What does sweat, and virtual reality have to do with treating social anxiety? VRaid is an ambitious collaboration between clinical and technical researchers that seek to develop the VR8 solution, an innovative and personalized treatment for social anxiety in adults.

Through VR patients are being exposed to anxiety-inducing scenarios controlled by their therapist, such as public speaking or public transportation. In real-time biometric data, such as heart rate, sweat and respiration levels, informs the VR system that then adapts to the individual needs of the patient.

Through artificial intelligence the biometric data is compiled into an ‘anxiety model’.  Over time the system creates an anxiety model for each patient, and this knowledge is used by the therapist to estimate how challenging the anxiety-inducing situation should be.  For instance, if simulating public speaking should the audience be more attentive to what the patient is saying, or would it be beneficial for the treatment to introduce an indifferent audience?

The research within this project features exploration of the combination of design methods such as iterative development methods, filmmaking, UX and participatory design used for the design and development of the interactive 360-degree scenarios within the VR8. The project also feature research in AI in anxiety treatment.

Over the past decade, significant progress has been made in the areas of advanced technologies. This has created challenges where an individual’s level of digital skills influences their successful employment and engagement with society.

During the Covid19 pandemic, European member states made significant progress in their digitalisation efforts. However, Europe (EU) is still struggling to tackle the gaps in digital skills, ensuring access to high-quality digital training and skills for workers and citizens. The data of the 2022 DESI report show that only 54% of Europeans aged between 16-74 have at least basic digital skills. The digital decade target is at least 80% of citizens by 2030. LeADS, in the context of the Digital Europe Programme, aims to deliver insights into the changing Advanced Digital Skills (ADS)demands within a dynamic technological development context and current digital transformation to equip the education and training communities by providing roadmaps and guidelines.

LeADS activities will ensure that all interventions related to advanced digital skills are in line with gaps present in the market, working closely with industries for the uptake of training, reskilling, and upskilling the workforce and communities.

For the economic development of the German-Danish programme area, cross-border use of the growth potential is of crucial importance. A central challenge is the digital transformation of the labor market. The rapid development of digital technologies is leading to an increasing replacement of humans by robots, self-learning and generative AI software  and e-Manufacturing. This goes hand in hand with changes in professions for which innovative educational opportunities are needed to prepare future skilled workers for the necessary competence requirements. However, according to international comparative studies, the education systems at primary and secondary school level in Germany and Denmark are not fully prepared for this. There is therefore an urgent need for action to ensure that school children achieve the basic competences needed to further educate themselves through our education systems and enter the labor market with up-to-date  digital skills.

Video games are a global interest, but information about precise behaviours, engagement, and scale is difficult to find. This project aims to bring better information about global gaming engagement directly to video game creators, providing better support for creating and marketing games in addition to improving the sustainability of video games. We are producing a website to host information about player behaviours on a global scale with an unprecedented scope.  

In the realm of virtual reality (VR) training, Tangible VR stands out as a groundbreaking project that bridges the gap between digital simulations and physical interaction. This innovative approach integrates real physical structures—like buttons, handles, and tables—into the VR environment. The key to this integration is the combination of advanced hand tracking technology, real/virtual world synchronization and microcontroller technology providing sensor feedback.

Tangible VR thereby transforms the training experience, allowing the user to interact with physical elements while fully immersed inside a virtual world.

Traditional VR training often relies on controllers, or hand-tracking while users wave their hands in thin air, limiting the naturalness and intuitiveness of interactions. By contrast, Tangible VR offers a more immersive and realistic experience, making it ideal for skills development in various fields, such as production industries and industries involving heavy machinery.

Trainees can manipulate actual objects, enhancing muscle memory and spatial awareness in a way that traditional VR cannot match. Moreover, Tangible VR combines the flexibility and safety of a virtual environment with the tactile feedback of real-world objects. This dual approach allows for a broader range of training scenarios, from routine crane operations to high-risk maneuver training, without the associated real-world risks or costs.

