Virtual Reality Lab

Our Virtual Reality (VR) Lab is packed with the latest immersive and interactive technologies used by the fast-moving VR industry.

During term time, the VR lab is open to students and academics from across the university to support both practical or research projects.

External companies can also hire the industry-leading facility to create, support, and test innovative solutions to physical and social challenges.

Explore our Virtual Reality Lab

Equipment and amenities

6DOF dynamic platforms
KAT VR omni-directional treadmill
YawVR 3DOF motion simulator
HYPERVSN SmartV in Box
HTC Vive Pro, Vive Pro Eye, and general trackers and facial recognition
Oculus Rift S and Oculus Quest
Valve Index headset and controllers
Pimax 8K X
Varjo XR3
XTAL 8K
Pico Neo 3 Pro and Pro eye
Nreal Dev Kit
Microsoft Hololens 2
Magic Leap One
DelSys wireless EMG system
Haptic devices: Phantom Desktop, Ultraleap STRATOS Inspire, and Explore

Our projects

The VR Lab is home to our interactive technology research. Our researchers look at how people interact with technology, and how this understanding can be applied to solve some of the biggest challenges facing society and the planet.

Because these projects have the potential to make such a practical difference in people's lives, they're often run in partnership with other academic disciplines, and with industry and healthcare—not just in the UK but also around the globe. As well as being published in respected journals and featured at conferences, projects have also earned the spotlight on TV, radio, and in print and online media.

Project research areas

We focus much of our research on three specialist areas:

Technology-enhanced health and wellbeing
Serious games
Interactive motion in virtual environments (iMoVE)

Recent projects

CoDesigning Care

This project explored how tech can help young people in care stay safe, recognise and manage their emotions and behaviour, and communicate more effectively with practitioners.
Emerging Technology for Enhanced Mirror Therapy

Working with amputees, therapists, and doctors to use game technologies for managing phantom limb pain.
Life 3D

Helping to create an application so Bioscience students can interact with molecules using VR technologies.
RITA (Responsive InTeractive Advocate)

RITA is an avatar, developed using entertainment technologies and VR, which might revolutionise personal healthcare, helping elderly people to live independently.
Reaching and Grasping in Virtual Reality

Exploring how to make movement and interaction in a virtual environment less distorted and more natural.
Substitutional Reality

Investigating how users move in a virtual environment that's mapped on top of a physical environment.
Virtually Walking, designing interfaces for rehabilitation

The project developed a design toolkit to help researchers who make bespoke applications for walking rehab in VR.