"Applying insights from visual perception and cognition to the development of more effective virtual reality experiences"

In this talk, I will present an overview of my lab’s recent and historical research into strategies for enabling the more effective use of VR in applications related to architectural design and evaluation, focusing on two specific topic areas: (1) facilitating accurate spatial perception; (2) supporting effective interpersonal communication.  I will touch on our efforts related to the use of self-avatars and autonomous intelligent agents, our investigations into the  relative requirements of visual and experiential realism, and our assessments of the extents to which various locomotion methods support users in maintaining an accurate mental map of the space through which they are traveling.

Short bio: Victoria Interrante is a Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Minnesota and Director of the University-wide Center for Cognitive Sciences.  She received her PhD in 1996 from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she was advised by Drs. Henry Fuchs and Stephen Pizer, and was a 1999 recipient of the US Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, one of the highest honors bestowed by the US government to junior researchers.  Professor Interrante has extensive research experience in the fields of Virtual Reality and Data Visualization. She is currently serving as the co-Editor-in-Chief of the ACM Transactions on Applied Perception, and as a member of the Steering Committee for the IEEE Virtual Reality conference.