Network Institute
As a small thank you for your continuous efforts as Network Institute members and supporters, we are giving away several Techlab-related items that we do not use anymore. The list of items can be found here, and we are giving … Continue reading
As a proof-of-concept project the Network Institute Tech Labs has created a modular conversational avatar using state-of-the-art speech and AI. This is meant to serve as a demonstrator for researchers who are interested in using: Conversational agents Realistic humanoid avatars … Continue reading
Emotion contagion in groups via virtual representatives Emotions are known to be infectious when people meet in person. By interacting with each other, a group tends to become more similar in the emotions they express, resulting in the display of … Continue reading
When we see someone smile from ear to ear, most of us can’t help but smile along. Emotions are infectious, and under some circumstances this can be problematic. Think about stampedes, riots, bullying or depression. A computer model of how … Continue reading
For our Mentalizing project (see here) we’ve recently created a nice promotional video to tell people about the application. Enjoy!
It has becomes even easier to add realistic humanoid characters in your research VR with the latest release of the Reallusion software Character Creator 4 and iClone 8. Together with the Motion LIVE plug-in it’s possible to easily record facial … Continue reading
SURF and the Network Institute will co-host XR ON TOUR event. The Network Institute will have VR-demos ready at the venue location and in its Game Cella’ Lab where you can take a look at the XR-facilities the Network Institute … Continue reading
In the beginning of October the Network Institute Tech Labs will finally open its doors at its new location in the NU-building. At our new location we are proud to present two brand new lab spaces and a workspace for … Continue reading
Recently the Tech Labs have installed a professional high-level tracking system for multiple use. The system is an OptiTrack system using multiple (18) highly accurate cameras that can track multiple persons and objects in our large lab space. Due to … Continue reading
Being questioned as a police a witness or a suspect can undoubtedly be a socially and cognitively demanding experience for anyone. For people on the autism spectrum, which is associated with a range of socio-cognitive differences, police interviews may be … Continue reading
Stress is a widely known phenomenon in all societies. Due to the current COVID-19 pandemic, stress and anxiety issues are becoming more severe for a wide number of people. At the same time, relaxing becomes more challenging, because of working … Continue reading
In the treatment of people with intellectual disabilities, remedial educationalists are involved. To organize care what the person feels comfortable with, a relationship of trust is essential. By using mentalization-based skills persons with intellectual disabilities’ information processing can be supported, … Continue reading
In VR it is normal for users to use handheld controllers to interact with their virtual environment. However, sometimes using these controllers can interfere with other equipment such a physiological sensors or sometimes a user might not be able to … Continue reading
Credibility of Deepfakes Deepfakes, i.e. videos merging images and audios from different sources, blending them so as to generate a fully plausible clip, initially generated attention for their entertainment purposes: finally, it was possible for anyone to appear superimposed on … Continue reading
The VU Network Institute has recently been asked by the VU Department of Human Movement Sciences for help with the development of two VR based tests to measure “visual dependency” in relation to motion sickness susceptibility. Motion sickness is gaining … Continue reading
Since about a year the Tech Labs are in possession of the HTC Vive Pro Eye virtual reality headsets. These top-level VR headsets have integrated eye tracking that offers all sorts of new possibilities for research. Already we’ve created several … Continue reading
Many individuals experience problems understanding and preparing for low-probability impact risk, like natural disasters and pandemics – unless they experience these events, yet then it is often too late to avoid damages. Individuals with recent disaster risk experience are, on … Continue reading
The Neurofilament Light (NfL) is a biomarker for axioanl damage which is an indicator for neurodegenrative diseases such as Alzheimer’s. To help doctors in diagnosing neurodegenerative diseases, the Amsterdam UMC together with other research groups gathered a large set of … Continue reading
