Personal 

Occupation: Research Associate at University of Hamburg 

Nationality: German 

Residence: Lüneburg, Germany 

Contact: Niklas.Hypki"AT"uni-hamburg.de, niklas-hypki.de

 

Education 

2019 – 2026: PhD (Dr. rer. nat.), University of Münster 

2016 – 2019: Master of Science Psychology, University of Münster 

2013 – 2016: Bachelor of Science Psychology, University of Münster 

 

Work experience 

since 2026: Research Associate at University of Hamburg 

2019 – 2026: Research Associate at University of Münster 

2024 – 2025: Guest Researcher at Royal Holloway University of London 

2022 – 2023: Guest Researcher at Western Sydney University 

2017 – 2018: Internship at Zeiss Vision Science Lab in Tübingen

 

Methodological expertise 

Programming: Unity3D, C#, Python, R & Matlab 

Research Methods: Behavioral Research & Experimental Design, Eye- & Head-Tracking Analysis, Psychophysics 

 

Awards 

2021: Best Paper Award at the IEEE International Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Virtual Reality 

2020: Early Career Advancement Prize by the Chief Editors and Board of iPerception

  

Major publications (formerly published as Niklas Stein) 

Hypki N., Anvari T., Steinicke F., and Lappe M. (2026) Long-term Adaptation in VR: Retention of Altered Sensorimotor Contingencies through Redirected Walking. IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics, doi: https://doi.org/10.1109/TVCG.2026.3679876

Hokken M.J., Stein N., Pereira R.R., et al. (2024) Eyes on CVI: Eye movements unveil distinct visual search patterns in Cerebral Visual Impairment compared to ADHD, dyslexia, and neurotypical children. Research in Developmental Disabilities. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ridd.2024.104767

Stein, N., Watson, T., Lappe, M. et al. (2024). Eye and head movements in visual search in the extended field of view. Scientific Reports 14, 8907. doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-59657-5

Stein, N., Bremer, G. and Lappe, M. (2022). Eye Tracking-based LSTM for Locomotion Prediction in VR, 2022 IEEE Conference on Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces (VR), Christchurch, New Zealand, 493-503, doi: https://doi.org/10.1109/VR51125.2022.00069

Stein, N., Niehorster, D. C., Watson, T. et al. (2021). A Comparison of Eye Tracking Latencies Among Several Commercial Head-Mounted Displays. i-Perception, 12(1). doi: https://doi.org/10.1177/2041669520983338

Full publication list: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=_7KeMeIAAAAJ

 

Project participation 

2023 – 2026: EYERES - Vorhersagen, Hervorrufen und Ausnutzen von Augenbewegungen und Blinzeln für Redirektionssysteme 

2023 – 2026: PLACES - PLAsticity of perception in real and virtual spaCES 

2022 – 2023: MAIA - Multifunctional, adaptive and interactive AI system for Acting in multiple contexts 

2018 – 2023: PLATYPUS - PLAsticiTY of Perceptual space Under Sensorimotor interactions 

2018 – 2023: iLUI - interaktive Lokomotionbenutzerschnittstellen zum realen Gehen durch virtuelle Welten - Von der Wahrnehmung zur Anwendung

 

Teaching 

2025 – 2026: Update kognitive Neurowissenschaft, Seminar (M.Sc. Kognitive Neurowissenschaften) 

2020 – 2026: Aufmerksamkeit/ Attention, Seminar (B.Sc. Psychology) 

2023: Empirisches Praktikum, Seminar (B.Sc. Psychology)

Niklas Hypki (formerly Niklas Stein)

Articles

Hypki, N., Anvari, T., Steinicke, F., & Lappe, M. (2026). Long-term adaptation in VR: Retention of altered sensorimotor contingencies through redirected walking. IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics, 32, 4492–4502. https:// doi.org/10.1109/TVCG.2026.3679876

Foglino, C., Watson, T., Stein, N., Fattori, P., & Bosco, A. (2025). The effect of viewing-only, reaching, and grasping on size perception in virtual reality. PLOS ONE, 20 (6), e0326377. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0326377

Hokken, M. J., Stein, N., Kooiker, M. J. G., & Pel, J. J. M. (2024). A novel gaze-based visual search task for children with CVI: A twin study. British Journal of Visual Impairment, 43 (2), 342–349. https://doi.org/10.1177/02646196241247973

Hokken, M. J., Stein, N., Rodrigues Pereira, R., Rours, I. G. I. J. G., Frens, M. A., van der Steen, J., Pel, J. J. M., & Kooiker, M. J. G. (2024). Eyes on CVI: Eye movements unveil distinct visual search patterns in cerebral visual impairment compared to ADHD, dyslexia, and neurotypical children. Research in Develop­mental Disabilities, 151, 104767. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ridd.2024.104767

