XR Lab Presents: Metaverse: Are We Living in a Simulated World?

Date/Time: Thursday, March 16, 3-4p.m.
Location: IB 2025
Guest Speaker: JieKun Song 宋介堃

Biography: Song is an XR enthusiast. Works in XR/Metaverse industry for more than 6 years. Build more than 20 metaverse projects for fortune 500 companies. Also personally published a VR game on Steam.

宋介堃是一名非常资深的XR架构师。在XR、元宇宙领域有超过六年的工作经验。为世界五百强公司提供过20多个方案的咨询以及部署实施。同时还在Steam发布过VR游戏作品。

 

Linkedin: https://cn.linkedin.com/in/songjiekun

Anthropocene XR Lab is accepting proposals for the “Onsite Student Hackathon”

HRC Anthropocene XR Lab presents:
Onsite Student Hackathon Registration Open

Interested in XR (VR&AR) and environmental designs? Come and learn, practice, have fun with us!

Submit your team/individual hackathon proposals to get:

  • Funding: up to ¥ 5,000 per project
  • Equipment support: VR headset, AR glasses, etc.
  • Mentorship; indicate a DKU faculty mentor/seek mentorship from XR lab co-directors

Timeline:

Feb: Accepting Proposals
Feb-Mar: Workshops and Individual Mentoring Sessions
March 17-18: 48 hours of Hackathon
March 18: Showcase / presentation

Check out the HRC website to learn more about the Lab! sites.duke.edu/dkuhumanities/projects/anthropocene-xr-lab/ Any question, please email: leiyuan.tian@dukekunshan.edu.cn

Anthropocene XR Lab Presents: Entrepreneurship in AR/VR/XR

Date/Time: Fri, Feb 24, 12-12:45pm China time
Zoom ID: 879 6872 6939
Guest Speaker: Dr. Simon Mak

Biography: Dr. Simon Mak is Executive Director of the Caruth Institute for Entrepreneurship and Professor of Practice in the Department of Strategy, Entrepreneurship, and Business Economics at the SMU Cox School of Business. He directs the Caruth Institute staff and its many community service programs, such as the Dallas 100 Entrepreneur Awards, the Southwest Venture Forum, the Starting A Business certificate course, and the Startup Camp for Teens. In addition, Dr. Mak leads the academic entrepreneurship programs at Cox by overseeing the BBA Specialization in Entrepreneurship and the MBA/graduate program in entrepreneurship, managing a team of over a dozen adjunct professors in teaching over 20 entrepreneurship courses. Dr. Mak also works with the Lyle School of Engineering on the MS in Engineering Entrepreneurship degree program.

Anthropocene XR Lab Presents “A Room of One’s Own: novel interactions and contextual storytelling in virtual spaces”

A ROOM OF ONE’S OWN: novel interactions and contextual storytelling in virtual spaces.

Date/Time: Tues, Feb 21, 9-10am China time
Zoom ID: 93375892386
Speaker: RAY LC. Assistant Professor of Creative Media, City University of Hong Kong

Virtual environments provide ways to intervene in the storytelling process, both by showing the context in which the narrative takes place and by applying interactions that go beyond the physical world to model mental conceptions. This talk describes a body of research in art, design, and human-computer research focused on understanding new interactions with the VR paradigm in both naturalistic and created environments, applied to storytelling for marginalized groups, sub culture communities, and artistic applications.

Continue reading “Anthropocene XR Lab Presents “A Room of One’s Own: novel interactions and contextual storytelling in virtual spaces””

Student Report on Visualizing Cities in XR: Activating the Presence of the Past

Reported by Vicky Yongkun Wu, Class of 2026

This talk is part of the Anthropocene XR Labs Talk Series: Activating the Presence of the Past with Professor Victoria Szabo, Research Professor of Art, Art History & Visual Studies at Duke University.

The research talk delivered by Dr. Szabo concentrated on invoking the past using XR technologies and with the support of literature, documents, and other resources. It is a project of “augmenting the humanities,” reflecting on the humanities heritages and even creating new realities. Among her abundant research projects, Dr. Szabo focused on two in this talk, “Visualizing Venice: Exploring the city’s past” and “Visualizing cities: H. P. Lovecraft’s Providence.”

