Johann Wentzel

I research things.

I'm a PhD student in the Waterloo HCI Lab, supervised by Daniel Vogel. My research focuses on making VR more accessible. This includes working with accessibility-oriented communities, developing assistive technologies and interaction techniques for VR, and working with developers to implement these techniques.

Timeline

Publications

Same Place, Different Space: Designing for Differing Physical Spaces in Social Virtual Reality, CHI 2021 Social VR Workshop

Johann Wentzel, Daekun Kim, Jeremy Hartmann

Blog | PDF

Font Your Friends and Loved Ones: On the Utility of Ugly Interfaces, alt.chi 2021

Josh Urban Davis, Johann Wentzel

Blog | PDF | ACM Listing | Demo | YouTube

Man with VR headset gestures, a virtual controller appears further away from his hand.

Improving Virtual Reality Ergonomics through Reach-Bounded Non-Linear Input Amplification, CHI 2020

Johann Wentzel, Greg d'Eon, Daniel Vogel

Blog | PDF | ACM Listing | YouTube

Best Paper Honourable Mention

A robot holding a circuit board while a man solders it.

Shared Presence and Collaboration using a Co-Located Humanoid Robot, HAI 2015

Johann Wentzel, Daniel J. Rea, James E. Young, Ehud Sharlin

PDF | ACM Listing | YouTube

I develop things.

I have development experience on iOS, Android, Unity, and web. Previous projects include VR movement devices, video games, apps, and websites.

Selected Projects

VR-Bounce

An Arduino-powered ankle unit that tracks heel movements for movement in VR.

Technologies used: Arduino, Unity, SteamVR

Marimba

A VR keyboard design concept in which you use mallets to strike the virtual keys.

Technologies used: Unity, Oculus, SteamVR

Canada 150 News

A news reader app for Coril Holdings Ltd's Canada Day celebration, for iOS and Android.

Technologies used: iOS, Swift, Android, Java, Xcode, Android Studio

I design things.

I have experience in UI design, graphic design, and UX design. Previous design experience includes websites, apps, and games.

Selected Projects

Proxemic Displays

A depth-tracking bulletin board where the information displayed varies based on your distance.

Technologies used: C#, XAML, Kinect, Visual Studio, Kinect SDK

A screenshot of the data visualization, showing a world map with various circles on it.

Satellite DataVis

A representation of the volume of HTTP requests to different aurora magnetoscopes around the world.

Technologies used: HTML, Javascript, d3.js, Bootstrap

A screenshot from the game showing the main character, with magnets for hands.

MagnaGirl

A 2D Unity side-scrolling game. Use magnetic powers to attract and repel your way to the goal! Extra Credits Game Jam 2018.

Technologies used: Unity, C#, Sketch, Balsamiq Mockups, Adobe Illustrator