Research

Publications

My research focuses on human-computer interaction, in particular on virtual and augmented reality. You can find an overview of my research on Google Scholar and DBLP. My ORCID is 0000-0002-5072-8775.

81 entries « ‹ 2 of 2 › »

2018

Elhassan Makled, Yomna Abdelrahman, Noha Mokhtar, Valentin Schwind, Slim Abdennadher, Albrecht Schmidt

I Like to Move It: Investigating the Effect of Head and Body Movement of Avatars in VR on User's Perception Inproceedings

In: Extended Abstracts of the 2018 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, pp. LBW099:1–LBW099:6, ACM, Montreal QC, Canada, 2018, ISBN: 978-1-4503-5621-3.

Abstract | Links | BibTeX

Valentin Schwind

Implications of the Uncanny Valley of Avatars and Virtual Characters for Human-Computer Interaction PhD Thesis

Dissertation, University of Stuttgart, 2018.

Abstract | Links | BibTeX

@phdthesis{Schwind2018f,

title = {Implications of the Uncanny Valley of Avatars and Virtual Characters for Human-Computer Interaction},

author = {Valentin Schwind},

url = {https://elib.uni-stuttgart.de/handle/11682/9953

https://vali.de/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/thesis.pdf},

doi = {10.18419/opus-9936},

year  = {2018},

date = {2018-05-08},

address = {Stuttgart, Germany},

school = {Dissertation, University of Stuttgart},

abstract = {Technological innovations made it possible to create more and more realistic figures. Such figures are often created according to human appearance and behavior allowing interaction with artificial systems in a natural and familiar way. In 1970, the Japanese roboticist Masahiro Mori observed, however, that robots and prostheses with a very - but not perfect - human-like appearance can elicit eerie, uncomfortable, and even repulsive feelings. While real people or stylized figures do not seem to evoke such negative feelings, human depictions with only minor imperfections fall into the "uncanny valley," as Mori put it. Today, further innovations in computer graphics led virtual characters into the uncanny valley. Thus, they have been subject of a number of disciplines. For research, virtual characters created by computer graphics are particularly interesting as they are easy to manipulate and, thus, can significantly contribute to a better understanding of the uncanny valley and human perception. For designers and developers of virtual characters such as in animated movies or games, it is important to understand how the appearance and human-likeness or virtual realism influence the experience and interaction of the user and how they can create believable and acceptable avatars and virtual characters despite the uncanny valley. This work investigates these aspects and is the next step in the exploration of the uncanny valley. This dissertation presents the results of nine studies examining the effects of the uncanny valley on human perception, how it affects interaction with computing systems, which cognitive processes are involved, and which causes may be responsible for the phenomenon. Furthermore, we examine not only methods for avoiding uncanny or unpleasant effects but also the preferred characteristics of virtual faces. We bring the uncanny valley into context with related phenomena causing similar effects. By exploring the eeriness of virtual animals, we found evidence that the uncanny valley is not only related to the dimension of human-likeness, which significantly change our view on the phenomenon. Furthermore, using advanced hand tracking and virtual reality technologies, we discovered that avatar realism is connected to other factors, which are related to the uncanny valley and depend on avatar realism. Affinity with the virtual ego and the feeling of presence in the virtual world were also affected by gender and deviating body structures such as a reduced number of fingers. Considering the performance while typing on keyboards in virtual reality, we also found that the perception of the own avatar depends on the user's individual task proficiencies. This thesis concludes with implications that not only extends existing knowledge about virtual characters, avatars and the uncanny valley but also provide new design guidelines for human-computer interaction and virtual reality.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {phdthesis}

}

Technological innovations made it possible to create more and more realistic figures. Such figures are often created according to human appearance and behavior allowing interaction with artificial systems in a natural and familiar way. In 1970, the Japanese roboticist Masahiro Mori observed, however, that robots and prostheses with a very - but not perfect - human-like appearance can elicit eerie, uncomfortable, and even repulsive feelings. While real people or stylized figures do not seem to evoke such negative feelings, human depictions with only minor imperfections fall into the "uncanny valley," as Mori put it. Today, further innovations in computer graphics led virtual characters into the uncanny valley. Thus, they have been subject of a number of disciplines. For research, virtual characters created by computer graphics are particularly interesting as they are easy to manipulate and, thus, can significantly contribute to a better understanding of the uncanny valley and human perception. For designers and developers of virtual characters such as in animated movies or games, it is important to understand how the appearance and human-likeness or virtual realism influence the experience and interaction of the user and how they can create believable and acceptable avatars and virtual characters despite the uncanny valley. This work investigates these aspects and is the next step in the exploration of the uncanny valley. This dissertation presents the results of nine studies examining the effects of the uncanny valley on human perception, how it affects interaction with computing systems, which cognitive processes are involved, and which causes may be responsible for the phenomenon. Furthermore, we examine not only methods for avoiding uncanny or unpleasant effects but also the preferred characteristics of virtual faces. We bring the uncanny valley into context with related phenomena causing similar effects. By exploring the eeriness of virtual animals, we found evidence that the uncanny valley is not only related to the dimension of human-likeness, which significantly change our view on the phenomenon. Furthermore, using advanced hand tracking and virtual reality technologies, we discovered that avatar realism is connected to other factors, which are related to the uncanny valley and depend on avatar realism. Affinity with the virtual ego and the feeling of presence in the virtual world were also affected by gender and deviating body structures such as a reduced number of fingers. Considering the performance while typing on keyboards in virtual reality, we also found that the perception of the own avatar depends on the user's individual task proficiencies. This thesis concludes with implications that not only extends existing knowledge about virtual characters, avatars and the uncanny valley but also provide new design guidelines for human-computer interaction and virtual reality.

