avatar is known as Proteus effect. Previous work found that the Proteus effect occurs when characteristics of the appearance are associated with knowledge and experiences gained...

The spread of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in all aspects of our lives increases the range and scale of potential issues with social acceptance. In the HCI community there is a growing interest and recognition of social acceptability issues with emerging technologies and novel interaction paradigms. This workshop builds on the...

Smart virtual assistants (SVA) are becoming increasingly popular. Prominent SVAs, including Siri, Alexa, and Cortana, have female-gendered names and voices which raised the concern that combining female-gendered voices and submissive language amplifies gender stereotypes. We investigated the effect of gendered voices and the used language on the pe...

As touchscreens are the most successful input method of current mobile devices, touch gestures became a widely used input technique. While gestures provide users with advantages to express themselves, they also introduce challenges regarding accuracy and memorability. In this paper, we investigate the effect of a gesture's orientation on how well t...

Virtual Reality (VR) is gaining increasing importance in science , education, and entertainment. A fundamental characteristic of VR is creating presence, the experience of 'being' or 'acting', when physically situated in another place. Measuring presence is vital for VR research and development. It is typically repeatedly assessed through questionn...

Das unheimliche Tal Masahiro Mori Das Tal der Affinität Es gibt einen mathematischen Ausdruck, der als monoton steigende Funktion bezeichnet wird. Dabei nimmt der Wert y der Funktion f(x) zu, wenn die Variable x ebenfalls ansteigt. Je höher beispielsweise die Anstrengung x, desto höher wird der Ertrag y, je tiefer das Gaspedal x eines Fahrzeugs ge...

Empirical studies are a cornerstone of HCI research. Technical progress constantly enables new study methods. Online surveys, for example, make it possible to collect feedback from remote users. Progress in augmented and virtual reality enables to collect feedback with early designs. In-situ studies enable researchers to gather feedback in natural...

Understanding social perception is important for designing mobile devices that are socially acceptable. Previous work not only investigated the social acceptability of mobile devices and interaction techniques but also provided tools to measure social acceptance. However, we lack a robust model that explains the underlying factors that make devices...

Avatars in virtual reality (VR) increase the immersion and provide an interface between the user's physical body and the virtual world. Thus, avatars enable referential gestures, which are essential for targeting, selection, locomotion, and collaboration in VR. However, players of immersive games can have another virtual appearance deviating from h...

The characteristics of virtual faces can be important factors for avatars and characters in video games. Previous work investigates how users create their own avatars and determines the generally preferred characteristics of virtual faces. However, it is currently unknown how the preferred characteristics of avatar faces depend on the players' age...

Virtual reality (VR) glasses enable to be present in an environment while the own physical body is located in another place. Recent mobile VR glasses enable users to be present in any environment they want at any time and physical place. Still, mobile VR glasses are rarely used. One explanation is that it is not considered socially acceptable to im...

Hand tracking and haptics are gaining more importance as key technologies of virtual reality (VR) systems. For designing such systems, it is fundamental to understand how the appearance of the virtual hands influences user experience and how the human brain integrates vision and haptics. However, it is currently unknown whether multi-sensory integr...

Entering text is one of the most common tasks when interacting with computing systems. Virtual Reality (VR) presents a challenge as neither the user's hands nor the physical input devices are directly visible. Hence, conventional desktop peripherals are very slow, imprecise, and cumbersome. We developed a apparatus that tracks the user's hands, and...

Pointing at remote objects to direct others' attention is a fundamental human ability. Previous work explored methods for remote pointing to select targets. Absolute pointing techniques that cast a ray from the user to a target are affected by humans' limited pointing accuracy. Recent work suggests that accuracy can be improved by compensating syst...

Interacting with computer generated humans in virtual reality is becoming more popular with the current increase in accessibility of virtual reality head mounted displays and applications. However, simulating accurate behavior in computer generated humans remains a challenge. In this study, we tested the effects of full body behavior (Body Movement...

Approaching a high degree of realism, android robots, and virtual humans may evoke uncomfortable feelings. Due to technologies that increase the realism of human replicas, this phenomenon, which is known as the uncanny valley, has been frequently highlighted in recent years by researchers from various fields. Although virtual animals play an import...

Although interaction with computing systems has become remarkably diverse in recent years, the computer mouse remained the primary pointing device for daily computer use. Being solely an input device, the classical mouse decouples input from output. In this paper, we propose to extend the mouse to a device that can be actuated by the user and the c...

Touchscreens are the dominant input mechanism for a variety of devices. One of the main limitations of touchscreens is the latency to receive input, refresh, and respond. This latency is easily perceivable and reduces users' performance. Previous work proposed to reduce latency by extrapolating finger movements to identify future movements - albeit...

The hands of one's avatar are possibly the most visible aspect when interacting in virtual reality (VR). As video games in VR proliferate, it is important to understand how the appearance of avatar hands influence the user experience. Designers of video games often stylize hands and reduce the number of fingers of game characters. Previous work sho...

The latency of current mobile devices' touchscreens is around 100ms and has widely been explored. Latency down to 2ms is noticeable, and latency as low as 25ms reduces users' performance. Previous work reduced touch latency by extrapolating a finger's movement using an ensemble of shallow neural networks and showed that predicting 33ms into the fut...

Head-mounted displays for virtual reality (VR) provide high-fidelity visual and auditory experiences. Other modalities are currently less supported. Current commercial devices typically deliver tactile feedback through controllers the user holds in the hands. Since both hands get occupied and tactile feedback can only be provided at a single positi...

Rendering the user's body in virtual reality increases immersion and presence the illusion of "being there". Recent technology enables determining the pose and position of the hands to render them accordingly while interacting within the virtual environment. Virtual reality applications often use realistic male or female hands, mimic robotic hands,...

This work demonstrates the potentials of procedural content generation (PCG) for games, focusing on the generation of specific graphic props (reefs) in an explorer game. We briefly portray the state-of-the-art of PCG and compare various methods to create random patterns at runtime. Taking a step towards the game industry, we describe an actual game...

Understanding the effect of facial features on human’s perception and emotion is widely studied in different disciplines. In video games, this is especially important to improve the design of virtual characters and to understand their creation process. Virtual characters are widely used in games, virtual therapies, movie productions, and as avatars...

This book offers a compendium of best practices in game dynamics. It covers a wide range of dynamic game elements ranging from player behavior over artificial intelligence to procedural content generation. Such dynamics make virtual worlds more lively and realistic and they also create the potential for moments of amazement and surprise. In many c...

While smartwatches have become common for mobile interaction, one of their main limitation is the limited screen size. To facilitate reading activities despite these limitations, reading with Rapid Serial Visual Presentation (RSVP) has been shown to be feasible. However, when text is presented in rapid sequence, single words are easily missed due t...

Notifications are a core mechanism of current smart devices. They inform about a variety of events including messages , social network comments, and application updates. While users appreciate the awareness that notifications provide , notifications cause distraction, higher cognitive load, and task interruptions. With the increasing importance of...

Display space in offices constantly increased in the last decades. We believe that this trend will continue and ultimately result in the use of wall-sized displays in the future office. One of the most challenging tasks while interacting with large high-resolution displays is target acquisition. The most important challenges reported in previous wo...