CSCW 2025 (TH-CPL A)
Systematic Literature Review of Using Virtual Reality as a Social Platform in HCI Community
Xiaoying Wei, Xiaofu Jin, Ge Lin Kan, Yukang Yan, Mingming Fan*

Virtual reality (VR) is increasingly used as a social platform for users to interact and build connections in an immersive virtual environment. We conducted a systematic review of 94 publications in the HCI field to examine how VR is designed and evaluated for social purposes. According to the results, we uncover several research gaps and further propose future directions for designing and developing VR for enhancing social experience...
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CSCW 2025 (TH-CPL A)
AI as a Bridge Across Ages: Exploring The Opportunities of Artificial Intelligence in Supporting Inter-Generational Communication in Virtual Reality
Qiuxin Du#, Xiaoying Wei#, Zhen Song, Jiawei Li, Emily Kuang, Jie Hao, Dongdong Weng, Mingming Fan*

Inter-generational communication is essential for bridging generational gaps and fostering mutual understanding. We explored the opportunities of AI in supporting inter-generational communication in VR. We developed three technology probes (e.g., Content Generator, Communication Facilitator, and Info Assistant) in VR and employed them in a probe-based participatory design study with twelve inter-generational pairs...
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TVCG 25 (SCI Q1 Journal)
FocalSelect: Improving Occluded Objects Acquisition with Heuristic Selection and Disambiguation in Virtual Reality
Duotun Wang, Linjie Qiu, Boyu Li Zeyu Wang, Qianxi Liu, Xiaoying Wei, Jianhao Chen, and Mingming Fan*

We present FocalSelect, a heuristic selection technique that builds 3D disambiguation through head-hand coordination and scoring-based functions in VR. Two experiments indicate that FocalSelect enhances selection experiences in occluded and remote scenarios while preserving the spatial context among objects. We also explore potential applications to demonstrate more practical implementations.
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CHI 2025 (TH-CPL A)
RemoteChess: Enhancing Older Adults’ Social Connectedness via Designing a Virtual Reality Chinese Chess (Xiangqi) Community
Qianjie Wei, Xiaoying Wei, Yiqi Liang, Fan Lin, Nuonan Si, Mingming Fan*

The decline of social connectedness caused by distance and physical limitations severely affects older adults’ well-being and mental health. We designed RemoteChess, which constructs a social community and a culturally relevant activity (i.e., Chinese chess) for older adults to play while engaging in social interaction. Our findings indicate that RemoteChess enhanced participants’ social connectedness by offering familiar environments, culturally relevant social catalysts, and asymmetric interactions...
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CHI 2025 (TH-CPL A)
JournalAIde: Empowering Older Adults in Digital Journal Writing
Shixu Zhou, Weiyue Lin, Zuyu Xu, Xiaoying Wei, Raoyi Huang, Xiaojuan Ma, Mingming Fan*

Digital journaling offers a means for older adults to express themselves, document their lives, and engage in self-reflection. We designed a Large Language Model (LLM) empowered tool, JournalAIde, which provides vicarious experience, idea organization, sample text generation, and visual editing cues to enhance older adults' confidence, writing ability, and sustained attention during digital journaling...
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CHI 2025 (TH-CPL A)
Facilitating Daily Practice in Intangible Cultural Heritage through Virtual Reality: A Case Study of Traditional Chinese Flower Arrangement
Yingna Wang, Qingqin Liu, Xiaoying Wei, Mingming Fan*

Daily practice plays a vital role in revitalizing intangible cultural heritage (ICH) by fostering continuous learning and improvement. This study explores VR’s potential in facilitating ICH daily practice through a case study of Traditional Chinese Flower Arrangement (TCFA). We designed and evaluated FloraJing, a VR system enriched with cultural elements to support sustained TCFA practice...
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CHI 2024 (TH-CPL A)
LightSword: A Customized Virtual Reality Exergame for Long-Term Cognitive Inhibition Training in Older Adults
Qiuxin Du, Zhen Song, Haiyan Jiang, Xiaoying Wei, Dongdong Weng, Mingming Fan*

The decline of cognitive inhibition significantly impacts older adults’ quality of life and well-being. However, existing commercial VR exergames were unsuitable for older adults’ long-term cognitive training. We developed a customized VR cognitive training exergame (LightSword) based on Dual-task and Stroop paradigms for long-term cognitive inhibition training among healthy older adults...
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CHI 2024 (TH-CPL A)
Exploring the Opportunity of Augmented Reality (AR) in Supporting Older Adults to Explore and Learn Smartphone Applications
Xiaofu Jin, Wai Tong, Xiaoying Wei, Xian Wang, Emily Kuang, Xiaoyu Mo, Huamin Qu, Mingming Fan*

