João Duarte Pereira Sardo, finalist student of the Master of Electrical and Electronics Engineering at the University of Algarve (UAlg), received the prize for best article for young researchers, presented at the international engineering congress INCREASE, which took place from 11 to 13 October, at the Instituto Superior de Engenharia (ISE) at Campus da Penha of the University of Algarve (UAlg), in Faro.
The award-winning work is entitled ““Portable Device for Touch, Taste and Smell Sensations in Augmented Reality Experiences”.
The objective of this work is to present a portable device capable of providing sensations of touch, taste and smell to an augmented reality experience.
This work is part of a research project developed in a partnership between the company SPIC – Creative Solutions, in Loulé, and the University of Algarve: the project “Mobile Five Senses Augmented Reality System for Museums (M5SAR)”.
As for this project in question, it aims to develop an augmented reality system to be a guide in cultural, historical events and in museum visits, complementing or replacing the traditional orientation given by guides, directional signs or maps.
The complete system consists of an application for smartphone and on a physical device (the work awarded at the congress), to be integrated into the smartphone in order to explore the five human senses: sight, hearing, touch, smell and taste.
Traditional augmented reality systems give feedback sensory to just two of our senses: sight and hearing.
Still, multi-sensory multimedia focuses on providing immersive communications and improving the quality of user experience.
Thus, the development of a new portable device that connects and adapts to thesmartphone, allows the user to feel touch, smell and taste (in addition to the vision and hearing already provided by the smartphone), expanding the typical digital experience to all five senses.
It should also be noted that current solutions related to increasing sensory experiences consist of large systems of hardware and are far from portable.
Therefore, the development of this new portable device is innovative, having already been protected with a provisional patent application (once again in a partnership between the SPIC company and UAlg).
The new device implemented, although small, adds to the augmented reality system the experiences of touch, smell and taste, being flexible enough to adapt to different sizes of tablets e smartphones users. It is powered by a rechargeable battery, which gives the module the ability to keep the system running throughout a museum visit.
The engineering and sustainability congress in the XNUMXst century INCREASE had as its main objective to contribute to sustainable development in a multidisciplinary perspective.
To achieve this purpose, the event brought together different areas of engineering, to which other topics also considered relevant were added.
The congress featured the presentation of about 90 scientific papers and technical presentations.
In addition, more than 300 authors from 17 different countries participated, which contributed to a global and multidisciplinary discussion of fundamental aspects for the sustainable development of today's societies.
Among the dozens of works presented, the winner of the “Best Paper Award”, a prize financed by Águas do Algarve – Águas de Portugal Group, was distinguished.
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