,

Short talks and poster presentations at the doctoral consortium at the IEEE CoG 2025

IEEE Conference on Games 2025

In Lisboa, Portugal, 26-29th August, 2025

 

Author: Tom Tucek

Title: Using Large Language Models to Create Meaningful and Dynamic Interactions in Serious Game Contexts

Abstract: Video games have become the most successful entertainment medium, both in terms of financial success and as a carrier of modern culture. At the same time, recent trends in generative artificial intelligence (AI), particularly large language models (LLMs), are bringing about a paradigm shift in how humans interact with games and computers in general. The unpredictability of generative AI has already been utilized to create fun experiences within games, but the same aspect makes it difficult to use in serious contexts (e.g., games dealing with minority status), where unwanted output can potentially cause harm. This doctoral research proposes to find out how LLMs can be used in video games with serious contexts to create and enhance meaningful experiences. Following design science principles, role-playing game (RPG) prototypes that utilize this new technology and deal with serious topics are created and tested for their efficacy in terms of user engagement, narrative coherence, and lasting impact (e.g., changed views or behavior after extended periods of time). Iterative development and validation, through user tests and heuristic evaluations, ensure that the created video game prototypes have the desired effects and findings are incorporated into a framework, which in turn is validated in a long-term study. Other aspects, such as data privacy and latency, are also addressed by focusing on the local deployment of AI models, instead of cloud-based services. The main contribution of this research is a framework that improves the reflected use of generative AI in video games, increasing narrative coherence and player engagement while enabling the creation of games that allow for meaningful, personalized, and dynamic experiences.

,

Short talks and poster presentations at the doctoral consortium at the IEEE CoG 2025

IEEE Conference on Games 2025

In Lisboa, Portugal, 26-29th August, 2025

Author: Kseniia Harshina

Title: Developing a Video Game for Empathy and Empowerment in the Context of Forced Migration Experiences

Abstract: This dissertation explores how video games can be designed to foster empathy and empowerment in the context of forced migration. While existing games often focus on raising awareness, they frequently exclude displaced individuals from the design process. To address this, the project proposes a participatory, AI-assisted storytelling system that allows people with lived migration experience to co-create and replay interactive scenes based on personal memories.

The research follows a three-phase structure: data collection through surveys and a participatory game jam; iterative development of an interview-to-game prototype using a locally run large language model (LLM); and a mixed-methods evaluation. The system includes an interview-based chatbot interface, automatic scene generation, and post-game reflection tools. The evaluation examines the system’s emotional, psychological, and representational impact across three player groups: scene authors (migrant participants), other displaced individuals, and players without migration experience.

The project contributes to generative AI research, HCI, and game studies by combining participatory design, storytelling, and technical implementation. It offers both a theoretical framework and a functional prototype to inform future practices in socially responsive game design.

 

,

Games Intersectional Symposium 2025

Main Organizer: Kseniia Harshina (AAU)

Co-Organizers: Rachel Gorden (AAU), Tan Schütz, Tom Tucek (AAU)

Date: September 19-20th 2025, fully online

The Games Intersectional Symposium is being held for the first time this Friday and Saturday. It is a space for queer and other under-represented voices in video games to share their thoughts and experiences. The schedule is full of speakers from various backgrounds, who will present their talks, performances, game demos, and many other things! The event is organised by the Games Intersectional Round-table and will be held fully online, using Gather.

More information can be found here: https://gamesintersectional.github.io/gi-symposium25/

If you have any questions or would like to join, please contact Kseniia (kseniia.harshina@aau.at) or Tom (tom.tucek@aau.at)!

 

Reza Farahani gave a tutorial at the 45th IEEE International Conference on Distributed Computing Systems (ICDCS)

Dr. Reza Farahani presented a 3-hour tutorial titled “Serverless Orchestration on the Edge-Cloud Continuum: From Small Functions to Large Language Models” at the 45th IEEE International Conference on Distributed Computing Systems (ICDCS) on 20 July 2025.