At the end of 2019 the Network Institute’s Tech Labs started collaborating with Giulia Ranzini (Communication Science). The experiment was carried out thanks to the Idea Generator grant. Our goal was to understand which of the (few) elements on dating … Continue reading
As of September the Tech Labs of the Network Insittute have moved to the NU building on the VU campus. Our brand new location is situated on the 7th floor of this magnificent buidling overlooking the campus square in all … Continue reading
In our efforts to open up the Tech Labs sometime September, we have setup a Corona Protocol. This protocol outlines the specific issues and needs in the Tech Labs. With this protocol we hope to be able to resume a … Continue reading
Even though the University’s campus has been closed down and the physical Tech Labs are closed, the workload has not slackened! We are of course not able to perform and support any lab-based research, such as Virtual Reality based-research. However, … Continue reading
The VMBO college Horizon in Alkmaar are looking for additional methods in their educational program. For their security trainings they want to try to use virtual reality as a training method as this will not only give the students a … Continue reading
For our Tech Labs project “Burglary Free Neighborhood” we have finished recreating a part of the actual real neighborhood Lombardijen in Rotterdam. Using the latest High-Definition options available in Unity Pro, we are able to create very realistic virtual environments … Continue reading
Successful VR symposium hosted by Network Institute “Let’s get virtual!” showed the fascinating diversity if VR research at the VU Virtual Reality (in VR) is an exciting new medium that provides a compelling new user experience. Unlike other existing media, … Continue reading
Virtual Reality research at the Fieldlab Rotterdam The Fieldlab Burglary Free Neighbourhood uses smart sensors to detect suspicious sounds and movements. In the Rotterdam Fieldlab we’re experimenting with sensors and subsequent measures to determine their effectiveness in sensing and preventing … Continue reading
The Network Institute’s VR group invites to to join our morning symposium on VR in research and education at the VU. We have an interesting list of speakers introducing you to their take and use on Virtual Reality in academia. … Continue reading
The last decade has seen both an increase in the diffusion of online dating and an uptick in the number of inter-ethnic marriages. Could users’ participation on online dating contribute to the formation of more heterogeneous couples ? The awarded … Continue reading
Burglaries are a continuous threat to our safety and society. Increasingly we are trying to understand how the typical burglar thinks and works to try to prevent this type of criminal behavior. What is needed to deter a burglar from … Continue reading
Faviola Dadis, PhD candidate within the Department of Clinical Neuropsychology at the VU, is working in collaboration with prof dr. Erik Scherder and dr. Tilo Hartmann on her VR game “Koji’s Quest,” which aims to change the way people approach … Continue reading
As of March 1, 2019 the MediaLab (11th floor Main Building) with 8 cubicles is open for research again. After a few months closure the cubicles have new computers installed with Windows 10 and are ready for use. The MediaLab … Continue reading
Dr. Miguel Barreda-Ángeles (Fundacio Eurecat Barcelona, Department Data Science & Big Data Analytics, see Google scholarprofile) and Tilo Hartmann from the VU Department of Communication Science (as supervisor) worked out a EU Marie-Curie Individual Fellowship proposal that was just accepted. … Continue reading
As of Monday February 25th, Associate Prof. Jesse Fox (Ohio State University, see here or here) will start a 6-month sabbatical stay at the VU Department of Communication Science (Faculty of Social Sciences) to collaborate together with Tilo Hartmann – … Continue reading
Professor Charlotte Teunissen and her team at the NeuroChemistry group at the VUmc, received a grant from the Weston Brain Institute to further develop a biomarker helping in the detection of a large number of neurodegenerative diseases (such as Alzheimer’s … Continue reading
Last November (2018) the first year students of Artificial Intelligence had their annual Field Trip. During these two intensive days they learn to translate a societal problem into a technological solution and build an actual proto-type to show how it … Continue reading
On December 14, 2018 the University of Twente organised a short conference on the use of XR-technology by anyone working at legal organisations like the Justice department, police, probation offices, criminology and law researchers, etc. The goal was to exchange … Continue reading
The Babbeltruc app (see here for more) made by Computer Science VU and the Tech Labs of the Network Institute, won the Best Demo at this year’s Benelux AI Conference!
