Thermal feedback has the potential to enrich immersive interaction, yet its role in material discrimination remains underexplored. We designed and evaluated a conductivity model that simulates transient heating and cooling profiles based on material properties of an object. Thirty-eight participants used a Meta Quest 3 headset and WEART TouchDIVER Pro gloves to classify virtual blocks (metal, glass, wood) under three conditions: visual-thermal congruence, thermal-only, and visual-thermal incongruence. Although the results show accuracy decreased when congruence decreased, the objects were rated consistently following their material conductivity properties (Metal > Glass > Wood), supporting the validity of the conductivity model. Haptic Experience (HX) ratings of realism, involvement, and harmony remained stable across tasks, while sorting difficulty was lowest under congruent and highest under incongruent visuals. Physiological baselines did affect performance. Our findings demonstrate that conductivity-based thermal rendering enables perceptually reliable material differences in VR, informing design and application of thermal haptics.

Generative artificial intelligence (GAI) is transforming numerous professions, not least various fields intimately relying on creativity, such as design. To explore GAI’s adoption and appropriation in design, an interview-based study probed 10 specialists in user experience and industrial design, with varying tenure and GAI experience, for their adoption/application of GAI tools, reasons for not using them, problems with ownership and agency, speculations about the future of creative work, and GAI tools’ roles in design sensemaking. Insight from reflexive thematic analysis revealed wide variation in attitudes toward GAI tools – from threat-oriented negative appraisals to identification of empowerment opportunities – which depended on the sense of agency and perceived control. The paper examines this finding in light of the Coping Model of User Adaptation and discusses designers’ metacognitive skills as possible underpinnings for their attitudes. Avenues for further research are identified accordingly.

Body-Focused Repetitive Behaviors (BFRBs), such as nail biting, impact a wide demographic, and can negatively affect physical, psychological, and social well-being. Although pharmacological and behavioral therapies are common treatments, many avoid seeking help, and not everyone responds fully to treatment. Recent advances in wearable sensing enable new digital solutions that can detect BFRB episodes and intervene to mitigate them. While BFRBs have been extensively studied in medical research, translating this knowledge into effective digital intervention solutions may not be straightforward, and the end user's perspective may be overlooked. We report a user study with 12 frequent nail biters, who shared their experiences about nail biting and expectations of intervention solutions in semi-structured qualitative interviews. We describe the progression of a nail biting episode from a nail biter's perspective and present a taxonomy of intervention strategies to mitigate nail biting. Our results inform the design of future digital BFRB intervention solutions.

Immersive 360° video needs new ways of interaction. We compared three different interaction methods to find out which one of them is the most applicable for controlling 360° video playback. The compared methods were: remote control, pointing with head orientation, and hand gestures. A WebVR-based 360° video player was built for the experiment.

Mixed reality (MR) technologies and applications, including interpersonal communication, are rapidly evolving. Despite its promise, peoples' actual needs concerning the advanced uses of MR are less studied. To address this knowledge gap, we conducted two focus group user studies in which we explored people's perceptions, expectations, and ideas concerning remote interpersonal MR communication and collaboration. In the first study we examined people's perceptions of MR and the study participants collaboratively created 21 scenarios for MR communication. For the second study, the most promising of these scenarios were selected and refined to develop three different types of scenarios one with emotional content, one emphasizing entertainment and one focused on work-related situations. The scenarios were evaluated by the participants of the second study in the context of a specific MR communication system that uses near-eye displays. The results indicate that the expected advantages of MR in communication are its efficiency, richness and the increased feeling of presence over distance. However, concerns were raised about the technical reliability, usability and accessibility of advanced MR applications. Work and entertainment use contexts were preferred over emotional communication. Maintaining close emotional relationships was perceived to require real physical presence and interaction instead of being technology-mediated.

In this paper we evaluate the possibilities of autostereo-scopic three-dimensional displays in aiding the user in a selection task on a mobile touch-screen user interface. We describe a user study which measures the effectiveness of realistic depth illusion as an emphasizing method in a conventional mobile user interface concept. In our experiment, 35 people completed simple thumbnail visual search tasks, where horizontal disparity, color shading, and their combination were used as the emphasizing method. The results indicate that using disparity alone as a visual indicator does not provide enough support in find-and-select tasks to improve the user performance or perceived comfort with the task. However, when combined with other visual cues, disparity can significantly improve performance and satisfaction.

Wearable computing and ubiquitous computing are the latest solutions in mobile virtual reality. These technologies together with wireless data transmission enable both augmented reality and multimedia in mobile environments. Wearable and ubiquitous computing are energetically finding their position in the future information society. This paper describes the main requirements of modern mobile VR systems and also highlights the problems of the present systems. The approach is to focus on state-of-the-art mobile VR by describing three implementation cases from Finnish industry as examples of how to use these novel concepts as building blocks for a new economy. Future expectations and development in the field are discussed.