Nancy Rodriguez

Since its beginnings, Virtual Reality has made possible to safely explore 3D models and environments without constraints of location, time or scale. A display device and multiple sensors allow the user to see, move, and interact with the virtual environment.

Virtual tours allow people to visit far or inaccessible environments:

• visit the university campus
• visit the IUT campus
• visit the CHENE animal rescue center here. See the slides of the presentation of this (very nice!) student work here

- Virtual environments

Training is one of the main domain applications of Virtual Reality (VR). Simulation and visual realism provide training situations very close to practice with real systems while reducing cost and with greater safety, all under the user’s control, without risks, at her own pace. This allows to develop skills and to have confidence to work thereafter in real conditions with real equipment.

See the paper about the development of a Wheelchair Simulator for Children with Multiple Disabilities here

See the paper about an ad-hoc study on soldiers calibration procedure in Virtual Reality here

- Training

Mouse or traditional joysticks are not adapted to all users because of motor or cognitive impairments. We added support, in our wheelchair simulator, for adapted joysticks (joysticks from a wheelchair adapted to be connected to the computer using a usb port), contactors and eye-trackers. See the paper here

We use eye-tracking in the READAPT project to help clinicians to record and analyse patients search strategies in the Unilateral Spatial Neglect assessment. See our paper here

- Eye-tracking