Inria Rennes and Irisa open Immersia, their new immersive room

Inria Rennes and Irisa open Immersia, their new immersive room

Inria’s and Irisa’s new immersive room is designed for scientific or industrial research projects on a regional, national or European scale.

The Inria Rennes Bretagne Atlantique Centre and the Irisa laboratory have created a new immersive room that is one of the world’s largest virtual reality facilities.

It is located in the Espace des technologies innovantes on the Beaulieu campus in Rennes. With a length of 9.60 metres, a width of 3 metres and a height of 3 metres, Immersia gives scientists from the Institute new research possibilities in terms of immersive quality and multimodal interaction.

The room consists of three glass walls and an acrylic floor on which eleven projectors display a high-resolution image. The impression of relief is created by an active stereoscopic process combined with 3D glasses. Better colour reproduction also heightens the sense of realism and immersion. Sixteen infrared cameras follow moving objects within this space. In addition to the visual equipment, there is a processor that regulates the spatialisation of the sound depending on the user’s movements. Scientists also have two tactile feedback arms and a headset that recovers the electrical signals directly on the surface of the brain.

The use of all this equipment is made easier by software that has, for the most part, been developed in Rennes by researchers and lecturer-researchers from joint teams with Inria: OpenMASK for the development of applications dedicated to virtual reality, GVT for vocational training exercises and OpenViBE for the management of machine/brain interfaces.

Thanks to this equipment, the new room can be used for experiments requiring not only good immersive output but also the ability to work with complex scenarios.

Immersia is a research tool open to other scientists. Inria’s industrial partners can also access to the room, notably through the new Technology Research Institute, B-com.
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