ABSTRACT. Immersive Virtual Reality (iVR) is a promising educational tool for learning a second/foreign language. However, interactive iVR studies remain in their infancy, with more research required to validate what and how it can be implemented. This study focuses on the English listening dimension and evaluates the impact of a realistic interactive iVR compared to traditional listening exercises. The results were favourable and indicated that interactive iVR positively impacts the users’ knowledge retention compared to a traditional listening approach. Likewise, the users revealed a preference for using iVR for learning when compared to traditional listening exercises, as well as higher user satisfaction with the iVR experiment.

ABSTRACT. This paper explores the integration of metaverse and Virtual Reality (VR) technologies into remote employee onboarding processes within a multinational company. The study compares traditional remote onboarding methods with a newly developed metaverse-based solution. The evaluation focuses on employee engagement and knowledge retention during the onboarding process. Key results indicate that the metaverse-based approach enhances engagement and retention, offering practical insights for companies seeking to adopt VR solutions for onboarding.

ABSTRACT. The coveted concept of utilizing Virtual Reality (VR) as a method for both medical and therapeutic treatment has been a subject of interest over the past few decades. VR immersive technologies can increase engagement and motivation in therapy and enable tailored scenarios. Previous studies using this technology, namely on burn patients, have demonstrated that VR has the potential to reduce anxiety and pain response during treatment, sparing expenditures in both traditional pain and anxiety relieving options. This paper presents a VR application, consisting of several rooms with relaxing activities inside which the user can navigate and interact with the objects. The application, designed in Unreal Engine for the HTC Vive Pro headset, was evaluated for its ability to create relaxing stimuli. Experimental results with volunteers indicate that it is easy to interact with the virtual environment, demonstrating high levels of presence and immersion and reporting a reduction in stress and anxiety levels.

ABSTRACT. Children and elderly individuals often seek medical help for vertigo and imbalance, typically caused by vestibular system problems crucial to maintaining posture and balance.VRT is strongly recommended as individuals perform target-specific exercises to alleviate these symptoms by performing head, eye, balance, and coordination movements. We propose integrating Serious Games and VR into VRT to make these exercises more engaging and enjoyable. This paper presents the creation of a progressive endless game that aids patients in performing the necessary VRT exercises while being distracted by the task and dynamic elements in the virtual environment. Although patients might use the created application by themselves, partial control is given to the therapist in a dedicated back-office, allowing them to adjust the game mechanics (e.g., overall difficulty or speed), as well as the creation of dynamic content to alter visual stimuli.

ABSTRACT. 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 projectsHe 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.

Born in 1945, João Duarte Cunha 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.

GPCGI - A vision extended to 35 years... or more...

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, continuing into 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 organizing 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 Human-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, which proves the vitality of the GPCGI. In addition, a number of key documents will be referred to or even shown, providing an opportunity for a future discussion.

ABSTRACT. Recent research focuses on understanding what triggers cognitive biases and how to alleviate them in the context of visualization use. Given its role in decision-making in other research fields, the Phantom Effect may hold exciting prospects among known biases. The Phantom Effect belongs to the category of decoy effects, where the decoy is an optimal yet unavailable alternative. We conducted a hybrid design experiment (N=76) where participants performed decision tasks based on information represented in different visualization idioms and phantom alternative's unavailability presentation delays. We measured participants' perceptual speed and visual working memory to study their impact on the expression of the Phantom Effect. Results show that visualization usually triggers the Phantom Effect, but two-sided bar charts mitigate this bias more effectively. We also found that waiting until the participant decides before presenting the decoy as unavailable helps alleviate the Phantom Effect. Although we did not find measurable effects, results also suggest that visual working memory and visualization literacy play a role in bias susceptibility. Our findings extend prior research in visualization-based decoy effects. They are the first steps to understanding the role of individual differences in the susceptibility to cognitive bias in visualization contexts.

ABSTRACT. This paper presents a study comparing different user interface modes (Controller-Based Selection, Physical Interaction, and Voice Recognition) within immersive Virtual Reality (iVR) environments for foreign language learning. Given the rapid advancements and potential of iVR in education, there is a need for focused research on optimising user interfaces for effective learning experiences. This study aimed to identify optimal interfaces for integrating iVR applications as supplementary educational tools while gauging student preferences. Participants engaged in interactive learning tasks across the three conditions, with assessments focused on System Usability, Presence, User Satisfaction, Cybersickness, Learning Outcomes, and Task Duration. Findings indicate high usability across all conditions, with a preference observed for Controller-Based Selection and Physical Interaction. Physical Interaction showed strong motivational appeal but required more time to complete tasks than Controller-Based. Therefore, for time-constrained educational settings, the Controller-Based Selection interface is practical due to its lower physical effort requirement. Despite recent advances, our study found Voice Recognition interaction to be the least preferred interaction method, indicating a need for further technological improvements to boost its acceptance and effectiveness in educational contexts.

ABSTRACT. The deterioration of natural ecosystems and the increase in the complexity of information related to sustainability demonstrated the need for greater engagement on the part of professionals. Sustainability has been demanding a paradigmatic change in how problems are solved, requiring a more systemic approach to their resolution. Creativity is therefore seen as an aspiration to recreate and discover new paths to accelerate sustainability transitions. Our work aims to articulate the support of sustainable solutions through convergent thinking, different multimedia information visualizations, and three evaluative metrics in a user interface (UI) design. Through a between- subjects experiment (N = 28), we explored four study conditions and found that supporting users through information visualizations improves users' judgment and decisions about sustainable ideas. Our findings provide insights into the challenges of incorporating a conceptual framework, designing new visualizations to support decision-making, and helping users convey the best results.

ABSTRACT. Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) provide a means to access remote locations and perform tasks in dangerous zones, reducing operation costs and safety issues for workers. These aircraft are becoming increasingly prevalent for usages such as package delivery, surveillance, agriculture and entertainment, among others. However, the traditional remote controller is not intuitive and requires training to avoid safety issues, such as injuries and property damage, especially when handled by novice users. In this work, we propose a control system that is capable of recognizing a set of nine dynamic hand gestures, which are used as a natural alternative to execute UAV flight commands. To recognize the gestures we defined a 1D Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) architecture to classify time series of motion data, acquired in real-time using a custom wearable device with an MPU 6050 sensor. This wrist-worn wearable was used to build a new dataset consisting of 5500 gestures, which allowed to train and evaluate the CNN model. The proposed model performed with an accuracy of 98.59\% and average precision of 98.32\%. To validate the control system, we built a web application that simulates the flight and control of a UAV through the proposed gesture-based commands.

ABSTRACT. A historical narrative can be presented in various ways. this paper presents a multimedia-based educational mobile tool based on character-centered content presentation, with geographical points serving as the backdrop within a specific geographical and temporal context. This approach encompasses multiple fields of study, such as history and geography, introducing a computational model that explores the history of slavery. The key feature of this model is to create dynamic pathways that immerse the user in a multimedia storyline, supported by information technologies, including educational content and GPS data, among others. Usability tests were conducted on the developed mobile tool with a group of 10 participants, with promising result.