Entertainment at your fingertips

Entertainment at your fingertips

Home entertainment could soon be experienced in four dimensions as a result of upcoming research at Victoria University of Wellington.

The project, which involves a multi-disciplinary team from New Zealand and Korea, will investigate how computer graphics and emerging interactive technologies can be combined to create new, immersive, home entertainment experiences.

The New Zealand team, led by Dr Taehyun Rhee from Victoria’s School of Engineering and Computer Science, will be made up of researchers from across Victoria and the University of Canterbury.

“4D is already popular in cinemas in Korea. What we’re doing could bring that technology into people’s homes,” says Dr Rhee who, prior to his role as a lecturer, worked in the Korean technology industry for 17 years.

Dr Rhee says at the end of the project, the team hopes to have a prototype which allows people to touch and manipulate what’s on the screen in front of them.

The user would need to attach a haptic feedback device to their fingers while wearing a head mounted virtual display such as an Oculus Rift. They would then be able to see their own hand as part of the action and reach out to touch what is happening in front of them.

Dr Rhee said it is too early to know how much can be achieved but it’s possible users will be able to feel texture as well as force.

Both the New Zealand and Korean teams plan to collaborate with industry partners with the potential to commercialise the prototype after the project is complete. Dr Rhee says once the technology at this end is developed, the entertainment will need to catch up.

“Movies with this kind of interactive technology are not out there yet. They will be a bit like a mix of a film and a computer game.”

The research is being made possible by a three-year grant from the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment. The Korean team, from Korea University and Ewha Woman’s University, will be funded by the Korean government.

The funding of $150,000 per year will go towards supporting one PhD student and up to nine Master’s students to work on the project over the next three years.

An important aim of the grant is to broaden New Zealand’s research base to enable sustainable partnerships with South Korea.

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