Virtual and Interactive Environments for Human Improvement

We are located in the XR lab and the Game Lab.

What we do:

• Design digital environments that improve human decision-making, health, and well-being
• Design and use multimodal sensing in Virtual & Extended reality applications
• Model users through affect and behavior
• Study user experience and impeding factors, such as motion sickness 
• Analyze ethical aspects of artificial intelligence

Our partners and collaborators:

• Aristotle University of Thessaloniki - School of Physical Education and Sport Science
• Breda University of Applied Sciences - Experience Lab & Breda Guardians
• Lily Frank, TU/E - https://www.tue.nl/en/research/researchers/lily-frank
• Malcolm Ryan, Macquarie U. - https://researchers.mq.edu.au/en/persons/malcolm-ryan
• Malene Flensborg Damholdt and Arthur Bran Herbener, Aarhus U. - https://www.au.dk/en/show/person/malenefd@psy.au.dk

Our current projects:

• Project “Flight” - Gamified Motor Learning
• VR Methods of Loci (VRMLoc) 
• Digital Interventions Incubator 
• Virtual Day
• MasterMinds Project “Decision making in complex environments using serious games”
• SEED Grant: “Video Games and Well-being” with Matti Vuorre
• “Introducing MARC - a Multifunctional Autoregressive Chatbot for AI-delivered mental health interventions” in Aarhus University, Robophilosophy unit
• Starter Grant: “Video Games for Moral Improvement” 

Some of our past (related) projects:

• Data2Game (www.data2game.nl) - Player Modelling through player affect 
• VR cybersickness and pain 
• Memory palace / method of Loci memory training in VR 
• VR study with multimodal data recorded, at the Science Museum in London: https://youtu.be/TNGxfcrq-us 
• Head-tracked spatial audio in VR 
• Design and validation of 3D stimuli libraries
• OCOsense (Development of smart sensing wearables for facial data detection).
• Detection of depression markers from facial data 

Some of our publications:

• Mavromoustakos-Blom, P., Bakkes, S., Spronck, P. (2019). Andromeda: A Personalised Crisis Management Training Toolkit. In: Liapis, A., Yannakakis, G., Gentile, M., Ninaus, M. (eds) Games and Learning Alliance. GALA 2019. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 11899. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-34350-7_14
• Paris Mavromoustakos-Blom et al. (2023) "Gamified Motor Learning Through High-Fidelity Sensor Technology," 2023 IEEE 11th International Conference on Serious Games and Applications for Health (SeGAH), Athens, Greece, pp. 1-7, https://doi.org/10.1109/SeGAH57547.2023.10253778
• Paris Mavromoustakos-Blom, Stefan Methorst, Sander Bakkes, Pieter Spronck (2019) Modeling and adjusting in-game difficulty based on facial expression analysis, Entertainment Computing, Volume 31, 100307.
• Michał Klincewicz, (2019) “Robotic Nudges for Moral Improvement through Stoic Practice,” Techné: Research in Philosophy and Technology 23 (3), pp. 425-455.
• Arthur Herbener, Michał Klincewicz, Malene Flensborg Damholdt (2024) “A Narrative Review of the Active Ingredients in Psychotherapy Delivered by Conversational Agents”, Computers in Human Behavior Reports.
• Michał Klincewicz and Lily Frank (2020). “Consequences of unexplainable machine learning for the notions of a trusted doctor and patient autonomy.” Proceedings of the 2nd EXplainable AI in Law Workshop (XAILA 2019) Co-Located with 32nd International Conference on Legal Knowledge and Information Systems (JURIX 2019).
• Gianluca Guglielmo, Michał Klincewicz, Elisabeth Huis in ’t Veld, Pieter Spronck (2024) “Introducing "Sustainable Port": A Serious Game to Study Decision-Making in Port-Related Environments”, 2024 IEEE Gaming, Entertainment, and Media Conference.
• Mavridou, I. & Nduka, C. (2022) A Virtual Reality platform for the objective measurement of emotional state, In Applied Virtual Reality in Healthcare: Case Studies. 
• Mavridou, I., Balaguer-Ballester, E., Nduka, C., Seiss, E. (2023) A reliable and robust online validation method for creating a novel 3D Affective Virtual Environment and Event Library (AVEL), PLoS ONE 18(4): e0278065.https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0278065 
• Archer J., Mavridou I.*, Stankoski S, Broulidakis J, Cleal A, Walas P, Fatoorechi M., Gjoreski H, Nduka C. 2023. OCOsenseTM smart glasses for analyzing facial expressions using optomyographic sensors. IEEE Pervasive Computing. https://doi.org/10.1109/MPRV.2023.3276471 
• Warp, R., Zhu, M., Kiprijanovska, I., Wiesler, J., Stafford, S., & Mavridou, I. (2022, May). Moved By Sound: How head-tracked spatial audio affects autonomic emotional state and immersion-driven auditory orienting response in VR Environments. In Audio Engineering Society Convention 151. AES.http://www.aes.org/e-lib/browse.cfm?elib=21703