Adults with intellectual disabilities (ID) face systemic social exclusion that narrows autonomy and life opportunities. While social virtual reality (VR) offers a powerful medium for identity expression and community belonging, research often adopts a remedial paradigm, focusing on training functional skills in scripted environments. This paper challenges this deficit-based model by treating social VR as an open world for participation. Following 11 adults with ID across multi-session engagements with VRChat, we employed an adaptive, relational method to scaffold participant leadership. Findings reveal that participants used the platform for interest-driven discovery, sustained through interdependent care webs. Crucially, the study demonstrates how social VR supports transferable confidence and emerging digital citizenship, enabling some users to transition from novices to community leaders. We contribute six Disability Justice-aligned design principles articulating a world-making paradigm that reorients Human-Computer Interaction toward supporting personhood and self-determination in mainstream digital publics.

Virtual reality exposure therapy (VRET) enables controlled exposure to trauma-related stimuli to facilitate memory access and emotional processing. However, the field remains underexplored for complex post-traumatic stress disorder (C-PTSD). Unlike single-trauma PTSD, C-PTSD requires highly individualized triggers that are difficult to identify and implement safely. We conducted a feasibility study with 11 patients, two trauma therapists, and a VR developer to explore integrating VRET into C-PTSD treatment while safeguarding all stakeholders. Initial findings indicate that simple objects can be just as effective as complex scenes, therapeutic success does not correlate with VR presence levels, and the design process itself became integral to therapy rather than preparatory. However, involving developers in therapy sessions led to considerable emotional stress and role confusion, which required a cautious approach. Based on these insights, we provide methodological recommendations for safe and patient-centered VRET studies that balance therapeutic effectiveness with stakeholder safety across the research process.

Music is increasingly performed and experienced in Social Virtual Reality (Social VR), from VRChat raves to high-production concerts on bespoke platforms. Yet Human-Computer-Interaction (HCI) research still focuses mainly on building new VR systems rather than examining the communities that already create and sustain these practices. We present a cultural mapping of the Social VR music scene based on 84 survey responses, 27 interviews, and 17 event observations with diverse stakeholders, including audience members, musicians, developers, platform owners, and event organisers. We found that the scene operates as a fragmented cross-platform ecosystem sustained by user-generated infrastructure and continuous community labour. The bottom-up organisation produces role fluidity with individuals dynamically shifting between roles as performers, world builders, organisers, and audience members. However, the openness that enables this creativity also creates tensions between expectations of free access and the financial and emotional labour required to keep events running. Taken together, our findings reveal the vibrant cultural practices that continue to flourish in Social VR, even as corporate narratives declare the “metaverse” dead.

Virtual reality (VR) enables interactions beyond real-world limitations, yet many such capabilities remain underexplored due to concerns about user comfort and increased disorientation and cybersickness. This study examined how altering the user's virtual pitch orientation influences interaction performance and subjective ratings. In a within-subject design, 30 seated participants experienced 12 virtual tilts from moderate to extreme (±180°). We assessed comfort, simulator sickness, perceptual responses, and performance. Our results revealed no significant increases in nausea, disorientation, or decreased comfort, with mild tilts performing equivalently to baseline. Notably, even extreme tilts maintained low nausea levels. Performance effects were mixed: forward tilts yielded similar or slightly improved performance, whereas backward tilts modestly impaired performance, though not significantly. These findings suggest that VR experiences featuring virtual body orientations distinct from the user's physical posture are feasible without compromising comfort or performance, enabling novel opportunities in simulation, interface design, visualization, creative content creation, and VR gaming.

Virtual Reality (VR) is increasingly being used to support workplace well-being, but many interventions focus narrowly on a single activity or goal. Our work explores how VR can meet the diverse physical and mental needs of knowledge workers. We developed Tranquil Loom, a VR app offering stretching, guided meditation, and open exploration across four environments. The app includes an AI assistant that suggests activities based on users emotional states. We conducted a two-phase mixed-methods study: (1) interviews with 10 knowledge workers to guide the apps design, and (2) deployment with 35 participants gathering usage data, well-being measures, and interviews. Results showed increases in mindfulness and reductions in anxiety. Participants enjoyed both structured and open-ended activities, often using the app playfully. While AI suggestions were used infrequently, they prompted ideas for future personalization. Overall, participants viewed VR as a flexible, “dropin” tool, highlighting its value for situational rather than prescriptive well-being support.

