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Monday 9am - 4:30pm Tuesday 9am - 4:30pm Wednesday 9am - 4:30pm Thursday 9am - 4:30pm Friday 9am - 4:30pm

HIT Lab NZ, John Britten Building, 69 Creyke Road, Ilam, Christchurch (2026)

28/05/2026

This week Prof Rob Lindeman was invited to an informal luncheon with German Ambassador Nicole Menzenbach. Rob and the Ambassador first met as part of the 2025 Antarctic Season Opening event. The luncheon was mainly to touch base, and say a brief "farewell" as the Ambassador's posting in NZ comes to an end in July. The HIT Lab NZ has very strong ties to researchers in Germany, with fully 35% of HIT Lab NZ publications being co-authored with researchers from 16 universities and research institutes located in Germany. Rob will be spending two months at the Technical University Munich (TUM) as part of his Sabbatical later in 2026.
UC Engineering University of Canterbury German Embassy Wellington

26/05/2026

🎓 NEW MHIT THESIS 🎓

Saumya Chanana’s MHIT thesis, “Freefall VR : enhancing presence through feedforward vibration in a body-controlled exergame.” is now available in the UC Research Repository at https://doi.org/10.26021/16405

Feedforward haptic guidance has been proposed as a means of improving interaction and user experience in immersive virtual environments by providing anticipatory sensory information prior to an event. While prior work has demonstrated the benefits of feedforward haptics in non-immersive and task-specific contexts, their effects within physically embodied virtual reality (VR) exergames remain underexplored. This thesis investigates the impact of feedforward vibrotactile cues on presence, task performance, physical exertion, and cybersickness in a balance-based VR exergame.

A custom VR exergame, FreeFall, was developed in which participants navigated a simulated free-fall environment using whole-body movement while lying prone on a balance board. Movement was controlled through torso orientation across three degrees of freedom (pitch, roll, and yaw). Vibrotactile feedback was delivered through handheld VR controllers. Two haptic conditions were compared using a within-subjects design: a feedback-only condition (NoFF) and a feedback plus feedforward condition (FF), in which proximity-based vibration warned participants of approaching obstacles.

Twenty-six participants completed both conditions. Quantitative measures included objective performance metrics (collision frequency, hoops passed, and score), presence (Igroup Presence Questionnaire), physical exertion (Borg Rating of Perceived Exertion), and cybersickness (Simulator Sickness Questionnaire). Qualitative data were collected through post-experiment open-ended questions and analyzed using thematic analysis.

Results showed that feedforward haptic guidance did not significantly improve objective task performance or increase physical exertion relative to the feedback-only condition. Presence results indicated a selective effect: experienced realism was significantly higher in the feedforward condition, while other presence subscales showed no significant differences. Cybersickness increased relative to baseline during VR gameplay, but did not differ significantly between haptic conditions. Qualitative findings revealed strong engagement with the embodied interaction, perceived usefulness of haptic cues for task awareness, and variability in how intuitively the hand-based vibrations were interpreted.

Together, these findings suggest that feedforward haptic guidance in an embodied VR exergame primarily influences perceptual realism and experiential credibility rather than immediate performance outcomes.

University of Canterbury UC Engineering

22/05/2026

🎓NEW MHIT THESIS🎓
Gabrielle (Gabby) Rosemergy’s MHIT thesis, “Getting a Feel For Things: Exploring Skill Acquisition in Racing Simulator Games Through the Use of Physicalised 3D Data Representations” is now available in the UC Research Repository at https://doi.org/10.26021/16386.

Motorsports are fast-paced and require a high level of spatial and temporal knowledge of one’s performance. Data visualisation is a key tool for improvement in many sports, and physical data has been used in other contexts to increase users’ understanding of and connection to the data. Our research aimed to create a physical form of motorsports data that would help users to improve their performance. Additionally, many people prefer to learn through their sense of touch as well as sight and hearing. Increasing the level of interaction can further benefit user outcomes. We carried out a user study to compare two physical models of data from a Formula 1 simulation game with varying levels of in-built interactivity.

