Curriculum
Neuroscience, Technology and Society, XXXVIII series
Grant sponsor
Dept. of General Psychology (PNRR)
Supervisor

Luciano Gamberini
Co-supervisor
s
TBD
Contact
leonardo.pierobon.2@studenti.unipd.it

Project description
In recent years, living environments have become increasingly smart thanks to the evolution and spread of digital technologies, with automated systems and services, digitalized networks, and mediated communication. This rapid smart urbanization, driven mainly by information and communication technologies (ICT), has the final aim to provide a higher quality of life for users. Over the past few years, one of the most significant innovations has been the evolution and diffusion of Extended Reality (XR) technologies, particularly Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) wearable devices, which have made it possible to greatly enhance remote interaction between people by providing an environment in which they can be together, virtually, even though they are physically distant from each other. In other words, XR technologies can thus be regarded as an extension of the physical living environment that opens novel opportunities and experiences, adding a new layer of interaction between people. The overall aim of my research project is to promote the design of innovative smart living environments using new digital technologies with a human-centric approach, with a focus on Extended Reality technologies. The first objective will be to understand how XR technologies influence and shape user behavior and interactions between users. Indeed, with the increasingly fast evolution of shared virtual spaces, it is crucial to explore and analyze the dynamics that characterize the relationships between people within virtual worlds, to understand how technology-mediated interactions develop and to what extent they depend on the characteristics of the technology itself. Moreover, in a smart living environment, one of the key aspects to consider is the physical co-presence of, and interaction with, other people. Therefore, the secondary objective of my research will be to explore the most suitable modes of presence interaction to be implemented in different smart living environments through the co-located use of Extended Reality. This will provide insight into how to harness the potential of this technology to provide new modes of one-to-one interaction