Project ACTIVATE

A Continuum to Virtual Reality for Streaming

About the Project

ACTIVATE is a continuum of UCA4SVR, a strongly innovative project that crosses the disciplinary boundaries to bring together the network, Human Computer Interfaces (HCI) and cinema domains.

A too often overlooked aspect of VR and 360° videos is their network requirements, much higher that those of regular videos (Full HD or 4K). A startling example is the poor quality of the 360° videos streamed from major VR stores, and the fact that several applications make the content available for download, hence making the users wait several minutes and a number of them quit attempting watching the content.
ACTIVATE project team posits that this is a major hurdle in the massive distribution of VR content, and a main factor preventing the VR apps to takeover.
ACTIVATE will develop testbeds to show our approaches lower the required bandwidth and improve the user experience of the VR videos.