It represents a significant step forward in VR training, promising more effective learning outcomes and a deeper level of engagement for users.

A modular and scalable approach to Tangible VR application development.

The project has developed a new Unity development system, which automatically handles the synchronization process and auto-generates the necessary microcontroller code, based on user input (e.g. which types of sensors they prefer to use, and which objects should be synchronizable).

The only requirement is that  users possess both a physical and virtual object – making it ideal for 3D design and printing.

An overview of the system and its innerworkings can be viewed in the following article (published at HCII, 2024), and the system is freely available from the following link:

• Augmented Virtuality–A Simplified, Scalable, and Modular Open-Source Unity Development System for Tangible VR with the Meta Quest 2
• Tangible VR Development System (v1.0.1)*

*The system may not be used for any military purposes and or applications.
**Version 2.0.0 which is made for the new META SDK, will be released in mid July – stay tuned.

CARES focuses on the major societal challenge we have around in-hospital patients that suffer from anxiety, boredom and social isolation. This is especially pronounced for children in in-hospital care. Hospitals have very few resources to deal with this, and as a result, in-unit care times are increased and overall patient well-being is reduced and cost per patient goes up. There is substantial amounts of research that shows that alleviating anxiety, boredom and social isolation has massive benefits, but we lack knowledge about how to do this, and notably how to do this in a sustainable way given the current practical situation in hospitals. The SDU Metaverse Lab addresses this challenge through the application of digital media (AR/VR combined with game technologies) in hospitals, with a full lifecycle approach – i.e., not only doing the research to develop technology and applications but also making the implementation of the resulting solutions into hospital environments and the sustainable, practical long-term use and maintenance of these systems a part of our work. CARES represents spearhead R&D challenge for SDU Metaverse Lab.  

The SARMI (Sustainable and Responsible Monetization in the Video Game Industry) project addresses critical challenges in the rapidly growing $200bn global games industry. With over 4 billion gamers worldwide, the sector not only forms a significant part of the economy but also profoundly impacts cultural and social landscapes. The Danish games sector, generating over 1.3bn DKK annually, epitomizes this growth, particularly among young demographics.

At the heart of SARMI lies a crucial concern: the ethics and sustainability of monetization strategies in video games. Current practices, ranging from selling virtual items to the use of digital currencies, have sparked public, media, and regulatory debates over their potential predatory nature. This is especially critical for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) in the Creative Industries, pressured to adopt such models for economic survival.

Unlike the music and film sectors, the video game industry suffers from a lack of comprehensive data and transparency, leading to outdated academic research and policy-making challenges. SARMI’s fourfold objectives aim to remedy this:

1. Evidence Building: Utilizing petabyte-scale industry data, SARMI will create a first-of-its-kind overview of digital economies in games.
2. Defining Responsible Monetization: Establishing a consensus on what constitutes responsible monetization in games, leading to practical recommendations for the industry and policy-making.
3. Predictive Modeling: Developing models to help companies identify sustainable and responsible monetization strategies.
4. Industry Implementation: Integrating findings into industry analytics tools, directly influencing new game development.

Thanks to collaborations with industry partners, SARMI offers an unprecedented opportunity to influence a vast array of games and developers. SARMI extends beyond games, potentially shaping monetization practices in the broader “creator economy.” Its outcomes will provide the first reliable assessment of the gaming industry’s monetization strategies and practical pathways toward ethical revenue generation, benefiting researchers, industry professionals, and policymakers.

Billions of people play games, use social media, and engage with other digital technology every day. When we interact with such technology, we leave behind traces in the form of data. This provides a unique source of insight into human activity and behaviour at an enormous scale. The Digital Observatory Research Cluster (DORC) is an international research network that leverages this data for socially beneficial research. We help stakeholders access and analyse large-scale datasets from and around digital technology, and fuse this data with information on behaviour, culture, wellbeing, economics and more.