Mediated reality
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Mediated reality
The NBCC Mobile First Technology initiative (MFTi) designs technologies that can replace, enhance, or augment a person’s perception of reality for constructive purposes. MFTi is currently focused on developing software systems for the Microsoft HoloLens. MFTi has also collaborated on the development of an augmented reality training tool.
Mediated reality refers to a broad class of technical approaches that are designed to replace, enhance, or augment a user’s perception of reality. Augmented reality, mixed reality, and virtual reality are perhaps the most well known forms of mediated reality technologies. Virtual reality (AR) technologies enable a person to be completely immersed in and perform actions within a computer-generated environment, typically a simulated three-dimensional space. The most prominent form of VR involves a user wearing a headset containing displays over the eyes that occlude the user’s view of the real world. The use of special gloves or other wearable technologies enable users to manipulate or receive stimuli from facets of the virtual environment. Augmented reality (AR) technologies overlay a person’s natural perceptions of the real world with computer-generated media and other stimuli to create an enhanced perception of the real world. The now canonical examples of AR involve smart glasses, such as Google Glass, through which a user can be presented with images, video, text, or graphics, atop their natural field of view, to enhance their knowledge or experience of the reality they are seeing. Other types of displays are used for AR applications, including car windshields, and smartphone displays. Mixed reality (MR) (a.k.a. blended reality) technologies enable virtual objects to be influenced by the real environment. The location-specific existence and behaviour of entities in the Pokémon Go app is an example of this concept.
Projects
- Integration of Mixed Reality and GPS-based Positioning to Support Public Works Applications: A Collaboration with Kognitiv Spark
- Mixed Reality Art Gallery
- ContendoVR: A Collaboration with Contendo Training Solutions
Research topics
augmented reality, mixed reality, smart communities, education, training
Technologies
Microsoft HoloLens, GPS, Object2VR
