The last few years have demonstrated the value of virtual interaction when your friends, family, colleagues, or classmates are not nearby. We got closer thanks to video conferencing tools. However, staring at the tiny rectangle during a long online meeting can eventually become tiring and cause us to lose authentic human connection.
The SPIRIT project was launched in order to put real-time immersive telepresence into practice, creating vivid 3D meeting experiences. Supported by the European Commission’s Horizon Europe funding, SPIRIT implements a clear strategy to overcome the obstacles that have always limited the scale-up of immersive telepresence solutions in Europe. A combination of broad research expertise in VR/AR/XR technologies and hands-on feedback gathered through a series of Open Calls will integrate and maximise the SPIRIT consortium's efforts.
This collaborative innovation journey will eventually lead to the creation of Europe's first multi-site and interconnected framework capable of supporting a wide range of application features in collaborative telepresence.
Who is on board
SPIRIT brings together eight partners from top industry organisations, SMEs, leading universities, and research centres in multimedia communication and immersive technologies. The partners, led by imec, include Ericsson, Deutsche Telekom, Fraunhofer Institute for Telecommunications, AWTG, Digital for Planet, University of Klagenfurt and University of Surrey and will work together for the next 36 months. The collaboration started during the virtual kick-off meeting held on October 20, 2022. With all members highly motivated, SPIRIT is now looking forward to contributing to advancing extended collaborative telepresence technologies and increasing European competitiveness and innovation capacity.
