Think Tank 11 Interaction with Open Data in Virtual Reality

Change your Perspective: by Dr Aris Alissandrakis and Nico Reski

Nowadays there are increasing amounts of data available on the web that can be freely used, modified and shared. Whether they are collectively gathered knowledge (crowdsourced, e.g. as on platforms like Wikipedia or Open Street Map), or raw data collected and published by governmental institutions, the importance of Open Data (versus more commercial Big Data) can be apparent. Data only become valuable when they are used and analyzed to obtain insights.

Interaction technologies have made major leaps in the past decade. The recent hype around Virtual Reality (VR) renewed user enthusiasm, finally reaching the mainstream as head-mounted displays (HMD) featuring low latency (high responsiveness) displays have become commercially available. The ability to experience digital content in a “natural” manner, by simply “looking around” can have a fundamental impact on how digital information is perceived.

While games and entertainment are considered as the main (commercial) applications, VR can also be used to explore data within immersive environments using vision-based motion control interfaces (e.g. Leap Motion, Microsoft Kinect), offering fresh perspectives. These novel approaches however present designers and developers with new challenges of how to design immersive VR technologies in order to support interaction mechanisms for naturally exploring digital information in the virtual world.

An example of our on-going research efforts can be seen in this video

# About Aris

Currently a senior lecturer at Linnæus University (LNU, Sweden), with the Department of Media Technology.
Previously a post-doc researcher in Japan and UK.
Active research interests include Virtual/Augmented Reality, Human-Computer Interaction, Quantified Self, Cross-media, Games, Human-Robot Interaction (HRI).
Academic webpage: http://arisalissandrakis.wordpress.com

# About Nico
Nico studied in Berlin, Germany, and Växjö, Sweden, and holds a master degree in media technology. He is currently working as a research assistant with the focus on Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), particularly Virtual and Augmented Reality, Tangible User Interfaces, and Games, in the Department of Media Technology at Linnæus University (LNU, Sweden).
Academic webpage: http://reski.nicoversity.com