Professor of Robotics and virtual reality Steven LaValle

The Path to (Human) Perception Engineering

 

Enabled by a confluence of recent technologies, virtual reality is on the verge of dramatically reshaping the way people experience life by directly stimulating or disrupting their sensory systems. This leads to the engineering of targeted perceptual illusions. For example, a robotic telepresence system that leverages current display, tracking, and imaging technologies would enable people with limited mobility to explore the world and interact with others. My vision is that a new field is emerging in which human perceptual experiences are engineered through wearable displays, sensing systems, and robots. Call it perception engineering. In addition to contributions from all over classical engineering, the most critical knowledge comes from perceptual psychology and neuroscience, which need to be adapted from the science of perception to the engineering of perception. This leads to unique challenges for researchers, educators, and everyone who participates in this technological revolution.