Paulo Bala is a postdoctoral researcher at Interactive Technologies Institute (ITI), LARSyS, having received a Ph.D. in Digital Media from Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologias (FCT) of Universidade Nova de Lisboa (UNL), Lisboa, Portugal in 2022. I hold a MA. of Entertainment Technology (2015) from Carnegie Mellon University (USA) and University of Madeira (Portugal), and a BSc. (2010) and MSc. (2013) in Informatics Engineering from University of Madeira. I’m a teaching assistant (User Centered Computing; Service Design) at Instituto Superior Técnico (IST/UL), Lisboa, Portugal. I have participated as a research member in EU and FCT funded projects and my main areas of expertise are Human-Computer Interaction, Entertainment Technology, and eXtended Reality. My research work has been published in top peer-reviewed venues in Human-Computer Interaction like CHI and ISMAR.
Research Interests: Human Computer Interaction; Virtual Reality; 360º Video; Augmented Reality; Entertainment Technology.
Selected Publications
Bala, Paulo; Sanches, Pedro; Cesário, Vanessa; Leão, Sarah; Rodrigues, Catarina; Nunes, Nuno Jardim; Nisi, Valentina
Towards Critical Heritage in the wild: Analysing Discomfort through Collaborative Autoethnography Proceedings Article
In: Proceedings of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, Association for Computing Machinery, Hamburg, Germany, 2023.
@inproceedings{bala2023,
title = {Towards Critical Heritage in the wild: Analysing Discomfort through Collaborative Autoethnography},
author = {Paulo Bala and Pedro Sanches and Vanessa Ces\'{a}rio and Sarah Le\~{a}o and Catarina Rodrigues and Nuno Jardim Nunes and Valentina Nisi},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1145/3544548.3581274},
doi = {10.1145/3544548.3581274},
year = {2023},
date = {2023-04-25},
urldate = {2023-04-25},
booktitle = {Proceedings of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems},
publisher = {Association for Computing Machinery},
address = {Hamburg, Germany},
series = {CHI '23},
abstract = {As we engaged in designing digital interventions for intercultural dialogues around public cultural heritage sites, we saw an opportunity to surface multiple interpretations and points of view of history and shine a critical lens on current societal issues. To do so, we present the results of a collaborative auto-ethnography of alternative tours accompanied by intercultural guides, to explore sensory and embodied engagements with cultural heritage sites in a southern European capital. By focusing on the differences in how we experienced the heritage sites, we analyse the duality of discomfort, a common concept in HCI, in that it can both be deployed as a resource for designing systems that can transform people’s understanding of history or it can be a hindrance for engagement, having an unequal effect on individuals.},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {inproceedings}
}
As we engaged in designing digital interventions for intercultural dialogues around public cultural heritage sites, we saw an opportunity to surface multiple interpretations and points of view of history and shine a critical lens on current societal issues. To do so, we present the results of a collaborative auto-ethnography of alternative tours accompanied by intercultural guides, to explore sensory and embodied engagements with cultural heritage sites in a southern European capital. By focusing on the differences in how we experienced the heritage sites, we analyse the duality of discomfort, a common concept in HCI, in that it can both be deployed as a resource for designing systems that can transform people’s understanding of history or it can be a hindrance for engagement, having an unequal effect on individuals.
Bala, Paulo; Oakley, Ian; Nisi, Valentina; Nunes, Nuno
Dynamic Field of View Restriction in 360º Video: Aligning Optical Flow and Visual SLAM to Mitigate VIMS Proceedings Article
In: Proceedings of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 2021.
