Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT-Madras) announced plans to develop an Extended Reality (XR) Centre for the Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL), the country’s largest steel-making public sector undertaking.
The Experiential Technology Innovation Centre (XTIC) will showcase the latest innovations in augmented reality/virtual reality/mixed reality (AR/VR/MR) and haptic technologies. According to a statement by IIT-Madras, SAIL will use the advanced technologies created at the centre to promote research and development in the domain of XR. The centre will come up at the Management Training Institute (MTI), a SAIL unit located at Ranchi.
SAIL-MTI and IIT-Madras have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to cooperate on the applications of XR and other technologies in steel manufacturing. SAIL-MTI has asked IIT-Madras to function as a knowledge partner in the design, development, and deployment of short-term and long-term new-age training modules and a lab for training purposes.
Principle Investigator, XTIC-IIT Madras, M. Manivannan, explained that XR technologies have the potential to add value in many aspects of steel making, and by that extension, the entire lifecycle of steel. This XTIC is India’s first research and product innovation centre for XR and haptics technology It is a transdisciplinary centre that includes engineering, medicine, psychology, and arts. As XR is highly interdisciplinary, innovations in this field need a confluence of minds from different fields, the statement said.
SAIL and IIT-Madras will work to develop various advanced technologies for the design and development of innovative training programmes that incorporate AI, machine learning (ML), extended reality, drones, 3D printing, robotics, and haptics. The XTIC will develop XR technologies for SAIL-MTI as well as train SAIL employees in the technology and help them with future virtual reality systems.
The centre has also established CAVE, a consortium of start-ups and industries in the field of XR and haptics in the country. The ecosystem led by XTIC will help design future Digital Twins for SAIL-MTI.
While most of the research labs around the world are focusing on either software or hardware components of XR, the centre in IIT-Madras is focusing on the fundamentals of XR-human factors, particularly perception and illusion, pioneering a new field of perceptual engineering, and perceptual algebra.
Countries around the world are investing in XR for several applications across domains. In January, researchers from the National University of Singapore (NUS) created the HaptGlove, a lightweight, untethered haptic glove for virtual environments. It aims to provide a more realistic and authentic sense of touch and movement when interacting with virtual objects, enhancing the overall immersive experience in virtual reality.
HaptGlove uses proprietary software developed by the NUS research team to achieve a visual-haptic delay of fewer than 20 milliseconds. As OpenGov Asia reported, this is faster than conventional haptic gloves and provides a near-real-time user experience. The latest prototype is also more comfortable to wear, weighing only 250 grams, much lighter than commercially available haptic gloves that weigh over 450 grams.
Apart from gaming, the HaptGlove could be used in applications in the fields of medicine and education, such as assisting surgeons to better prepare for an operation by simulating a hyper-realistic environment or giving students a hands-on learning experience by simulating palpation on different body parts.
