Grasping Temperature: Thermal Feedback in VR Robot Teleoperation

This paper presents a proof-of-concept of a robotic teleoperation system, that provides the human operator a thermal sense in addition to the visual sense. With a sensor suite comprising a stereo camera, 360° camera and long-wave infra-red camera, our demonstrator pushes the boundaries of virtual-reality situational awareness by bringing not...

Generative RGB-D face completion for head-mounted display removal

Head-mounted displays (HMDs) are an essential display device for the observation of virtual reality (VR) environments. However, HMDs obstruct external capturing methods from recording the user’s upper face. This severely impacts social VR applications, such as teleconferencing, which commonly rely on external RGB-D sensors to capture a...

Transdisciplinary AI Observatory—Retrospective Analyses and Future-Oriented Contradistinctions

In the last years, artificial intelligence (AI) safety gained international recognition in the light of heterogeneous safety-critical and ethical issues that risk overshadowing the broad beneficial impacts of AI. In this context, the implementation of AI observatory endeavors represents one key research direction. This paper motivates the need...

Embodying an extra virtual body in augmented reality

Presence and the sense of embodiment are essential concepts for the experience of our self and virtual bodies, but there is little quantitative evidence for a relation between these, and this relation becomes more complicated when there are real and virtual bodies in augmented reality (AR). We investigate the experience of body ownership, agency...

Brain computer interfaces as intelligent sensors for enhancing human-computer interaction

BCIs are traditionally conceived as a way to control apparatus, an interface that allows you to act on" external devices as a form of input control. We propose an alternative use of BCIs, that of monitoring users as an additional intelligent sensor to enrich traditional means of interaction. This vision is what we consider to be a grand...

BCIs in multimodal interaction and multitask environments: Theoretical issues and initial guidelines

The development of Brain Computer Interfaces (BCIs) enters a phase in which these devices are no longer restricted to applications in controlled, single-task environments. For instance, BCIs for gaming or high-end operator stations will function as part of a multimodal user interface in a multitask environment. This phase introduces new issues...

Field-based validation of a tactile navigation device

In this paper, we present three field-based evaluations of a tactile land navigation system. In Experiment 1, we transition from a laboratory setting to rugged terrain used to train US Army soldier land navigation. Navigation in this challenging terrain requires careful attention to one's surroundings. Participants navigated 3 waypoints along...