Virtual Social Interaction
Virtual reality can give you the illusion of being with someone else, without being physically together. There are many practical examples of why this could be useful, and our capacity for building realistic virtual humans pushes the limits of new ways in which we could connect with each other, both in real life and virtually. I will discuss a few research projects covering a range of applications, including communication training, medical treatment, social neuroscience research, and immersive gaming. We will explore what social interaction means, and address the challenges posed by the rise of the AI-powered metaverse.
Sylvia Xueni Pan
Prof. Sylvia Xueni Pan PhD is a full Professor of VR at Goldsmiths, University of London. She co-leads the Goldsmiths Social, Empathic, and Embodied VR lab (SeeVR Lab) and the MA/MSc in Virtual and Augmented Reality programme at Goldsmiths Computing. Her 2017 Coursera VR specialisation attracted over 100,000 learners globally. Her research interest is the use of Virtual Reality as a medium for real-time social interaction, in particular in the application areas of training and therapy.
Origin and Path of GPCG
Computer Graphics began to take its first steps in the 1950s, but it was in the following decade that it established itself, and then went through a period of great evolution, which continued in the 1970s.
In 1980, the European association EUROGRAPHICS was founded, with Professor José Luís Encarnação, a Portuguese living in Germany, as its first chairman. In the following years, national chapters of the association began to form and it was in this context that a small group of Portuguese researchers with an interest in Computer Graphics got together and decided to create the ‘EUROGRAPHICS Portuguese Chapter’, or Portuguese Computer Graphics Group (GPCG), which formally came into being in 1990.
Since then, the GPCG has evolved and has been responsible for organising numerous scientific events, among other initiatives. The initial number of members, just over a dozen, has multiplied a few times and the scientific activity has broadened, covering, in particular, the various Realities, Virtual and Mixed, and Person-Computer Interaction. More recently, the group was renamed the Portuguese Computer Graphics and Interaction Group (GPCGI).
It is this evolution, as seen by two researchers who have had the opportunity to experience it, that we intend to show in this lecture that proves the vitality of the GPCGI. In addition, some notable documents will be referred to or even exhibited, fostering a possible embryo of a digital museum of the Portuguese Computer Graphics and Interaction Group.
João Duarte Cunha
Born in 1945, he completed high school in 1962 in Leiria and graduated in electrotechnical engineering from IST in 1968. He began his scientific career at LFEN (Nuclear Physics and Engineering Laboratory) in the field of Nuclear Physics. In 1975, he joined the research career at LNEC (National Laboratory for Civil Engineering) in the area of Computer Science, obtaining the degrees of Assistant Researcher in 1981 (thesis in the field of Computer Graphics) and Principal Research Officer in 1992 (research program in the area of Scientific Data Visualization). He has been retired since 2011.
At LNEC, he held the positions of Head of the Computer Center (1993-2002), Vice-President (2002-2004), Director of the Quality in Construction Center (2004-2011), and President of the Scientific Council (2009-2011). He was a Visiting Associate Professor at DI/FCUL (1990-1995), later becoming a Visiting Full Professor in the same Department (1995-2008).
He was a member of the Executive Council of FCCN (Foundation for National Scientific Computing) from 1997 to 2004. He is a founding member of the Portuguese Computer Graphics Group, of which he was president from its establishment in 1989 until 1993, continuing to be part of its Board until 1998.
A. Augusto de Sousa
A. Augusto de Sousa completed his PhD in 1996 at the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto (FEUP), in the areas of Computer Graphics/Image Synthesis and Parallel Computing. He has been a lecturer/professor at the same Faculty since 1983.
From 2014 to 2022, he was a member of FEUP’s Executive Board, with the position of Vice-President for the Pedagogical Affairs Council. Between 2008 and 2014 he was director of FEUP’s Integrated Master’s Degree in Informatics and Computer Engineering. Between 2000 and 2023 he was a member of the board of the Journalism and Communication Sciences Course at U.Porto.
He has been a researcher at INESC TEC since 1985, where he coordinated the Information Systems and Computer Graphics Unit (1998 to 2000). He has supervised and co-supervised several master’s and doctoral projects.
He has been the Principal Investigator of several FCT-funded projects and has collaborated and collaborates in European projects on topics related to Computer Graphics and Virtual/Augmented Reality and Engineering Education.
He is a member of the Portuguese Computer Graphics Group (EUROGRAPHICS Portuguese Chapter), having served as President, Vice-President and Treasurer of the respective board.