VEMI Lab featured on WABI report on virtual reality in Maine
The University of Maine’s Virtual Environment and Multimodal Interaction (VEMI) Laboratory was featured on the WABI (Channel 5) segment, “Virtual Reality in Maine: Part 1.” Students and faculty at the lab, which is the only research facility of its kind in Maine, are using virtual reality in research that may lead to the development of technologies that make everyday life easier, improves access to information, and assists blind and visually impaired people, according to the report. “The VEMI Lab uses virtual and augmented reality as a tool, as a testing tool to study some of the areas that we’re looking at,” said Rick Corey, director of operations at the lab. Much of the research at VEMI is focused on navigation and spatial awareness, and students are designing programs to study topics including aging and macular degeneration, WABI reported. “It is a great thing for the state of Maine to be able to move into this new advanced technology and this new emerging technology that comes forward,” Corey said.