The EXPERIENCE Project: Automatic virtualization of “extended personal reality” through biomedical signal processing and explainable artificial intelligence [Applications Corner]

Abstract

The transformation of communication media has revolutionized social interactions, incorporating audio and video into our lives. Despite the recent availability of virtual reality (VR) technology, its widespread adoption faces obstacles. Technological challenges in creating VR environments and scientific confounding concerning interindividual variability in responses to virtual simulations are key factors hindering its broader integration. The EXPERIENCE project makes real the complex interplay among multisensory perception, emotional responses, and extended social interactions by allowing the public-at-large to create their own VR environments automatically through portable devices (e.g., smartphones/tablets) without the need for technical skills. The VR environment augmented by an individual’s physiological responses, psychological and cognitive descriptors, and behavioral outcomes defines the individual’s subjective experience, namely, an individual’s extended personal reality (EPR). The virtualization of a person’s EPR provides a holistic and quantitative environment that can be shared with others to transfer personalized psychological and emotional responses. Additionally, EPR assessment enables subsequent manipulation of the VR through explainable artificial intelligence (AI) routines merging multisensory biofeedback, individualized perception of time-space, and neuromodulation. This technology can be exploited in a plethora of innovative scenarios, including mental healthcare, gaming, e-learning, and neuroeconomics, also leading to the creation of a new market for sharing and selling (virtual) experiences .