Event Report on Innovations in Museum Experiences Through Extended Reality: Dr. Yue Li’s Insights

On Thursday, October 26th, 2023, DKU Humanities Research Center (HRC) sponsored an enlightening talk by Dr. Yue Li, titled “Museum Collections in Extended Reality: Explorations on 3D Artifact Interaction and Manipulation Techniques in Virtual Reality and Tangible Interfaces using Augmented Reality.” This Zoom event, organized and hosted by Dr. Xin Tong from HRC’s Anthropocene XR Lab, garnered significant interest, attracting an audience of 35 attendees from diverse backgrounds who are DKU faculty and students.

Dr. Yue Li embarked on an in-depth exploration of the intersection between extended reality (XR) technologies and museum experiences. Her presentation centered on the transformative potential of Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) in enhancing the accessibility and interactivity of museum collections. She delved into the nuances of various interaction and manipulation techniques in VR, such as controller-based and hand-tracking interactions, alongside direct and indirect manipulation methods.

The audience, open to the public, engaged actively with Dr. Li, discussing the implications of these XR technologies for future museum design, cultural heritage learning, and museum gifting. The interactive session reflected a keen interest in how XR could revolutionize our interaction with history and culture in educational and recreational contexts.

Event Report on HRC Anthropocene XR Lab Guest Talk Series: Understanding, Predicting, and Enhancing User Behavior in Mixed Reality by Dr. Yukang Yan

On November 17th, Dr. Yukang Yan, an Assistant Professor at the University of Rochester, presented an engaging talk titled “Understand, Predict, and Enhance User Behavior in Mixed Reality.” This virtual Zoom event, organized by Dr. Xin Tong and hosted by Dr. Charles Chang from DKU HRC Anthropocene XR Lab, delved into the evolving realm of human-computer interaction in Mixed Reality (MR).

Dr. Yan’s research focuses on the intersection of digital and physical realities through MR, shedding light on its profound impact on user perception and interaction. He emphasized the shift in user interaction beyond traditional screens, highlighting the importance of understanding and adapting to these changes. The talk detailed his approach to observing and modeling the behavioral and perceptual patterns of users in MR environments. Dr. Yan’s user studies form the basis for developing innovative interaction techniques tailored to these behavioral shifts. Additionally, Dr. Yan explored augmentation methods that enable users to exceed their real-world capabilities, such as embodying virtual avatars that offer unique experiences not possible in reality. His work on embodying healthier or non-humanoid avatars in MR environments sparked intriguing discussions among the audience.

The talk attracted a diverse group of over 15 attendees from the DKU community, who are interested in the latest developments in human-computer interaction and Mixed Reality. Dr. Yan’s insights provided a comprehensive understanding of current trends and future possibilities in MR, stimulating thoughtful discussions and questions from the audience.

Understand, Predict, and Enhance User Behavior in Mixed Reality

Nov 21st 10-11 am

Meeting ID: 520 960 7561

Guest: Dr. Yukang Yan

Assistant Professor at University of Rochester / Postdoctoral Researcher at Carnegie Mellon University

ABSTRACT:

My research focuses on the enhancements in human computer interaction in Mixed Reality. As the integration of digital and physical worlds through Mixed Reality expands the interaction space beyond traditional screens, it has a significant impact on how users perceive and interact with the world and themselves. Through conducting user studies, I aim to observe and model the behavioral and perceptual patterns of users as they interact with Mixed Reality. Based on these findings, I design and develop interaction techniques that are tailored to these behavioral changes in order to facilitate user input and information display. These techniques include multimodal input methods utilizing hand gestures, head movements, and facial expressions, as well as adaptive user interfaces that take into account the user’s mental state and environmental context to optimize information display. Additionally, I explore augmentation methods that allow users to surpass their capabilities in the real world, such as embodying healthier virtual avatars or non-humanoid avatars to gain unique experiences not possible in reality.

BIO:

Dr. Yukang Yan is an Assistant Professor in the ROCHCI group in the Department of Computer Science, University of Rochester. Before that, he was a postdoctoral researcher in the Augmented Perception Lab, Human-Computer Interaction Institute at Carnegie Mellon University. He earned both his Ph.D. and Bachelor’s degree from Tsinghua University. His research focus lies in Human-Computer Interaction and Mixed Reality. He published journals and papers at ACM CHI, ACM UIST, ACM IMWUT, IEEE VR, with ACM CHI 2020 Honorable Mention Award, ACM CHI 2023 Honorable Mention Award, IEEE VR Best Paper Nominee Award. His thesis won Outstanding Doctoral Thesis at Tsinghua University.

Interfacing with Digitality: Practices in Curation

Speaker: Hayeon Heather Kim (Artistic Director, Materiaux Gallery, Seoul/Korea)

Hosted by: Prof. Jung Choi, Ph.D.(Anthropocene XR Lab, HRC)

Date and Time: 13 November 2023 13:00 pm Location: LIB 1113

Speaker: Hayeon-Heather Kim is a co-founder and the artistic director Materiaux focuses primarily on emerging and established Korean artists, particularly those whose practice involve various art forms and alternative modalities of visual art production and consumption.

Digitality has transformed our understanding and experience of art, calling for new forms of collaboration between artists, researchers, and curators. Immaterial and or time-based art presents critical challenges not only in the presentation of the works but also in their conservation. Curating new forms of media art requires an interdisciplinary, post-object approach to disseminate the works within and beyond the white cube. This talk will share recent examples of curatorial practices that engage in the creative use of technology for exhibition, collection, and preservation. The primary goal of this talk is to encourage discussion on how to overcome the inherent challenges in this type of art and to seek sustainability for the individuals working in the field.

Museum Collections in Extended Reality

Join us October 26th 9:00AM – 10:00 AM BJT with guest speaker Dr. Yue Li from Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University.

In her talk, “Museum Collections in Extended Reality: Explorations on 3D Artifact Interaction and Manipulation Techniques in Virtual Reality and Tangible Interfaces using Augmented Reality” Dr. Yue Li will explore the use of VR and AR in paving a new, modern museum viewing experience.

Zoom Link: https://duke.zoom.us/j/5209607561
Meeting ID: 5209607561

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.

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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.”

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