Name of the participant: Martin Feick
Description of the IT-research project: Remote cooperation is an essential part of our society today. Employees come from different regions and parts of the world. Virtual reality allows them to communicate and meet each other visually, representing remote movements and interactions in 3D space. This opens up many possibilities in areas such as remote learning of demanding activities. For example, handling a scalpel on a test subject could be done completely safely in a controlled environment.
However, to create such an immersive environment, an important component is missing: the haptic feedback for objects and items in the virtual environment. As a result, the steps to be performed usually remain abstract and have little or no learning effect on the activity in the real application field. The physical manifestation of virtual objects can be achieved through so-called proxy objects. These approximate object properties of virtual objects such as size, shape or weight. It is desirable to represent as many virtual objects as possible by one and the same physical proxy object – which poses great challenges to scientists. In the scenario described above, however, this is further complicated because several remote workers access and manipulate the “same” virtual object. Thus, the physical proxy objects that are remote from each other must be synchronised.
This project therefore aims to explore how physical proxy objects can autonomously detect and, if necessary, correct desynchronisation via embedded electronics. The overarching research question investigates whether synchronised physical proxy objects have a positive effect on remote collaboration between people.
Software Campus partners: DFKI, Carl Zeiss AG
Implementation period: 02.2021 – 11.2022
