Project Overview: EnhAnced Social Interaction through Extended Reality (EASIER)
The EASIER project aims to revolutionize social interactions in virtual environments by incorporating fundamental brain mechanisms that govern human social behavior. Leveraging Extended Reality (XR) technologies and Artificial Intelligence (AI), the project introduces the concept of "Extended-Social Reality," enabling more enriched, seamless social interactions in the virtual world that mirror the complexities of human social behavior.
By 2030, virtual environments, including the metaverse, are expected to become integral to daily life, from education and work to socializing and collaboration. However, current XR technologies lack the implicit cues that facilitate natural, human social interactions. EASIER seeks to bridge this gap by enhancing avatars with the ability to synchronize their behavior using neural synchrony—mimicking the brain activity and social dynamics found in real-world interactions.
Project Objectives:
1. Develop Socially Synchronized Avatars (SSA): Avatars in the virtual world will be optimized to reflect human-like social behavior by synchronizing their movements, facial expressions, and other social signals with real-world brain activity.
2. Enhance Learning Environments: EASIER will test this new social interaction paradigm in educational settings, aiming to improve teacher-student engagement and learning outcomes. By synchronizing brain activity between teachers and students, the project expects to boost cognitive and social skills such as empathy and collaboration.
3. Advanced AI for Real-Time Synchronization: EASIER will create a real-time AI framework to measure interpersonal synchrony and optimize social interactions, making virtual experiences more realistic and effective.
This project represents a significant leap forward in social XR interfaces, providing tools for more natural, efficient, and engaging human interactions within virtual spaces.