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Project « INgénierie CARaïbéenne pour Systèmes IMmersifs Anti-Discriminatoire (INCAR-SIMAD) » :
a brief synthesis
This project uses the technologies of Virtual Reality to modify the perception that healthy subjects usually have towards persons living with Aids (PLWA) and showing the AIDS stigmata.
This technology not only allows the creation of virtual environments looking like the real ones, but also the total immersion of the tested subject inside this virtual environment.This technology also allows the immersed subject to interact in a natural way with the objects present inside the virtual environment.
At Stanford University, the Professor Jeremy Bailenson, Director of the Virtual Human Interaction Laboratory (VHIL) showed that a subject’s mental representation in the virtual environment in which he(she) is immersed modifies his (her) behaviour inside this virtual environment. We will use the conclusions of this experiment to modify a healthy subject’s behaviour towards a PLWA by making him live the most common discriminations that a PLWA lives of a daily basis. In order to accomplish this, software bricks will be designed that present different discrimination scenarios.
Therefore, the project INCAR-SIMAD, through modifying the virtual mental self representation of the healthy subject, aims at modifying this subject’s behaviour. The subject will be immersed in a virtual environment and brought in front of a virtual mirror. This mirror will change the virtual mental representation of the subject. This mental representation will be the one of subject that presents the Aids stigmata in a more or less agressive manner. The level of agressivity of the virtual representation will depend on the discriminatory level (DL) of the subject. This DL will be computed by the system.
The partners involved in this project are :
- The University of Stanford, VHIL laboratory, Professor Jeremy BAILENSON ;
- « Institut Supérieur des Sciences et Techniques de l’Ingénieur d’Angers » (ISTIA), Presence & Innovation laboratory, Professors Simon RICHIR and Patrick CORSI ;
- The University of the West Indies (UWI), Professor Roderick SANATAN, Professor Claudette FRANCIS ;
- « Ecole Supérieure d’Infotronique d’Haïti » (ESIH), Presence & Innovation Haïti Laboratory, Director LPI-Haïti, Patrick ATTIE ;
- « Agence Universitaire de la Francophonie » (AUF), Director, Caribbean Office, Professor Emile TANAWA.
The application presented here is composed of several software layers, each layer feeding the next one with accumulated data. Several databases will be created to store and structure those data extracted during the subject’s experience inside the virtual world. Those data will be processed and analyzed according to well defined protocols. Those protocols will be designed by the partners involved in the project
Finally, such a system will easily be modified in order to be adapted to a new region or country. The following aspects will have to be considered :
- The language;
- The cultural aspects of the country or the considered region. Those cultural differences might result in a modification of the virtual environments as well as the scenarios involved.
The implementation of such a system will allow the emergence, in the Caribbean Region, of a new technological competency know-how with very high added value, while addressing a world problem called « aids discrimination » that is present all over the world. Once the solution is mastered and adopted, it will be easily adapted to other forms of discriminations (racism, immigration officers, etc.)
The applied research activity resulting from this project is a long terme activity that could represent an identity card of the HiTech Caribbean know-how.
Download the team's project cards |
Inheritance:
