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Video capture of the data acquisition mechanism in action.

We are honored to announce that as part of the Project Cognix, our research team published a conference paper entitled "Extending User Interaction with Mixed Reality Through a Smartphone-Based Controller" on the Proceedings of the well-known and popular Human-Computer Interaction � INTERACT 2023 by Springer, Cham which was held in York, UK, from August 28 to September 1, 2023. Accepted papers covered the following scientific areas:3D Interaction; Accessibility; Accessibility and Aging; Accessibility for Auditory/Hearing Disabilities; Co-Design; Cybersecurity and Trust; Data Physicalisation and Cross-device; Eye-Free, Gesture Interaction and Sign Language; Haptic interaction and Healthcare applications; Self-Monitoring; Human-Robot Interaction; Information Visualization; Information Visualization and 3D Interaction; Interacting with Children; Interaction with Conversational Agents; Methodologies for HCI; Model-Based UI Design and Testing; Montion Sickness, Stress and Risk perception in 3D Environments and Multisensory interaction; VR experiences; Natural Language Processing and AI Explainability; Online Collaboration and Cooperative work; Recommendation Systems and AI Explainability; Social AI; Social and Ubiquitous Computing; Social Media and Digital Learning; Understanding Users and Privacy Issues; User movement and 3D Environments; User Self-Report; User Studies; User Studies, Eye-Tracking, and Physiological Data; Virtual Reality; Virtual Reality and Training; Courses; Industrial Experiences; Interactive Demonstrations; Keynotes; Panels; Posters; and Workshops.

We are honored to announce that as part of the Project Cognix, our research team published a journal article entitled "A Review of EEG-Based User Authentication: Trends and Future Research Directions" on the well-known and popular IEEE Access: The Multidisciplinary Open Access Journal. IEEE Access is a multidisciplinary, online-only, gold fully open access journal, continuously presenting the results of original research or development across all IEEE fields of interest. Supported by article processing charges (APCs), its hallmarks are rapid peer review, a submission-to-publication time of 4 to 6 weeks, and articles that are freely available to all readers.

We are honored to announce that as part of the Project Cognix, our research team published a conference paper entitled "A Survey on Signal Processing Methods for EEG-based Brain Computer Interface Systems" on the Proceedings of the well-known and popular PCI: Panhellenic Conference on Informatics by ACM which was held in Athens, Greece on November 25 - 27, 2022. Following previous successful conferences, PCI 2022 provided a forum for researchers, experts and professionals in computer science and the emerging fields of informatics to present original scientific results, share experiences and exchange ideas. The conference provides a unique opportunity for presenting methodological approaches to describe, explain, predict, and design information and communication models, architectures and systems for the research and business environment. PCI topics include most of the computer science fields. Accepted papers cover an even broader range of topics than previous years. To this end, this year we had sessions on a number of scientific areas: Information Society, Human-Computer Interaction, Software Engineering and applications, Current Approaches in Machine Learning/Artificial Intelligence, Computational science and knowledge-based systems, IoT & Energy efficiency, Topics in Communications & Wireless Computing, Distributed computing & Digital Systems, Extended Reality, Data Analysis and Signal Processing, Novel Technological approaches in Education, Quantum Computing and Machine Learning.

3rd Grade Students from Pharon Middle School, Achaia paid a visit to our lab. Professor Nikolaos Avouris provided a brief overview on what it means to be an Electrical Engineer and the lab's research interests. Afterwards, PhD Canditate Georgios Papadoulis presented CogniX to the students, explaining the challenges and purpose of the project. The students were excited by the fact that signals from the brain, as well as eye behavior, can change the field of adaptive and personalized experience in various HCI contexts.

We conducted an experiment with the purpose of examining how human cognitive style affects brain signal activity when an individual engages in a visual content comprehension task. For doing so, we adopted an accredited cognitive style framework (Field Dependence-Independence – FD-I) and we utilized a validated cognitive style elicitation task called the Group Embedded Figures Test (GEFT), which utilizes static figures as visual stimuli to activate the human brain.

We also performed the first experiment in collaboration with other laboratories of the ECE Department at the University of Patras. The experiment included a driving simulator, made in Unity by students of the ECE Department, which triggered three different sources of stimuli (touch, hearing, vision) to measure the user's reflexes during take-over control of the vehicle.

We are happy to announce further extension of our laboratory research infrastructure by acquiring cutting-edge equipment with a total amount > 50K. Among others, we obtained a state-of-the-art 41-channel Electroencephalography (EEG) device, a mixed-reality hands-free controllable headset and couple of eye-tracking lens. We aspire to design and conduct EEG multi-modal experiments to measure cognitive traits within innovative breakthrough interaction realms like MR/AR and VR and gesture control along with visual and/or acoustic stimuli. Moreover, we aim to develop and evaluate an electroencephalography based framework for intelligent real-time modeling of user cognitive intentions, thus laying the ground for ground-breaking advancements in various Brain Computer Interaction research fields.

The project’s kick-off meeting was held on November 2021 as a full day event and was hosted by the University of Patras, whose warm welcoming and introduction of all consortium partners created a friendly atmosphere allowing all the attendees to freely exchange their expertise and opinion.

The project has been approved by the Hellenic Foundation for Research and Innovation (H.F.R.I.) with a total funding of €194,295 to Support Faculty Members and Researchers in the field of Engineering Sciences and Technology, and it's duration will span two years (November 2021 - October 2023). The project is coordinated by the University of Patras (Greece), with external collaborating partners Cognitive UX GmbH (Germany) and the University of Cyprus (Cyprus).