IIT Madras establishes consortium for virtual reality

CHENNAI: Indian Institute of Technology, Madras has unveiled a consortium for virtual reality, aimed at creating new advanced technologies and applications in virtual, augmented reality. As a group of academic, industries, start-ups and government agencies, the consortium is being coordinated by the Institute.

Titled 'Consortium for Virtual Reality/Augmented Reality/Mixed Reality Engineering--Mission in India" (CAVE)", it would promote best practices, dialogue with all stakeholders, government policy makers and research institutions. "A strong research group such as IIT Madras is needed for innovations on mixed reality. As an academia initiated consortium, innovation is given priority, much more resources are available for every member, and together can reach a wider audience", IIT-M, department of applied mechanics, professor M Manivannan said.

The consortium would aim to become a resource for industry, academia, consumers and policy makers, interested in virtual, augmented and mixed reality. Some of the key outcomes envisaged from the consortium include developing indigenous virtual reality, augmented reality, mixed reality and haptics hardware and software.

Department of information technology, principal secretary Neeraj Mittal, after inaugurating the consortium recently, said such an initiative was very much needed for a country like India. The Centre of Excellence on Virtual Reality and Haptics is the country's first research and product innovation centre for mixed reality and haptics technology, a transdisciplinary centre encompassing several fields of engineering, medicine, psychology and arts, the release added.

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