publications

2025

1. Navigating Privacy and Trust: AI Assistants as Social Support for Older Adults

   Karina LaRubbio, Malcolm Grba, and Diana Freed

   2025
2. Intergenerational Support for Deepfake Scams Targeting Older Adults

   Karina LaRubbio, Alyssa Lanter, Seihyun Lee, and 2 more authors

   2025
3. Opto-diversity and Eye Tracking: Assumptions about ocular alignment in virtual reality eye tracking exclude users with strabismus and amblyopia

   Shaina Murphy, Shakthi Sampath, Ethan Wilson, and 4 more authors

   ACM Trans. Appl. Percept., May 2025

   Just Accepted

   Abs DOI

   Immersive, interactive virtual reality (VR) experiences rely on eye tracking data for a variety of applications. However, eye trackers assume that the user’s eyes move in a coordinated way. We investigate how the violation of this assumption impacts the performance and subjective experience of users with strabismus and amblyopia. Our investigation follows a case study approach by analyzing in depth the qualitative and quantitative data collected during an interactive VR game by a small number of users with these visual impairments. Our findings reveal the ways in which assumptions about the default functioning of the eye can discourage or even exclude otherwise enthusiastic users from immersive VR. This study thus opens a new frontier for eye tracking research and practice.

2023

1. 

   Give me some room please! Personal space bubbles for safety and performance

   Karina LaRubbio, Ethan Wilson, Sanjeev Koppal, and 2 more authors

   In 2023 IEEE Conference on Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces Abstracts and Workshops (VRW), Mar 2023

   Abs DOI HTML PDF

   Personal space bubbles are implemented in virtual environments to protect users from physical harassment. When activated, an impermeable boundary encloses the user completely and complicates collaborative tasks, such as passing objects or performing social gestures. When personal space protection is not balanced with functionality, the personal space bubble becomes a gilded cage. In this paper, we raise the possibility of alternate designs for personal space bubbles and test their impact on task performance within a workplace training context. Our early findings suggest that alternate bubble designs have the potential to balance safety and performance metrics such as task completion.

2022

1. 

   Who do you look like? - Gaze-based authentication for workers in VR

   Karina LaRubbio, Jeremiah Wright, Brendan David-John, and 2 more authors

   In 2022 IEEE Conference on Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces Abstracts and Workshops (VRW), Mar 2022

   Abs DOI HTML PDF

   Behavior-based authentication methods are actively being developed for XR. In particular, gaze-based methods promise continuous au-thentication of remote users. However, gaze behavior depends on the task being performed. Identification rate is typically highest when comparing data from the same task. In this study, we compared authentication performance using VR gaze data during random dot viewing, 360-degree image viewing, and a nuclear training simu-lation. We found that within-task authentication performed best for image viewing (72%). The implication for practitioners is to integrate image viewing into a VR workflow to collect gaze data that is viable for authentication.