Steeven Villa

About

Steeven Villa is a pioneering researcher at the intersection of haptics, virtual reality, and human-robot interaction. His work fundamentally addresses how humans can intuitively feel and communicate with technology. Villa’s major contributions include developing novel mid-air ultrasound haptics for room-scale VR, as detailed in his most-cited paper (16 citations), where he transformed static haptic arrays into dynamic systems to expand the tactile workspace. He also created the Cobity toolbox (5 citations), a plug-and-play solution that leverages collaborative robots (cobots) to deliver room-scale haptic feedback without requiring deep engineering expertise. In the realm of human-robot interaction, Villa has advanced methods for eliciting human-understandable robot expressions (7 citations) and developed the Perceived System Curiosity Scale (PSC) (4 citations), a validated instrument for measuring how users perceive curiosity in robots and voice assistants. His work on brain-computer interfaces for moving virtual arms further showcases his commitment to accessible, embodied interaction. With a growing citation impact, Villa is shaping the future of how humans and machines physically and socially connect.

Research Focus

Key Achievements

Top Papers

1. 1
   Extended Mid-air Ultrasound Haptics for Virtual Reality

   16 citations · 2022
2. 2
   An Approach to Elicit Human-Understandable Robot Expressions to Support Human-Robot Interaction

   7 citations · 2025
3. 3
   Cobity: A Plug-And-Play Toolbox to Deliver Haptics in Virtual Reality

   5 citations · 2022
4. 4
   Towards Moving Virtual Arms Using Brain-Computer Interface

   5 citations · 2019
5. 5
   Developing and Validating the Perceived System Curiosity Scale (PSC): Measuring Users' Perceived Curiosity of Systems

   4 citations · 2025

Key Collaborators

Contact & Links