As part of the Visual Computing research colloquium we invite you to a new talk!

  • Date: Friday, 20.11.2026, 13:00
  • Room: G29-335
  • Speaker: Rick Skarbez, La Trobe University Melbourne, Australia

Obstacles and opportunities in xR/HCI research

Abstract:

Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) research - which would include much of xR research - is triply a “science of the artificial”: It blends human psychology, design, and computer science. I observe, following psychologist and metatheoretician Paul Meehl, that such sciences often lack the “cumulative character” that has corresponded to rapid advancement in other fields like astronomy, molecular biology, and genetics. I claim that in order to achieve such advancement, a field must (1) reach broad agreement on what counts as a meaningful observation, and (2) generate theories that can explain these observations, and (3) subject these theories to difficult empirical tests. I argue that, as a general rule, xR/HCI fails on all three of these counts, but hope to offer some opportunities for improvement.

Biography:

Dr Richard (Rick) Skarbez is a computer scientist currently employed as a Senior Lecturer at La Trobe University in Melbourne, Australia. His research focuses on understanding the psychological, social, and cultural impacts of emerging technologies, particularly virtual reality (VR) but also augmented and mixed reality (AR/MR), artificial intelligence (AI), and related topics under the umbrella of human-computer interaction (HCI). His research has received several awards and honorable mentions, including the 2018 IEEE VGTC best dissertation award (sole honorable mention) and a best paper award (Top 1%) at ACM CHI 2025. He received his PhD from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2016.