HongSuk Yoon

HongSuk joined SMARTlab @ The IDRC, UCD (Dublin) from October 2017. The
research fits the SMARTlab thematic of Assistive Technologies, and links to the work
underway in the major initiatives such as XR Accessibility Forum and VR Inclusion
Working Group (IEEE).

The current title of the project is “Applying Inclusive Design Practice to Novel
Interfaces for Extreme Users with Locked-in Syndrome by using VR Head-mounted
Display (HMD)”.

The research is to investigate the possibility of using HMD as a new type of assistive
tools by combining the existing Assistive Technologies (AT) and the features. The
project is to utilizes affordable interface design with the suitable hardware and
software to join in VR space, and to focus on testing the effectiveness of affordances
of proposed interface design in the context of Social VR (Metaverse). Within this
broad range of the Metaverse, the research particularly exploits the effect of body
representation (virtual embodiment) to achieve personal and social change. Utilizing
the new medium with their minimal motion would provide the extreme users with a
meaningful way of joining in Metaverse.

The research outcome will be presented to design strategies that can support VR
designers and developers interested in XR accessibility. Finally, the study delivers
directly to the real world need of individuals without a means to communicate,
enabling a genuine social impact to all if we design for the people who have a unique
and extreme need. The funders and supporting institutions for this project are SMARTlab CLG, Irish Manufacturing Research, Regional Enterprise Development Fund, An Saol CLG, SMARTlab Oxford (SpecialEffect), Braincontrol AAC (Liquidweb)

He holds MSc in Human-Computer Interaction from SKKU, Seoul, South Korea and BA in Philosophy and Sociology from CAU. His study before undertaking the SMARTlab PhD was the area of Computer-Mediated Communication by exploring mobile and wearable health media (e.g., Smart Watch) to improve users’ accessibility with preventive measures. His works are published to academic journals and presented to international HCI conferences supported by Samsung and Brain Korea 21+ scholarship.