
Positions and Affiliations:
- Full Professor at SFU-SIAT (School of Interactive Arts and Technology)
- Associate Member of SFU Cognitive Science Program
- Dialogue Associate of SFU Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue (2020 — 2022)
- License holder, co-organizer and speaker coach of TEDxSFU (starting 2015)
Contact:
ber1 at sfu dot ca
Brief Biography
After researching for a decade in the Virtual Reality Group of the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics in Tübingen, Germany and working as a post-doctoral researcher at the Max Planck Institute, Vanderbilt University, and UC Santa Barbara, Bernhard joined SFU-SIAT in 2008, where he leads the iSpace Lab. His research combines multidisciplinary research approaches and immersive virtual environments to investigate how humans perceive, think, behave, and spatially orient in real and virtual environments.
More specifically he’s interested in investigating: human spatial cognition/orientation/updating/navigation; Enabling robust and effortless spatial orientation in VR and telepresence; Self-motion perception, illusions (“vection”), interfaces, and simulation; Designing for transformative positive experiences using VR; Bio-responsive virtual environments (and many other things as you can see on the projects page).
Bernhard teaches classes on immersive environments/Virtual Reality, game design, human-computer interaction and cognition, and quantitative research methods, and recently designed a new 15-credit “Semester in Alternate Realities” course. He gave a TEDx talk on the potential of Virtual Reality: “Could Virtual Reality make us more human?”.
Supervision
Teaching
see above link
Currently-taught courses:
- Semester in Alternate Realities
- IAT 802: Quantitative Research Methods and Design
- IAT312: Foundations of Game Design
- IAT 445: Immersive Environments
Publications
- iSpaceLab publications page
- see also my google scholar page
- my ACM publications can be downloaded here.
- supervised theses
Consulting
I can offer assistance and advice to researchers, developers, companies, and consumers who are concerned about usability, user experience, performance, and motion sickness in virtual or mixed reality. Please contact me if you are interested or would like more information.
Research Interests & Expertise
My research interests include:
- Human multi-modal spatial cognition, spatial orientation, spatial updating, and navigation
- Enabling robust and effortless spatial orientation in virtual environments and telepresence (e.g., conference robots, drones) — e.g., through designing improved locomotion interfaces and paradigms for 2D and 3D locomotion
- Self-motion perception, illusions (“vection”), and simulation; Multi-modal contributions and interactions
- Multi-modal cue integration: Experimentation and theoretical modeling
- Design and iterative evaluation and improvement of perceptually oriented, multi-modal human-computer interfaces and human-centered, effective virtual reality simulations
- Overview effect and other pivotal experiences and how to elicit them in VR
- Theory, design guidelines, and VR experiences supporting positive transformative experiences — from self-transcendent and awe-inspiring experiences to VR4Good and addressing Climate Change
- Immersion and presence
- Brain-computer interfaces and biofeedback (breathing, EEG…) for immersive, playful VR interaction design to foster desireable states (e.g., mindfulness, relaxation, overview effect, awe, self-transcendence, deeper connection, pivotal experiences).
- multi-modal, interactive art/dance pieces and performances
Please see my TEDxEastVan TEDx talk below and the diverse research topics and interests for an overview of the different projects and our vision on how we could use the increasing potential of immersive VR (combined with other technologies and approaches, including biosensing) to create meaningful positive experiences.

Could Virtual Reality make us more human? | Bernhard Riecke | TEDxEastVan
Below is a short intro video explaining my original overall research agenda and vision for the iSpace lab (from 2011 — since then we added a lot of additional research topics and interests and projects). See also the Vision subpage for details.
Interested in Joining the iSpace Team?
I’m currently looking for bright and motivated MSc and PhD students to join our iSpace lab. See the Contact & Join Us subpage for details. We don’t currently have funding for PostDocs, but I’d be happy to help with funding applications if you’re interested.
Projects
Integrating Continuous and Teleporting VR Locomotion into a Seamless "HyperJump" Paradigm
Here we propose a hybrid interface that allows user to seamlessly transition between a slow ‘contionuous’ mode and a fast ‘hyperjump’ mode. The interface aims to maintain the immersion, presence, accuracy and spatial updating of continuous locomotion while adding the travel efficiency and minimizing the cybersickness. Ashu presenting this paper at IEEE VR Workshop VR 2021: Introduction and demo of the Sonic Cradle Sonic Cradle is a relaxing human-computer interaction paradigm designed to foster meditative attentional patterns. The current p…