Smile to move forward in VR!

Posted February 23, 2022

Our face can unlock our phone and confirm our identity in many occasions. So why not help us interact in a virtual reality world?

In the 1930s, author Stanley G. Weinbaum wrote a science fiction story called Pygmalion’s Spectacles, in which he refers to a pair of glasses that allow the wearer to immerse themselves in a world of virtual reality through holograms, touch, taste. and smell. To date we do not have technology so advanced that allows the user to experience what Stanley G. Weinbaum described, but we are definitely one step closer!

A team of researchers from the University of South Australia, managed to use the natural expressions of the face make them trigger actions in a virtual reality without the help of a controller.

Woman experiencing VR simulation

However, in order to achieve the above, neural processing techniques were used so that they could detect facial movement and perform the corresponding movement in the virtual reality environment. The various facial expressions could be detected through an EEG Headset, which records brain activity.

The scientists designed 3 different virtual environments for their experiment – one happy, one neutral and one scary – where they would measure the perception and psychological state of the people who participated in this experiment.

Initially, in the happy scenario, the person wearing the headset was in a park and had been assigned to catch butterflies with a net he had with him. The user moved forward when smiling and stopped when he frowned. Continuing in the neutral scenario, he was in a workshop and their “quest” was to collect items that were on the floor. To lift an object, they had to clench their lower jaw. They were given the same instructions in the scary scenario, where they were in a basement and they had to shoot zombies.

The researchers concluded that they expected the VR experience using a controller to be easier and more familiar to the user. However, the people who participated in the experiment reported that they were even more immersed in virtual reality where they controlled their movements with their expressions, as it seemed more realistic to them.

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