The global aging trend compels older adults to navigate the evolving digital landscape, presenting a substantial challenge in mastering smartphone applications. While Augmented Reality (AR) holds promise for enhancing learning and user experience, its role in aiding older adults’ smartphone app exploration remains insufficiently explored. Our research highlights AR’s effectiveness in reducing physical and cognitive strain among older adults during app...
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MM 2024 (TH-CPL A)
Designing Loving-Kindness Meditation in Virtual Reality for Long-Distance Romantic Relationships
Xian Wang, Xiaoyu Mo, Lik-Hang Lee, Xiaoying Wei, Xiaofu Jin, Mingming Fan, Pan Hui *

Loving-kindness meditation (LKM) is used in clinical psychology for couples’ relationship therapy, but physical isolation can make the relationship more strained and inaccessible to LKM. This paper organized a series of workshops with couples to build a prototype of a couple-preferred LKM app. We derived design considerations for such VR apps and created a prototype for couples to experience...
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CHI 2023 (TH-CPL A)
Bridging the Generational Gap: Exploring How Virtual Reality Supports Remote Communication Between Grandparents and Grandchildren
Xiaoying Wei, Yizheng Gu, Emily Kuang, Beiyan Cao, Xian Wang, Xiaofu Jin, Mingming Fan*

When living apart, grandparents and grandchildren often use audio-visual communication approaches to stay connected. However, these approaches seldom provide sufficient companionship due to a lack of co-presence and spatial interaction, which can be fulfilled by immersive virtual reality. To understand how grandparents and grandchildren might leverage VR to facilitate their remote communication and better inform future design, we conducted this work...
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ChineseCHI 2022 Honorable Mention Award
Communication in Immersive Social Virtual Reality: A Systematic Review of 10 Years' Studies
Xiaoying Wei, Xiaofu Jin, Mingming Fan*

As virtual reality technologies have improved in the past decade, more research has investigated how they could support more effective communication in various contexts to improve collaboration and social connectedness. We conducted a systematic review of the studies investigating communication in social VR in the past ten years by following the PRISMA guidelines.
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UbiComp 2022 (TH-CPL A)
Synapse: Interactive Guidance by Demonstration with Trial-and-Error Support for Older Adults to Use Smartphone Apps
Xiaofu Jin, Xiaozhu Hu, Xiaoying Wei, Mingming Fan*

As smartphones are widely adopted, mobile applications are emerging to provide critical services. This trend may create barriers for older adults. We designed an app-independent mobile service for help-givers to create a multimodal interactive tutorial on a smartphone and for help-receivers (e.g., older adults) to receive interactive guidance with trial-and-error support when they work on the same task...
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CHI 2021 (TH-CPL A)
Auth+Track: Enabling Authentication Free Interaction on Smartphone by Continuous User Tracking
Chen Liang, Chun Yu, Xiaoying Wei, Xuhai Xu, Yongquan Hu, Yuntao Wang, Yuanchun Shi

We propose Auth+Track, a novel authentication model that aims to reduce redundant authentication in everyday smartphone usage. By sparse authentication and continuous tracking of the user's status, Auth+Track eliminates the "gap" authentication between fragmented sessions and enables "Authentication Free when User is Around"...
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UbiComp 2021 (TH-CPL A)
QwertyRing: Text Entry on Physical Surfaces Using a Ring
Yizheng Gu, Chun Yu, Zhipeng Li, Zhaoheng Li, Xiaoying Wei, and Yuanchun Shi

The software keyboard is widely used on digital devices such as smartphones, computers, and tablets. The software keyboard operates via touch, which is efficient, convenient, and familiar to users. However, some emerging technology devices such as AR/VR headsets and smart TVs do not support touch-based text entry. In this paper, we present QwertyRing, a technique that supports text entry on physical surfaces using an IMU ring...
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CHI 2019 (TH-CPL A)
HandSee: Enabling Full Hand Interaction on Smartphones with Front Camera-based Stereo Vision
Yu Chun, Xiaoying Wei, Shubh Vachher, Yue Qin, Chen Liang, Yueting Weng, Yizheng Gu, Yuanchun Shi

UIST 2019 (TH-CPL A)
Accurate and Low-Latency Sensing of Touch Contact on Any Surface with Finger-Worn IMU Sensor
Yizheng Gu, Yu Chun, Zhipeng Li, Weiqi Li, Shuchang Xu, Xiaoying Wei, Yuanchun Shi

Head-mounted MR systems enable touch interaction on any physical surface. However, optical methods (i.e., with cameras on the headset) have difficulty in determining the touch contact accurately. We show that a finger ring with IMU can substantially improve the accuracy of contact sensing from 84.74% to 98.61% (f1 score), with a low latency of 10 ms...
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