International audience

This article examines the user experience and cognitive workload in digital storytelling through immersive virtual reality (VR). Specifically, it explores the relationship between various aspects of the user experience and their link to the cognitive workload. The investigation was conducted by means of a large-scale evaluation of an underwater archaeological VR experience that simulated diving into the reconstructions of a submerged ancient site combined with interactive 360° video storytelling. The evaluation included 125 participants from two different geographical locations. Results revealed a strong interdependence between all user experience scales, including presence, immersion, engagement, emotional response, state of flow, subjective judgment, and technological adoption of the VR equipment. Moreover, the sense of presence in VR was strongly related to the reported task performance. The article highlights the importance of understanding the user experience and cognitive workload when creating digital storytelling applications in immersive VR.

This paper presents an algorithm for the offline generation of lip-sync animation. It redefines visemes as sets of constraints on the facial articulators such as lips, jaw, tongue. The algorithm was comparatively evaluated with 30 healthy participants by presenting a set of phrases delivered verbally by a virtual character. Each phrase was presented in two versions: once with the traditional lip-sync method, and once with our method. Results confirm that the suggested solution produces more natural animation than standard keyframe interpolation techniques.

Visual illusions are fascinating because visual perception misjudges the actual physical properties of an image or a scene. This paper examines the perception of visual illusions in three-dimensional space. Six diverse visual illusions were implemented for both immersive virtual reality and monitor based environments. A user-study with 30 healthy participants took place in laboratory conditions comparing the perceptual effects of the two different mediums. Experimental data were collected from both a simple ordering method and electrical activity of the brain. Results showed unexpected outcomes indicating that only some of the illusions have a stronger effect in immersive virtual reality, others in monitor based environments while the rest with no significant effects.

BCIManager is a customizable library helping with the development of brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) with 3D graphics scenes, suitable for virtual reality (VR) BCI feedback, gamified BCI training, using BCIs as game inputs, and similar use cases. The library forms a layer between Unity game engine and Openvibe (software for development of BCIs) that provides control of the EEG recording process from applications made with Unity. The main feature of the BCIManager is the interface for bi-directional data exchange between Unity and Openvibe; for sending markers (stimulations) from the experimental 3D applications to the EEG recordings, and for sending classification results, features, or other data from Openvibe to the 3D applications. BCIManager also wraps around the process of starting Openvibe and can be used for arbitrary scenarios that include EEG recording with 3D/VR applications. This project is an open source, freely available at https://github.com/xskola/BCIManager.

Crowd simulation algorithms play an essential role in populating Virtual Reality (VR) environments with multiple autonomous humanoid agents. The generation of plausible trajectories can be a significant computational cost for real-time graphics engines, especially in untethered and mobile devices such as portable VR devices. Previous research explores the plausibility and realism of crowd simulations on desktop computers but fails to account the impact it has on immersion. This study explores how the realism of crowd trajectories affects the perceived immersion in VR. We do so by running a psychophysical experiment in which participants rate the realism of real/synthetic trajectories data, showing similar level of perceived realism.

The sense of embodiment in virtual reality is a strong case of body ownership illusion, effectively allowing humans to experience the ownership of a modified, or a completely different body. Virtual embodiment has captured the attention of researchers in various fields, with applications far beyond computer science. Despite the promising applications, little is known about the neural mechanisms behind full-body virtual embodiment. This study investigates the influence of anodal transcranial direct current stimulation of the brain area linked to processing of the bodily self (right temporoparietal junction) to the subjective strength of virtual embodiment and its main constituents, using within-subject experimental design with sham-controlled stimulation. Virtual embodiment was studied using questionnaires, accompanied by brain signals gathered using EEG. Our results suggest that stimulation did not affect the sense of ownership toward the virtual avatar. Borderline strengthening of the perceived sense of agency toward the avatar’s actions was found in the sessions with stimulation.

A moral dilemma is a decision-making paradox without unambiguously acceptable or preferable options. This paper investigates if and how the virtual enactment of two renowned moral dilemmas---the Trolley and the Mad Bomber---influence decision-making when compared with mentally visualizing such situations. We conducted two user studies with two gender-balanced samples of 60 participants in total that compared between paper-based and virtual-reality (VR) conditions, while simulating 5 distinct scenarios for the Trolley dilemma, and 4 storyline scenarios for the Mad Bomber's dilemma. Our findings suggest that the VR enactment of moral dilemmas further fosters utilitarian decision-making, while it amplifies biases such as sparing juveniles and seeking retribution. Ultimately, we theorize that the VR enactment of renowned moral dilemmas can yield ecologically-valid data for training future Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems on ethical decision-making, and we elicit early design principles for the training of such systems.

