The illusion of stepping onto soft sand, via a rigid, vibrating floor tile



Studying vibrotactile sensorimotor interactions in walking


High-Fidelity Vibrotactile Floor Tile Interface





Tactile hammer: haptic augmented reality instrument.




Active Tactile Markers for
Location or Content




Array of multimodal floor tiles
in VR environment




Experience walking on a cracking sheet of ice, virtually



Geospatial data navigation via a multitouch floor surface





New forms for haptic and auditory interfaces: the Spinotron




Interaction with sonically
augmented artifacts




Dynamic movement primitives for gestural human-computer interaction



Modeling music as a self-organizing process



Recycled Soundscapes (2004), Centre Pompidou








Lyta (2005), Pair of Haptic Walls for Communicating Body Touch Over a Distance


Ableton Live music software



Yon Visell


 Contact:
Tel: +33 (0)6 8246 6977
Email: yon _at_ cim.mcgill.ca
Web: www.cim.mcgill.ca/~yon



I am a postdoctoral researcher at the Institut des Systèmes Intelligents et de Robotique at Université Paris 06 (UPMC), France. I completed a Ph.D. at McGill University, in the Centre for Intelligent Machines and Shared Reality Lab.

My work involves fundamental research on haptic engineering, contact physics, and human tactile sensation/perception, motivated by tasks including haptic human-computer interaction, real-time material simulations, sensorimotor learning, and walking in virtual environments.

I am a key investigator for the EU 7th Framework project Natural Interactive Walking (NIW), served as local coordinator for the EU 6th Framework project CLOSED (2006-2009), and was Canadian national delegate to the European ESF/COST Action on Sonic Interaction Design (2007-2011).

Recent press


Haptic and Multisensory Interaction in Real and Virtual Environments

My research involves modeling and simulating physical contact interactions in real and virtual environments, and understanding human abilities for perceiving and acting via touch.

I develop haptic interfaces and investigate multisensory contributions to the perception of object properties (such as surface texture or compliance) and to the self-motion. By modeling the coupling of displacement, forces, and acoustic emissions in complex physical processes, such as sliding friction and fracture, I attempt to uncover ways that touch, sound, and movement information generated through interaction with real or virtual materials influence perception and self-motion.


Interactive Walking in Virtual Reality

This work aims to enable people to experience walking on natural ground surfaces such as sand, ice, or stone in virtual reality. My research focuses on three key areas: haptic interactive device engineering, mechanical interactions with complex natural materials, and human perception-action.

To simulate natural walking experiences in the laboratory, we develop distributed, intelligent floor surfaces, furnishing multisensory feedback (tactile, audio, and visual) to people walking on them. They provide the illusory sensation that one walking on natural materials like sand, snow, gravel, or wood, or is interacting with virtual objects, like buttons, sliders, touch screen displays, or other control interfaces.



Publications

Books

Journal articles

Patents

  • Y. Visell, K. Franinovic, A. Law, J. Cooperstock, Floor-Based Haptic Communication System. Patent Pending (USPO App. No. 20100308982).

Book chapters

  • Y. Visell, R. Murray-Smith, S. Brewster, J. Williamson, Continuous Auditory and Tactile Interaction Design. Chapter in: Sonic Interaction Design, eds. K. Franinovic and S. Serafin. MIT Press (Spring 2012).
  • Y. Visell, J. Cooperstock, Interaction with Computationally Augmented Floor Surfaces. Chapter in: F. Steinecke, Y. Visell, J. Campos, A. Lecuyer (eds.), Human Walking in Virtual Environments: Perception, Technology, and Applications. Springer Verlag (Spring 2013).
  • M. Marchal, Y. Visell, A. Lecuyer, F. Fontana, S. Serafin, Multimodal Rendering. Chapter in: F. Steinecke, Y. Visell, J. Campos, A. Lecuyer (eds.), Human Walking in Virtual Environments: Perception, Technology, and Applications. Springer Verlag (Spring 2013).
  • Y. Visell, S. Smith, J. Cooperstock, Distributed human-computer interaction with augmented floor surfaces. Chapter in: Walking with the Senses, eds. Y. Visell and F. Fontana. Logos Verlag (2012).
  • Y. Visell, R. Rajalingham, J. Cooperstock, A review of nonvisual signatures of human walking with applications to person tracking in augmented environments. Chapter in: Walking with the Senses, eds. Y. Visell and F. Fontana. Logos Verlag (2012).
  • G. Cirio, Y. Visell, and M. Marchal, Multisensory and Haptic Rendering of Complex Virtual Grounds. Chapter in: Walking with the Senses, eds. Y. Visell and F. Fontana. Logos Verlag (2012).
  • V. Hayward, Y. Visell, S. Serafin, F. Fontana, M. Civolani, Novel haptic displays for walking interactions. Chapter in: Walking with the Senses, eds. Y. Visell and F. Fontana. Logos Verlag (2012).
  • Y. Visell, F. Fontana, Introduction: New technologies for walking with the senses. Chapter in: Walking with the Senses, eds. Y. Visell and F. Fontana. Logos Verlag (2012).

Conference publications (selected)

Theses

  • Y. Visell, Walking in virtual worlds: Physics, perception, and interface design. Ph.D. Thesis, McGill University, Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering, 2011.
  • Y. Visell, String theory on quantum tori. Master's Thesis, Dept. of Physics, The University of Texas, 1999.

