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Content archived on 2024-06-18

Transcending Reality Activating Virtual Environment Responses through Sensory Enrichment

Objective

The goal of this project is to provide the means for transcending reality : to use virtual reality to transcend the self, whereby participants in an immersive virtual reality (IVR) may have the strong illusion of transforming their bodies, and therefore have experiences in VR that are not possible in physical reality. The goal is to use IVR for something that is genuinely new and uniquely possible within such systems, beyond the normal representational approach to VR which attempts mainly to faithfully simulate reality. The research is based on three fundamental ideas: (a) that our body image is highly malleable, and that virtual reality can be used to transform it; (b) that the brain has sufficient plasticity to remap tactile sensations, so that a sensation felt on one part of the body can be associated with an event on another part of the body and that therefore this can be used in VR in order to endow virtual experiences with physicality; (c) that the brain can be fooled into inferring that something perceived in VR is really happening (even though the person knows for sure that it is not) and that there are techniques that can be employed in VR to enhance the probability that this occurs. Hence the research is interdisciplinary, a novel combination of neuroscience and computer science, with the likelihood of benefits to both. The work is organised into three major Streams corresponding to (a)-(c), where specific hypotheses are derived from the general idea and tested empirically. Each set of experiments requires an engineering solution. A fourth Stream of work will be for integration creating scenarios for the testing of the general hypotheses implied by (a)-(c). The main application will be in social virtual environments, where a human participant interacts with virtual characters, or a mixture of virtual characters and other online people represented in the VR. Applications would be in the fields of therapy, physical rehabilitation and entertainment.

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.

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Keywords

Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)

Topic(s)

Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.

Call for proposal

Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.

ERC-2008-AdG
See other projects for this call

Funding Scheme

Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.

ERC-AG - ERC Advanced Grant

Host institution

UNIVERSITAT DE BARCELONA
EU contribution
€ 2 409 768,00
Address
GRAN VIA DE LES CORTS CATALANES 585
08007 BARCELONA
Spain

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Region
Este Cataluña Barcelona
Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
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Total cost

The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.

No data

Beneficiaries (1)

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