Mail：lsp@nycu.edu.tw
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親愛的老師與同學您好：
本次華仁全球講座（H&J Global Chair）非常榮幸邀請到在虛擬實境與人機互動領域享有國際盛譽的專家——Prof. Sabarish Babu (Texas A&M University) 蒞臨演講，誠摯邀請各位報名參加。

華仁全球講座
 Date: June 15, 10:30 AM - 12 PM
 Speaker: Prof. Sabarish Babu, Texas A&M University
 Title: Lessons Learned in Personal Space Interactions with Virtual Humans and Avatars, on Social Influences, Affordances and Perception-Action in XR
 報名連結：https://forms.gle/XaAp6M2nQj2um4e2A

Abstract
In this talk, I will first discuss a body of research on emotion contagion and visual attention in personal space human-virtual human interactions. We investigated the effects of animation, appearance and interaction fidelity on the emotional reactions and visual attention of users in simulated dyadic and
crowd scenarios in VR. I will discuss the results and lessons learned from these investigations, which have implications for the design of virtual humans in inter-personal simulations for healthcare, edutainment and social VR simulations.
Next, I will highlight a body of work investigating near-field perception-action in VR that systematically examined anthropomorphic and anthropometric fidelity of self-avatars on near-field depth, reach boundary and affordance perception. I will discuss the research findings and implications of this work to rehabilitation and fine motor skills training in VR. Finally, I will discuss our recent research in investigating novel 3D interaction techniques and end-effector representations on users’ near-field dynamic affordances,
selection and manipulation interactions in VR and Mixed Reality (MR).
Our research shows that concordance in end-effector representations, body-scaled self-avatars, and simple interaction metaphors are effective in 3D selection, manipulation, sense of embodiment, and perception-action coordination in XR.  I will conclude the talk by summarizing lessons learned and highlight the major takeaways for the design of virtual humans, self-avatars and interactive scenario for near-field fine motor skills training and simulated inter-personal experiences in XR. 

About the Speaker
Sabarish ‘Sab’ Babu is a tenured full Professor of Visual Computing and Computational Media in the College of Performance, Visualization and Fine Arts at Texas A&M University. He earned his BS (2000), MS Information Technology (2002) and PhD Computer Science (2007) degrees at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and completed a Post-Doctoral Fellowship in Computer Science at the University of Iowa. Prior to joining Texas A&M University, he served as a faculty member in the School of
Computing at Clemson University from 2010-2025. His research interests are in the areas of virtual environments, applied perception in XR, virtual humans/crowds, avatars, educational virtual reality, and 3D human computer interaction. He has authored or co-authored over 150 peer-reviewed journals and conference papers in these areas of research. He was the General Chair of the IEEE International Conference on Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces (IEEE VR) 2016. He also served as Program Chair for several high impact conferences including IEEE VR 2017 and ACM SAP 2025. He currently serves on the editorial boards of IEEE TVCG and MDPI Virtual Worlds journals. He and his students have received 8 Best Paper Awards in premier IEEE and ACM research venues including the IEEE VR (2018, 2023), IEEE 3D UI (2007, 2016), ACM Symposium on Applied Perception (2016, 2020, 2022), the IEEE International Conference on Healthcare Informatics (2013), and several Best Presentation and Honorable Mention for Best Paper Awards in ACM and IEEE sponsored venues. He has graduated 10 PhD students, and several MS CS and undergraduate honors students. His research has been sponsored by the US National Science Foundation, US Department of Labor, and several industry awards from companies such as Adobe, Bon Secours Healthcare, Prisma Health Network, Medline Medical, and the BMW group. 

Organizer
Stanford-NYCU Joint AI Lab, 王昱舜教授 <yushuen@nycu.edu.tw>