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Abstract

This notion of a virtual reality (VR), which is indistinguishable from the real world, has been addressed repeatedly in science fiction arts, literature and films. Plato’s Allegory of the Cave from the ancient world, and several science fiction movies from the modern era like “The Matrix”, “Surrogates”, “Avatar”, or “World on a Wire” are only some prominent examples, which play with this perceptual ambiguity, and constantly question whether our perceptions of reality are real or not. We explore perceptually-inspired and (super-) natural forms of interaction to seamlessly couple the space where the flat 2D digital world meets the three dimensions we live in. VR can be used as a tool to study human perception. Specifically empirical results about human perception, action and cognition can be used to improve VR technology and software. Many scientists are using VR to create ecologically valid and immersive sensory stimuli in a controlled way that would not be possible in the real world. More specifically, VR technology enables us to specifically manipulate the visual body, the contents of the virtual world, and the sensory stimulus (visual, vestibular, kinesthetic, tactile, and auditory) while performing or viewing an action. This panel will focus on several different areas, where perception research and VR technology has come together to improve state-of-the-art and advance our scientific knowledge. Specifically, in recent years a large amount of research has been performed in the area of locomotion, space (specifically depth), body, visual-motor and interaction perception. The panelist will briefly present their multi-disciplinary results and discuss what factors lead to successful multi-disciplinary research.