We found significant differences between the two in-built levels of interactivity in relation to both trustworthiness and lap time improvement. We believe that the difference in improvement is due to both the increased interaction and decreased initial understanding. Further research would be required to better understand the difference in the trustworthiness scores.

This study showed that there is potential to using physical data models to improve performance when analysing data in a Formula 1 simulator game. More research should be done to confirm these results with a narrower target audience and more tailored data within motorsports. It would also be beneficial to test physicalised data for other forms of learning, such as other sports or in academia.

University of Canterbury UC Engineering

18/05/2026

💥NEW PUBLICATION💥
Easa AliAbbasi, Dennis Wittchen, Yinan Li, Shihan Lu, Thomas Müller, Donald Degraen, Thomas Leimkühler, Sang Ho Yoon, Hasti Seifi, Oliver Schneider, Heather Culbertson, Jürgen Steimle, and Paul Strohmeier. 2026. AI for Haptics and Haptics for AI: Challenges and Opportunities. In Proceedings of the Extended Abstracts of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI EA '26). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, Article 920, 1–7.

👉https://doi.org/10.1145/3772363.3778763

AI has transformed methods and knowledge across many domains. However, the intersection of AI and haptics remains underexplored. While modern AI techniques – fueled by machine learning and using powerful techniques such as generative modeling and reinforcement learning – offer powerful opportunities for advancing haptic design, insights from haptics research, such as perception modeling and adaptive interaction - grounded in human touch, embodiment, and multisensory integration — can also play a critical role in shaping more human-centered AI systems. This workshop will bring together an interdisciplinary community of researchers from HCI, haptics, AI, robotics, and design to (1) identify pressing questions in haptics that could benefit from AI approaches and (2) highlight ways in which haptic knowledge can support the development of embodied and context-aware AI. Through position papers and paper presentations, we will map key challenges, exchange methods, and explore new research directions that connect the two fields. By framing haptics and AI as mutually reinforcing, the workshop aims to build a shared research agenda and foster collaborations that advance both the science of touch and the design of intelligent interactive systems.
University of Canterbury UC Engineering

17/05/2026

💥NEW PUBLICATION💥
Jonas Keppel, Marvin Prochazka, Stefan Lewin, Markus Stroehnisch, Marvin Strauss, André Zenner, Donald Degraen, Andrii Matviienko, and Stefan Schneegass. 2026. Determining Perception Thresholds for Real and Virtual Inclinations While Cycling in Virtual Reality. In Proceedings of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '26). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, Article 1676, 1–18.

👉https://doi.org/10.1145/3772318.3791538

In virtual reality (VR) experiences, mismatches between reality and virtuality are usually undesirable, as they can disrupt immersion and induce cybersickness. However, when carefully controlled, they may expand the design space of VR. This research investigates perceptual detection thresholds for mismatches between real and virtual inclinations during cycling in VR. Using a custom simulation, N = 30 participants cycled through a virtual city while physical and visual inclinations were independently manipulated. Real inclinations were implemented with a tilting indoor bike, providing vestibular and proprioceptive feedback, while virtual inclinations within the simulated environment were presented visually. A multiple staircase procedure derived estimates for perceptual thresholds that approximate which mismatches in visual and physical inclination were still perceived as congruent. These thresholds reveal a window of perceived congruence before mismatches become noticeable to users. These findings advance understanding of sensory integration in VR cycling and inform applications in immersive training, exergames, and rehabilitation systems.
University of Canterbury UC Engineering

16/05/2026

💥NEW PUBLICATION💥
Carolin Stellmacher, Leon Tristan Dratzidis, André Zenner, Iddo Yehoshua Wald, Johannes Schöning, Yvonne Rogers, Donald Degraen, and Mark Colley. 2026. Understanding How Mobile Interactions Shape Grasp and Contact Patterns Beyond the Touchscreen. In Proceedings of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '26). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, Article 1123, 1–20.

