Realidad virtual y visualización de datos

The activity of the Virtual Reality Group in CeDInt is mainly focused on the development of virtual reality, augmented reality, mixed reality, natural interaction and tracking, computer vision, and visual analysis applied to problem solving and technological challenges in areas such as: security, surveillance, smart environments and personalized automated assistance, surgery, legal and forensic medicine, architecture and landscaping, and visualization of complex data to support decision making (for instance Smart Cities).

The Virtual Reality area maintains four main research lines:

1.- VIRTUAL REALITY

The term Virtual Reality (VR) makes reference to any computer generated environment where it is possible to simulate physical presence of places in the real world and also imaginary worlds. The degree of presence inside the virtual environment depends of how immersed our senses are. To achieve this, VR makes use of real time stereoscopic graphics through different kind of display devices (HMD, StereoWall, CAVE, etc.), tracking systems to monitor one or multiple users and sensory haptic devices.

In the VR lab in CeDInt, our work has been focused mainly in the generation of realistic 3D content and applications to help the user get more involved with the content presented. We see VR as a key technology not only for the visualization and simulation of experiences but also as a great tool to help with real life problems. With this idea in mind, our VR projects have been aimed to detect and deal with these problems like the generation of a tool to reconstruct soft tissues or a monitor system for controlled environments to support decision taking.

Applications:

  • Design, modeling and visualization of objects and places of interest such as buildings, environments, products, etc.
  • Reconstruction and virtual visits to historical real places and heritage.
  • Complex data visualization and simulation of processes.
  • Formation and training of people in a collaborative way to accomplish complicated/dangerous procedures.
  • Scientific research in medicine by virtually reproducing real life conditions and study users reactions in a practical and controlled way.

 

2.- AUGMENTED REALITY

The goal of augmented reality is the integration of computer generated content over a live video or the user's environment in real time. It is quite literally the practice of enhancing what’s already around us. Unlike virtual reality, augmented reality does not create a simulation of reality. Instead, it takes a real object or space as the foundation and adds contextual data to deepen a person’s understanding of the subject. The most often used example and one of the first commercial applications of AR technology was the yellow offside line in televised soccer games.

CeDInt works in augmented reality projects, pulling graphics out of your smartphone or computer display and trying to create experiences in which the user cannot tell the difference between the real world and the virtual augmentation of it. This technique provides a development framework for the study and research in a wide range of areas like entertainment, military training, engineering design, robotics, manufacturing and other industries.

Applications:

  • Tracking users in unknown environment, using algorithms from robotic engineering, for instance SLAM and PTAM.
  • Representation of contextual information superimposed according to the geometry of the environment.
  • Possibility for users to rebuild ruins, buildings, or even landscapes as they formerly existed.
  • Provide interactive content assisting the learning process. AR also permits learning via remote collaboration.
  • Decision-making support to help industrial designers experience a product's design and operation before completion.
  • Solve complex tasks such as assembly, maintenance, and surgery.
  • Visualize building projects before the physical building is constructed. Architecture sight-seeing can be enhanced with AR applications allowing users viewing a building's exterior to virtually see through its walls viewing it's interior objects and layout.

 

 3.- COMPUTER VISION

Computer Vision, also Image Understanding, is a part of Artificial Intelligence that allows a machine to recognize the structure and properties of the environment represented in an image in the same way a human does. It applies methods like image processing, pattern recognition, statistics and graph theory.

In the Virtual Reality lab in CeDInt, Computer Vision techniques are used to support Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality areas.  These techniques process the images captured by cameras providing necessary data to the final applications, i. e. object detection or scene objects depth estimation for interaction.

Among the Computer Vision techniques employed are:

  • Segmentation
  • Feature extraction
  • Stereo Matching
  • Facial recognition
  • Scenery Reconstruction

 

4.- INFORMATION VISUALIZATION AND VISUAL ANALYTICS

Problem solving for both academic and industrial researches is heavily related with a data analysis approach. In the data-boom era, this could sound really dramatic if researchers do not rely on proper tools and methodologies in order to facilitate their insight. For those reasons, Information Visualization and Visual Analytics have become a very active area of study in the recent years. The former aims at visually depicting abstract information into a more human-understandable way; the latter enforces human ability to reason about and understand complex and dynamic scenarios through perception mechanisms. The final goal of both of them is acquiring valuable knowledge from raw data by means of interactive visual metaphors.

