The VEMI Facility

VEMI is a 5000 sqft facility comprising the only fully immersive VR system in the state of Maine and one of the largest high resolution fully trackable spaces in the world. Our main research tools and development platforms include sensors and micro controllers (e.g., arduinos), mobile technologies (such as smart phones / tablets), immersive virtual reality (VR), and augmented reality (AR).

 

VEMI's Technological Ideology

At VEMI, we believe that for technology to be maximally useful for the greatest number of people and situations, it should provide an interactive, immersive experience and should use multimodal information whenever possible, such as vision, sound, touch, etc. However, traditional virtual and augmented reality systems are synonymous with visual reality only. We argue that this visuocentric focus is detrimental to true immersions and does not maximize the full potential of these technologies as this is neither consistent with how we actually perceive the world in physical reality through multiple senses, nor congruent with how our brains best process information from the environment around us. This limitation is of growing concern given the exponential growth of VR and AR technologies across research, commercial, and entertainment domains.

 

VEMI's Approach to Technology

At VEMI, we believe that VR should maximize the sensory information that is normally perceived in the real-world. Rather than being restricted to vision-only simulations, our approach incorporates immersive virtual, augmented, and mixed reality technologies based on multiple input/output channels of audio, touch, and vision—meaning that users are able to simultaneously see, hear, and feel 3D simulations, experience data, or interact with the environment in the most realistic and intuitive manner possible. VEMI’s adoption of a multiple channels model of information input/output provides a physiological advantage over traditional technology by capitalizing on the brain’s intrinsic capacity for parallel processing and redundant computation between the senses. VEMI’s innovative use of multimodal technology and leveraging of human information processing capabilities affords significant analytical, cognitive, and usability advantages for interacting, manipulating, and understanding multi-dimensional datasets far beyond what is possible from other VR installations.

VEMI’s emphasis on virtual and augmented reality (VR) is three-fold:

  1. As a research tool, virtual environment’s (VE’s) affords many benefits over traditional experimental methods. Research in VR allows for a high level of experimenter control, ready presentation of multiple channels of stimuli, easy user tracking and data logging, and the ability to manipulate environmental variables which are often not possible in the real world. 
  2. Its utility as a training tool for spatial learning and navigation. The ability to parametrically manipulate variables in the VEs about the content and presentation of information allows us to isolate the factors with the greatest contribution on performance. 
  3. A robust, fast adapting, and user-centric development platform for research on interface design and multimodal spatial displays. Since modifications to the virtual environments can be rapidly prototyped, empirically tested, and user evaluated, they can greatly streamline the research process and design cycle. 

VEMI's Technology