👉https://doi.org/10.1145/3772318.3790565

The way users hold a smartphone depends on the interaction task, yet little is known about the fingers’ engagement with the device’s surfaces beyond the touchscreen. Such an understanding not only opens up opportunities for novel on- and off-screen interactions, but also the device’s possible physical affordances. We present a study (N=23) that examines the hands’ physical engagement with the smartphone beyond the touchscreen across nine mobile interactions. Grasps were annotated from photographs, and contact regions were captured using residual heat traces from grasping the device. Our findings show that fingers and palms adopt a variety of support roles and postures when engaging with the smartphone’s back and side edges. The hand-contact maps reveal distinct patterns, differing in contact frequency and placement. This work contributes an empirical characterisation of hands’ back and edge engagement, highlighting design opportunities for future smartphone usage extending beyond the touchscreen.

University of Canterbury UC Engineering

15/05/2026

💥NEW PUBLICATION💥
Freese M and Lukosch HK. (2026). Structured briefing: Towards meaningful learning experiences with simulation games, Computers & Education, vol 240, Article105461, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2025

👉 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360131525002295

Simulation gaming is an interactive method to simulate complex problems, allowing learners to experience, explore, and experiment with dynamic situations and processes. Simulation gaming sessions usually consist of three key phases – briefing, gameplay, and debriefing. Often, debriefing is seen as the most important part of such a session. Even though the briefing is supposed to have a similar significance as the debriefing, it is still an underrepresented, and underexplored phase in simulation gaming research. The briefing is in many cases the first point of contact between the facilitator(s) and the learner(s), and has an influence on the learning experience and outcomes. It is therefore important to understand how to implement a meaningful briefing to support the objectives of a simulation game. However, an agreed understanding of the briefing phase does not yet exist. To address this problem, we conducted a systematic literature review and analysed existing briefing approaches. The results show that the briefing phase within a simulation gaming session can be conceptualized along its structure and content, related both to the learner(s) and the facilitator(s). Furthermore, briefing can be differentiated into three phases: pre-, main-, and post-briefing. At all phases of the briefing, the facilitator is given a significant amount of responsibility for the success of the simulation gaming session. As conclusion, we propose a new briefing framework to be used by gaming researchers and practitioners to design and evaluate briefing activities.
University of Canterbury UC Engineering

15/05/2026

💥NEW PUBLICATION💥
Lukosch, H., Groen, D. (2026). Managing the Creative Storm – Game Brainstorm Sessions Based on the Triadic Game Design Philosophy. In: Trautwein, F., Zürn, B., Lukosch, H., Meijer, S., Alf, T. (eds) Shaping the Future through Simulation and Gaming. ISAGA 2025. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 16439. Springer, Cham.

👉https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-032-20129-4_6

Developing a game concept to tackle complex problems is a challenging process. It requires the collaboration of experts from different fields, from game design to technological development, and from content matter experts to pedagogical knowledge holders. Many books and articles have been written about the design of Simulation Games – from Richard Duke’s seminal 40-steps game design process to recent approaches from 1981 to Freese and Lukosch’s Funnel of Game Design in 2023, and many in between. All these approaches have carefully reviewed related work and analysed game design processes to learn from. As game researchers and developers, we have faced some challenges in applying the existing models when working with content-matter experts without any knowledge of game design. We have therefore developed a new tool, based on the Triadic Game Design Philosophy [1], which we used for participatory game design. We call this tool a GameStorm and describe how we developed it and what we have learned so far.
University of Canterbury UC Engineering

14/05/2026

💥NEW PUBLICATION💥
Leigh, E., McNeill, H.A., Wade, D. (2026). Simulation, Education and Ethics – What a Mix!. In: Trautwein, F., Zürn, B., Lukosch, H., Meijer, S., Alf, T. (eds) Shaping the Future through Simulation and Gaming. ISAGA 2025. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 16439. Springer, Cham.