Our group is currently interested in the following themes:

  • Geo-spatial data representation;
  • Timeline data analysis;
  • Understanding complex patterns in urban environments;
  • Supporting policy-making actors;
  • Supporting data mining experts;
  • Representation of data features into virtual / augmented reality environment;

On October 25th, our researcher Luca Piovano was involved in the evaluation committee for the project "Artificial Reality."

Body: translated: This work was developed by students Marcos Almonacid Andrés and Diego Gutiérrez Bravo, under the guidance of Jesús Álvarez Herrera, at I.E.S. Gerardo Diego in Pozuelo de Alarcón. Within the context...

Jornadas de Geodatos 2023: map-based visualization contest with data from the Madrid Geoportal.

Body: translated: Are you interested in cartography, geo-referenced data, and data visualization? Do you want to try your skills on a set of real data to create digital story-maps about different aspects of the city...

New article published in "Applied Sciences" (MDPI)

Body: translated: The paper "Application of Machine Learning Techniques for Predicting Potential Vehicle-to-Pedestrian Collisions in Virtual Reality Scenarios" has just been published in open access journal "Applied...

CEDINT researchers attend as a tribunal to the defense of the project "New Reality" at IES Gerardo Diego.

Body: translated: On last 27 October, our researchers Franscisco Luque and Luca Piovano took part in the defense and evaluation of the research project entitled "New Reality", carried out by Gregorio Callejo...

Our researcher Luca Piovano talked about Digital Twin and Virtual Reality solutions for smart street lighting systems at EEDAL-LS 2022 international congress.

Body: translated: Which are the advantages of using Virtual Reality and Digital Twin approaches for the management of a public lighting system? How could its implementation be in practice? Our researcher Luca Piovano...

We received the visit of several high schools from the European initiative RM@Schools.

Body: translated: On April 28, 2022, we received the visit of a group of students from the IES Lázaro Cárdenas (Collado Villalba, Madrid), the IIS Ettore Majorana (Bologna, Italy) and professors from the UPM School of...

Last December 13, 2021 we received the visit of IES Gerardo Diego.

Body: translated: Last December 13, 2021 we received the visit of IES Gerardo Diego with a total of 40 visitors between students and teachers, divided into several groups. The visit began with a presentation of the...

Luca Piovano presents the OPREVU project at Smart Mobility Day 2021.

Body: translated: Our researcher Luca Piovano participated yesterday October 26th, 2021 in the Smart Mobility Day, organized by the Transnet project. During the day, which took place at the IFEMA pavilion in Madrid,...

Ángel Losada from INSIA - UPM will present tomorrow the paper "Improvement of the AEB activation algorithm based on the pedestrian reaction" in FISITA 2021.

Body: translated: Tomorrow, September 16, Ángel Losada Arias, PhD student at the University Institute for Automobile Research Francisco Aparicio Izquierdo (INSIA-UPM), will present the paper "Improvement of the AEB...

We received Javier Páez and Ángel Losada from INSIA at CeDInt.

Body: translated: Yesterday we received the visit in the Virtual and Augmented Reality Laboratory of CeDInt of the full professor Francisco Javier Páez Ayuso and the doctoral student Ángel Losada Arias, both from the...

The Virtual Reality and Data Visualization group will organize a workshop in the ETSI de Minas y Energia on April 26th.

Body: translated: The Virtual Reality and Data Visualization group of the CeDInt (Research Centre for Smart Buildings and Energy Efficiency) will organize the workshop "Virtual and Augmented Reality Tools for Mining...

