Research in the DAF Technology Lab
Researchers affiliated with the DAF Technology Lab have acquired funding for several research projects.
The projects range from measuring the effects of virtual reality in learning, comparing learning gains in the CAVE system with more traditional forms of education, to the development of virtual humans for education and healthcare. Research projects are often – though not exclusively – in collaboration with corporate partners.
The research conducted at the DAF Technology Lab has been published in a large range of scientific journals and conference proceedings.
Campione: virtual reality innovations in condition-based maintenance
How can training in maintenance be improved? One solution might lie in training using virtual reality whereby training content is brought closer to the trainee. Another (complementary) solution might lie in measuring training performance online during the training process itself. Combined these two solutions offer exciting opportunities for training in maintenance.
There has been a pressing need from the industry to not only gain insight in the condition of the functioning of machinery, but also in the condition of the functioning of personnel. The role Tilburg University has had in the CAMPIONE project is to investigate training of personnel using virtual reality thereby predicting learning gains. We have investigated what the effects of virtual and mixed reality and other forms of training are on performance, how individual differences influence these effects, and how learning in training be measured not after the training, but during training itself using sensing technologies.
- What are the effects of virtual and mixed reality and other forms of training on performance?
- How do individual differences influence these effects?
- And how can learning in training be measured not after the training, but during training itself using sensing technologies.
CAMPIONE has received considerable attention in the national media. The project totaling 12 million euros has been funded by the European Union, OP Zuid, the Ministry of Economic Affairs, the municipality of Tilburg and Gilze and Rijen. It involves over 33 international industrial and governmental partners. Tilburg University, with a team of one faculty member, and two PhD students, served as co-principal investigator of this project (World Class Maintenance being PI).
Earthrise: creating ambassadors of planet earth, the impact of virtual reality on education
Some 40,000 children worldwide have already experienced SpaceBuzz, and a team at Tilburg University is driving the science behind it on the topics of learning, virtual reality and awe. The non-profit organization SpaceBuzz developed an innovative educational program aimed at introducing primary school education to the subjects of science and technology in the context of sustainability in a way that is playful and easy to learn.
The program has been developed in line with the career path of a real astronaut. After children pass the pre-flight astronaut training, a 15-meter long rocket arrives at the school to virtually launch children into space. When children sit down in the rocket and put virtual reality headsets on, their chairs move hydraulically, and the rocket is launched into space under the guidance of a virtual reality embodiment of an actual astronaut.
Finally, in a post-flight training at the children’s school, children give press conferences to friends and family and tell them about their experience in space. This combination of virtual reality, serious games, intelligent tutoring systems, and learning analytics drives the future of education.
1) Do children in the SpaceBuzz simulation neurophysiologically experience the overview effect in virtual reality?
2) Does the VR simulation yield learning gains?
3) What does the future of education look like when we consider intelligent tutoring systems, serious games, stealth assessment and artificial intelligence?
More information
For more information on SpaceBuzz watch the video or check the SpaceBuzz website.
VIBE: developing embodied conversational agents for personalized healthcare
How access to an empathic healthcare provider be ensured 24/7, and healthcare professionals be trained to deal with unusual situations? The project Virtual Humans in the Brabant Economy (ViBE) addresses these questions via the development, testing and deployment of embodied conversational agents (ECAs) in healthcare.
The ECAs will communicate with people through natural language and non-verbally (via body posture, eye contact, etc.), allowing them to support training of healthcare professionals, and provide emotional care for patients. More broadly, the agents developed by VIBE will be applicable to any simulation (including virtual, mixed and augmented reality), with the goal to allow for customization for various domains so that training and education programs be enhanced.
VIBE has received considerable attention in the national media, in newspapers, television and radio. Funded by the European Union, OP Zuid, the Ministry of Economic Affairs and the municipality of Tilburg, ViBE involves twelve partners; five knowledge institutions and four companies (who together bring thorough knowledge of algorithms and related VR technology), and two hospitals (who offer medical expertise and living lab environments for testing and validation of the developed agents). Tilburg University leads this project.
