{"id":6045,"date":"2016-04-28T09:00:33","date_gmt":"2016-04-28T16:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.msdn.microsoft.com\/msr_er\/?p=6045"},"modified":"2016-07-20T07:28:33","modified_gmt":"2016-07-20T14:28:33","slug":"enhanced-virtual-reality-among-new-microsoft-research-advances-at-chi-2016","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/blog\/enhanced-virtual-reality-among-new-microsoft-research-advances-at-chi-2016\/","title":{"rendered":"Enhanced virtual reality among new Microsoft research advances at CHI 2016"},"content":{"rendered":"

By George Thomas, Jr., Writer, Microsoft<\/em><\/p>\n

Advances in machine learning and artificial intelligence aren\u2019t just improving the quality of information available to us — they\u2019re also making it easier to interact with the devices we use to retrieve and manipulate the information.<\/p>\n

At ACM CHI 2016 (opens in new tab)<\/span><\/a>, the premiere conference on human-computer interaction (opens in new tab)<\/span><\/a>, Microsoft will present research advances that could vastly improve user interaction in a number of ways and contribute to the company\u2019s ambition to deliver more personal computing experiences. The conference, which takes place May 7 to 12 in San Jose, California, offers a glimpse into the near-future, when we will be able to do things like use mobile devices in new ways and more easily navigate through virtual environments.<\/p>\n

A touch of virtual reality<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Andy (opens in new tab)<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Advances in virtual reality have thus far mainly been in the realm of optics, rendering and audio technologies. But improving haptics — the sense of touch \u2014 remained elusive until now.<\/p>\n

The key objective in virtual reality is establishing a sense of presence. It\u2019s easy to suspend disbelief if the environment looks real, but when you reach out to touch a virtual object and your hand goes through it the illusion is shattered. And the interaction itself changes the virtual scene, requiring the whole environment to be redrawn or rebuilt.<\/p>\n

A new framework called haptic retargeting (opens in new tab)<\/span><\/a> essentially \u201chacks\u201d human perception and leverages the dominance of vision when our senses conflict. This allows for the development of much more complex virtual environments that can have many more virtual objects with which to interact.<\/p>\n

Andy Wilson (opens in new tab)<\/span><\/a>, a principal researcher at Microsoft, said the long-term implications of this research will be limited only to the imagination of designers and developers.<\/p>\n

The research is detailed in Haptic Retargeting: Dynamic Repurposing of Passive Haptics for Enhanced Virtual Reality Experiences<\/em> (opens in new tab)<\/span><\/a> and was developed in collaboration with the University of Southern California and the University of Waterloo.<\/p>\n

Precognitive touch screens<\/strong><\/p>\n

Imagine a mobile device that intelligently anticipates your intended action even before you touch the screen.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s what\u2019s being presented in Pre-Touch Sensing for Mobile Interaction<\/em>. Ken Hinckley (opens in new tab)<\/span><\/a>, a principal researcher at Microsoft who led the project, said the research is based on a whole different philosophy of interaction design.<\/p>\n