NTU unveils virtual reality research prototypes
Shopping for clothes can soon be done from the comfort of your own home.
Prototype software under development at Nanyang Technological University’s (NTU) Institute for Media Innovation (IMI) lets a person customise every aspect of an on-screen avatar, including body measurements and facial features.
Once customised, the avatar can then be made to dress up in various clothes for the user get a preview of how it would look on him/her. An advanced physics engine replicates every ripple and swirl of the clothes as the avatar moves, and rotates.
Professor Nadia Thalmann, Director of the IMI, hopes that this new application can revolutionalise the fashion industry. “Bringing such a 3D virtual environment directly into the design industry’s production process will help to shorten design cycle times and cut physical sample costs.”
Called the “3-D Virtual Try-on”, the application is just one of a number of research prototypes unveiled by IMI last Tuesday.
Chief among the other prototypes is the Immersive Room. The room’s wall is one piece of curved screen lit up by numerous projectors on the ceiling. Through webcams and Microsoft Kinect sensors placed throughout the room, users can use gestures to manipulate objects on the screen.
The room currently has three applications. For instance, one will be able to experience what it would be like to control and direct a crowd in a simple evacuation scenario. The user simply stands in the middle of the Immersive Room and gesture with his arms.
Those into 3D art will find Le Phenomene Atmospherique, a 3D stereo animated film about meteorological phenomena, both visually catching and evocative.
The Immersive Room can also be a powerful educational resource, such as for children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). In a 3D virtual pink dolphin game, for example, the on-screen dolphins follow the hand gestures and voice commands of children, helping them improve social interactions by learning and playing with virtual dolphins.
National Institute of Education lecturer Kee Kiak Nam said, “You can see the children suddenly become awakened when they interact with dolphins.”
