The body consists of a group of academia, industries, startups, and government bodies and is being coordinated by IIT Madras with the objective to enable members to create new advanced technologies and applications in virtual reality, augmented reality, mixed reality (XR) and haptics together.
Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT-M) on Monday announced the launch of the country’s first consortium for virtual reality called ‘Consortium for VR/AR/MR Engineering Mission in India’ (CAVE).
The body consists of a group of academia, industries, startups, and government bodies and is being coordinated by IIT Madras with the objective to enable members to create new advanced technologies and applications in virtual reality, augmented reality, mixed reality (XR) and haptics together.
The consortium aims to enable research collaboration to be undertaken with industrial sponsors and participants from industry, academia, and government.
CAVE’s Engineering Mission is to promote engineering of XR and haptic technology development, not just using XR and haptics, and adoption of XR and haptics globally, particularly in India.
“A strong research group such as IIT Madras is needed for innovations in XR and haptics. As an academia initiated consortium, innovation is given priority, much more resource is available for every member, and together can reach a wider audience and achieve grandeur missions,” CAVE Coordinator Prof. M. Manivannan, Department of Applied Mechanics, IIT Madras, said.
He went on to add that in this era of ‘Make in India,’ an India-specific consortium for XR and haptics is important to make big impacts.
Neeraj Mittal, Principal Secretary, Department of Information Technology, Government of Tamil Nadu, inaugurated CAVE during a recent Webinar organized by the Centre of Excellence on Virtual Reality and Haptics at IIT Madras, set up under the ‘Institute of Eminence’ Initiative.
Addressing the inaugural event, Mittal said that such a consortium was needed for a country like India for democratizing the experience. He gave an example of seeing and feeling the Keeladi artefacts without going there physically, and that the technology can be easily assessed by all levels of social strata, which otherwise may not be possible.
This CoE on VR and Haptics is India’s First Research and Product Innovation centre for XR and haptics Technology, transdisciplinary centre encompassing several fields of engineering, medicine, psychology and arts. The centre is also known as Experiential Technology Innovation Center (XTIC.org).
The key outcomes envisaged from ‘Consortium for VR/AR/MR Engineering Mission in India’ (CAVE) include developing indigenous VR/AR/MR and haptics hardware and software. Another important objective is to setup a ‘VR Superhighway’ or ‘VR Corridor’ where many start-ups and industries work together for a bigger mission to make India the choice for future XR and haptics needs. Promotion of VR skill training and technology enabled skill training is also a crucial aspect of the goals of the consortium.
The CoE was inaugurated by Chintan Vaishnav, Mission Director, Atal Innovation Mission (ATL), NITI Aayog. He said that the CoE can be an anchor for bringing various efforts in VR/AR into this centre for solving India’s mission. He particularly emphasized how the centre can help in skilling the youths of India, specifically children who are the future workforce, towards better literacy, in local languages.
Article: IIT Madras launches India’s first consortium for virtual reality