Continue reading “Student Report on Visualizing Cities in XR: Activating the Presence of the Past”

Anthropocene XR Lab – Visualizing Cities in XR: Activating the Presence of the Past

You are cordially invited to Anthropocene XR Lab’s Talk Series: Activating the Presence of the Past with Professor Victoria Szabo, Research Professor of Art, Art History & Visual Studies at Duke University.

Date and Time: Dec 2, 10-11 am, BJT
Zoom ID: 959 8351 3551; Passcode: XRLAB
Speaker: Prof. Victoria Szabo

Talk Introduction:

The international Visualizing Cities consortium has taken a multimodal and interactive approach to invoking the presence of the past in exhibitions and lived experience of space and time, on site and on location.  XR, when intersecting with digital humanities approaches to history and culture, offers us promising new ways to tell complex stories, share information, and generate critique. This talk will explore the goals and methods of diverse visualizing cities projects utilizing XR in Venice, Italy; Charlotte, North Carolina; and Providence, Rhode Island, highlighting themes of comprehension, apprehension, agency, and authority, and considering opportunities (and risks) for future development of the field.

Continue reading “Anthropocene XR Lab – Visualizing Cities in XR: Activating the Presence of the Past”

Student Report on Improving Accessibility and Inclusion of Social VR for People with Disabilities 

This lecture by Professor Yuhang Zhao was a part of HRC’s Anthropocene XR Lab‘s Talk Series. Click here for upcoming events from the Lab.

Reported by Vicky Yongkun Wu, Class of 2026.

Social VR refers to VR platforms where people communicate and socialize in the form of avatars. With the advancement of technology, social VR is increasingly influencing the next generation. However, current VR technology mainly relies on realistic visual feedback to provide an immersive experience to sighted people. Most VR applications are not accessible to visually impaired people, preventing them from benefiting from this important class of emerging technology. Prof Yuhang Zhao’s talk focused on her research on social VR accessibility and inclusion.

Continue reading “Student Report on Improving Accessibility and Inclusion of Social VR for People with Disabilities “

Anthropocene XR Lab Presents: Accessibility and Inclusion of Social VR for People with Disabilities 

This event has passed. The recording is now available:

Guest Speaker: Prof. Yuhang Zhao
Date and Time: Nov 9, 9:15-10:15 am, Beijing Time.
Zoom ID: 989 5768 1032; Passcode: XRLAB

Talk Introduction

Social VR has the potential to become the next generation of the Internet. However, current VR technology mainly relies on realistic visual feedback to provide an immersive experience to sighted people. Most VR applications are not accessible to visually impaired people, preventing them from benefiting from this important class of emerging technology. In this talk, I’ll describe my research on social VR accessibility and inclusion, where we explore avatar accessibility and inclusion for disabled people and design audio-based VR techniques to make avatar dynamics in social VR accessible to visually impaired people. I will also reflect on general accessibility guidelines for VR.

Continue reading “Anthropocene XR Lab Presents: Accessibility and Inclusion of Social VR for People with Disabilities “

Anthropocene XR Lab Calls for Projects: Student Hackathon

Open to all DKU students interested in XR (VR/AR) and environmental designs!

In teams of 2-3, submit your project proposals to get:

  • Funding: up to ¥ 5,000 per project
  • Equipment support: VR headset, AR glasses, etc.
  • Mentorship; indicate a DKU faculty mentor/seek mentorship from XR lab co-directors

Key Dates:

10 Oct 2022: Deadline for proposal submission
17 Oct 2022: Notification of acceptance
Nov-Dec 2022: Hackathon period Continue reading “Anthropocene XR Lab Calls for Projects: Student Hackathon”

XR Workshop #4: Basic VR Interactions

Join HRC Anthropocene XR Lab in our online workshop [Basic VR Interactions], #4 of the XR workshop, seminar, and hackathon series! The keynote speaker Tony Ren, Data Science major from the class of 2023, will introduce the basics of setting up VR devices and designing some of the fundamental VR interactions such as teleporting and grabbing.

Date/Time: Aug 11, 8-9pm BJT
Zoom:  982 6430 7629
Passcode: 889357 Continue reading “XR Workshop #4: Basic VR Interactions”