Abstract: Serverless computing simplifies application development by abstracting infrastructure management, allowing developers to focus on functionality while cloud providers handle resource provisioning and scaling. However, orchestrating serverless workloads across the edge-cloud continuum presents challenges, from managing heterogeneous resources to ensuring low-latency execution and maintaining fault tolerance and scalability. These challenges intensify when scaling from lightweight functions to compute-intensive tasks such as large language model (LLM) inferences in distributed environments. This tutorial explores serverless computing’s evolution from small functions to large-scale AI workloads. It introduces foundational concepts like Function-as-a-Service (FaaS) and Backend-as-a-Service (BaaS) before covering advanced edge-cloud orchestration strategies. Topics include dynamic workload distribution, multi-objective scheduling, energy-efficient orchestration, and deploying functions with diverse computational requirments. Hands-on demonstrations with Kubernetes, GCP Functions, AWS Lambda, OpenFaaS, OpenWhisk, and monitoring tools provide participants with practical insights into optimizing performance and energy efficiency in serverless orchestration across distributed infrastructures.

,

Paper Accepted: GenStream: Semantic Streaming Framework for Generative Reconstruction of Human-centric Media

GenStream: Semantic Streaming Framework for Generative Reconstruction of Human-centric Media

ACM Multimedia 2025

October 27 – October 31, 2025

Dublin, Ireland

[PDF]

Emanuele Artioli (AAU, Austria), Daniele Lorenzi (AAU, Austria), Shivi Vats (AAU, Austria), Farzad Tashtarian (AAU, Austria), Christian Timmerer (AAU, Austria)

Abstract: Video streaming dominates global internet traffic, yet conventional pipelines remain inefficient for structured, human-centric content such as sports, performance, or interactive media. Standard codecs re-encode entire frames, foreground and background alike, treating all pixels uniformly and ignoring the semantic structure of the scene. This leads to significant bandwidth waste, particularly in scenarios where backgrounds are static and motion is constrained to a few salient actors. We introduce GenStream, a semantic streaming framework that replaces dense video frames with compact, structured metadata. Instead of transmitting pixels, GenStream encodes each scene as a combination of skeletal keypoints, camera viewpoint parameters, and a static 3D background model. These elements are transmitted to the client, where a generative model reconstructs photorealistic human figures and composites them into the 3D scene from the original viewpoint. This paradigm enables extreme compression, achieving over 99.9% bandwidth reduction compared to HEVC. We partially validate GenStream on Olympic figure skating footage and demonstrate potential high perceptual fidelity under minimal data. Looking forward, GenStream opens new directions in volumetric avatar synthesis, canonical 3D actor fusion across views, personalized and immersive viewing experiences at arbitrary viewpoints, and lightweight scene reconstruction, laying the groundwork for scalable, intelligent streaming in the post-codec era.

,

Daniele Lorenzi has successfully defended his PhD thesis

On Thursday, July 30, 2025, Daniele Lorenzi successfully defended his PhD thesis (QoE- and Energy-aware Content Consumption for HTTP Adaptive Streaming) under the supervision of Prof. Hermann Hellwagner and Prof. Christian Timmerer. The defense was chaired by Assoc.-Prof. DI Dr. Klaus Schöffmann and the examiners were Assoc. – Prof. Luca De Cicco and Dr.-Ing. habil. Christian Herglotz.

We are pleased to congratulate Dr. Daniele Lorenzi on successfully passing his Ph.D. examination!

Paper Accepted: EuroXR 2025 Demo: STEP-MR: A Subjective Testing and Eye-Tracking Platform for Dynamic Point Clouds in Mixed Reality

Paper Title: STEP-MR: A Subjective Testing and Eye-Tracking Platform for Dynamic Point Clouds in Mixed Reality

Conference Details:  EuroXR 2025; Sep 03 – Sep 05, 2025; Winterthur, Switzerland

Authors: Shivi Vats (AAU, Austria), Christian Timmerer (AAU, Austria), Hermann Hellwagner (AAU, Austria)

Abstract: 

The use of point cloud (PC) streaming in mixed reality (MR) environments is of particular interest due to the immersiveness and the six degrees of freedom (6DoF) provided by the 3D content. However, this immersiveness requires significant bandwidth. Innovative solutions have been developed to address these challenges, such as PC compression and/or spatially tiling the PC to stream different portions at different quality levels. This paper presents a brief overview of a Subjective Testing and Eye-tracking Platform for dynamic point clouds in Mixed Reality (STEP-MR) for the Microsoft HoloLens 2. STEP-MR was used to conduct subjective tests (described in another work) with 41 participants, yielding over 2000 responses and more than 150 visual attention maps, the results of which can be used, among other things, to improve dynamic (animated) point cloud streaming solutions mentioned above. Building on our previous platform, the new version now enables eye-tracking tests, including calibration and heatmap generation. Additionally, STEP-MR features modifications to the subjective tests’ functionality, such as a new rating scale and adaptability to participant movement during the tests, along with other user experience changes.

