What I do

My research interests include Human-Computer Interaction, Information Visualization and Data Analysis, User Experience Modeling, Reflective technologies, Interpretation systems, or Document and Knowledge Engineering. Application domains are related to education, culture, health, humanities… I focus on interdisciplinary approaches for the study of human-machine coupling and co-development and collaborate with people from sociology, psychology, ergonomy, anthropology, education science, philosophy, design, medecine, focusing on real world activities.

News (all)

Jan. 26: Presentation of our vision scenario for teleclinics for the elderly. At the “Old is Gold, innovations for our elders” session of the French psychiatrists’ association Encéphale congress, we presented with Ketty Steward our vision of what dematerialized and immersive mental health teleclinics in the Metaverse could be in a few years for the accompaniment of older patients, complementing the current care offer. The presentation is available online as a video entitled Metaverse against mood disorders. Towards an immersive teleclinic in psychiatry for the elderly. It took a lot of time, but it was very fun to play with Nano banana and Gemini to generate the images and the video.

Jul. 25: Publication of our main article on the Tecnis project. The paper is entitled Towards teleconsultations in the Metaverse - design and preliminary study of an immersive teleclinic for neuro-psychological assessment, it has been published in Frontiers in Virtual Reality. The Tecnis project was the occasion to explore what teleclinics in the Metaverse could be, where patients and practitioners would meet in social virtual reality and carry out health-related activities. With our interdisciplinary team, we focused on the particular case or neuropsychological testing, and designed a virtual immersive teleclinic where patients wait in a waiting room, are welcome by a neuropsychologist, then proceed to the consultation room where they can do desk-based cognitive tests in front of the practitioner, or standing tests with the practitioner at their side. The neuro-psychologist has a tablet both to control and monitor the tests, and to later debrief with the patient. Our evaluation show the clear value of the proposal as both types of users projected in the system. There was good usability and presence for patients, but clinicians expressed concerns about test validity and avatar quality. We continue our exploration of teleclinics in the Metaverse within the IPC4MH project on immersive prevention centers for junior and senior mental-health patients.

Apr. 25: Launch of the IPC4MH European project in Nantes!. Early April we finally launched the European IPC4MH (Immersive Prevention Centers for Mental Health) project. Our starting point is the realization that immersive technologies for diagnosis and remediation in mental health are now available, and that we need to make them more accessible to practitioners and patients by integrating them into immersive teleclinics. Our aim is to explore the extent to which it is possible and useful to offer such teleclinics in social virtual reality to participate in secondary and tertiary prevention in mental health. We will design pathways with patients and healthcare staff, then build several virtual centers enabling patients to carry out activities alone or with peers, meet carers, take part in support groups, etc., and conduct two evaluation campaigns with junior and senior audiences. This 36-month European project is funded under the THCS call for proposals (Transforming Health and Care Systems). It brings together academic (Nantes Université, HES-SO Valais-Wallis, Polska Akademia Nauk), industrial (C2Care, DiverSsiTy SA) and healthcare partners (CHU de Nantes, SOLIPSY, Consultation Libellule, Association Eliezer).

Recent publications (all)

Slater, M., Ciochina, R., Di Dalmazi, M., Gillies, M., Pan, X., Prié, Y., Sanchez-Vives, M., Skrzypczynski, P., & Steed, A. (Ed). (2026) Human Rights in Immersive Realities (XR): Freedom of Expression, Justice, Children’s Rights and Well-Being in Council of Europe, Strasbourg, France. doi Show abstract Immersive technologies such as virtual, augmented and mixed reality (XR) are increasingly shaping how individuals communicate, express themselves, interact with public authorities and participate in democratic life. While these technologies offer new opportunities for creativity, inclusion and participation, they also raise emerging challenges for human rights, democratic values and the rule of law. Building on the 2023 Council of Europe- IEEE report on the Metaverse and the Feasibility Study on Freedom of Expression in Immersive Realities adopted by the Steering Committee on Media and Information Society (CDMSI), this conference is conceived as a concrete follow-up to one of the study’s key conclusions: the need to continue and strengthen the Council of Europe’s alerting and awareness-raising function vis-à-vis member States at a stage when immersive technologies are still evolving. The conference also contributes to the consultation process towards a New Democratic Pact, by addressing how emerging technologies may affect democratic participation, trust in information spaces, inclusion, human dignity and the effective enjoyment of human rights.

Roman Malo, Yannick Prié. (2025) De l’humain au numérique : repenser l’alliance thérapeutique à l’ère de l’IA in 63ème congrès de la SFP, 10-12 dec 2025, Nantes, France Show abstract Nous proposons de penser les effets des « agents intelligents » dans l’écosystème de la santé mentale en étudiant ce que ces agents considérés comme des tiers font à l’alliance thérapeutique.

Axelle Agez, Jean-Philippe Rivière, Thimothé Paolini, Roman Malo, Yannick Prié. (2025) Embodiment Curve: a Graphical Method to Visualize the Temporal Evolution of the Sense of Embodiment in VR in IHM’25 - 36e Conférence Internationale Francophone sur l’Interaction Humain-Machine, Nov 2025, Toulouse, France. Show abstract The Sense of Embodiment (SoE) in VR is a psychological state which naturally fluctuates over time. Embodiment questionnaires are commonly used in research as assessment tools. Yet, they inherently limit the range of expression and are ill-suited to capture the temporal dynamics of embodied experiences. Building on the UX curve method used in user experience research, we propose the Embodiment Curve method. We conducted a user study with 12 participants in VR, who embodied an avatar to complete four tasks in a virtual hair salon. We assessed their SoE using both the Embodiment Curve and a classical embodiment questionnaire. The Embodiment Curve shows the temporality of the embodiment. We observed two distinct drawing strategies for constructing the curve: task-oriented or trend-oriented. A majority of participants preferred the Embodiment Curve due to its task-by-task form and its freedom. Moreover, it facilitates the verbalization of the SoE. The Embodiment Curve thus appears to be a promising qualitative method for studying the SoE.

Mel Slater, Michele Di Dalmazi, Doron Friedman, Jessica Galissaire, Henri Isaac, Anna Kobusinska, Jean-François Lucas, Omar Niamut, Xueni Pan, Yannick Prié, Matthias Quent, Raúl Ruiz Rodríguez, Maria Sanchez-Vives, Piotr Skrzypczynski, Anthony Steed, Petter Wannerberg. (2025) A Multidisciplinary Approach to Understanding the Technology, Opportunities, Challenges, and Implications for Society of the Metaverse in in Frontiers in Virtual Reality - Virtual Reality and Human Behaviour, Volume 6 Show abstract Since late 2021 there has been increasing interest in the idea of the ‘metaverse’. This is a virtual, augmented or mixed reality system that potentially millions of people can simultaneously inhabit, and where people can interact with one another in real-time, irrespective of the physical distance between them. It is heralded by some as the next level ‘world wide web’, that will use a 3D immersive interface, with the potential to mix virtual and physical reality, with environments persistent over time, and interoperable between different platforms and devices. Yet today there is no true example of a metaverse, only a number of nascent examples. Here we discuss the technical foundations for such metaverses, the role of generative AI, possible impact on society -including education, healthcare and the quality of life, business and consumers, the future of work, and its implications for democracy. We also discuss public perceptions of the metaverse, issues of governance and regulation, and its legal implications. Overall, while the metaverse may radically and positively alter the way that we live, we must take into account ethical and regulatory issues, in order to avoid predictions of a dystopian future being realized. This paper is, therefore, a multi-disciplinary introduction to the metaverse concept that may be useful to readers with many different types of interest.