Immersive VR study explores human response to virtual stimuli

--from CS Newsfeed

Researchers in the Presenccia project have conducted several experiments designed to help understand human response to stimuli in immersive virtual environments. One area the studies are helping in is social research—specifically, how individuals would act in situations in which conducting real-world experiments is dangerous, unethical, or impractical. An upcoming virtual experiment, for example, will study how people react to violence in public. The researchers hope to use their findings to develop applications to help people overcome phobias, to create training simulators for combat, flight, and driving, and to aid people use prosthetic limbs. The research team includes members from diverse fields, including the neuroscience, psychology, psychophysics, mechanical engineering, and philosophy communities. (Science Daily)

Interestingly, this is an FP6 Integrated Project mainly comprising universities and no publications in 2008. Seems this project is already over ... mmmh, I thought they could probably contribute to the ongoing MPEG-V activity.