22/03/2021

We need virtual reality 'for good', says Luiz Velho.

Classrooms, work offices and gyms. How many places and activities mediated by computer and cell phone screens have invaded your home in the last year due to the coronavirus pandemic? The boundaries between the real and the virtual have been changing at an impressive speed, reshaping old concepts. At X-Reality USP 2021 , last Friday (19), experts discussed how presence is being redefined in scientific research and the job market.

Being “in the right places at the right time” were factors that gave Luiz Velho's career a characteristic he considers fundamental today. For the lead researcher at Visgraf (IMPA's Computer Graphics Laboratory), the watchword is “multidisciplinarity”.

“In work teams, people don't need to be experts in everything. But they need to talk and coordinate to produce innovation. The XR (Extended Reality) industry essentially lives on innovation, and the pandemic has been boosting this. We need a revolution in this area to create a 'virtual reality for good'. So that the 'real' reality we have is very good, enhanced by all the communication tools to promote people's well-being,” he stated.

At the event, Luiz Velho demonstrated how technological tools allowed Visgraf and researchers from the National Museum, Fiocruz, and PUC-Rio to travel back in time and recreate the Roman-era mummy Kherima in virtual reality, in the V-Horus project . Over 2,000 years old, the artifact was destroyed in a fire that consumed a large part of the National Museum's collection in 2018.

“Among the activities, we created a virtual exhibition that took the place of a real visit. We called it a tangible virtual experience, in which the person accessing the exhibition wore glasses that recreated the physical space of the museum,” he explained. Conducted before the pandemic, the experience was evaluated by users, and more than 90% of them reported feeling as if they were in the original exhibition.

According to Romero Roti, a senior lecturer at USP in the area of interactive technologies and a tenured professor at the Senac University Center, if an activity has interaction, it has presence. “Previously, we talked about telepresence, when we used the computer to do something that wasn't face-to-face. But that's fallen out of use. Presence is a subjective perception that can be in physical or social space. There is still much to be researched in this regard.”

While discoveries are being made, the XR market is advancing in Brazil. Inês Maciel, a professor in the Creative Media Graduate Program at ECO/UFRJ, was surprised when conducting research with companies already operating in this sector. The mapping carried out in 2020 indicated that, in the creative industry, 71% of respondents were already working in the area, most of them from São Paulo. “I didn't think it would be such an encouraging result, and many companies are still just starting out! I see that it is necessary to strengthen ties between companies, labs, and universities, increasing integration between those who develop and those who experiment in this segment.”

If you missed the live stream “XR in Scientific Experimentation and the Market,” you can still watch it! Just register on the free platform todesplay.com.br and check it out in the X-Reality USP 2021 section. Watch it !