The french association for virtual reality (AFRV [fr], english page here) was holding its annual meeting in Marseille. Nearly all the major actors of VR in France were there.

The complete photo gallery is here.

– The 3x3x4m Cave of the CRVM –

Bruno Arnaldi has been elected as the new AFRV president, replacing Philippe Fuchs.

Here are some interesting things that were said during those days, in a simplified and out-of-context form (don’t hesitate to correct me!) :

– VR is very interesting to study humans: it allows for a good experimental control and ecological validity: you can manipulate a reality and conduct experiments that for practical or ethical reasons couldn’t be conducted in the real world.

– In a lot of fields, studies must be done to see if the actions, behavior and perception in virtual environments and reality match. This ecological validity is crucial for the validity of studies conducted in VR only.

– A lot of work has to be done to improve the communication skills of an avatar: non-verbal cues must be transmitted for better communication, and the way we interact with them must be simplified, more natural.
– A lot of people don’t want to use intrusive devices (HMDs, glasses etc)

– 3D interactions are still a big research area.

– Users are not necessarily ready to use haptics (force-feedback), even a 6DOF device is sometimes difficult!

– Rehabilitation through VR is better: closer to reality, better transfer from virtual to real, better motivation thanks to the fun aspect of VR.

– Stereo viewing is not the natural way of seeing. Sometimes we are faster at evaluating depth through parallax. Studies are being conducted to study the perception of shapes with stereoscopy compared to the real world.