Social Interaction via Touch Interactive Volummetric 3D Virtual Agents

For instructions on how to apply, please see: PhD Studentships: UKRI Centre for Doctoral Training in Socially Intelligent Artificial Agents.

Supervisors:

• Ravinder Dahiya: School of Engineering
• Philippe Schyns: School of Psychology

Vision and touch based interactions are fundamental modes of interaction between humans and between humans and the real world. Several portable devices use these modes to display gestures that communicate social messages such as emotions. Recently, non-volumetric 3D displays have attracted considerable interest because they give users a 3D visual experience – for example, 3D movies provide viewers with a perceptual sensation of depth via a pair of glasses. Using a newly developed haptics-based holographic 3D volumetric display, this project will develop these new forms of social interactions with virtual agents. Unlike various VR tools that require headsets (which can lead to motion sickness), here the interaction with 3D virtual objects will be less restricted, closer to its natural form, and, critically, give the user the illusion that the virtual agent is physically present. The experiments will involve interactions with holographically displayed virtual human faces and bodies engaging in various social gestures. To this end, the simulated 2D images showing these various gestures will be displayed mid-air in 3D. For enriched interaction and enhanced realism, this project will also involve hand gesture recognition and controlling haptic feedback (i.e. air patterns) to simulate the surface of several classes of virtual objects. This fundamental study is transformative for sectors where physical interaction with virtual objects is critical, including medical, mental health, sports, education, heritage, security, and entertainment.