Lab XR

The Lab XR is made up of a team of DigiMedia members and is dedicated to researching and developing experiences in Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR), Mixed Reality (MR), and Extended Reality (XR). The Lab’s activities span multiple areas that include:

Immersive Experiences for training purposes:
In the training domain, the lab creates immersive experiences for training and education. This includes simulations of real-world situations, such as surgical skills training, emergency response to fires, simulation of challenges posed to people with disabilities, and support fot health-related issues such as Dementia and Phobias among others. The goal with the work done in this context is to design develop and provide a safe and realistic environment for learners to acquire and practice skills and procedures.

Entertainment:
In entertainment, the team researches and develops VR, AR, MR, and XR experiences for gaming and interactive films. This could range from immersive games to narrative experiences where users are transported to exciting and engaging virtual worlds.

Solution Evaluation:
In the evaluation area, the Lab XR investigates aspects connected with UX. This may involve user usability testing, performance analyses, cybersickness, the levels of immersion and presence, or even the impact on the users’ empathy in experiences connected with particular health or social issues.

Exploration of New Solutions:
The Lab XR team is also constantly exploring new solutions and emerging technologies within the XR field. This has involved experimenting with new hardware devices, such as sensors, EEG scanners and other biometric data readers, trying out new software like generative artificial intelligence apps or information visualization tools that use EEG data, or even the development of interaction and immersion experiences through the use of tangible user interfaces and physical computing solutions.

It is worth mentioning that, at the moment, the work conducted at the Lab XR involves undergraduate, master and doctoral students working closely together with their supervisors and with other teaching staff that consider the Lab XR a transdisciplinary space open to new ideas and to people willing to share their knowledge as well as their doubts.