Linda Graf, M.Sc.
Phone:+49 203 379 1653
Fax:+49 203 379 4476
Mail:linda.graf[at]uni-due.de
Room: LE 331
Main Research Areas
I am interested in the impact of emotional virtual characters on the users’ emotions. For example, can a virtual character give me emotional support and thus help me during stressful moments? My research focuses on the design and development of those emotional characters in virtual reality applications.
View my Google Scholar and ResearchGate Profile!
Curriculum Vitae
Academic Career and Education
2017 - 2019 |
Study of Applied Cognitive- and Media Science at the University of Duisburg-Essen, degree Master of Science (M.Sc.) |
2013 - 2017 |
Study of Applied Cognitive- and Media Science at the University of Duisburg-Essen, degree Bachelor of Science (B.Sc.) |
Professional Career
09/2019 - today |
Researcher at the Entertainment Computing Group |
05/2019 - 08/2019 |
Research Assistant at Higgins Lab, Columbia University, New York, USA |
10/2015 - 04/2019 |
Student assistant at the Entertainment Computing Group |
10/2014 - 02/2019 |
Student assistant at the Department of Psychological Research Methods and Media based knowledge constructions |
Publications
- Linda Graf, Philipp Sykownik, Gertraud Gradl-Dietsch and Maic Masuch. Towards believable and educational conversations with virtual patients. Frontiers in Virtual Reality 5, 2024, pp. 1377210. (2024)
BibTeX
- Linda Graf, Katharina Emmerich, Stefan Liszio and Maic Masuch. The impact of emotional virtual characters on emotional state and player experience in vr horror games. In Proceedings of the 19th International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games, 2024, pp. 1–13. (2024)
BibTeX
- Linda Graf, Isabelle Alice Passreiter, Jorg-Tobias Kuhn and Maic Masuch. Mats - an adhd-specific mental health app: evidence-based recommendations for designing assistive applications for adhd families. In 2023 IEEE 11th International Conference on Serious Games and Applications for Health (SeGAH), 2023, pp. 1-8. (2023)
BibTeX
- Linda Graf, Gertraud Gradl-Dietsch and Maic Masuch. Depressed virtual agents: development of a playful vr application for the training of child and adolescent psychiatry students. In 23rd ACM International Conference on Intelligent Virtual Agents, 2023. (2023)
BibTeX
- Linda Graf, Sophie Abramowski, Felix Born and Maic Masuch. Emotional virtual characters for improving motivation and performance in vr exergames. Proc. ACM Hum.-Comput. Interact. 7 (CHI PLAY), October 2023. (2023)
WWW BibTeX
- Oliver Basu, Stefan Liszio, Linda Graf, Bernd Schweiger, Martin Stenzel and Maic Masuch. Der pingunauten trainer - spielerisches training zur mrt-vorbereitung mit virtual reality. Kongress fuer Kinder und Jugendmedizin, 2022. (2022)
BibTeX
- Linda Graf, Maximilian Altmeyer, Katharina Emmerich, Marc Herrlich, Andrey Krekhov and Katta Spiel. Development and validation of a german version of the player experience inventory (pxi). Mensch und Computer 2022-Tagungsband, 2022. (2022)
BibTeX
- Linda Graf, Sophie Abramowski, Melina Bassfeld, Kirsten Gerschermann, Marius Griesshammer, Leslie Scholemann and Maic Masuch. Emotional support companions in virtual reality. In Proceedings of the 2022 IEEE Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces (VR), IEEE, 2022, pp. 634-635. (2022)
BibTeX
- Philipp Sykownik, Linda Graf, Christoph Zils and Maic Masuch. The most social platform ever? a survey about activities motives of social vr users. In 2021 IEEE Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces (VR), IEEE, 2021, pp. 546-554. (2021)
BibTeX
