HYBRID : 3D interaction with virtual environments using body and mind

The research activity of Hybrid team belongs to the field of Virtual Reality and 3D interaction with Virtual Environments. Our objective is to invent novel 3D interactive techniques with virtual environments exploiting both the body and brain of the user. We focus on novel user inputs in virtual reality such as coming from full-body tracking or brain-computer interfaces. Applications of our research program are for industry (virtual prototyping), medicine (surgical simulation, rehabilitation and reeducation), digital heritage, art or videogames and entertainment. Hybrid was created in January 2013.

Hybrid collaborates with industrial partners such as large companies (Renault, Interdigital, Orange, Vinci) or SMEs (Polymorph, Haption). Hybrid also collaborates with academic partners in France or abroad (Tokyo University, Keio University, INSERM, CEA-List).

We follow three main axes of research:

• Body-based interaction in virtual reality : physical simulation of complex interactive phenomena, haptic and pseudo-haptic feedback
• Brain-based interaction in virtual reality : brain-computer interfaces, “mind-based” control of virtual environments
• Towards hybrid and collaborative 3D interaction : collaborative virtual environments, hybrid interaction schemes based on body and brain inputs.

Keywords: Virtual Reality, 3D Interaction, Haptic Interfaces, Brain-Computer Interfaces, Collaborative Systems