HIT Lab NZ

📢 HIT Lab NZ is delighted to be a sponsor of the 25th IEEE International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality (ISMAR)!

IEEE ISMAR is a flagship conference (CORE 2021 A* rating) that explores the advances in research and commercial activities related to AR, MR, and Virtual Reality (VR). ISMAR is setting new standards and trends with wide-ranging, creative, innovative, and highly technical content. ISMAR is supported by the IEEE Computer Society and the IEEE Visualization & Graphics Technical Committee, and in partnership with ACM as well as sponsored by industry leaders.

ISMAR 2026 will be hosted in Bari, Italy, from 5 to 9 October 2026.
👉https://www.ieeeismar.net/2026/

University of Canterbury UC Engineering

💥 NEW PUBLICATION 💥

Tim Moesgen, Donald Degraen, Antti Salovaara, and Yu Xiao. 2026. Virtual Sauna – Evaluating an Immersive Thermal Motion Experience. In Proceedings of the 2026 ACM International Conference on Interactive Media Experiences (IMX '26). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 231–243.

👉https://doi.org/10.1145/3788851.3805006

Thermal feedback enhances realism, presence, and emotional engagement of virtual reality experiences. However, most prior work has focused on localized stimuli at fixed body locations. In recent research, the principle of apparent thermal motion has been introduced, but its concrete implementation and evaluation in practical applications have been limited. In this paper, we present the design and evaluation of an immersive virtual Finnish sauna experience, which allows users to perceive moving heat by manipulating the spatiotemporal actuation patterns of four Peltier elements positioned across each arm. We conducted a within-subjects study involving fifteen participants, comparing two spatiotemporal actuation patterns, applying the principles of apparent thermal motion illusion. The evaluation based on questionnaires and open-ended feedback indicates that both patterns positively impact the user experience, while there exists a trade-off between perceived heat intensity and perceived thermal motion.

University of Canterbury UC Engineering

🎓 NEW MHIT THESIS 🎓

Shiyu (Angela) Lyu's MHIT Thesis, "Move it, move it! : exploring embodied learning modalities for music education in virtual reality," is now available in the UC Research Repository at https://doi.org/10.26021/16452.

With economic and social development and the improvement of living standards, people's demand for spiritual and cultural life is constantly increasing, and more and more adults are choosing to learn music as a hobby after adulthood. However, for adult beginners, correctly understanding the correspondence between pitch and spatial position of notes in the staff remains a significant challenge. In addition, virtual reality(VR) technology has been increasingly adopted in educational contexts because of its immersive and spatial characteristics. But whether it can effectively support the cognitive construction of adult beginners in the early stages of learning the staff still requires further research.

This thesis proposes and implements StaffSense, a VR-based system for learning staff notation pitch. StaffSense supports the construction of pitch-spatial relationships through embodied interaction and spatial mapping. Running on the Meta Quest 2 headset, the system spatializes the traditional two-dimensional staff into a three-dimensional learning environment and transforms abstract musical notes into directly manipulated three-dimensional note spheres. To fully leverage the spatial affordances of VR and align them with the aims of this study, we investigate the impact of different levels of embodied interaction. Two interaction modes were designed and compared: a high-embodied mode based on direct grasping and full body movement, and a low-embodied mode based on hand rays accompanied by smaller body movements. Learning engagement, learning efficiency, and short-term retention were assessed using a combination of quantitative experiments and semi-structured interviews.

The results show that high-embodied interaction significantly influenced learners' interaction strategies and physical engagement, supporting a more deliberate exploration of the relationship between pitch and spatial position. These findings suggest that the value of VR in adult music education lies more in supporting early conceptual understanding than simply increasing learning speed. Based on the above findings, this thesis further proposes implications and research directions for the design of future VR music teaching systems.

University of Canterbury UC Engineering

🎓 NEW MHIT THESIS 🎓

Yutong Jin's (Richie Kim) MHIT Thesis, "One soul, many forms: the impact of identity continuity on rapport, emotional connectedness, and credibility in virtual agents," is now available in the UC Research Repository at https://doi.org/10.26021/16462.

Background: Interactive agents, ranging from conversational Artificial Intelligence (e.g., ChatGPT) to virtual assistants (e.g., Siri, Alexa), are AI systems that engage users through natural interaction across various contexts. Identity continuity, whether interactive agents maintain consistent identity across interactions, remains underexplored despite its potential impact on relationship quality.

Objective: This study investigates how identity continuity affects rapport, emotional connectedness, and credibility in human-agent interactions across multiple games in Virtual Reality (VR).

