Research in Intelligent Virtual Environments aims at developing new models of interactivity based on Artificial Intelligence techniques.This encompasses the use of AI for interaction (for instance, Virtual Actors, Multimodal Interfaces for Augmented and Virtual reality) but also the investigation of AI techniques for virtual world representation and behaviour: knowledge-based event systems, common sense representations, qualitative physics.
There is a wide range of applications for this research, from the development of new media such as Interactive Storytelling or Virtual Reality Art, to research in Human Factors related to the perception of causality.We have published extensively on these topics in relevant journals and conferences including ACM Multimedia, ACM Intelligent User Interfaces, ACM Virtual Reality Software Technology, ACM Advances in Computer Entertainment, and the Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems (AAMAS) conference.
The group comprises five full-time academic staff, five research assistants and one research fellow. It is located in the Phoenix building, hosting the Institute of Digital Innovation (IDI).Our most recent research has been supported by the DTI and the European Commission with 2M euros in grants acquired over the past five years. Our facilities include a 4-side CAVE-like device operated by an 8-node PC cluster.