Belfast-based software development company Sentireal have teamed up with Queen’s University Belfast (QUB) researchers on a Research & Development project aimed at accessibility to Extended Reality (XR) use by non-technical educators. The project engaged various social work, education, medical and sonic arts researchers associated with QUB to focus on various safety-critical applications.
The project’s primary objective was the creation of a software and media platform that educators could use to author immersive experiences to train student social workers. The project focus was on Authoring Virtual/Augmented Reality media and associated software apps for safety-critical training applications. Often the domain expert or educator wishing to author this type of immersive training scenario would need significant experience in specialist technical areas. The project sought to develop the appropriate techniques and software tools for non-technical specialists to author adaptive immersive experiences to train student social workers. Eliminating the need for third party specialist for the technical tasks the objective would minimise costs and give direct agency to the intended practitioners in the hands-on design of the software.
Sentireal is now utilising the outcomes from this R&D project to feed into a wider Sentireal R&D and product development programme for a new software platform called “immersonal”.
Sentireal was founded in 2013 and based in Belfast. The company’s projects focus on the fields of augmented and virtual reality, artificial intelligence and machine learning. Their team have expertise in audio and video processing, digital communications, data security and System-on-Chip.
For more information on Sentireal visit: https://www.sentireal.com
TEAM:
Sentireal Team
Dr. David Trainor, Chief Technology Officer.
Greta Kelly, XR Content Designer
Ryan Pendleton, XR Content Designer
Philip Caraher, XR Application Developer
Queen’s University Belfast Team
Dr. Paul Best, School of Social Sciences, Education and Social Work
Dr. Carolyn Blair, School of Social Sciences, Education and Social Work
Dr. Janine Stockdale, School of Nursing and Midwifery
John Doran, School of Medicine, Dentistry and Biomedical Sciences
Dr. Franziska Schroeder, Sonic Arts Research Centre, School of Arts, English & Languages
Dr. Matilde Meireles, Sonic Arts Research Centre, School of Arts, English & Languages
Michael McKnight, Sonic Arts Research Centre, School of Arts, English & Languages
Hanna Slattne, Sonic Arts Research Centre, School of Arts, English & Languages
This project was funded by a Future Screens NI Research & Development award.