Network Institute
Mechanisms of a Virtual Reality Respiratory Biofeedback Intervention: a Proof-of-Concept Randomized Controlled Trial Researchers: Elke Vlemincx & Gabriela Cortez Vazquez, Health Science VUApplication development and support: Marco Otte, Network Institute VU Mental health problems, such as anxiety, depression, and stress, … 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
The “Virtual Reality Symposium: Let’s Get Virtual!” was hosted on the 22nd of June by the XR community and Network Institute at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. The public event gathered researchers from the XR community who presented their cutting-edge work over … Continue reading
We are organizing a Virtual Reality Symposium: Let’s Get Virtual! The morning of June 22 will be filled with speakers and conversations about VR research at the VU. Learn about what other scholars are doing and what facilities we have … Continue reading
Two of our researchers from the Human Movement Sciences department, Vana Hutter and Lisanne Kleygrewe, have been working (along with others) on the project SHOTPROS: Using Virtual Reality (VR) to train the decision-making behavior of police officers in stressful situations. … Continue reading
Cybersickness is a common issue experienced by users of virtual reality. At the university, Jelte Bos is conducting research on this topic to further our understanding. In a recent interview, he discussed the causes of cybersickness and potential prevention methods … Continue reading
If you haven’t visited the VR Labs at the MF Building, you might not have met Freek van Ede and Babak Chawoush: Part of the team at the Proactive Brain Lab (www.proactivebrainlab.com). They’re using VR to revolutionize their cognitive psychology … Continue reading
When working with caregivers of individuals with mental disabilities, it’s important to create a safe space for practice. Veerle Andries, a researcher at the VU, chose to use VR as a way for support staff to practice interacting with individuals … Continue reading
When an application is built, we have the possibility to showcase this to students of the VU. Letting students experience your work in VR, AR or Mixed Reality has great value for education because of its immersive qualities. Students can, … Continue reading
As part of the Artificial Intelligence Honours Programme at Vrije University and the course “Discovering Nature” from the University of Amsterdam, Tommasso Mencattini and L. Tisci had the opportunity to work on an interdisciplinary project inspired by the “Description de … Continue reading
Have you heard about the European Media and Immersion Lab (EMIL)? Their mission is to accelerate the development of virtual, augmented, and mixed-reality technologies and applications. They might be of interest to you as they are providing funding for exciting … 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
Last week was the launch event of the Use-Me Art and Science project. The project challenges the VU community to think critically about the recursive relationship between technology and society. For example, what are the opportunities and threats that technology … Continue reading
We are very happy to announce the Use-me project launch event On April 13. This event is a must-attend for everyone interested in digital society, artificial intelligence, creative coding, and interactive art. We have a stellar lineup at the event … Continue reading
Last week we placed a Interactive screen with sensors in the main hall of the NU building at Vrije Universiteit (VU). What could be displayed on the large interactive screen you are seeing in the main hall of the NU … Continue reading
Last Monday on 07/02/2022, Iris van Sintemaartensdijk defended her PhD thesis about preventing burglaries in urban neighborhoods. One part of her study is to use a virtual environment (VE) to study the effects on criminal behavior when using special signs. … 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
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
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
As we reported earlier the Tech Labs have been working on the Virtual Environment (VE) of a part of Rotterdam. The VE will be used to study the effectiveness of deterring potential criminal behavior in a normal neighborhood. Using the … 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
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
We are pleased to inform you about the upcoming VR meetings with three special hosts in the field of VR: Unfortunately cancelled – April 25th from 15:00 – 16:00, with Tara Donker Currently, her main focus of research is investigating … 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
Jantsje Mol from the VU Institute for Environmental Studies wrote an overview article about the possibilities of immersive virtual reality for experimental economics. The review explains essential terminology, gives practical guidelines and describes the currently available high-immersive VR experiments on … 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
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
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
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
As part of the unfolding activities of Network Iinstitute’s VR group, we would be excited if you like to save the date for an upcoming presentation by Sun Joo (Grace) Ahn, former Stanford Ph.D. of Jeremy Bailenson. Grace will talk about “Persuasive … Continue reading
This question has recently been investigated by a team of researchers from the VU Computer Science department and the NSCR. The results have been published at the 14th International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems (AAMAS), including the two … Continue reading
For most people, the term Virtual Reality will bring to mind visions of imaginary worlds, complicated devices and gaming teens, but nowadays, VR is increasingly being used for purposes other than gaming. Surgeons, for example, use it to operate using … Continue reading
Aggressive behaviour against employees in the public sector, such as police officers, tram conductors, and ambulance personnel, is an ongoing concern worldwide, and in the Netherlands in particular. As an illustration, the Amsterdam public transport company GVB reports about 500 … 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
The Oculus Rift is not just “another gaming device” – it promises to initiate the next step in the evolution of media Among the video gamer it’s talk of the town, and soon it may be among many more people: … Continue reading