Design of an instrumented and AI-ready virtual reality headset for next-generation immersive applications (Phase 1)

最近的预测表明，到2025年，全球增强（AR）和虚拟现实（VR）市场将达到8147亿美元。这些预测是由广泛领域的新兴应用驱动的，包括娱乐，游戏，医疗保健，航空航天和国防，制造业，零售和教育等。这一增长的很大一部分将归功于5G无线通信网络的实施，该网络承诺更快的速度，更低的延迟，更广泛的覆盖范围和更稳定的连接，从而实现AR/VR应用，其中用户不再被束缚在机器上。然而，为了充分释放这一潜力，仍然需要创新，以便i）减轻晕动病的影响，这仍然影响着大约50%的VR用户，ii）改善用户的存在感，沉浸感和参与感，iii）构建针对特定用户（用户感知）的应用程序，从而提高体验质量（QoE）。只有将神经生理传感器直接嵌入到头戴式显示器（HMD）中，才能实现这些创新，从而允许实时测量用户认知因素，并用于“动态”调整应用程序，以最大限度地提高QoE。该提案建立在申请人开发的关于可穿戴生物信号质量测量和增强以及伪影鲁棒特征分析的知识产权的基础上;这些是使记录的信号可用的关键特征。因此，这个I2 I第一阶段项目将彻底改变对加拿大重要的几个垂直领域的VR应用，包括医疗保健、企业培训和国防/航空航天等。该项目将开发一个原型，供多个行业使用，其中许多行业已经表示有兴趣在设备准备就绪后进行试验。

Recent projections suggest that the global augmented (AR) and virtual reality (VR) market will reach US$814.7 billion by 2025. These projections are driven by emerging applications across a wide range of domains, including entertainment, gaming, healthcare, aerospace and defense, manufacturing, retail, and education, to name a few. A large part of this growth will be in consequence of the implementation of 5G wireless communication networks, which promise faster speeds, lower latencies, wider coverage, and more stable connections, thus enabling AR/VR applications in which the user is no longer tethered to a machine. To fully unlock this potential, however, innovations are still needed in order to i) mitigate the effects of motion sickness, which still affects roughly 50% of VR users, ii) improve the user's perception of presence, immersion, and engagement, and iii) build applications that are tailored to a specific user (user-aware), thus improving the quality of experience (QoE). These innovations will only be made possible once neurophysiological sensors are embedded directly into the head-mounted display (HMD), thus allowing for user cognitive factors to be measured in real-time and used to adapt applications "on-the-fly" to maximize QoE. This proposal builds on intellectual property developed by the applicant on wearable biosignal quality measurement and enhancement, as well as on artifact-robust feature analysis; these are crucial features to make the recorded signals usable. As such, this I2I Phase 1 project will revolutionize VR applications across several verticals important to Canada, including healthcare, corporate training, and defence/aerospace, to name a few. The project will enable the development of a prototype to be used by industry across several sectors, many of which have already shown interest in trialing the device once it is ready.