Grant: Research Tools and Instruments

Virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) are rapidly becoming mainstream in applications such as professional training, physical and psychological therapies, entertainment, and vision research. These technological advances create substantial economic and scientific opportunities for Canadian businesses and researchers, but taking advantage of these time-sensitive opportunities will require research and training on AR and VR devices (jointly called XR). The requested funding will support the purchase of specialized optical equipment for measuring brightness and colour in images generated on XR displays, as well as on traditional flat-panel displays and in real, physical scenes. This equipment is essential to the research programs of seven principal investigators who are members of the Centre for Vision Research at York University. The equipment will allow researchers to create experiments that show precisely controlled images on XR displays, for viewing by participants in perceptual experiments. This calibration is a crucial part of creating well-designed, replicable experiments. These experiments will support ground-breaking advances in a wide range of research areas, including social interactions in virtual environments, navigation, colour perception, maximizing realism in virtual displays, and computational models of visual processing. These investigations will also enhance the training of undergraduate, graduate, and postdoctoral researchers in vision research, and prepare them for academic, industrial, and artistic positions. The anticipated outcomes include an improved scientific understanding of human visual perception, as well as practical applications such as more immersive and realistic XR environments, improved multimedia display of complex information, and improved design of real and virtual environments for neurological populations who experience disorientation.