Exhibitions (selected):

  • SIGGRAPH Emerging Technologies New Orleans (US), 2010, Design Biennale St Etienne (FR), 2009, Phaeno Science Center Wolfsburg (DE), 2005, Ircam / Centre Pompidou Paris (FR), 2004, Ars Electronica Linz (AT), 2001, OBORO Montreal (CA), 2009, FoAM Brussels (BE), 2003, Happy New Ears festival Kortrijk (BE), 2005

Other dissemination:

  • Y. Visell, Touch Interaction with Augmented Floor Surfaces. NTT Research Laboratories, Atsugi, Japan, December, 2010.
  • D. Rocchesso, F. Behrendt, N. Bernardini, R. Bresin, G. Eckel, K. Franinovic, T. Hermann, S. Pauletto, P. Susini, S. Serafin, Y. Visell: Sonic interaction design: Sound, information and experience. ACM CHI, 2008.
  • Y. Visell et al., Haptic and Auditory Interaction with Ground Surfaces. CIRMMT Workshop on Multimodal Integration, 2008.
  • Y. Visell, A. Law, B. Peck, Multimodal Interaction with Virtual Ground Surfaces. REPARTI Seminar, McGill University, 2008.
  • Y. Visell, Multisensory Display of Virtual Ground Materials in Locomotion. CIRMMT Workshop on Multimodal Influences on Perceived Self Motion, 2008.
  • Y. Visell, Sensorimotor Human Computer Interaction, AI Lab, University of Zurich, 2007.
  • Y. Visell, Machine Learning Methods for Sensorimotor Human Computer Interaction, BIRG Lab, Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, 2007.
  • K. Adilogu, R. Annies, Y. Visell, K. Franinovic, C. Drioli, The Adaptive Bottle: Active Learning of User Preferences. (Demonstration), Neural Information Processing Systems (NIPS'07), Vancouver, Canada, 2007.
  • Y. Visell, Designing Sensorimotor Control in Human Computer Interaction. 5th European Neuro-IT and Neuroengineering School, 2007.
  • Y. Visell, The Sensual Move: Gesture Learning and Sensory-Motor Based Interaction Design. ACM Intl. Conf. on Multimodal Interfaces (ACM ICMI'06), 2006.
  • K. Franinovic, Y. Visell, New Musical Interfaces in Context: Sonic Interaction Design in the Urban Setting. Intl. Conf. on New Instruments for Musical Expression (NIME'07), 2007.
  • D. Rocchesso, P. Susini, G. Lemaitre, N. Misdariis, O. Hioux, K. Obermayer, H. Purwins, K. Franinovic, Y. Visell, Closing the Loop of Sound Evaluation and Design. Proc. ISCA Workshop on Perceptual Quality of Systems, 2006.
  • K. Franinovic, Y. Visell, Sonic Diversion in the City. Proc. Journees Design Sonore, Ircam, 2004.
  • Y. Visell, K. Franinovic, Recycled Soundscapes. ACM Designing Interactive Systems (DIS'04), 2004.

Teaching:

  • 2005 Adjunct professor, Intermedia and Cyberarts program, Faculty of fine arts, Concordia University, Montreal.
  • 2006 Faculty Lecturer, Electrical and Computer Engineering, McGill University. Detailed information, lecture slides, and other materials for the course, ECE 526: Artificial Intelligence.
  • 2007 Visiting Faculty, Interaction Design Program, University of the Arts (ZHdK) Zurich. Course on interactive sound design.
  • 2008 Open laboratory on Sounding Artifacts, "From Tangible to Intangible and Back Again". Oboro Centre, Montreal.
  • 2008 Visiting Professor, MA program in design, Nuova Accademia di Belli Arti, Milan. Course "Sonic Interaction Design".

Outside affiliations

  • Zero-Th Association, the non-profit art and architecture organization I co-direct. We have realized an array of socially interactive art+architecture projects for public and private space.
  • The Zurich University of the Arts. Research on applications of advanced haptic and auditory feedback in product interaction design, including (with colleagues at Ircam, TU-Berlin, and U. Verona) research on use of interactive sound that is matched to human perception and cognition, during the three-year European (FP6) research project CLOSED: Closing the Loop of Sound Evaluation and Design.

Past activities

  • Audio DSP development for Ableton Live, a software platform for composition and live performance of music. The software has been used and abused by a bewildering array of artists and composers (e.g., Depeche Mode, Daft Punk, Bjork, Nine-Inch Nails, ...). It has received positive reviews and awards in various magazines (Sound on Sound, Computer Music Journal, Electronic Musician, Computer Music, ...)
  • Research on noncommutative geometry in string theory at the Department of Physics at the University of Texas. Some remnants of my past life in high-energy physics here.
  • Speech recognition and speech signal processing research at Loquendo. I adapted the Patterson-Holdsworth cochlear signal processing models for noise-robust speech recognition, and designed a novel class of spline HMM based speech models.
  • Large-scale interactive and robotic arts projects at FoAM, including txoom, a circus-scale responsive environment (installed in the historic Hippodrome circus building of Great Yarmouth, UK), and Lyta, a body-scale haptic interface based on a surface actuated with a novel type of air muscle actuators, for conveying touch at a distance (image at left). Commissioned for the Phaeno Science Center in Wolfsburg, Germany.
  • Research on auditory display techniques for high-resolution ultrasonic submarine sonar at Applied Research Laboratories in Austin, TX.
  • Robot programming for silicon wafer manufacturing processes at Hine Design (now Lam Research).