French-Japanese Seminar on “Metaverse and Virtual Reality - The Science and Technology of Interacting with Digital Worlds”

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 sometimes 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 seminar, we will question the next steps for VR technologies. We will question the present and the future of immersive technologies. We will draw up the state of the art of the field, and present the current and future research tracks, trying to answer the question: is the metaverse really the future of our interactions with digital contents?

Program

Welcome Coffee: 8:30

Morning Session  9:00 - 11:30, Room B250

Opening words

Jean-Baptiste Bordes (Attaché for Science and Technology of the French Embassy in Japan)

Session 1:  Embodiment and Interaction 9:15-10:15

• Takuji Narumi (University of Tokyo)
• Maki Sugimoto (Keio University)
• Rebecca Fribourg (MCF ECN Nantes)

Session 2:  Augmented Reality 10:30-11:30

•  Daisuke Iwai
•  Guillaume Moreau (IMT-A, Brest)
•  Yutah Itoh (University of Tokyo)

Lunchbreak 11:30-12:30

Afternoon Session  12:30 - 14:45, Room B250

Session 3: Haptics 12:30-13:30

• Kouta Minamizawa (Keio University)
• Yutaro Hirao (NAIST)
• TBD

Session 4: Neuroscience 13:45-14:45

• Léa Pillette (CR CNRS; IRISA, Rennes)
• Kazuhisa Shibata (RIKEN CBS Neuroscience)
• TBD

SonyCSL-OIST collaboration Lab Tour (for seminar participants) 15:00 - 15:50

Public Lecture with simultaneous interpretation 16:00-17:15

• Anatole Lecuyer
• Shunichi Kasahara

SonyCSL-OIST Collaboration Lab Tours 17:30, 18:00, 18:30  (sign up required, three time slots)

Seminar will also be broadcast online via Zoom

Join Zoom
Meeting ID: 977 9491 3409
Passcode: 327684

※ Please note that this event will be recorded and the video uploaded. In addition, photos may be taken during the event. These are intended for publication online to report on the website, social media, etc.