Defence of Master's Final Project by Diego Sepúlveda

Body: translated: Today January 25, 2019, at the ETSI Telecomunicación-UPM,  Diego Sepúlveda Carretero, researcher of the Virtual Reality and Visual Analytics group of CeDInt, has made the Defence of Master's Final...

IV Follow-up meeting of the VirtualMine project at CeDInt.

Body: translated: On November 22 and 23, took place the fourth follow-up meeting of the VirtualMine project, led by CeDInt. In the meeting, the hand of our researchers Francisco Luque and Luca Piovano, showed the...

CeDInt at Tras la pista TV program of Telemadrid.

Body: translated: Last November 7, CeDInt appeared in the television program "Tras la pista" of Telemadrid. In it, by the hand of the deputy director of the center, Asunción Santamaría and the Virtual Reality...

CeDint develops ReVirTool, a Virtual Reality application to support the treatment of patients with alcohol use disorders.

Body: translated: CeDint UPM in collaboration with the Universidad Camilo José Cela and the Universidad Complutense de Madrid within the framework of the ReVirTool project, has developed a Virtual Reality application...

II follow-up meeting of the VirtualMine project.

Body: translated: Last week, the second consortium meeting of the VirtualMine project was held at the city of Laško (Slovenia). The project goal is the promotion and dissemination of raw materials among society (...

VirtualMine Project website is now available.

Body: translated: We are glad to announce the publishing of the VirtualMine Project website!  https://sites.google.com/view/virtualmine/home The website is intended to include all the presentations given at project...
Francisco y Álvaro en la mina de la ETSIME

CeDInt visits the E.T.S.I MINAS – UPM Mine.

Body: translated: Yesterday, April 22, Francisco Pedro Luque, CeDInt researcher, visited the facilities of the E.T.S.I. MINES - UPM. The visit, as part of the VirtualMine project, consisted of knowing the mine that...

Available the issues of VirtualMine Project newsletter.

Body: translated: The third issue of the VirtualMine project bulletin is now available. We also attach the comic book “Kobold the Treasurer and a history of raw materials in a nutshell”. The comic book was created in...

Virtual and Augmented reality in the Raw Materials Unversity Day.

Body: translated: PhD. Luca Piovano, a CeDInt researcher of the Virtual Reality and Visual Analytics group, presented his talk ("Virtual and Augmented Reality experiences in mining and other fields") as our...

URGENT. Offer of 2 scholarships for the VirtualMine project

Body: translated: UPM centers CEDINT and ETSI Minas offer  2 scholarships for students at the last year of the Degree in Ingeniería en Tecnología Minera (Engineering in  Mining Technology) and related (GITM, GIG) or...

Ph D. Luca Piovano, researcher at CeDInt, guest speaker at the Raw Materials University Day in Madrid

Body: translated: Ph D. Luca Piovano, CeDInt-UPM researcher, will make a presentation about the Virtual Mine project (https://eitrawmaterials.eu/course/virtualmine/) and the Virtual reality role in the project. The...

Kick-off meeting of the VirtualMine Project in Wroclaw (Poland)

Body: translated: Last April 24th took place the kick-off meeting of the VirtualMine project in the headquarters of the project leader, KGHM Cuprum Ltd., in Wroclaw (Poland) The main goal of the project is to increase...

Dissertation of Doctoral Thesis by Iris Galloso

Body: translated: Last December 16th, 2015, Iris Galloso,Virtual Reality Group leader of CeDInt, has made her Phd dissertation in the auditory of CeDInt. Her work titled: "User experience with inmersive and...

Mr. Lahcen Daoudi Minister of High Education of Moroco visits CeDInt

Body: translated: As part of his official visit to Spain Mr. Lahcen Daoudi, Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research of Moroco, visited CeDInt premises and instalations. Mr. Lahcen Daoudi took advantage of...

Results of Immersive TV project presented in CeDInt

Body: translated: Yesterday April 24th, 2013 took place the presentation of results of the IMMMERSIVE-TV project leaded by INDRA in the premises of CeDInt. In the event were present the technological contributors of...

Top marks for David Garrido in his Graduation Project.

