Christopher had the pleasure of joining Patrick on The Versatilist to talk about his recent research on public perceptions of VR/AR and our lab’s real-life content blocking prototype.

It was a great opportunity to step away from the academic format and share the motivation, process, and implications of this work in a more conversational way. Big thanks to Patrick for making it possible!

Dario D’Addamio starts in his position as a research intern. Dario researches how a modern and modular platform can be developed to support Data Analysis Workflow (DAW) users and developers.

Alina Pryma and Aaron Ziglowski join the team as Student Assistants (SHKs).

Extended Reality (XR) technologies are beginning to enter the mainstream and have the potential to change the way humans interact with computers on a global scale. As with all powerful tools, XR not only has the potential for enormous good, but also brings in a new set of challenges for policy to guide its innovation and development. This paper draws on a wide range of expertise from academia, research and development, and industry to collectively provide guiding principles for XR policy. The authors began discussions and developed a framework at a workshop at ACM SIGCHI 2024 and the ideas presented here are the result of debate, discussion, refinement, and offer next steps for the development of pervasive XR. We present three main principles for XR policy: Trust, Agency, and Inclusivity, along with a cross-cutting theme of Future-Proofing. Each principle is broken down and we offer example implementations. This paper aims to build upon previous work and efforts for fair and equitable XR for all, and further dialogue towards tangible changes in policy to help guide responsible innovation in virtual worlds.

Large Language Models (LLMs) created new opportunities for generating personas, expected to streamline and accelerate the human-centered design process. Yet, AI-generated personas may not accurately represent actual user experiences, as they can miss contextual and emotional insights critical to understanding real users’ needs and behaviors. This introduces a potential threat to quality, especially for novices. This paper examines the differences in how users perceive personas created by LLMs compared to those crafted by humans regarding their credibility for design. We gathered ten human-crafted personas developed by HCI experts according to relevant attributes established in related work. Then, we systematically generated ten personas with an LLM and compared them with human-crafted ones in a survey. The results showed that participants differentiated between human-created and AI-generated personas, with the latter perceived as more informative and consistent. However, participants noted that the AI-generated personas tended to follow stereotypes, highlighting the need for a greater emphasis on diversity when utilizing LLMs for persona creation.

Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) technologies have gained prominence in scientific and industrial contexts over the last decade. While extensive evaluations of their potential benefits and challenges exist, public perceptions of the psychological and social issues associated with VR and AR remain less explored. This study addresses this gap by examining public attitudes toward these issues and the broader impact of such technologies through a two-part online survey (N=150). Our findings reveal that participants hold a nuanced perspective, clearly distinguishing between VR and AR, expressing optimism about potential applications yet voicing concerns regarding their effects on health, social interactions, and overreliance. This study contributes empirical evidence on public perceptions of VR and AR, offering valuable insights for developers, designers, and policymakers.