Introduction to Immersive Factory's R&D Activities

Research and Development (R&D) has been at the core of Immersive Factory's DNA since its founding in 2016. Initially, the focus was on enhancing the ergonomics and technological development of applications related to Hygiene, Safety, and the Environment (HSE) by utilizing 3D environments and virtual reality.

Subsequently, Immersive Factory's R&D expanded to include users, their practices, the playful dimension, and educational aspects. Indeed, each user perceives the world in their own way based on their personality, history, experiences, knowledge, challenges, and current mood. Since we all have a subjective perception of things, the same technology can lead to varied interpretations. Therefore, it is essential to study how to provide each user with the best possible experience while effectively achieving the training objectives.

Research Areas

To understand all these aspects and enhance its products and uses, Immersive Factory has two complementary research areas:

1-R&D - Technologies and Virtual Reality - Led by Olivier Chabiron

• Activities: Monitoring and applied research in the hardware and software fields related to Virtual Reality.
• Objectives: To improve the user experience, facilitate multiplatform deployment, and optimize production costs.
• Research Topics: VR application portability, graphical rendering improvements, motion sickness reduction, integration of new technologies.

2-R&D - Gamification and Educational Gaming - Led by Julian Alvarez

• Activities: Monitoring and applied research on the use of gamified devices such as simulators and serious games.
• Objectives: To design and evaluate pedagogical and playful approaches, particularly in the HSE domain.
• Research Topics: Optimization and evaluation of serious game effects, especially those involving VR, understanding of virtual reality headset users' proprioception.

Coherence and Synergy

The two research areas are complementary and constantly interact to participate in research projects that bring together the economic and academic worlds. In practice, several projects have been developed by combining these two R&D domains.

Project: Smartphone use while driving and Virtual Reality

The "Smartphone use while driving and Virtual Reality" project, in collaboration with the MAIF Foundation, CNRS, and the universities of Albi, Lille, and Valenciennes, aimed to study the effects of VR in raising awareness among drivers about the dangers of using smartphones while driving.

Learn more:https://www.fondation-maif.fr/article-1-919.html

Project: EGCERSIS

From 2019 to 2022, Immersive Factory, IMT Mines Albi, and SDIS81 collaborated on the EGCERSIS project (Training in Crisis Management in Representative Environments of Sensitive Industrial Sites), winning the Laval Virtual award in 2022 in the VR for industry category. This project enabled crisis management training through 3D virtual environments, real-time simulations, a virtual crisis cell, and a dedicated dashboard.

Project: POD

Since 2019, initially within the framework of the SCAN Common Laboratory, Immersive Factory has been developing successive iterations of the POD (Physics of Decision) immersive data visualization prototype for CGI of IMT Mines Albi. This decision support tool marks Immersive Factory's first step into creating abstract immersive spaces to address issues beyond training.

Project: RVRC 4.0

In 2023, Immersive Factory is part of a consortium led by UGIP FCIP of Lille, whose "Customer Relationship 4.0" project is a winner of the DEFFINUM call for projects. In this context, we will prototype and study immersive training tools for cross-disciplinary customer relationship skills over three years. Immersive environments, conversational artificial intelligence, and improvisation games are among the avenues being considered.

R&D and Open Innovation

While R&D can be seen as a means to innovate in comparison to competitors, Immersive Factory chooses to engage in open innovation. This means sharing knowledge and research findings. This approach is concretely implemented through the production of scientific articles published in scientific journals, white paper publications, and the establishment of research projects with public and private partners.

We believe that meeting other experts and researchers is a source of inspiration and learning. Ultimately, the goal is to significantly contribute to reducing workplace accidents, particularly through the use of serious games and VR applications. 

Conclusion

We strongly believe in the potential of virtual environments for human learning, and we are conducting several studies to better understand how immersion, play, collaboration, and technological devices, in general, are relevant for learning, memorizing, and overcoming the limits of traditional teaching or training models. We strive to virtuously integrate each new R&D project into our approach, both to enrich it and to benefit from it.

Contact

If you are interested in R&D or wish to establish a partnership with Immersive Factory, please contact:

• Olivier Chabiron for the "R&D - Technologies and Virtual Reality" axis: ochabiron@immersivefactory.com
• Julian Alvarez for the "R&D - Gamification and Educational Gaming" axis: jalvarez@immersivefactory.com