Body: translated: Last April 4th David Garrido, researcher of the Virtual Reality group of CeDInt, gave a lecture on his graduation project titled: "Developement of a network aplication for 3D visualization of skulls...

French Ambassador in Madrid visits CeDInt

Body: translated: French Ambassador in Madrid Mr. Jérôme Bonnafont  and Science and Technology Advisor , Mr. Bertrand Bouchet  Visited the Montegancedo Campus last April 20th and in particular they Visited the CeDInt...

Excelent 4th edition ofl JVRC, coorganized by Facultad de Informática and CeDInt.

Body: translated: Last friday October 19th JVRC 2012 was oficialy over. This 4th edition took place in Spain for the very first time and was coorganized by the Computer Science School, and the Virtual Rality...

Craneo Project awarded by ComputerWorld

Body: translated: Craneo has been laureate by ComputerWorld in October 2011. The project was developed through the cooperation of four entities: T-Systems, CeDInt, EML (School of Forensic Medicine) of the...

CeDInt In "Salud" Magazine (Vocento Group)

Body: translated: Past July 17th Iris Galloso fwas interviewed for the "Salud" Magacine of Vocento Group. Iris Galloso explained during the interview different projects in the Virtual reality area related to health...

CeDInt, participant in the innovation area of Campus Party 2011

Body: translated: Campus Party is recognised as the biggest gathering for technology, creativity and digital culture entusiasts in the world. It's been celebrated anualy since 1997 and reunites thousands of...

Leticia Carnero, accesit to "V Treelogic award to Innovative spirit"

Body: translated: Leticia Carnero, CeDInt-UPM, researcher has been awarded with an accesit in the Treelogic Awards 2011. Los Premios Treelogic se celebran anualmente y tienen por objetivo reconocer, estimular...

CeDInt interviewed by national radio program Fallo de sistema.

Body: translated: Iris Galloso participated past May 8th i the national radio program Fallo de sistema (RNE3). Durante el programa Realidad virtual, virtualidad real (08/05/11) Iris Galloso comentó diversos...

Very high coverage of the Immersive TV project in media.

Body: translated: El proyecto “Immersive TV: Una aproximación a los medios inmersivos” liderado por Indra, ha sido financiado por el Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación en la convocatoria Avanza I+D del 2010. El...

CeDInt-UPM on "Tres14" of TVE (Spanish Television).

Body: translated: Last January 30, TVE2 (Spanish Television) broadcast the TV program "Aprendizaje" ("Learning"), in which the learning process of the future was discussed. During the program, several...

III ComunicacionesHoy Award

Body: translated: CeDInt has been awarded with the III ComunicacionesHoy Award of GrupoTPI. This award recognizes the best ICT products, solutions and projects carried out during the year, as well as innovative...
Fran Luque

III Treelogic Award

Body: translated: On April 21th of 2009, Mr. Francisco Luque was awarded with the second prize of Treelogic Awards to Innovative Spirit. Mr. Luque presented the project DVD carried out at CeDInt-UPM in cooperation...

Projects

VIRESTREEP

VIRESTREEP is an innovative research project aimed at enhancing the safety of Vulnerable Road Users (VRUs), including pedestrians, cyclists, and users of E-Powered Personal Mobility Vehicles, in...

VULNEUREA

The project addresses a pending area of research related to modelling the behavior of VRUs (pedestrians, cyclists, and users of E-Powered Personal Mobility Vehicles e-PMVs) in potentially risky...

BetterGeoEdu 2.0

BetterGeoEdu will develop teaching material using BetterGeo – a modification of the immensely popular game Minecraft. Teaching material will be tailored for primary schools...

OPREVU

The behavior of pedestrians and users of two-wheeled vehicles (vulnerable road users, VRU) in collision risk situations during the pre-collision phase is not well known due to...

SuperVR

Nowadays, there is a new generation of affordable Virtual Reality (VR) headsets entering the market (Oculus, HTC-Vive, Samsung Gear, etc.). However, VR headsets still have to...