Digital technologies can help with preservation of cultural heritage and virtual reality can be used for that purpose. In this paper, a virtual reality application that has the potential of assisting the learning process of folk dances is introduced. This application includes three different assisting approaches that are presented and evaluated with 30 healthy participants. An animated avatar of the professional dancer is shown in immersive virtual reality and participants were asked to imitate the movements in order to learn the dance. Movements were recorded using a passive optical motion capture system and afterwards compared to the recordings from the professional dancers. Questionnaire data were also collected and initial results indicate that participants that had feedback provided achieved better performance.

Virtual reality has taken many great strides in the recent years. It is increasingly used and is an accepted means of delivering behavioral therapy for phobias and anxiety disorders. In this paper, we examine methods of virtual reality stress induction for use in treatment of somatoform and anxiety disorders, as well as the adequate measures of the evoked stress response. In total, 42 healthy subjects took part in testing as part of this study. The results show that electrodermal activity is more sensitive in capturing a subject reaction to non-interactive social environment simulation while cardiovascular parameters better reflect task-related stress. Furthermore, our results suggest a distinct relationship between electrodermal activity and anxiety and cardiovascular parameters and somatoform dissociation. These results can point to a possibility of virtual reality utilization in the research and treatment of disorders in which anxiety and somatization are important features.

Virtual reality (VR) can be immersive to such a degree that users sometimes report feeling tactile sensations based on visualization of the touch, without any actual physical contact. This effect is not only interesting for studies of human perception, but can also be leveraged to improve the quality of VR by evoking tactile sensations without usage of specialized equipment. The aim of this paper is to study brain processing of the illusory touch and its enhancement for purposes of exploitation in VR scene design. To amplify the illusory touch, transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) was used. Participants attended two sessions with blinded stimulation and interacted with a virtual ball using tracked hands in VR. The effects were studied using electroencephalography (EEG), that allowed us to examine stimulation-induced changes in processing of the illusory touch in the brain, as well as to identify its neural correlates. Results confirm enhanced processing of the illusory touch after the stimulation, and some of these changes were correlated to subjective rating of its magnitude.

This paper presents a prototype mobile augmented reality interface for assisting the process of learning folk dances. As a case study, a folk dance was digitized based on recordings from professional dancers. To assess the effectiveness of the technology, it was comparatively evaluated with a large back-projection system in laboratory conditions. Sixteen participants took part in the study, and their movements were captured using motion capture system and then compared with the recordings from the professional dancers. Experimental results indicate that augmented reality has the potential to be used for learning folk dances.

This paper presents a study of users' experiences in low cost multimodal brain-computer interface (BCI) games. A 2D puzzle game (Tetris) was designed featuring two modes (non-BCI and BCI input) which require users to meditate in order to change the game difficulty. Thirty participants were asked to report on the two modes separately. Results indicate that a one-sensor BCI device in games positively contributes to enjoy ability but raises mental demand. There was no reported drop in performance in a hybrid system where direct control is not handled by a BCI input. It was found that meditation could not be self-regulated making short-term direct control a bad design decision in future BCI gaming scenarios for one-sensor headsets.

This paper investigates the development of an urban crowd simulation for the purposes of psychophysical experimentation. Whilst artificial intelligence (AI) is advancing to produce more concise and interesting crowd behaviours, the number or sophistication of the algorithms implemented within a system does not necessarily guarantee its perceptual realism. Human perception is highly subjective and does not always conform to the reality of the situation. Therefore it is important to consider this aspect when dealing with A implementations within a crowd system aimed at humans. In this research an initial two-alternative forced choice (2AFC) with constant stimuli psychophysical experiment is presented. The purpose of the experiment is to assess whether human participants perceive crowd behaviour with a social forces model to be more realistic. Results from the experiment suggest that participants do consider crowd behaviour with social forces to be more realistic. This research could inform the development of crowd-based systems, especially those that consider viewer perception to be important, such as for example video games and other media.

There is wide consensus internationally amongst scientific communities that Inquiry-Based Learning can be employed to foster acquisition of clearly defined, 'certain' knowledge such as the conceptual foundations of a scientific discipline. Alternatively, it can be used to engage students with uncertainty, multiple perspectives and contestation through exploration of scientific problems. In order to enact inquiry-based learning effectively, science teachers need to be aware of how to design inquiry-based learning activities and the most effective ways of facilitating inquiry-based learning in the classroom. This paper, presents Sim AULA, a serious game for helping science teachers to create engaging activities for involving students in inquiry-based quests. The paper proposes a cyclical model comprising seven inquiry steps or phases and translates these steps into practical inquiry-based activities performed in the serious game. Sim AULA's overarching architecture is presented in the context of the in-game inquiry-based learning activities, which will be implemented and evaluated in a number of schools across Europe.

