Seminars

Dr Dorothy Cowie is an Associate Professor of Psychology at Durham University. Her work, funded by the ESRC, asks how children develop skilled motor control and flexible body understanding. In this talk she discusses how virtual reality has allowed us to advance our understanding of embodiment in children (and adults). She discusses the motion capture-VR methods they have used; how multisensory cues and prior knowledge shape children’s experiences of themselves; and the technical challenges that will bring us closer to answering theoretical questions.

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Dr Wendy Powell is an Associate Professor in the Department of Cognitive Science & Artificial Intelligence at Tilburg University in the Netherlands. She worked in physical rehabilitation for many years and has been researching and teaching about VR and interactive technologies for healthcare since 2005. Her research includes avatars for elderly care, interactive technology to support vulnerable young people, VR for phantom limb pain in amputees, and real-time physiological monitoring in VR for training. In this short talk she will give an overview of the challenges, lessons and opportunities of Virtual Healthcare.

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SpecialEffect have over 12 years of experience pushing the boundaries of accessibility through technology with a primary interest in video game access. We help dozens of people each and every week with hands on in person expertise to level the playing field for all. In this brief presentation we would like to share with you our experiences of the entire process, from a technology and game development perspective and how those developments can be implemented practically to aid disabled gamers. This will be showcased by real world case studies from SpecialEffect service users utilising a variety of technologies ranging from modified controllers, adapted switches, and voice controls. We welcome all interested parties to join us to discuss the future of accessibility in gaming.

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