About the Speaker:
Alexandra Kitson became a research intern at Simon Fraser University in January 2013, started her Masters in Fall 2014, and then articulated into the PhD program this year. She has a BSc from the University of British Columbia in Cognitive Systems, a multidisciplinary program that combines psychology, computer science, philosophy, and linguistics. Her research interests involve using an interdisciplinary approach to understand human perception and behaviour. In particular, employing technology as a medium to explore the human psyche, create better human-computer interfaces, and provide clinical applications.
Speakers also include Mirjana Prpa and Abraham Hashemian.
About the Talk: Spatial Navigation and Orientation in Virtual Reality, and Applications in an Experiential Flying Game
Proprioceptive and vestibular cues are required to enable spatial updating - the largely automized cognitive process that computes the spatial relationship between a person and their surrounding environment as they move based on perceptual information about their own movements. Disorientation often causes unhappiness, anxiety, and discomfort and this ultimately results in reduced usefulness, performance, and user acceptance. One factor to improve spatial updating is embodied, active locomotion (i.e., where users use their own body to move around). Motion cueing is an approach that simulates proprioceptive and vestibular cues as closely as possible when walking is not feasible. Smaller spaces often have constraints that do not allow 1:1 motion, so cheating the senses intelligibly is important in enabling the feeling of moving when actually stationary. Research has found motion cueing in VR can provide means of increasing self-motion or vection (i.e., feeling like you are moving when you are actually not).
In this talk I will present our research on motion cueing and spatial updating. I will then discuss an experiential flying game, called Lost Spirit, currently in development that draws on our findings. For more information see http://ispace.iat.sfu.ca/