VirtualMine

The main goal of the project VirtualMine is to increase the awareness among local community about the importance of raw materials and its possible use for better development of...

INTUIT

INTUIT, as a SESAR Exploratory Research project, has explored the potential of visual analytics and machine learning to improve the understanding of the trade-offs...

ReVirTool

Project based on the use of Virtual Reality for the treatment of patients with alcohol dependence.

 

INSIGHT

INSIGHT (Innovative Policy Modelling and Governance Tools for Sustainable Post-Crisis Urban Development) is a research project funded under the ICT Theme of the European Union's...

MixTur

 

Development of a mobile platform capable of offering a personalized service within face-to-face fairs, such as route calculation and presentation of...

3DDB

The project aims at developing a robust and no-invasive tracking system being able to process, visualize and reconstruct the 3D information about...

THOFU

Application of new technologies to the hotels of the future, to make them more comfortable for customers and offer new services and ways of interaction.

 

IMMERSIVE TV

The purpose of this project is to research on the immersive digital content production and all the involved value chain (production, transmission and reception), developing the...

IDS3D

Development of a platform, accessible through a web portal, to identify and track a set of events and targets taking place or moving in a controlled environment.

...
evMIC

The objective of this project was the creation of an interoperable, user-centered platform to enable the creation of virtual learning environments, overcoming current...

CRÁNEO

Development of a software application to reconstruct individual faces starting from their skull in legal and forensic medicine.

DVD

Development of systems aimed at improving the usability of domotic gateways for general population and, particularly, for limited mobility people (disabled or elderly people)....

Publications and other relevant activities

Towards a Digital Twin for Smart Street Lighting systems Using a Virtual Reality interface Congress 06/2022
Improvement of the AEB activation algorithm based on the pedestrian reaction Congress 09/2021
Extended Reality and Data Visualisation experiences in mining and other activities Dissertation by Invitation 01/2020
VirtualMine: Aplicación de la Realidad Virtual, Aumentada y Mixta en el Aprendizaje y la Difusión de Contenidos sobre la Minería Congress 10/2019
Virtual and Augmented Reality Tools for Mining Activities and the Raw Materials life cycle Congress 04/2019
Diseño de sensor ambiental IoT de bajo consumo, alimentado mediante energía solar Other (Thesis...) 01/2018
Virtual and Augmented Reality experiences in mining and other fields. Dissertation by Invitation 11/2017
Visual Analytics and Machine Learning for Air Traffic Management Performance Modelling: Preliminary Findings of the INTUIT Project and Prospects for Future Research Congress 11/2016
On the influence of individual characteristics and personality traits on the user experience with multi-sensorial media: an experimental insight JRC-SCI Magazine 02/2016
EXPERIENCIA DE USUARIO EN ENTORNOS 3D INMERSIVOS E INTERACTIVOS Other (Thesis...) 12/2015
Evento satélite del congreso internacional NetSci 2015 Special Participation 06/2015
Iris Galloso nombrada Miembro substituto por España en el comité de gestión Special Participation 01/2015
Novel Approaches to Immersive Media: From Enlarged Field-of-View to Multi-sensorial Experiences Book/Chapter 01/2015
Perception and visual cues Congress 09/2014
Introduction to data visualization Congress 09/2014
Integration of multi-sensorial stimuli and multi-modal interaction in a hybrid 3DTV system.  JRC-SCI Magazine 09/2014
Desarrollo de un sistema de estimación de mapas de profundidad densos a partir de secuencias reales de vídeo 3D Other (Thesis...) 05/2014
Iris Galloso Miembro substituto por España en el comité de gestión Special Participation 01/2014
Evento satélite del congreso europeo ECCS 2014 Special Participation 01/2014
Evaluadora de la ANEP en la Convocatoria de Infraestructuras Científico-Tecnológicas 2012-2013 Special Participation 01/2014
A Perceptive Insight into Cities Patterns by Visualizing Urban Economies Congress 01/2014
What (Smart) Data Visualizations Can Offer to Smart City Science Other Indexed Magazine (RIND) 01/2014
Luca Piovano Miembro por España en el comité de gestión acción COST Special Participation 02/2013
Experimental Prototype Merging Stereo Panoramic Video and Interactive 3D Content in a 5-sided CAVETM. (Conceptual Design and Preliminary Results) Congress 10/2012
Tracking multiple humans in large environments: proposal for an indoor markerless tracking system. Congress 01/2012
Unified 3D Application for Identification and Tracking in Controlled Environments Dissertation by Invitation 11/2011
Computerized Three-Dimmensional Craniofacial Reconstruction from Skulls Based on Landmarks Congress 09/2011
IDT-3D: Identification and tracking in controlled environments using a 3D unified user interface Congress 05/2011
Virtual Domotic Systems: a 3D Interaction Technique to Control Virtual Building Devices Using Residential Gateways Congress 07/2010
A Web-Oriented Application for 3D Craniofacial Reconstruction in Forensic Medicine. Congress 07/2010
Virtual Domotic systems: a New 3D Multi-User, Highly Immersive and Intiuitive Interface for Residential Gateways Other Indexed Magazine (RIND) 01/2009