- What does it take to build an embodied conversational agent for healthcare?
- What determines the naturalness of the agents and its interaction with the user?
- What technical challenges need to be solved when operating the agent online in a data safe environment?
ARCUS: Augmented Reality for clinical understanding and surgery
Current medical visualization methods display a three-dimensional (3D) patient situation on a two-dimensional (2D) screen. This draws the surgeon's attention away from the operating field to a screen, creates the switching focus problem and requires constant translation of two-dimensional images into a three-dimensional situation.
In addition, this image does not represent the complete patient situation, often requiring the use of significant per-operative radiation to still gain sufficient insight. To solve the shortcomings of current medical visualization methods, we have developed the Augmented Reality for Clinical Understanding and Surgery (ARCUS) system.
This system is a software platform that uses augmented reality (AR) glasses, such as the Microsoft HoloLens 2. The software recognizes a patient in the current environment and overlays 3D models from its MRI or CT scan as holograms over the patient. The ARCUS system provides this over-projection automatically and within 10 seconds. This allows the practitioner to "look through" the patient's anatomy and pathology, as it were, directly at the right place. Unique to the ARCUS method is that, by using a smart algorithm, no markings or extensive calibration are required.
- What does it take to develop a markerless augmented reality solution for surgical procedures?
- What is the success of a markerless augmented reality solution when applied to neurosurgery and vascular surgery?
- To what extent can a markerless augmented reality become more versatile when implementing artificial intelligence solutions?
Watch the video on Hologram-guided surgery through augmented reality.
EURECA: Empirical Unified Research of Embodied Conversational Agents
Embodied conversational agents (ECA’s) are animated characters that emulate humanlike communication. Embodied conversational agents (ECA’s) are animated characters that emulate humanlike communication. The need for humanlike ECAs is rapidly rising in a variety of fields, ranging from patient assistants in healthcare, trainers in maintenance or logistics, to intelligent tutoring systems in education and lifelong learning. Despite the fact that many studies show transfer of human characteristics in humanlike ECAs, most ECAs tend to look cartoonlike at best and creepy at worst. Interestingly, a negative (rather than increasingly positive) emotional effect occurs when humans interact with a near-human virtual agents.
The proposed project combines fundamental research, industrial research and experimental research. State-of-the-art digital humans will be developed and evaluated in order to answer some fundamental research questions and deployment of technologies.
- Can a 3D embodied conversational agent be developed that cannot be distinguished from its human counterpart?
- Do users look at lifelike embodied conversational agents the way they look at humans?
- Can lifelike photogrammetry agents be developed in a more efficient way by using templates?
oVRview: VR Simulations for Educational and Training Environments
VR simulations have become more and more common in a range of domains, both on VR glasses and in CAVE (Cave Automatic Virtual Environment) systems, in different levels of quality. It is unclear what the different factors (glasses vs. CAVE, lower vs. higher quality) have on the user.
The oVRview project aims to shed light on pressing issues in virtual reality training, addressing current societal aspects with regards to training and education, and compare the effect of the quality of virtual reality on user experience and learning.
Virtual Reality (VR) simulations are computer-generated recreations of a three-dimensional (3D) environment the user can interact with wearing a VR headset or standing in a CAVE environment. The common goal of VR simulations is to create a realistic and immersive experience for the user. For this reason, VR has been used for a variety of purposes, including entertainment, but fittingly for the current proposal, education and training. Because of its novel aspects, VR can be seen as a disruptive technology, whereby existing markets and industries are confronted with a new and often more efficient way of doing things.
The oVRview project maps out what the effect is of different factors on the user when developing VR simulations.
- What are the differences on the user between using a VR simulation on VR glasses versus CAVE environments?
- What are the differences on the user between using a VR simulation that is developed at a lower versus higher quality?
- Can factors be mapped out with regards to learning and experiencing virtual reality that effect the user in the immersive environment?