Image: Carlos Tirado Cortez wearing a virtual reality headset integrated with brain-computer technology.
What is the most rewarding aspect of your research?
The opportunity to work with two of the most relevant new technologies available: Virtual Reality and Brain-Computer Interfaces.
What are the real-world applications of your research?
This project allows us to study further the different changes in brain signals and posture when a user is interacting with a Virtual Environment. VR is such a new technology that it is allowing us to understand further how humans react to different situations.
What ideas do you (or your team) have for future research?
Another new technology that presents similar issues is Augmented Reality. This type of research can teach us how different new technologies have an impact on human behavior.
Are you involved in collaborative research?
For this project, we are collaborating with the Falls, Balance, and Injury Research Centre, at NeuroResearch Australia (NeuRA). Our collaboration involves an understanding of human posture. Because one of the most common accidents in Virtual Reality is the loss of balance, our colleagues at NeuRA have guided us in understanding human posture, how it reacts during postural unbalance, and how can we measure the different body reactions.
What inspired you to undertake a PhD in computer science?
I really enjoy programming and writing code. But I wanted to apply those skills towards understanding more about how we use VR and what changes VR produces in humans.