Patent Approval for “Content-adaptive encoder preset prediction for adaptive live streaming”

Content-adaptive encoder preset prediction for adaptive live streaming

US Patent

[PDF]

Vignesh Menon (Alpen-Adria-Universität Klagenfurt, Austria), Hadi Amirpour (Alpen-Adria-Universität Klagenfurt, Austria), and Christian Timmerer (Alpen-Adria-Universität Klagenfurt, Austria)

 

Abstract: Techniques for content-adaptive encoder preset prediction for adaptive live streaming are described herein. A method for content-adaptive encoder preset prediction for adaptive live streaming includes performing video complexity feature extraction on a video segment to extract complexity features such as an average texture energy, an average temporal energy, and an average lumiscence. These inputs may be provided to an encoding time prediction model, along with a bitrate ladder, a resolution set, a target video encoding speed, and a number of CPU threads for the video segment, to predict an encoding time, and an optimized encoding preset may be selected for the video segment by a preset selection function using the predicted encoding time. The video segment may be encoded according to the optimized encoding preset.

ACM MM’25 Demo: SDART: Spatial Dart AR Simulation with Hand-Tracked Input

SDART: Spatial Dart AR Simulation with Hand-Tracked Input

ACM Multimedia 2025

October 27 – October 31, 2025

Dublin, Ireland

[PDF]

Milad Ghanbari (AAU, Austria), Wei Zhou (Cardiff, UK), Cosmin Stejerean (Meta, US), Christian Timmerer (AAU, Austria), Hadi Amirpour (AAU, Austria)

Abstract: We present a physics-driven 3D dart-throwing interaction system for Apple Vision Pro (AVP), developed using Unity 6 engine and running in augmented reality (AR) mode on the device. The system utilizes the PolySpatial and Apple’s ARKit software development kits (SDKs) to ensure hand input and tracking in order to intuitively spawn, grab, and throw virtual darts similar to real darts. The application benefits from physics simulations alongside the innovative no-controller input system of AVP to manipulate objects realistically in an unbounded spatial volume. By implementing spatial distance measurement, scoring logic, and recording user performance, this project enables user studies on quality of experience in interactive experiences. To evaluate the perceived quality and realism of the interaction, we conducted a subjective study with 10 participants using a structured questionnaire. The study measured various aspects of the user experience, including visual and spatial realism, control fidelity, depth perception, immersiveness, and enjoyment. Results indicate high mean opinion scores (MOS) across key dimensions. Link to video: Link

Hadi
,

ICCV VQualA’25: VQualA 2025 Challenge on Image Super-Resolution Generated Content Quality Assessment: Methods and Results

VQualA 2025 Challenge on Image Super-Resolution Generated Content Quality Assessment: Methods and Results

ICCV VQualA 2025

October 19 – October 23, 2025

Hawai’i, USA

[PDF]

Hadi Amirpour (AAU, Austria), et al.

Abstract: This paper presents the ISRGC-Q Challenge, built upon the Image Super-Resolution Generated Content Quality Assessment (ISRGen-QA) dataset, and organized as part of the Visual Quality Assessment (VQualA) Competition at the ICCV 2025 Workshops. Unlike existing Super-Resolution Image Quality Assessment (SR-IQA) datasets, ISRGen-QA places greater emphasis on SR images generated by the latest generative approaches, including Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) and diffusion models. The primary goal of this challenge is to analyze the unique artifacts introduced by modern super-resolution techniques and to evaluate their perceptual quality effectively. A total of 108 participants registered for the challenge, with 4 teams submitting valid solutions and fact sheets for the final testing phase. These submissions demonstrated state-of-the-art (SOTA) performance on the ISRGen-QA dataset. The project is publicly available at: https://github.com/Lighting-YXLI/ISRGen-QA.