Associate Professor Takushi Narumi of the Graduate School of Information Science and Engineering, the University of Tokyo, who is a member of the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) * and a leading expert in the field of virtual reality (VR), made a proposal for future VR technology.
VR is a technology that extracts and feels the essence of something that does not physically exist, as if it were the real thing. AR refers to a technology that expands human perception by adding computer graphics (CG) to the actual images and videos displayed on the screen of a computer or smartphone to make it easier to understand.Associate Professor Narumi is working to improve social life by utilizing these technologies and controlling the five senses of human beings.
Associate Professor Narumi's approach is to control human senses by working on several of the five senses of sight, hearing, smell, touch, and taste at the same time.This is called cross-modal and refers to the fact that one integrates the five senses to optimize perception.
"Metacookie" is a study that developed cross-modal perception more scientifically using VR.When a head-mounted display is attached and a plain-flavored cookie is eaten, a strawberry-flavored or chocolate-flavored cookie is displayed on the display, and at the same time, when the strawberry or chocolate scent is emitted, about 7% of the people use the plain cookie as a strawberry. It was proved to be received as a taste or chocolate taste.
In addition, we are also working on research to control the feeling of fullness by displaying a cookie of a size larger than the actual size on the display, and if you increase the size of the cookie by 1.5 times, the amount of food you eat will decrease by 10%, and conversely, the cookie will be about 3% smaller. When I showed it, I ate more than 15%.This technology can be expected to be applied to medical treatment such as measures against obesity.
Also, using a camera and a computer, research on how your face reflected in the mirror affects your mental aspect if you have a smile or a sad face, and the amount of movement in real space and the amount of movement in VR space By shifting the camera to the extent that it is not noticed and affecting the spatial perception, we are conducting a wide variety of research in parallel, such as research on redirected walking that enables us to continue walking in a vast VR space even in a small room. There is.
According to Associate Professor Narumi, it is the taste that is difficult to reproduce among the five senses, and I think that the communication technology of the sense of smell will be realized in the next 20 to 30 years. It is said that when VR can handle the five senses, an avatar (alternate) that can experience VR in the same way as the real body will be realized.One of my research themes is how people's minds change when using avatars with characteristics different from their own bodies, and at the same time, using VR SNS and Metaverse that can communicate with people via VR. It also points out the issue of clarifying the positive and negative effects of daily use of VR and avatars on people by increasing the number of people who do it.
* IEEE is the world's largest non-profit organization of technical experts with more than 160 engineers and members of technical associations in 40 countries.It publishes 30% of the world's literature in the fields of electrical and electronic engineering and computer science, sets more than 2,000 current standards, and holds more than 1,800 international conferences annually.
