Research

The following are the current research groups in the Research Center for Virtual Environments and Behavior.

Virtual environments enable navigation researchers to achieve both control and ecological validity in naturalistic settings, while also providing the flexibility to construct multiple environments quickly and easily.
Virtual environments allow us to study the visual behavior of people with low vision, which can inform AR assistive technologies designed to enhance the natural senses. Furthermore, through the use of immersive VR, we can simulate the visual experience of people implanted with a retinal prosthesis and discover novel image encoding strategies that improve orientation and mobility.
Ambulatory exploration of virtual reality allows us to expose humans to completely novel environments, and examine in detail whether behavioral responses to these new spaces may relate to physiological changes.
Virtual reality has the potential to change how science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) topics are learned.
Understanding verbal and non-verbal interpersonal communication in VR, combined with measures of physiological stress, provides insight into human response to difficult situations.
Technology continues to advance away from desktop towards VR, AR and haptic interfaces that allow for more naturalistic and human-centered computing.