VR for everyone! ST Engineering Antycip enables people with reduced mobility to access virtual reality
ST Engineering Antycip recently reached a new milestone in its integrator experience, enabling the University of Caen in Normandy to offer users with reduced mobility the opportunity to fully immerse themselves in its virtual reality room (also known as CAVE).
Since 2014, the Interdisciplinary Center for Virtual Reality (CIREVE), which supports researchers and companies in developing, researching, and producing virtual reality content, has had a custom-built CAVE installed by ST Engineering Antycip, the largest ever installed in a French university.
The CAVE allows users to interact with dynamic content projected on four walls of screens to ensure total immersion. As part of its research, the university subsequently installed a 3 m x 2.5 m treadmill to add a dimension of movement during use.
A CAVE must offer a view of content from eye level to maintain an optimal level of realism. However, the treadmill presented accuracy problems concerning the projected information due to its size and height.
“The use of the treadmill greatly reduced the immersion quality of CAVE, and to ensure users’ balance, we equipped it with safety handrails on the sides,” explains Sophie Madeleine, director of CIREVE. “In addition, users with reduced mobility were not able to use the mobility features and total accessibility was crucial for us.”
“Installing the largest virtual reality room in France in a university environment, building an excavation in the floor of the CAVE to accommodate the mobile platform equipped with a force platform, designing a dual use of this space (with or without the platform) to take advantage of the entire projection surface are the challenges Antycip faced to meet the needs of our researchers.”
Therefore, after conducting structural and feasibility studies, ST Engineering Antycip decided to integrate the platform into the floor and make it retractable through jacks that allow it to be placed at floor height or retracted below when not in use.
Johan Besnainou, Director of France and Spain at ST Engineering Antycip, explains that it was necessary to assimilate the interaction between the device and the content, but also to ensure that the structural integrity of the foundation and the device was not compromised:
“In this project, we were able to demonstrate all of our capabilities as project managers in converting technical specifications into a workable job, managing the needs of the end customer and the limitations of external stakeholders, all while coordinating teams on site.”
ST Engineering Antycip turned to construction expert SPIE to create a cavity in the floor that could accommodate the automated platform.
“Again, despite the high complexity of the project, we managed to get the right suppliers to cooperate, select the right materials, and overcome difficulties to meet our client’s needs and expectations. We are pleased that CIREVE and the university can now take full advantage of this virtual reality room,” says Johan Besnainou.
Sophie Madeleine concludes, “This latest upgrade is the culmination of nearly ten years of collaboration between Antycip and our university, which has resulted in a virtual reality center at the forefront of research at the European level.
