Dr. Ville Mäkelä

Research interests

I am primarily interested in building functional and seamless interactive systems, particularly those that utilize novel ways of interaction to enable users to complete tasks in new and efficient ways.

In my postdoctoral research, I aim to understand the experiences, attitudes, and concerns relating to the use of technology in public spaces, and build interaction techniques that overcome these concerns, for example, by hiding the interaction from bystanders. Such techniques can be based on, e.g., mid-air gestures, gaze, and personal devices such as smartwatches and AR glasses. I work with Professor Albrecht Schmidt and Professor Florian Alt.

I am also interested in immersive virtual experiences, in particular: remote and co-located social viewing of 360° videos on HMDs, interplay between HMD and non-HMD users, and HMD use in public spaces.

You can find more information about me here, where I also post proposals for Bachelor's and Master's theses. Feel free to send me an email if you would like to work with me on any of the above or related topics.

Academic Background

• Interactive technology studies (BSc) at the University of Tampere
• Interactive technology studies (MSc) at the University of Tampere
• Research intern (Google Glass project) at FX Palo Alto Laboratory
• Research intern (Remote participation in meetings using wearables) at FX Palo Alto Laboratory
• Visiting scholar (Multimodal content transfer and usable security) at the LMU Munich
• PhD in interactive technology at the University of Tampere
• Ongoing: Post-doc (Seamless cross-device interaction in ubiquitous environments) at the LMU Munich