Methods: We conducted a between-subjects experiment with 26 participants (13 per condition) who completed three games with interactive agents. The continuous identity (C) group interacted with the same agent (the same identity with changing form) across all games, while the discontinuous identity (DC) group encountered different identities in each game. We measured rapport using a validated scale, emotional connectedness with a single-item measure, and credibility using a validated scale.

Results: Identity continuity significantly enhanced all measured dimensions. The C group showed significantly higher rapport, substantially higher emotional connectedness, and significantly greater credibility compared to the DC group.

Conclusions: Identity continuity appears to be an important factor in building meaningful human-agent relationships. These findings suggest potential implications for designing interactive agents intended for longitudinal user engagement.

University of Canterbury UC Engineering

This week Prof Rob Lindeman was invited to an informal luncheon with German Ambassador Nicole Menzenbach. Rob and the Ambassador first met as part of the 2025 Antarctic Season Opening event. The luncheon was mainly to touch base, and say a brief "farewell" as the Ambassador's posting in NZ comes to an end in July. The HIT Lab NZ has very strong ties to researchers in Germany, with fully 35% of HIT Lab NZ publications being co-authored with researchers from 16 universities and research institutes located in Germany. Rob will be spending two months at the Technical University Munich (TUM) as part of his Sabbatical later in 2026.
UC Engineering University of Canterbury German Embassy Wellington

🎓 NEW MHIT THESIS 🎓

Saumya Chanana’s MHIT thesis, “Freefall VR : enhancing presence through feedforward vibration in a body-controlled exergame.” is now available in the UC Research Repository at https://doi.org/10.26021/16405

Feedforward haptic guidance has been proposed as a means of improving interaction and user experience in immersive virtual environments by providing anticipatory sensory information prior to an event. While prior work has demonstrated the benefits of feedforward haptics in non-immersive and task-specific contexts, their effects within physically embodied virtual reality (VR) exergames remain underexplored. This thesis investigates the impact of feedforward vibrotactile cues on presence, task performance, physical exertion, and cybersickness in a balance-based VR exergame.

A custom VR exergame, FreeFall, was developed in which participants navigated a simulated free-fall environment using whole-body movement while lying prone on a balance board. Movement was controlled through torso orientation across three degrees of freedom (pitch, roll, and yaw). Vibrotactile feedback was delivered through handheld VR controllers. Two haptic conditions were compared using a within-subjects design: a feedback-only condition (NoFF) and a feedback plus feedforward condition (FF), in which proximity-based vibration warned participants of approaching obstacles.

Twenty-six participants completed both conditions. Quantitative measures included objective performance metrics (collision frequency, hoops passed, and score), presence (Igroup Presence Questionnaire), physical exertion (Borg Rating of Perceived Exertion), and cybersickness (Simulator Sickness Questionnaire). Qualitative data were collected through post-experiment open-ended questions and analyzed using thematic analysis.

Results showed that feedforward haptic guidance did not significantly improve objective task performance or increase physical exertion relative to the feedback-only condition. Presence results indicated a selective effect: experienced realism was significantly higher in the feedforward condition, while other presence subscales showed no significant differences. Cybersickness increased relative to baseline during VR gameplay, but did not differ significantly between haptic conditions. Qualitative findings revealed strong engagement with the embodied interaction, perceived usefulness of haptic cues for task awareness, and variability in how intuitively the hand-based vibrations were interpreted.

Together, these findings suggest that feedforward haptic guidance in an embodied VR exergame primarily influences perceptual realism and experiential credibility rather than immediate performance outcomes.

University of Canterbury UC Engineering

🎓NEW MHIT THESIS🎓
Gabrielle (Gabby) Rosemergy’s MHIT thesis, “Getting a Feel For Things: Exploring Skill Acquisition in Racing Simulator Games Through the Use of Physicalised 3D Data Representations” is now available in the UC Research Repository at https://doi.org/10.26021/16386.

Motorsports are fast-paced and require a high level of spatial and temporal knowledge of one’s performance. Data visualisation is a key tool for improvement in many sports, and physical data has been used in other contexts to increase users’ understanding of and connection to the data. Our research aimed to create a physical form of motorsports data that would help users to improve their performance. Additionally, many people prefer to learn through their sense of touch as well as sight and hearing. Increasing the level of interaction can further benefit user outcomes. We carried out a user study to compare two physical models of data from a Formula 1 simulation game with varying levels of in-built interactivity.

We found significant differences between the two in-built levels of interactivity in relation to both trustworthiness and lap time improvement. We believe that the difference in improvement is due to both the increased interaction and decreased initial understanding. Further research would be required to better understand the difference in the trustworthiness scores.