@inproceedings{BalaCHI2021,
title = {Dynamic Field of View Restriction in 360º Video: Aligning Optical Flow and Visual SLAM to Mitigate VIMS},
author = {Paulo Bala and Ian Oakley and Valentina Nisi and Nuno Nunes },
url = {https://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=3411764.3445499},
doi = {https://doi.org/10.1145/3411764.3445499},
year = {2021},
date = {2021-05-08},
urldate = {2021-05-08},
booktitle = {Proceedings of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems},
publisher = {Association for Computing Machinery},
address = {New York, NY, USA},
abstract = {Head-Mounted Display based Virtual Reality is proliferating. However, Visually Induced Motion Sickness (VIMS), which prevents many from using VR without discomfort, bars widespread adoption. Prior work has shown that limiting the Field of View (FoV) can reduce VIMS at a cost of also reducing presence. Systems that dynamically adjust a user's FoV may be able to balance these concerns. To explore this idea, we present a technique for standard 360º video that shrinks FoVs only during VIMS inducing scenes. It uses Visual Simultaneous Localization and Mapping and peripheral optical flow to compute camera movements and reduces FoV during rapid motion or optical flow. A user study (N=23) comparing 360º video with unrestricted-FoVs (90º), reduced fixed-FoVs (40º) and dynamic-FoVs (40º-90º) revealed that dynamic-FoVs mitigate VIMS while maintaining presence. We close by discussing the user experience of dynamic-FoVs and recommendations for how they can help make VR comfortable and immersive for all.},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {inproceedings}
}
Head-Mounted Display based Virtual Reality is proliferating. However, Visually Induced Motion Sickness (VIMS), which prevents many from using VR without discomfort, bars widespread adoption. Prior work has shown that limiting the Field of View (FoV) can reduce VIMS at a cost of also reducing presence. Systems that dynamically adjust a user's FoV may be able to balance these concerns. To explore this idea, we present a technique for standard 360º video that shrinks FoVs only during VIMS inducing scenes. It uses Visual Simultaneous Localization and Mapping and peripheral optical flow to compute camera movements and reduces FoV during rapid motion or optical flow. A user study (N=23) comparing 360º video with unrestricted-FoVs (90º), reduced fixed-FoVs (40º) and dynamic-FoVs (40º-90º) revealed that dynamic-FoVs mitigate VIMS while maintaining presence. We close by discussing the user experience of dynamic-FoVs and recommendations for how they can help make VR comfortable and immersive for all.
Bala, Paulo; Masu, Raul; Nisi, Valentina; Nunes, Nuno
"When the Elephant Trumps": A Comparative Study on Spatial Audio for Orientation in 360º Videos Proceedings Article
In: Proceedings of the 2019 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 2019.
@inproceedings{bala_when_2019,
title = {"When the Elephant Trumps": A Comparative Study on Spatial Audio for Orientation in 360º Videos},
author = {Paulo Bala and Raul Masu and Valentina Nisi and Nuno Nunes},
url = {https://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=3290605.3300925},
doi = {https://doi.org/10.1145/3290605.3300925},
year = {2019},
date = {2019-01-01},
urldate = {2019-01-01},
booktitle = {Proceedings of the 2019 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems},
abstract = {Orientation is an emerging issue in cinematic Virtual Reality (VR), as viewers may fail in locating points of interest. Recent strategies to tackle this research problem have investigated the role of cues, specifically diegetic sound effects. In this paper, we examine the use of sound spatialization for orientation purposes, namely by studying different spatialization conditions ("none", "partial", and "full" spatial manipulation) of multitrack soundtracks. We performed a between-subject mixed-methods study with 36 participants, aided by Cue Control, a tool we developed for dynamic spatial sound editing and data collection/analysis. Based on existing literature on orientation cues in 360º and theories on human listening, we discuss situations in which the spatialization was more effective (namely, "full" spatial manipulation both when using only music and when combining music and diegetic effects), and how this can be used by creators of 360º videos.},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {inproceedings}
}
Orientation is an emerging issue in cinematic Virtual Reality (VR), as viewers may fail in locating points of interest. Recent strategies to tackle this research problem have investigated the role of cues, specifically diegetic sound effects. In this paper, we examine the use of sound spatialization for orientation purposes, namely by studying different spatialization conditions ("none", "partial", and "full" spatial manipulation) of multitrack soundtracks. We performed a between-subject mixed-methods study with 36 participants, aided by Cue Control, a tool we developed for dynamic spatial sound editing and data collection/analysis. Based on existing literature on orientation cues in 360º and theories on human listening, we discuss situations in which the spatialization was more effective (namely, "full" spatial manipulation both when using only music and when combining music and diegetic effects), and how this can be used by creators of 360º videos.
Selected Projects
Demo Reel
Last demo reel update: 2015