Anthony Steed is a Professor in the Virtual Environments and Computer Graphics group at the University College London. He started his Ph.D. in Virtual Reality back in 1992 during the first wave of VR. Some of his research interests include distributed virtual reality systems and collaborative environments, 3D interaction, haptics, networked virtual reality protocols, massive models, and telepresence.

Here’s some of the topics that we discussed at the IEEE VR conference:

Latency in VR depends on the the context and it can range from a target of 1ms for visual stability to 10ms to 20ms.

Collaborative virtual environments & asymmetric interactions in VR that result in a difference in social power. How the UI in VR can either get in the way or support interactions

Some of the areas of research include 3D user interfaces, haptics, sensory motor integration, & remote telepresence. Starting to build their own VR hardware

Fidelity of avatars in telepresence applications. High-quality avatars must also behave with a high fidelity. Tend to use lower fidelity avatars. Full body tracking without full facial expressions result in zombie-like experience. Telepresence is often task-based where the avatar’s representation of identity is less important. Working with sociologists who look how eye gaze gives cues for turn taking in conversations

Most VR don’t utilize our own bodies for haptic feedback. Creating external haptics is a huge problem because they’re very limited. Potential for body-worn haptic devices.

On the intersection of neuroscience and VR, looking at our visual system has a left-hand side bias for visual attention, and it’s an open question as to whether they can recreate this neuroscience effect in VR. The impacts on body image when you are tracking your body within VR. Looking at frequency bands of head movement & whether the VR display matches what our proprioceptive senses are telling us about our body’s orientation. Using VR as a platform for neuroscience research into looking at discrepancies of sense queues and looking at persistent illusions

There’s a lot of potential for education and training, and a lot of progress being made in this realm.

Theme music: “Fatality” by Tigoolio

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