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Auflistung nach Autor:in "Kalus, Alexander"

1 - 8 von 8
  • Workshopbeitrag
    16. Workshop Be-greifbare Interaktion
    (Mensch und Computer 2023 - Workshopband, 2023) Schmid, Andreas; van Koningsbruggen, Rosa; Delgado Rodriguez, Sarah; Maierhöfer, Vitus; Waldschütz, Hannes; Kalus, Alexander
    Tangible interaction is centered around the manipulation of physical objects and the usage of the own body. It thus involves the environment and the physical context much stronger than purely visual or speech-based interfaces. The wide range of possibilities for integrating sensors and computing systems into the physical environment provides ample design space. The research field of Tangible Interaction investigates this scope scientifically and practically in order to enable meaningful and human-oriented applications. In this workshop, the German Informatics Society (GI) specialist group "Be-greifbare Interaktion" of the Department of Human-Computer Interaction offers a forum for the presentation of scientific discourse and interdisciplinary discussion. Contributions range from theoretical, critical and forward-looking reflections to design work and reports on practical implementations. The workshop opens the discussion to a broader audience of experts in order to disclose current developments and generate new impulses for the research field.
  • Workshopbeitrag
    From Trash to Treasure: Experiences from Building Tangible Artifacts out of Discarded Components
    (Mensch und Computer 2023 - Workshopband, 2023) Schmid, Andreas; Kalus, Alexander; Wimmer, Raphael
    Prototyping interactive hardware artifacts is an iterative process that can produce significant amounts of waste. This problem becomes particularly apparent in teaching, when multiple students build the same artifact as an exercise and components can break when used improperly. In the context of a university course on tangible interaction, we explored how material found in the trash could be used as a resource for prototyping interactive artifacts. We could source interesting components and found that a bottom-up prototyping approach based on those components opened up new design spaces. Furthermore, as we relied on trash as a resource, we were able to considerably reduce waste during the course.
  • Konferenzbeitrag
    How to Induce a Physical and Virtual Rubber Hand Illusion
    (Mensch und Computer 2022 - Tagungsband, 2022) Kalus, Alexander; Kocur, Martin; Henze, Niels; Bogon, Johanna; Schwind, Valentin
    Understanding body ownership is essential when creating virtual reality (VR) applications using avatars. One of the most widely-used paradigm to investigate body ownership is the rubber hand illusion (RHI). When a real hand and a rubber hand are stroked synchronously, participants can experience the rubber hand as their own hand. Although the knowledge from RHI experiments in the real world is applied to when users embody avatars in VR, it is still unclear whether the illusory ownership of a virtual and physical body produce the same effects. In addition, conducting RHI studies in VR would allow gaining a range of novel experiments that are not possible in the real world. With this demonstration, we therefore present a system and approach to investigate the RHI in the real world and in VR.
  • Konferenzbeitrag
    The Mood Game - How to use the player’s affective state in a shoot’em up avoiding frustration and boredom
    (Mensch und Computer 2019 - Tagungsband, 2019) Halbhuber, David; Fehle, Jakob; Kalus, Alexander; Seitz, Konstantin; Kocur, Martin; Schmidt, Thomas; Wolff, Christian
    In this demo paper, we present a shoot'em up game similar to Space Invaders called the "Mood Game" that incorporates players' affective state into the game mechanics in order to enhance the gaming experience and avoid undesired emotions like frustration and boredom. By tracking emotions through facial expressions combined with self-evaluation, keystrokes and performance measures, we have developed a game logic that adapts the playing difficulty based on the player's emotional state. The implemented game AI automatically adjusts the enemy spawn rate and enemy behavior, the amount of obstacles, the number and type of power ups and the game speed to provide a smooth game play for different player skills. The effects of our dynamic game balancing mechanism will be tested in future work.
