Research projects

Cognitive assistance applications have been an important field of research in the extended reality sector for many years to support people in their everyday lives. Through augmented reality technology, the lives of urban and digitalized populations can be enhanced in a very tangible way and in real-time, for example, by supporting citizens to cycle through the city or helping visually impaired people move around in everyday life or to go shopping. Modern wearable augmented reality (AR) devices, recent advances in artificial intelligence, and the wide availability of sensory environmental data and digital information are now opening up entirely new possibilities, but also entail quite a few challenges, for example, in the area of computing power.

This is where the research project CognitiveXR comes in. The platform developed as part of the project, which combines edge computing technology with artificial intelligence and augmented reality, makes it possible to move freely in an area of any size, from laboratory environments to smart cities, using common AR wearables, while receiving information in real-time.

The CognitiveXR platform provides straightforward integration capabilities for the latest mixed reality wearable technology such as the Microsoft HoloLens, Vuzix Blade, or nReal. This makes it easy for AR developers to build services based on CognitiveXR infrastructures that use AR glasses for cognitive assistance solutions. These solutions can, for example, use real-time traffic data to increase the traffic safety of cyclists in the city by pointing out dangerous situations, sharpen the situational awareness of emergency forces through background information, or even support people with visual impairments in their everyday lives through AI-supported object recognition.

The unique selling point of CognitiveXR is the combination of AI and state-of-the-art edge computing technology to optimize speed and processing power. This not only decisively increases the usage radius of AR wearables - opening up entirely new possibilities for use in smart city infrastructures - but also allows relevant information for users to reach them faster than ever before.

VRVis' main task in this project is the optimization of augmented reality technology for the implementation in cognitive assistance systems according to specific target groups. Our know-how in this area is based on years of experience in the development of VR and AR solutions for safety training or simulation scenarios, e.g., for barrier-free accessibility for people with eye diseases.