Tilburg University starts lab for augmented reality

Tilburg University is going to build a training and research laboratory that is completely dedicated to augmented reality. The lab will provide the opportunity to hold lectures and conduct research in a virtually created environment.

The new lab should allow students to participate in, for example, lawsuits and board meetings or attend an operation in an operating room. In addition, the virtual environment can be used to test the interaction of robots with patients in, for example, a hospital.

Tilburg University hopes that by using the laboratory, students and researchers will find answers to how people think, feel and behave in different environments. In addition, the lab offers the possibility to conduct experiments related to virtual reality. The university believes that in this way students are better prepared for their future social function.

The augmented reality labs currently in use in Europe have a primarily technological focus. With its training and research laboratory, Tilburg University, on the other hand, emphasizes how people behave in certain situations, which, according to the university, is currently lacking in other laboratories.

For the foundation of the new laboratory, the university received a donation of several hundred thousand euros from a philanthropic fund, which wishes to remain anonymous. The lab, which will be used later this year, is planned to be built on the university campus. Professor Max Louwerse, who teaches artificial intelligence and is part of the Tilburg center for Cognition and Communication, will set up the new research environment.