  • Workshopbeitrag
    Towards Determining the Physical Characteristics that Induce the Proteus Effect
    (Mensch und Computer 2024 - Workshopband, 2024) Valletta, Elisa; Kalus, Alexander; Bogon, Johanna; Henze, Niels
    In virtual reality (VR), users can be represented by avatars, that do not necessarily match their own body image. Using a first-person perspective and giving the user full control of the avatar can reinforce the illusion that the virtual body belongs to the user. This can lead to the Proteus effect, where the representation of the avatar influences the user’s behaviour, attitude, perception or performance. This influence depends on how the visual characteristics of the avatar are perceived and what expectations and experiences are associated with this appearance. Several studies have investigated the effect of embodying an avatar that does not match one's own body in terms of physical fitness, for example using muscular or overweight avatars. However, it is unknown which body characteristics exactly can be represented by avatars in such a way that they can be perceived by users and thus create a Proteus effect. We propose a systematic evaluation of five physical characteristics to understand which physical characteristics can be recognizably transferred to an avatar and thus induce the Proteus effect. In addition to understand which physical characteristics can induce the Proteus effect, the proposed approach can help analysing further avatar characteristics.
  • Konferenzbeitrag
    Understanding the Effects of Perceived Avatar Appearance on Latency Sensitivity in Full-Body Motion-Tracked Virtual Reality
    (Mensch und Computer 2023 - Tagungsband, 2023) Halbhuber, David; Kocur, Martin; Kalus, Alexander; Angermeyer, Kevin; Schwind, Valentin; Henze, Niels
    Latency in virtual reality (VR) can decrease the feeling of presence and body ownership. How users perceive latency, however, is plastic and affected by the design of the virtual content. Previous work found that an avatar's visual appearance, particularly its perceived fitness, can be leveraged to change user perception and behavior. Moreover, previous work investigating non-VR video games also demonstrated that controlling avatars that visually conform to users' expectations associated with the avatars' perceived characteristics increases the users' latency tolerance. However, it is currently unknown if the avatar's visual appearance can be used to modulate the users' latency sensitivity in full-body motion-tracked VR. Therefore, we conducted two studies to investigate if the avatars' appearance can be used to decrease the negative impact of latency. In the first study, 41 participants systematically determined two sets of avatars whose visual appearance is perceived to be more or less fit in two physically challenging tasks. In a second study (N = 16), we tested the two previously determined avatars (perceived to be more fit vs. perceived to be less fit) in the two tasks using VR with two levels of controlled latency (system vs. high). We found that embodying an avatar perceived as more fit significantly increases the participants' physical performance, body ownership, presence, and intrinsic motivation. While we show that latency negatively affects performance, our results also suggest that the avatar's visual appearance does not alter the effects of latency in VR.
  • Workshopbeitrag
    Utilizing Liquid Transfer for Weight Simulation: Challenges and Future Directions
    (Mensch und Computer 2023 - Workshopband, 2023) Kalus, Alexander; Johannes, Klein; Henze, Niels
    Liquid mass transfer has emerged as a promising approach to induce weight perception in Virtual Reality (VR). This concept utilizes a tubing system to exchange a liquid between two or more units, to change their weight. As at least one of these units is attached to the user’s body or controller, different weight sensations can be achieved. In this position paper, we provide an overview of related work in the area of liquid-based weight-changing devices, point at limitations of their approach and discuss future directions for their advancement.
  • Workshop
    Workshop on Ubiquitous Mixed Reality: Unveiling Opportunities and Challenges
    (Mensch und Computer 2024 - Workshopband, 2024) Kocur, Martin; Kalus, Alexander; Schwind, Valentin; Henze, Niels
    Mixed Reality (MR) increasingly gained importance over the last decade leading to the commercial breakthrough in recent years. Consequently, experts predict that users will spend considerable amounts of time in MR in the near future and possibly replace the smartphone. When MR becomes ubiquitous and will be used in everyday contexts as the smartphone, novel opportunities and challenges will arise that are unmatched by any other technology. In this one-day workshop, we will therefore unveil and discuss the opportunities and challenges of ubiquitous MR and gather guidelines and practices for the design and development of future MR applications that can be used in everyday contexts.