Markus Gärtner, Sven Mayer, Valentin Schwind, Eric Hämmerle, Emine Turcan, Florin Rheinwald, Gustav Murawski, Lars Lischke, Jonas Kuhn

NLATool: An Application for Enhanced Deep Text Understanding Inproceedings

In: Proceedings of the 27th International Conference on Computational Linguistics: System Demonstrations, pp. 4, 2018.

Abstract | Links | BibTeX

Valentin Schwind, Niels Henze, Jens Reinhardt, Rufat Rzayev, Niels Henze, Katrin Wolf

On the Need for Standardized Methods to Study the Social Acceptability of Emerging Technologies Inproceedings

In: CHI'18 Workshop (Un)Acceptable!?! – Re-thinking the Social Acceptability of Emerging Technologies, pp. 6, 2018.

Abstract | Links | BibTeX

Pascal Knierim, Valentin Schwind, Anna Maria Feit, Florian Nieuwenhuizen, Niels Henze

Physical Keyboards in Virtual Reality: Analysis of Typing Performance and Effects of Avatar Hands Inproceedings

In: Proceedings of the 2018 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, ACM, New York, NY, USA, 2018.

Abstract | Links | BibTeX

Sven Mayer, Valentin Schwind, Robin Schweigert, Niels Henze

The Effect of Offset Correction and Cursor on Mid-Air Pointing in Real and Virtual Environments Inproceedings

In: Proceedings of the 2018 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, ACM, New York, NY, USA, 2018.

Abstract | Links | BibTeX

Valentin Schwind, Lorraine Lin, Massimiliano Di Luca, Sophie Jörg, James Hillis

Touch with Foreign Hands: The Effect of Virtual Hand Appearance on Visual-Haptic Integration Inproceedings

In: Proceedings of the ACM Symposium on Applied Perception (SAP '18), ACM, New York, NY, 2018.

Abstract | Links | BibTeX

Valentin Schwind, Sven Mayer, Alexandre Comeau-Vermeersch, Robin Schweigert, Niels Henze

Up to the Fingertip: The Effect of Avatars on Mid-Air Pointing Accuracy in Virtual Reality Inproceedings

In: Proceedings of the 2018 Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play - CHI PLAY '18, ACM Press 2018, ISBN: 978-1-4503-5624-4/18/10.

Abstract | Links | BibTeX

@inproceedings{Schwind2018e,

title = {Up to the Fingertip: The Effect of Avatars on Mid-Air Pointing Accuracy in Virtual Reality},

author = {Valentin Schwind and Sven Mayer and Alexandre Comeau-Vermeersch and Robin Schweigert and Niels Henze},

url = {https://doi.org/10.1145/3242671.3242675

https://vali.de/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/chiplay18a-sub1021-cam-i15.pdf},

doi = {10.1145/3242671.3242675},

isbn = {978-1-4503-5624-4/18/10},

year  = {2018},

date = {2018-10-28},

booktitle = {Proceedings of the 2018 Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play - CHI PLAY '18},

journal = {Proceedings of the 2018 Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play - CHI PLAY '18},

organization = {ACM Press},

abstract = {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 human-likeness and previous work suggests that avatars can have an effect on the accuracy of referential gestures in VR. One of the most important referential gestures is mid-air pointing. It has been shown that mid-air pointing is affected by systematic errors, which can be compensated using different methods. Thus, it is unknown if the avatar must be considered in corrections of the systematic error. In this paper, we investigate the effect of the avatar on pointing accuracy. We show that the systematic error in pointing is significantly affected by the virtual appearance but does not correlate with the degree to which the appearance deviates from the perceived human-likeness. Moreover, we confirm that people only rely on their fingertip and not on their forearm or index finger orientation. We present compensation models and contribute with design implications to increase the accuracy of pointing in VR.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {inproceedings}

}

Valentin Schwind, Jens Reinhardt, Rufat Rzayev, Niels Henze, Katrin Wolf

Virtual Reality on the Go? A Study on Social Acceptance of VR Glasses Inproceedings

In: Adjunct proceedings of the 20th International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction with Mobile Devices and Services, ACM Press, 2018, ISBN: 9781450359412.

Abstract | Links | BibTeX

2017

Valentin Schwind, Pascal Knierim, Cagri Tasci, Patrick Franczak, Nico Haas, Niels Henze

“These are not my hands!”: Effect of Gender on the Perception of Avatar Hands in Virtual Reality Inproceedings

In: Proceedings of the 2018 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, ACM, New York, NY, USA, 2017, (Honorable Mention Award).

valentin schwind

Publications

2018

2017

2016

2015

2014

Chairs/Committee

Reviewer

Press

Networks

Groups

All Pages