👉https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-032-20129-4_13

Public statements about ethics declare individual, group, or organisational beliefs, values, and principles to the world. They are intended to be clear statements about how their owners will interact with the real world. Of necessity, simulations, and games used for learning, warp and bend reality to generate replications of aspects of the real world creating opportunities to generate new insights and knowledge. Because of this it is difficult to imagine a text that could declare a clear and absolutely ethical boundary applicable to every setting. In this paper we examine how a complex web of forces informs the actions of individual simulationists as they design and choose activities to further education and research goals. While we use educational contexts as our primary lens, our aim is to initiate a broader discussion about ethical considerations across all simulation domains. We explore how different ethical frameworks interact with various simulation types, potentially leading to very different participant experiences. We propose that making implicit ethical stances explicit is essential for responsible simulation practice in any field. This work challenges simulationists to either demonstrate that they know, understand, and apply in practice their own espoused ethical stance, or are willing to spend time learning how to do so consistently and then share their experiences. Our aim is to foster a more nuanced understanding of the ethical dimensions shaping the field of simulations and games for learning.
University of Canterbury UC Engineering

13/05/2026

💥NEW PUBLICATION💥
Wang B, Lindeman RW, Thompson P, Tahmasebi F, Huang Y and Lukosch HK. (2026). From Optimisation to Nudging: An Occupant-Centric Simulation Framework for Identifying Energy-Aware Shading Behaviour, Humanistic Computation And Intelligence - Proceedings of the 31st International Conference of the Association for Computer-Aided Architectural Design Research in Asia (CAADRIA), Hsinchu (Taiwan), April 26 - May 2 2026, Volume 3, pp. 367-376.

👉https://papers.cumincad.org/cgi-bin/works/paper/caadria2026_428

Manual shading operation can substantially influence building energy performance, yet occupants adjust shades based on habits and comfort preferences rather than energy considerations. This study proposes a simulation framework that couples the parametric shading behaviour model with multi-objective optimisation to identify energy-aware shading behaviour for informing nudging strategy design. In a case study, set within the heating season of Christchurch, New Zealand, the derived energy-aware behaviour achieves approximately a 10-20% improvement in both electric-lighting savings and passive solar heat gains. Energy-aware shading patterns in this case are generally characterised by longer response delay before closing, greater hesitation when closing, and shorter post-closure persistence. An exception is observed for occupants with low daylight preference, for whom nudges aimed at shortening shade-closure persistence may have limited effects. For occupants with high daylight preference, nudges that prolong response delay appear less applicable, whereas nudges that reduce behavioural inertia after closure remain promising. Overall, the proposed framework provides an evidence-based pathway for identifying energy-aware behaviour and informing nudging strategy design for manual shading operation.
University of Canterbury UC Engineering

13/05/2026

💥NEW PUBLICATION💥

C. Eichhorn, J. M. Weigand, J. Elghabaty, S. Lukosch, G. Klinker, J. Pirker, and D. A. Plecher. "Hydra - a Hybrid Controller for Multi-Haptic Feedback to Mimic Impulsive Forces in Virtual Reality," 2026 IEEE Conference on Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces Abstracts and Workshops (VRW), Daegu, Korea, Republic of, 2026, pp. 1125-1126, doi: 10.1109/VRW70859.2026.00237.

👉https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/11489752

In this project, we envision a versatile Virtual Reality (VR) controller to create haptic illusions for impulsive force scenarios where an active haptic device is essential. The HYbriD contRoller for multi-hAptic feedback (HYDRA) combines force feedback based on airflow with instantaneous tactile feedback realized through a magnetically accelerated weight. To address challenges in the application of brushless motors for force feedback, we propose using toroidal propellers in conjunction with options to adjust the motor layout. For an early pilot study, a Role-Playing Game (RPG) scenario was developed, where, based on a haptic illusion, HYDRA mimicked a 16th-century matchlock musket. With 24 participants, the potential of HYDRA was visible in terms of usability and presence response, as well as promising directions for future studies examining the influence of both feedback types on the experience.
University of Canterbury UC Engineering

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Monday	9am - 4:30pm
Tuesday	9am - 4:30pm
Wednesday	9am - 4:30pm
Thursday	9am - 4:30pm
Friday	9am - 4:30pm