Towards Networked and Structured VR ERA: Intuition Network of Excellence and Future Research Challenges

Abstract

The massive research and development process concerning Virtual Reality (VR) technology has reached a degree which makes a pan-European structuring and integrating effort an absolute necessity. Despite the fact that VR/AR technology has started being used to an extent in different industrial applications, this has been processed though in an unorganised way, lacking of long-term vision and dealing with case-by-case scenarios. Thus, a critical milestone is to facilitate the adoption of Virtual Environments (VEs) in industrial processes and assess the impact of its “penetration” into the workplace and everyday life. INTUITION works towards this direction, with the prime objective of promoting and facilitating the development and application of VR/VE technology in even more industrial domains, establishing thereby European excellence in this area. Moreover, INTUITION partners attempted to investigate the existing barriers for further penetration of VR into industrial applications and recognise the most important drivers that will lead to enhanced and wider use of VR/AR. An additional scope of this paper is to propose the main research areas and challenges in the field of VR/AR as idientified through INTUITION Working Groups throughout the last couple of years.