We are MASSIVE and we also have a PERFECT project! Curious? Check it out!
The PERFECT project stands for Perceptual Equivalence in virtual Reality For authEntiC Training (project sheet available soon)! This PERFECT project aims to be the first step towards the creation of highly reliable multisensory virtual environments for training and simulation that deliver Perceptually Equivalent stimuli and thus enable the certification of trainees using only Virtual Reality (VR) technologies. Although many applications do not need a high degree of realism for the user to accomplish his/her task successfully, without the authenticity, such Believable Virtual Environments (BVEs) are only capable of delivering “mission familiarity” rather than actual world experience. In BVEs, some real-world phenomena may be missing, or the physics not accurately simulated which could lead to different knowledge acquisition in the virtual experience than is required in reality. For example, not including the smell of a burning cable behind a control panel may provide the user in the virtual experience with a false sense of wellbeing, which would most certainly not be the case in the real world. This project represents a multidisciplinary approach where the existing knowledge within the research team can be explored to its full potential from the computer science, psychology and biomedical fields. By achieving the PERFECT objectives, we will be a step closer to achieve our long-term goal and thus have an important impact on how virtual reality can help people to train in a safer and affordable way while making sure they will perform as expected when faced with a real situation.