Shaping the future of 3D interaction with virtual worlds by Dr. Anatole Lécuyer

TIME CHANGED *14:00>14:30~after fire drill

Contact

If you want to meet with Anatol, please send an email to bkuhn@oist.jp

Zoom link

https://oist.zoom.us/j/97278673213?pwd=bUpoVm90Tk1aNU1HRVYzYkZwWFpaUT09

Meeting ID: 972 7867 3213
Passcode: 970899

Abstract

Virtual reality (VR) spontaneously evokes a set of high-end technologies designed to "immerse" its users in synthetic 3D environments simulated in real time by a computer. Thanks to dedicated interfaces such as head-mounted displays, VR applications allow users to have powerful experiences such as being in a different place or interacting with characters that are not physically present for real. The first VR systems date back to the 1950s or 1960s, but a media and economic craze has recently developed, especially with the buzz around "metaverses", these massively shared virtual worlds often presented as the "Internet of the future", in which we may one day be able to perform many human activities such as working, training, visiting, meeting, shopping, etc. Such an extraordinary promise has motivated colossal investments of the tech giants over the last 10 years. We are therefore living in a pivotal and historic moment for this field, which is progressively moving towards mass applications. In this talk, we will question the next steps for VR technologies. We will first argue that VR is progressively bringing more physical engagement in 3D human-computer interactions, for example through "haptic" technologies (tactile or force feedback) or virtual embodiment in "self-avatars" (anthropomorphic representation of oneself in a virtual environment). We will also focus on the current hybridization of VR technologies with physiological and neural interfaces, suggesting future interactive systems directly exploiting users' cognitive states, and paving the way for even more compelling and holistic experiences. We will illustrate our talk with some of our latest scientific results, showing a glimpse of what could be “the future of our 3D interactions with virtual worlds”.

Bio

Anatole Lécuyer is Director of Research and Head of Hybrid research team, at Inria, the French National Institute for Research in Computer Science and Control, in Rennes, France. His research interests include: virtual reality, haptic interaction, 3D user interfaces, and brain-computer interfaces (BCI). He served as Associate Editor of "IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics", “Frontiers in Virtual Reality” and “Presence” journals. He was Program Chair of IEEE Virtual Reality Conference (2015-2016) and General Chair of IEEE Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality (2017) and IEEE Symposium on 3D User Interfaces (2012-2013). He is author or co-author of more than 200 scientific publications. Anatole Lécuyer obtained the Inria-French Academy of Sciences “Young Researcher Prize” in 2013, the IEEE VGTC “Technical Achievement Award in Virtual/Augmented Reality” in 2019, and was inducted in the inaugural class of the IEEE Virtual Reality Academy in 2022.