- Felix Born, Linda Graf and Maic Masuch. Exergaming: the impact of virtual reality on cognitive performance and player experience. In 2021 IEEE Conference on Games (CoG), IEEE, 2021, pp. 1–8. (2021)
BibTeX
- Linda Graf, Leslie Scholemann and Maic Masuch. Designing vr games with gaze control for directing attention of children with adhd. In 2021 IEEE Conference on Games (CoG), IEEE, 2021, pp. 1–5. (2021)
BibTeX
- Stefan Liszio, Linda Graf, Oliver Basu and Maic Masuch. Pengunaut trainer: a playful vr app to prepare children for mri examinations: in-depth game design analysis. In Proceedings of the Interaction Design and Children Conference, 2020, pp. 470–482. (2020)
BibTeX
- Linda Graf, Stefan Liszio and Maic Masuch. Playing in virtual nature: improving mood of elderly people using vr technology. In Proceedings of the Conference on Mensch Und Computer, MuC 20, Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 2020, pp. 155-164. (2020)
BibTeX
- Stefan Liszio, Linda Graf and Maic Masuch. The relaxing effect of virtual nature - immersive technology provides relief in acute stress situations. In Brenda K. Wiederhold and Giuseppe Riva (eds.), Annual Review of Cybertherapy and Telemedicine (ARCTT), Interactive Media Institute, San Diego, CA, USA, 2018. (2018)
BibTeX
Supervised Theses
- Type
- Title
- Master's Thesis
- Enhancing Virtual Agent Interaction: A Comparative Study of Pre-Recorded Audio vs. ChatGPT-Enhanced Dialogue Systems (Philip Frese)
- Master's Thesis
- Virtual Encounters, Real Emotions: Designing VR Experiences for Incarcerated Parents and Their Children (Leslie Scholemann)
- Master's Thesis
- The Impact of Emotional Expression and Social Touch on the Empathetic Response Towards Virtual Characters. (Melina Baßfeld)
- Master's Thesis
- Development of a Speech Recognition System for Teaching Clinical Skills in Diagnosing Mental Disorders (Yustinus Aquila Adrian)
- Bachelor's Thesis
- Personality Customization in Avatars: Evaluating the Needs and Preference of Social VR Users to Express Their Virtual Personality (Dana Schulte)
- Bachelor's Thesis
- Investigating Different Appearances of Virtual Characters for Teaching Clinical Skills in Diagnosing Mental Disorders (Tobias Windheuser)
- Bachelor's Thesis
- Investigation of Emotional Expressions of Virtual Characters for the Teaching of Clinical Skills in Diagnosing Mental Disorders (Vera Golz)
- Bachelor's Thesis
- Extension of a Training Game to Improve Executive Functions in Children with ADHD by Adding a Motivation and a Level Component (Julian Stülp)
- Bachelor's Thesis
- The Impact of Eye Contact with Virtual Companions on Social Presence and Social Connectedness. (Timo Fürtges)
- Bachelor's Thesis
- Eye-Gaze Interaction as Game Control? Directing attention of children with ADHD in Virtual Reality (Leslie Scholemann)
Supervised Courses
- Type
- Semester
- Title
- Lecture
- WS 24/25
- Digital Games Research (WS 24/25)
- Lecture
- SS 24
- Digital Media (SoSe 24)
- Lab Course (Forschungsprojekt)
- WS 23/24
- Exploring Playful Elements to Motivate Medical Students: Gamifying VR Diagnostics Training for Pediatric and Adolescent Psychiatry
- Lecture
- SS 23
- Digital Games Research (SoSe 23)
- Lab Course (Forschungsprojekt)
- WS 22/23
- Emotionally Expressive Virtual Agents – Developing a playful VR App for Teaching Diagnosis of Mental Disorders
- Lab Course (Praxisprojekt)
- WS 21/22
- Virtual Companions against Loneliness in the Hospital
- Lab Course (Forschungsprojekt)
- SS 21
- I feel you! Emotional Companions in VR
- Lecture
- WS 20/21
- Multimedia Systems (WS 20/21)
- Lab Course (Forschungsprojekt)
- SS 20
- Eye-Gaze Interaction for Cognitive Benefits
- Lab Course (Praxisprojekt)
- WS 19/20
- Spielerisches Training kognitiver Fähigkeiten für Kinder mit ADHS