MavricXR - MR VR AR 360 Prototypes and Products

Welcome to the MavricXR Prototypes Database.

Advances in computing and displays have enabled a recent surge in low-cost innovation, such as mixed-reality (MR) devices, augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR), including Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML). These new capabilities have resulted in substantial interest in the development of high precision extended reality (XR) devices.

Clinical researchers and high-precision device developers have begun to leverage this nascent technology for surgery and interventional procedures, diagnostics, and therapeutics. While these applications present new opportunities, the adoption, impact, and longevity of XR applications hinges upon the development of evaluation techniques, quantitative assessment of the effectiveness, and a clear understanding of the value added by XR over current practice standards.

Computer science faculty member Jolanda Tromp said the XR First academic initiative has provided impetus for establishing the college’s first dedicated virtual reality lab in Shineman Center, as well as providing five state-of-the-art VR headsets and the company’s CryEngine platform for software development.

Involved in virtual reality research since her graduate psychology work at the University of Amsterdam and doctoral research at the University of Nottingham in the mid-‘90s, Tromp said she connects students and industry/academic collaborations through contacts in the field.

MavricXR - VR and AR Products is an initiative to facilitate the creation of XR prototyping, for companies and universities, with the aim of building a worldwide network of XR developers who share in a global knowledge base and exchange network. Besides SUNY Oswego, partners include Granada University, University of Malaga, Duy Tan University and other institutions in various countries.

Virtual reality—the three-dimensional simulation of an environment that enables user interaction in a seemingly real way—has been around for decades. Tromp said developers are now riding a “third wave” of interest in VR applications.

“It’s becoming affordable, the technology is improving and the headsets are smaller and more comfortable to wear,” she said. “It is an incredibly complex challenge to create VR games and other content. There is a need for software development talent in this field.”

Students in Tromp’s graduate-level course in virtual reality last spring began diving into research to apply VR software to applications that go beyond games into the realms of medicine, marketing, anorexia treatment, meditation, psychotherapy, space travel, engineering, journalism and more.

“This is all about practical, mainstream applications of VR,” Tromp said. “Games and military applications have been driving the envelope for software and hardware until now.”

Pain management

Ryan Kikta, a second-year graduate student in human-computer interaction (HCI), has been working under Tromp’s mentorship on a software application called Analgesia, designed to assist people with dental phobias, lengthy burn treatments or other pain-management situations. Through the use of a virtual reality headset, patients are distracted from ongoing treatment though immersion as they experience the sights and sounds of a non-medical virtual environment. Preliminary studies show this may make for a significant decrease in the need for anesthesia or prescription painkillers, Tromp said.

Kikta was among students accompanying Tromp this summer to Spain’s University of Granada, where research is under way in applications that provide virtual rehearsal of life skills. For example, second-year HCI graduate student Jamie Garcia continues to research an application to create touchstone “memories” for people with early-onset dementia.

HCI student Chris Stultz said he is doing an experiment to determine how older people react to virtual reality software—to mixed results so far.

“I tested my experimental setup by having my 84-year-old Grandpa try this out,” Stultz said. “It was a trip to watch him view the images. My Grandma was having none of it. These are the types of reactions I’m researching.”

Virtual applications have mushroomed as interest in VR software and hardware have surged. Tromp said there are programs to provide training for machine repair in dangerous environments; to travel through the human body, see its anatomy up close and practice surgery; to get inside molecular structures in biology and chemistry; and to pre-analyze engineering designs of complex devices.

“It’s a green technology,” she said. “It saves resources and time. Its flexibility is incomparable.”

Tromp, who has provided XR design workshop at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2017, offers the graduate-level mixed reality class again this spring. As work continues on building XR and XR development tools, Tromp said, she had received a curriculum innovation grant to develop the XR lab. Undergraduates—anyone on campus—can propose projects for the XR lab, she said, and collaboration with companies off-campus is actively encouraged, contributing to opportunities for student internships.