Lei Zhang

This is a first step toward our vision of fostering AI literacy and 3D computational thinking among the younger generation. The research was conducted during my postdoc at Princeton University with @andresmh and many amazing co-authors. 📝Paper Preprint: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2508.08467v1 🎥Full Video: https://youtu.be/paJP8B8btVk?si=LGnS_K3YMkModXMV 📱App Beta: https://capybara.cs.princeton.edu/ See you in Busan 🇰🇷 for #UIST2025!

2/5 Digital communication is often brisk and automated nowadays. Lightweight interactions such as auto-completed messages or "likes" can decrease the meaningfulness of communication. We thus designed a communication system that enables versatile, personal expressions of effort.

3/5 We designed and evaluated Auggie, an iOS app that encourages partners to create digitally handcrafted AR experiences for each other (check out our system demo here: https://youtu.be/_gdCz1lztZ8) We conducted a two-week-long field study with 30 participants (15 pairs).

4/5 We found that digital handcrafting can encourage effort by evoking a sense of agency and enabling people to craft gift-like personal stories beyond physical limits. It also enables authentic connection, effortful *yet lightweight* communication, and feelings of presence.

5/5 For more insights, please check out our paper or come to our presentation at the #CSCW2022 conference on November 11 (9–10am ET) or November 16 (9–10pm ET) in the XR in Place and Space session! https://programs.sigchi.org/cscw/2022/index/content/89561

@imjane Thanks, Jane!! 😄

🧩 AR programming in the real world Children drag & drop code blocks in AR to build visual programs, also to make characters interact with the physical world using object recognition. 🧵2/6

💪 Application link: https://informatics.njit.edu/phd-information-systems

🎨 Customization using GenAI Kids can customize characters and accessories with speech-to-3D GenAI, integrated into the programming blocks. 🧵3/6

🕺 Body-driven animation Capybara auto-rigs 3D characters and lets kids bring them to life with their own body movements. 🧵4/6

👧👦 What novel experiences have children created? In studies with 20 kids (US + Argentina), we found they created: 1️⃣ realistic avatars for self representation 2️⃣ everyday stories (e.g., workouts, showers) 3️⃣ interactions with the real world (e.g., typing, dancing) 🧵5/6