In collaboration with the Rotterdam public transport organisation (RET), Allerto and the Artificial Intelligence group (Tibor Bosse & Romy Blankendaal) at the VU, the Network Institute developed a virtual reality training application to help bus drivers cope with aggressive passengers. … Continue reading
Over the past two weeks there’s been a lot of media attention about the Babbeltruc App. This tablet app was created by the Network Institute in collaboration with Artificial Intelligence (Tibor Bosse & Laura van der Lubbe) at the VU … Continue reading
After a very busy period here at the Network Institute Tech Labs, we’ve finally been able to create an other newsletter. The newsletter offers some insight in the projects being done at the Tech Labs and gives you all the … Continue reading
Health care organization “Ons Tweede Huis” (Our Second Home) held a fun and informative festival in order to celebrate their 50th anniversary. To show what the future could hold for engaging, entertaining and caring for their patients, the Tech Labs … Continue reading
Doorstep scams are scams in which a con artist has a convincing, but fraudulent, story with the purpose of coming into your house and/or stealing money. Often these scams appear at the doorstep, for example when somebody wants to enter … Continue reading
This project introduces the concept of “virtual bad guys”: intelligent virtual agents that take a negative or even aggressive stance towards the user. Although they pave the way to various interesting applications, it is hard to create virtual bad guys … Continue reading
In this study a virtual environment was build to see if a virtual training agent could help autistic children in trying to relate to other children. The idea was that a virtual environment feels safer and the children will more … Continue reading
Take a look at this short impression of the VR display at the IDFA this year.
As most of you have probably seen in the Tech Labs Newsletters, the Tech Labs have been working on a virtual neighborhood for studying burglary. These studies are a collaboration between the NSCR (Jean-Louis van Gelder), the University of Porstmouth … Continue reading
For those not on the mailing list, the new Tech Labs Newsletter is out! Just go to Tech Labs – Tech Labs Newsletters or download the PDF directly from here. Enjoy reading about the latest and greatest projects running at … Continue reading
Erik Verwiel, master student at the UvA, made a short video about the role of immersive Virtual Reality in academic research at the moment. ReTeks
The latest Newsletter of the Network Institute Tech Labs gives you an update on a variety of projects using the Tech Labs. There are a few very interesting new projects and an update on some familiar projects that have been … Continue reading
In collaboration with Claire Nee (University of Portsmouth) and Jean-Louis van Gelder (NSCR) the Network Institute Tech Labs are creating a virtual environment to study the behaviour of burglars. The next study using this state-of-the-art environment will involve real offenders … Continue reading
On June 8th, Martijn Kleppe (Faculty of Humanities) presented the set-up and first results of the Newstracker at the DHBenelux 2015 conference in Antwerp, Belgium. This tool, developed by Marco Otte of the Network Institute and supported by a Network … Continue reading
In samenwerking met het Netwerk Instituut Selemca project (onderdeel van het CRISP platform), heeft Sander Burger een documentaire gemaakt over hoe een meer menselijke zorgrobot, Alice, ingezet zou kunnen worden in de praktijk. De documentaire haalt veel publiciteit en heeft … Continue reading
In the Correspondent an interview was posted about criminological research using Virtual Reality. Jean-Lious van Gelder (NSCR) collaborated with Marco Otte of the Network Institute Tech Labs who created the Virtual Environment to research burglary behaviour (see Tech Labs Newsletter). To … Continue reading
Get the latest information about a selection of projects that are supported by the Tech Labs in the Fall 2014 Newsletter. Download the Newsletter. Enjoy!
In an attempt to further collaboration of the UvA and VU Informatics departments, the two UvA Tech Labs (the RoboLab and the UX/Gaming Lab) have been added to the Network Institute web site. This way users of both universities can … Continue reading
First online corpus of visual metaphors A collaboration between the Metaphor Lab (VU Faculty of Arts) and the Network Institute, the VisMet corpus will host different genres and types of visual metaphors, mainly collected from advertisements, political cartoons and artworks … Continue reading
Read all about the latest Tech Labs news in the Fall 2013 newsletter. Visitors, research, new equipment and news about the new building. Click here to directly view the newsletter (PDF) or go to the newsletter page to also view … Continue reading
The AmCAT team just uploaded a brand new version of the AmCAT platform and opened up a brand new blog about the tool. AmCAT is an open source platform for text analysis aimed at scientists from the social sciences and … Continue reading
Official Mobdro Application Download and install Do you delight in Mobdro watching FREE TV programs as well as motion pictures? You require the Mobdro Download. The Mobdro application is a cost-free program that is compatible with all Android devices. This … Continue reading
If you are planning on using the Network Institute Tech Labs during July and August of 2013 (see planning), please make your reservations in time so that we will be able to help you set up your experiment properly. If … Continue reading
In April of 2013 two master students of the Communication Department (Faculty Social Sciences and part of the Network Institute) will research if and to what extend moral reasoning plays a role in playing video games, in this case Call … Continue reading