IRVINE, Calif., May 12, 2014 – EON Reality, the world’s leading provider of Virtual Reality software, systems and applications, today announced the use of the EON Icube to be used in a traffic educational study of fourth-graders at the Immersive and Creative Technologies (ICT) Lab in Cyprus.
The ITC Lab, directed by Dr. Charalambos Poullis, of the Department of Multimedia and Graphic Arts of the Cyprus University of Technology, has been actively involved in research initiatives in the fields of 3D Modelling and Virtual Reality, both in Cyprus and Europe.
One of the current projects, financially supported by the Cyprus Research Promotion Foundation and the European Structural Funds, is the “VR-CAVE” IPE/NEKYP/0311/02 (https://www.vrcave.com.cy), whose aim is to install and use cutting-edge, Virtual Reality equipment, for the purpose of promoting research and development in Cyprus.
On the 5th of November 2013, 60 fourth-grade students from the Second Primary School Ayios Athanasios in Limassol, visited the Lab accompanied by their teachers. They had the opportunity to experience and interact with various technologies, such as: the 3D scanning of objects, Augmented Reality, a body tracking application using Kinect, as well as Virtual Reality applications in the EON Icube, the EON iCube4 VR CAVE.
A group of children was selected at random, to take part in a study conducted at the ICT Lab by Dr. Aimilia Tzanavari, Dr. Chris Christou and Ms. Skevi Matsentidou, concerning traffic education and more specifically aiming at improving road-crossing skills among children, using the EON iCube4 VR CAVE. All children used the equipment and interacted in a 3D virtual environment. The children were cooperative/responsive, very enthusiastic and inquisitive.
The use of the EON iCube4 VR CAVE in educational applications is outlined in the literature. Traffic safety education is of great importance today, as statistics indicate increasing numbers of road traffic injuries and fatalities.
The use of the EON iCube4 VR CAVE as an educational tool, with which children can gain experience on how to behave and act, without running any risk, offers an important advantage that needs to be explored.
The ongoing study, aims to identify the factors that affect/influence children with regards to traffic safety. The preliminary results of the study will be presented/ announced at the International Conference on Computer Vision Theory and Applications 2014 and the Human Computer Interaction Conference in the end of this year.
“Lessons on traffic safety involving children cannot be conducted in real life due to the high risk factor involved in the scenarios. With the use of the cutting-edge EON iCube4 VR CAVE we can virtually place the students in these high risk scenarios where they can witness everything in (virtual) reality, thus better educating them about the dangers and best practices in traffic safety,” said Dr. Charalambos Poullis, Director of the Immersive and Creative Technologies Lab, at the Cyprus University of Technology.
About The Immersive & Creative Technologies Lab
The Immersive & Creative Technologies Lab was founded in late 2011 and since its establishment it has been focusing on fundamental and applied research in specific areas of Computer Science. In particular researchers at the lab are focused in the areas of computer vision, computer graphics, Virtual/Augmented Reality and creative technologies, and their application in a wide range of fields. The ICT lab is equipped with a state-of-the-art Virtual Reality CAVE system and other cutting-edge computing and data acquisition devices such as high-speed cameras, active sensor based scanners, etc. Learn more at www.theictlab.org.
About EON Reality
EON Reality, Inc. is the world’s leading provider of Virtual Reality software, systems and applications. EON Reality provides state-of-the-art 3D display technology for immersive and stereoscopic viewing, from portable tablet PCs and glass free stereo display systems to curved-screen and immersive rooms consisting of multi-channel projection walls. The technology foundation for developing interactive digital content includes importing the most common 3D animation formats into EON’s authoring software and creating modules and applications that can be viewed on various display systems. EON’s technology solutions enable all organizations to more effectively visually communicate, collaborate and accelerate knowledge transfer. For further information, visit www.eonreality.com.