OptiTrack motion detection system

Our sophisticated system installed in CeDInt's Virtual Reality Lab has an OptiTrack motion capture system composed of the following elements:

Laptops and computers

In the Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality Laboratory of CeDInt we have a wide range of computers and laptops for higher performance in 3D modeling and texturing tasks, creatio

Tablets

The use of the Augmented Reality technique in CeDInt has a great role in our laboratory.

Wacom Graphic Tablets

In the Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality Lab we have two Wacom Cintiq 22 graphic tablets with Interactive Creative Monitor, Adjustable Support, 1920 x 1080 F

HTC VIVE and Oculus Rift HMDs

These VR Head Mounted Displays are equipped with a tracking system that allow to experience immersive environments adapted to the user in any place.

Scanner Laser 3D LDI Surveyor CS

For objects of larger sizes.

It allows to scan ovjects larger than one meter in diameter with an accuracy of less than 10 microns.

Desktop 3D Laser scaner

For parts of medium and small size (NextEngine Desktop 3D Scanner). 

For smaller objects 20 cm diameter 3D profile is obtained to within 1 micron

3D powder color printer model ZCORP 510.

Manufacturing system by layers.

Special high resolution Plaster (resin) with color binder.

Allows impressions of objects in color with resolutions of 330 dpi in all three axes.

Portable VR System

The Portable VR System, allow us to take VR demos to congresses, exhibitions or to the customer site. Ir consists of:

3D PowerWall®

CeDInt counts on an advanced back proyection wall with capacity for 30 people and the following caracteristics:

Resin powder color 3D printer model ZCORP 510

· Addition of layers manufacturing system.

· Special Plaster (resin) for high resolution with color binder.

NextEngine Desktop 3D Scanner

· Desktop 3D laser scanner for pieces of medium and small size.

· For objects smaller than 20 cm diameter it obtains the 3D profile with a precision of 1 µm.

3D LDI Surveyor CS Laser Scanner System

· For large pieces.

· Allows the scanning of objects larger than 1 meter in diameter with a precision of less than 10 µm.

Digital Manufacturing Lab

Space of objects production that groups equipment and latest machines that allow promote creativity, minimize design cycles and improve the process of creating new products objects.

5-Sided Cave® (i-Space®)

CeDInt counts with an i-SPACE® infrastructure, a Cave Automated Virtual Environment of 5 rear projection screens arranged in CUBE (three walls, floor and ceiling) and

Asunción Santamaría's picture
Asunción Santamaría Galdón
Luca Piovano's picture
Dr. Luca Piovano
Alvaro Fernandez's picture
Álvaro Fernández Robledo
Francisco Pedro Luque Oostrom's picture
Francisco Pedro Luque Oostrom
Lucas Saenz's picture
Lucas Saenz
Alba Marín Maceda's picture
Marín Maceda, Alba
Maria José García Cabrera's picture
María José García Cabrera