This study showed that there is potential to using physical data models to improve performance when analysing data in a Formula 1 simulator game. More research should be done to confirm these results with a narrower target audience and more tailored data within motorsports. It would also be beneficial to test physicalised data for other forms of learning, such as other sports or in academia.

University of Canterbury UC Engineering

💥NEW PUBLICATION💥
Easa AliAbbasi, Dennis Wittchen, Yinan Li, Shihan Lu, Thomas Müller, Donald Degraen, Thomas Leimkühler, Sang Ho Yoon, Hasti Seifi, Oliver Schneider, Heather Culbertson, Jürgen Steimle, and Paul Strohmeier. 2026. AI for Haptics and Haptics for AI: Challenges and Opportunities. In Proceedings of the Extended Abstracts of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI EA '26). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, Article 920, 1–7.

👉https://doi.org/10.1145/3772363.3778763

AI has transformed methods and knowledge across many domains. However, the intersection of AI and haptics remains underexplored. While modern AI techniques – fueled by machine learning and using powerful techniques such as generative modeling and reinforcement learning – offer powerful opportunities for advancing haptic design, insights from haptics research, such as perception modeling and adaptive interaction - grounded in human touch, embodiment, and multisensory integration — can also play a critical role in shaping more human-centered AI systems. This workshop will bring together an interdisciplinary community of researchers from HCI, haptics, AI, robotics, and design to (1) identify pressing questions in haptics that could benefit from AI approaches and (2) highlight ways in which haptic knowledge can support the development of embodied and context-aware AI. Through position papers and paper presentations, we will map key challenges, exchange methods, and explore new research directions that connect the two fields. By framing haptics and AI as mutually reinforcing, the workshop aims to build a shared research agenda and foster collaborations that advance both the science of touch and the design of intelligent interactive systems.
University of Canterbury UC Engineering

💥NEW PUBLICATION💥
Jonas Keppel, Marvin Prochazka, Stefan Lewin, Markus Stroehnisch, Marvin Strauss, André Zenner, Donald Degraen, Andrii Matviienko, and Stefan Schneegass. 2026. Determining Perception Thresholds for Real and Virtual Inclinations While Cycling in Virtual Reality. In Proceedings of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '26). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, Article 1676, 1–18.

👉https://doi.org/10.1145/3772318.3791538

In virtual reality (VR) experiences, mismatches between reality and virtuality are usually undesirable, as they can disrupt immersion and induce cybersickness. However, when carefully controlled, they may expand the design space of VR. This research investigates perceptual detection thresholds for mismatches between real and virtual inclinations during cycling in VR. Using a custom simulation, N = 30 participants cycled through a virtual city while physical and visual inclinations were independently manipulated. Real inclinations were implemented with a tilting indoor bike, providing vestibular and proprioceptive feedback, while virtual inclinations within the simulated environment were presented visually. A multiple staircase procedure derived estimates for perceptual thresholds that approximate which mismatches in visual and physical inclination were still perceived as congruent. These thresholds reveal a window of perceived congruence before mismatches become noticeable to users. These findings advance understanding of sensory integration in VR cycling and inform applications in immersive training, exergames, and rehabilitation systems.
University of Canterbury UC Engineering

💥NEW PUBLICATION💥
Carolin Stellmacher, Leon Tristan Dratzidis, André Zenner, Iddo Yehoshua Wald, Johannes Schöning, Yvonne Rogers, Donald Degraen, and Mark Colley. 2026. Understanding How Mobile Interactions Shape Grasp and Contact Patterns Beyond the Touchscreen. In Proceedings of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '26). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, Article 1123, 1–20.

👉https://doi.org/10.1145/3772318.3790565

The way users hold a smartphone depends on the interaction task, yet little is known about the fingers’ engagement with the device’s surfaces beyond the touchscreen. Such an understanding not only opens up opportunities for novel on- and off-screen interactions, but also the device’s possible physical affordances. We present a study (N=23) that examines the hands’ physical engagement with the smartphone beyond the touchscreen across nine mobile interactions. Grasps were annotated from photographs, and contact regions were captured using residual heat traces from grasping the device. Our findings show that fingers and palms adopt a variety of support roles and postures when engaging with the smartphone’s back and side edges. The hand-contact maps reveal distinct patterns, differing in contact frequency and placement. This work contributes an empirical characterisation of hands’ back and edge engagement, highlighting design opportunities for future smartphone usage extending beyond the touchscreen.

University of Canterbury UC Engineering