PIRVI (French ancronym for « Skill Center on Interactions, Virtual Reality and Image ») is a service unit of the CRIStAL (UMR 9189) laboratory, of the National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) and the University Lille, hosted by IRCICA on the Science and Technology campus of the Lille European Metropolis.

PIRVI :

  • manages a state of the art Virtual Reality technology platform,
  • provides scientific and technological skills for expertise, project management and R&D,
  • participates in the scientific promotion of the activities of the research teams.

Working for the diffusion of the Interaction and Virtual Reality technologies, towards academic, artistic and industrial public, PIRVI supports the development of multidisciplinary projects.

Missions

The two pillars of PIRVI are, firstly managing ans supporting large regional technological facilities (including REVICA, the immersive auditorium of IRCICA), and secondly R&D project engineering. PIRVI provides its users (academics, artists, industry) with a set of technological and human resources, allowing them to develop projects in the realms of virtual/augmented reality and interactive digital environments.

Activities

  • Working in close proximity with the research teams of the university, PIRVI is mainly devoted to 4 missions :
  • provide innovative equipment of a very high technological level, and the associated software tools,
  • enable non-expert users (research teams, regional economical and cultural actors, digital artists, etc.) to use interaction and virtual reality equipment,
  • foster the use of the innovative interactions and visualization technologies in new domains,
  • increase the ability of research teams to transfer their findings, by providing them with highly skilled engineering resources.

PIRVI offers full support to the projects: from the feasibility study on to the lab validation model (TRL 4) and to the operational prototype (TRL 7) with demonstration, we can also perform the transition to a research project or trigger a technological transfer.

REVICA immersive auditorium

The REVICA immersive auditorium is built upon a 6 meters wide screen, curved for semi-immersive interaction with 3D environments. The room is pleasantly arranged with 10 seats, allying virtual immersion functionality and a very high-end home cinema ambiance.

The REVICA auditorium is particularly well suited to digital project reviews in the realms of mechanical design, architecture or merchandising, among others. The high display resolution and the capture of user motion open up its use to interactive visualization of large data sets.

The proximity with the research teams of CRIStAL (UMR9189) also makes it a privileged place for experimenting and integrating novel interaction, visualization or collaboration methods using 2D or 3D digital data.

At the junction of immersive virtual reality facilities and interactive display walls, the REVICA auditorium allows studying innovative uses of interaction and visualization, and their integration into new applicative fields. This platform is open to collaborative projects with all the stakeholders, be they originating from the industrial, cultural of artistic worlds.

Technical specifications

  • 6m wide by 2.50m high curved, back-projected screen,
  • 6 WUXGA 120 Hz video-projectors (1 pixel per mm on screen),
  • ART motion capture with hands and fingers capture, with tactile feedback,
  • THX 7.1 sound system, realistic spatial sound effect generator by Aspic Technologies,
  • Full surface touchscreen (planned in 2021).

REVICA Showroom

Located next to the immersive auditorium, the REVICA showroom is used for presentations and demonstrations of projects using light visualization and interactivity equipment.

Fitted with various types of equipment (VR headsets, touchscreen, motion tracking), it can be used to deploy applications combining virtual and real interaction modes.

Technical specifications

  • 4.8m by 5.5m room, fitted with overhead mounting systems (lighting truss),
  • Full-HD 55” touchscreen (4K 98” touchscreen planned in 2021),
  • DigitalProjection M-Vision Cine 260 Full-HD video projector, with 90” projection screen,
  • Virtual reality headsets (Oculus, HTC, Valve) and augmented reality headsets (Microsoft Hololens 2, smartphones + HOMIDO).

For more information

Refer to the PIRVI webpage of the CRIStAL laboratory.