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How can historians, heritage experts and former inhabitants create complex virtual environments without needing specialist 3D-modelling skills? Virtual Kattenburg introduces a collaborative authoring system that enables multiple users to reconstruct a historical urban environment in real time. Through natural-language instructions, users can employ AI to add, modify and discuss elements of the virtual neighbourhood together.

The work uses Amsterdam’s former Kattenburg district as a case study and brings together expertise from computer science and digital heritage. It explores how agentic AI can make the creation of historical XR environments more accessible, while keeping human experts actively involved in interpreting and shaping the past.

The paper has been accepted for the 1st International Workshop on Agentic AI for Extended Reality (XRAG’26), held in conjunction with IEEE ISMAR 2026.

Using diminished reality to support sustainable food choices

How can extended reality help consumers make more sustainable choices? In this publication we present a diminished reality application designed for use in supermarkets. Viewed through a head-mounted display, the application visually de-emphasises less sustainable products by blurring, desaturating, hiding or virtually removing them.

Interviews with 25 participants demonstrate the potential of diminished reality as a decision-support tool, while highlighting the importance of personalisation and technical robustness. The study is a collaboration between the Amsterdam School of Communication Research and the Visualisation Lab and shows how diminished reality can be developed from an experimental concept into a practical, user-centred application.

The paper was published in XR and Metaverse: Proceedings of the 10th International XR Conference.

Read the publication on Springer

Build a game in one week

3–7 August

Join a small team and create a playable game from concept to completion in one intensive week. Learn by doing, collaborate across disciplines, and turn an idea into a working game.

Some experience in game design, programming, sound, or music is required. You do not need to be an expert, but you should be able to contribute independently and work well in a team.

Limited capacity

Places are limited. Applications are reviewed based on experience, motivation, team balance, and project needs. Applying does not guarantee a place.

Apply

Tell us about your skills, experience, and motivation.

Application Form

And yes: pizza is on us.

In January 2026, the Visualisation Lab hosted the sixth edition of the Virtual and Augmented Reality for Good (VAR4Good) course. This year, 29 students formed six groups and submitted VR projects.

Below are the videos each group created to give you an idea of what they built. If you have an Oculus Quest (2, 3, 3S, or Pro) and don’t mind sideloading, you can even download an installation package and try the applications yourself! Click the title below the video to download it.

Blackout by Valentyn, Rafael, Beau and Ramon.

Blindness simulator, by Ian, Tim, Ensar and Tim.

BrandVRij by David, Max, Kaai and Lysanne.

Germophobia simulator, by Olav, Judith, Boris and Xander.

Fireline, by Hakan, Lars, Dalia and Sven.

Brandblus Sim, by Saleeman, Ryoma, Jonas, Kevin and Ryan.

Here you can find Manuals for the systems in the lab

Dante Audio System
_{How do you play audio over the speaker system or use the audio interface to get microphone data into any workstation in the lab.}

Christiaan Spieker, PhD student at the Computational Science Lab, together with colleagues at the Visualisation Lab won the first ‘Student Visualisation Competition” held at the “CompBioMed 2023″ conference in Munich. The image entitled ‘Cinematic punctured vessel blood flow simulation visualisation” uses simulation data produced by the Computational Science Lab. The image was produced by a joint effort from Christian Spieker, Joey van der Kaaij, David de Kanter, Robert Belleman, Gábor Závodszky, and Alfons Hoekstra.

The creation process of the image begins with raw blood cell simulation data in XMF and HD5 format, which is converted into mesh data (the X3D format) with the help of Paraview. The meshes are imported into Blender. Meanwhile, a cylinder is modeled in ZBrush to represent the blood vessel and further textured in Adobe Substance Painter to put a realistic-looking skin on the model. This textured model is subsequently imported into Blender alongside the blood cell models.

Once the components are in Blender, the scene is rendered using the Cycles rendering engine to produce an image of the blood vessel and blood cells. The final stage involves the import of the rendered image into Adobe Photoshop, where an appropriate background environment for the blood vessel is created, and some touchups are made to improve the overall visual appeal of the image. This comprehensive pipeline blends raw data conversion, 3D modeling, texturing, rendering, and post-processing to generate a detailed and realistic image of blood cells in a blood vessel.

The Institute for Logic, Language and Computation (ILLC) and the Informatics Institute (IvI) are thrilled to announce the acquisition of a state-of-the-art motion capture system, which includes a cutting-edge face capture system. This advanced technology will be a valuable addition to the facilities of both institutes, enabling researchers to capture high-quality motion data and facial expressions for a wide range of applications.

The system has been installed in the Visualisation Lab on the ground floor of Lab42. Rob Belleman, manager of the Visualisation Lab, states: “This motion capture system is a significant addition to the facilities in the lab and will allow us to take our research and education to the next level. With its advanced capabilities, we can capture even the subtlest of movements, which will be invaluable for a wide range of projects.”

One of the primary beneficiaries of this new system is SignLab Amsterdam, a research group that studies sign language and its impact on communication. SignLab Amsterdam is a collaboration between researchers from ILLC and IvI, as well as sign language linguists at the Faculty of Humanities. Floris Roelofsen, founding co-director of the lab, says: “With the motion capture system’s precision and accuracy, SignLab researchers will be able to better understand and analyze the intricacies of sign language, enhancing their work on sign language recognition and translation.”

The new motion capture system in the Visualisation Lab is a testament to our commitment to providing cutting-edge resources to researchers, faculty, and students at Lab42. We look forward to seeing the innovative work that will be produced using this technology.

For more information, please visit our website or contact us directly at the Visualisation Lab.

Contact:
Visualisation Lab, Informatics Institute, Lab42, L0.03
Email: R.G.Belleman@uva.nl
Website: visualisationlab.science.uva.nl

We have the occasional need for 3D models and animations in our projects. If you are someone or know someone that has experience with CGI software such as Blender, Max4D, Cinema4D, etc.? We would like to get in contact.

You can drop by at L0.03 in Lab42 or send an email to:

Lab coordinator: Joey van der Kaaij
Office L0.03 in Lab42
Email: J.G.vanderKaaij (at) uva (dot) nl

Lab manager: Robert Belleman, PhD
Office L6.23 in Lab42
Email: R.G.Belleman (at) uva (dot) nl
Phone: +31 20 525 7272