Stein, N., Watson, T., Lappe, M., Westendorf, M., & Durant, S. (2024). Eye and head movements in visual search in the extended field of view. Scientific Reports, 14, 8907. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-59657-5

Bremer*, G., Stein*, N., & Lappe, M. (2023). Machine learning prediction of locomotion intention from walking and gaze data. International Journal of Semantic Comput­ing, 17 (1), 119–142. https://doi.org/10.1142/S1793351X22490010

Sauer, Y., Scherff, M., Stein, N., Habtegiorgis, S. W., Lappe, M., & Wahl, S. (2022). Inconsistent self-motion perception between hemifields from optic flow distorted by progressive addition lenses. Journal of Vision, 22 (14), 4177. https://doi.org/ 10.1167/jov.22.14.4177

Stein*, N., Bremer*, G., & Lappe, M. (2022). Eye tracking-based LSTM for locomo­tion prediction in VR. 2022 IEEE Conference on Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces (VR), 493–503. https://doi.org/10.1109/VR51125.2022.00069

Bremer*, G., Stein*, N., & Lappe, M. (2021). Predicting future position from natu­ral walking and eye movements with machine learning. 2021 IEEE International Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Virtual Reality (AIVR), 19–28. https://doi.org/10.1109/AIVR52153.2021.00013

Stein, N., Niehorster, D. C., Watson, T., Steinicke, F., Rifai, K., Wahl, S., & Lappe, (2021). A comparison of eye tracking latencies among several commercial head-mounted displays. i-Perception, 12 (1), 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1177/2041669520983338

Bölling, L., Stein, N., Steinicke, F., & Lappe, M. (2019). Shrinking circles: Adaptation to increased curvature gain in redirected walking. IEEE Transactions on Visu­alization and Computer Graphics, 25 (5), 2032–2039. https://doi.org/10.1109/TVCG.2019.2899228

 

Conference Short Papers

Rolff, T., Gabel, J., Zerbin, L., Hypki, N., Schmidt, S., Lappe, M., & Steinicke, F. (2025). A hands-free spatial selection and interaction technique using gaze and blink input with blink prediction for extended reality. arXiv preprint arXiv:2501.11540. https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2501.11540

Rolff, T., Karimian, J., Hypki, N., Schmidt, S., Lappe, M., & Steinicke, F. (2025). Tokenization of gaze data. arXiv preprint arXiv:2503.22145. https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2503.22145

Rolff, T., Hypki, N., Lappe, M., & Steinicke, F. (2024). A toolkit for virtual reality data collection. arXiv preprint arXiv:2412.17490. https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv. 2412.17490

Bremer, G., Stein, N., & Lappe, M. (2022). Do they look where they go? gaze clas­sification during walking. NeuRIPS 2022 Workshop on Gaze Meets ML. https://openreview.net/forum?id=XP0k6ToFK7t

Rolff, T., Stein, N., Lappe, M., Steinicke, F., & Frintrop, S. (2022). Metrics for time-to-event prediction of gaze events. NeuRIPS 2022 Workshop on Gaze Meets ML. https://openreview.net/forum?id=snClL0drE-A

Stein, N. (2021). Analyzing visual perception and predicting locomotion using virtual reality and eye tracking. 2021 IEEE Conference on Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces Abstracts and Workshops (VRW). https://doi.org/10.1109/VRW52623. 2021.00246

Stein, N., Rifai, K., Wahl, S., & Lappe, M. (2021). Simulating lens distortion in virtual reality. 13th International Conference on Disability, Virtual Reality & Associated Technologies (ICDVRAT).

 

Conference Abstracts

Foglino, C., Watson, T., Stein, N., Fattori, P., & Bosco, A. (2024). Virtual reality, real information for action and perception? a VR study. Journal of Vision, 24 (10), https://doi.org/10.1167/jov.24.10.343

Sauer, Y., Scherff, M., Lappe, M., Rifai, K., Stein, N., & Wahl, S. (2023). Self-motion illusions from distorted optic flow in multifocal glasses. Journal of Vision, 23 (9), 5441. https://doi.org/10.1167/jov.23.9.5441

Stein, N., Watson, T., Westendorf, M., Durant, S., & Lappe, M. (2023). Salient targets don’t catch your eye during extended field-of-view visual search. Journal of Vision, 23 (9), 6001. https://doi.org/10.1167/jov.23.9.6001

Scherff, M., Sauer, Y., Lappe, M., Rifai, K., Stein, N., & Wahl, S. (2022). The effects of distorted optic flow in multifocal glasses on self-motion perception. Journal of Vision, 22 (14), 3911. https://doi.org/10.1167/jov.22.14.3911