Collaboration to maximise impact

On 23 July, members of the SECTG cluster met virtually for a workshop to present their work and technologies to each other in order to foster collaboration and enhance potential impact.

The cluster, a group of projects funded under the subtopic “Artificial Intelligence for extended social interaction”, includes five projects: SONICOM, EXPERIENCE, CAROUSEL, TOUCHLESS, and GuestXR. Representatives from each project presented an aspect of their work that was considered of interest to the others.

To kick off the workshop, GuestXR showcased their experience in haptic technologies to support social interactions in virtual and augmented reality, including devices that can provide heart rate and breathing feedback.

Members of the SONICOM team, Lorenzo Picinali and Arcadio Reyes Lecuona, then presented some of the tools and resources that have been developed within the project, including the SONICOM dataset and the Binaural Rendering Toolbox, and Giorgio Presti discussed his work on scattering delay networks.

TOUCHLESS then showcased their innovative Emosense tool, which uses AI to understand what a human is feeling in realtime using facial analysis, eye movement, body movement and speech, with possible uses including security and education.

CAROUSEL brought us to their PlantWorld, a virtual reality world designed to combat loneliness through shared social and physical interaction over the internet. In Plant World, visitors can dance together in a tropical, magical world inspired by the paintings of Denis Lacaux.

Finally, EXPERIENCE rounded off the presentations with their work on preference learning for optimising social behaviour in multi-agent environments.

It was wonderful to get together and discuss our projects’ respective technologies and areas of common interest, and we look forward to exploring future opportunities for collaboration.