Simulating vast crowds of autonomous agents within a procedurally generated virtual environment is a challenging endeavour from a technical perspective, however it becomes even more difficult when the subjective nature of perception is also taken into account. Agent behaviour is the product of artificial intelligence systems working in tandem, however the sophistication of these systems is not a guarantee of achieving believable behaviour. Within locations based upon reality such as an urban environment, the perceived realism of agent behaviour becomes even harder to achieve. This paper presents the development of a crowd simulation that is based upon a real-life urban environment, which is then subjected to perceptual experimentation to identify features of behaviour which can be linked to perceived realism. This research is predicted to feedback into the development processes of inhabited cities, especially those attempting to simulate perceptually realistic agents as it will highlight features of behaviour that are important to implement. The perceptual experimentation methodologies presented can also be adapted and potentially utilised to test other types of crowd simulation, whether it be for the purposes of computer games or even urban planning and health and safety.

This paper identifies the user's adaptation on brain-controlled systems and the ability to control brain-generated events in a closed neuro-feedback loop. To accomplish that, a working system has been developed based on off-the-shelf components for controlling a robot in both the real and virtual world. Using commercial Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCIs) the overall cost, set up time and complexity can be reduced. The system is divided in two prototypes based on the headset type used. The first prototype is based on the Neurosky headset and it has been tested with 54 participants. The second prototype is based on the Emotiv headset including more sensors and accuracy. Initial evaluation results indicate that robot navigation through commercial BCIs can be effective and natural.

Abstract Misconceptions about the nature of the computing disciplines pose a serious problem to university faculties that offer computing degrees, as students enrolling on their programmes may come to realise that their expectations are not met by reality. This frequently results in the students’ early disengagement from the subject of their degrees which in turn can lead to excessive ‘wastage’, that is, reduced retention. In this paper, we report on our academic group’s attempts within creative computing degrees at a UK university to counter these problems through the introduction of a 6 week long project that newly enrolled students embark on at the very beginning of their studies. This group project, involving the creation of a 3D etch‐a‐sketch‐like computer graphics application with a hardware interface, provides a breadth‐first, activity‐led introduction to the students’ chosen academic discipline, aiming to increase student engagement while providing a stimulating learning experience with the overall goal to increase retention. We present the methods and results of two iterations of these projects in the 2009/2010 and 2010/2011 academic years, and conclude that the approach worked well for these cohorts, with students expressing increased interest in their chosen discipline, in addition to noticeable improvements in retention following the first year of the students’ studies.

Environmental monitoring brings many challenges to wireless sensor networks: including the need to collect and process large volumes of data before presenting the information to the user in an easy to understand format. This paper presents SensAR, a prototype augmented reality interface specifically designed for monitoring environmental information. The input of our prototype is sound and temperature data which are located inside a networked environment. Participants can visualise 3D as well as textual representations of environmental information in real-time using a lightweight handheld computer.

This paper presents the first prototype of an interactive visualisation framework specifically designed for presenting geographical information in both indoor and outdoor environments. The input of our system is ESRI Shapefiles which represent 3D building geometry and landuse attributes. Participants can visualise 3D reconstructions of geographical information in real-time based on two visualisation clients: a mobile VR interface and a tangible AR interface. To prove the functionality of our system an educational application specifically designed for university students is illustrated with some initial results. Finally, our conclusions as well as future work are presented.

This paper discusses alternative approaches for interacting with virtual reality scenes on mobile devices, based upon work conducted as part of the locus project [4]. Three prototypes are introduced that adopt different interaction paradigms for mobile virtual reality scenes: interaction can be via the screen only, movement and gestures within the real world environment, or a mixture of these two approaches. The paper concludes by suggesting that interaction via movement and gestures within the may be a more intuitive approach for mobile virtual reality scenes.

A complete tool chain starting with stereo photogrammetry based digitization of artefacts, their refinement, collection and management with other multimedia data, and visualization using virtual and augmented reality is presented. Our system provides a one-stop-solution for museums to create, manage and present both content and context for virtual exhibitions. Interoperability and standards are also key features of our system allowing both small and large museums to build a bespoke system suited to their needs.

This work proposes a high-level augmented reality interface toolkit that allows the combination of audiovisual information with a real world environment in an easy and interactive way. The system is based on MFC libraries, OpenGL, OpenAL, Microsoft Vision SDK and the vision tracking libraries from the well known ARToolKit. Simple and cost effective hardware complements the software solution. This AR interface toolkit can be used as an exemplar for the development of other applications. Users can interact with the presented information in several different ways. Realistic augmentation is also supported such as soft and hard shadows, without sacrificing the overall efficiency of the system. To illustrate the feasibility of our AR interface toolkit a cultural heritage application for museum environments is briefly presented.