Facilities and equipment
Our research in immersive technologies is supported by the University’s specialist facilities, equipment and research institutes. If you'd like to work with us email the immersive tech team via immersivetech@leeds.ac.uk.
Cultural Institute
The University's Cultural Institute nurtures relationships with creative and cultural industry partners. It is advancing the role of immersive technologies in the arts and humanities, helping researchers to critically engage with immersive technologies and work collaboratively with cultural organisations.
LIDA
The Leeds Institute for Data Analytics (LIDA) develops data analytics as a transformative technology. It plays a crucial role in the intersection between research, education and industry. Researchers at LIDA are opening up new ways to analyse large volumes of complex data, ensuring that immersive environments are flexible, responsive and robust.
Dental simulation
The University hosts one of the largest haptic dental training facilities in the UK. The facility contains SimToCare haptic simulators and several Phantom Head simulators. It helps students develop core surgical skills in a safe environment to complement traditional teaching. Researchers can also practice complex operations before they are undertaken in real life.
Born in Bradford
Born in Bradford is one of the largest longitudinal research projects in the world. The study tracks the health and wellbeing of over 13,500 children born in Bradford between 2007 and 2010. Researchers are using innovative data analysis, virtual reality and simulation technologies to explore how children’s ethnicity or socioeconomic background can impact their long term health, wellbeing and development.
Driving simulator
The University owns one of the most technically advanced driving simulators for research in the UK. It has a large motion base with eight degrees of freedom. This allows the driver to feel all accurate loading at the controls. As a result, researchers can measure driver behaviour in a number of different scenarios and test environments.
Robotics at Leeds
Robotics at Leeds is an interdisciplinary network driving innovation in robotics and immersive technologies research. The Centre hosts a number of facilities which are helping to deliver advances in robotic surgery techniques, such as the da Vinci Surgical Robot and the Intelligent Pneumatic Arm Movement (iPAM).
TruckSIM
The TruckSIM commercial vehicle simulator is the latest addition to the University’s simulation hub. The TruckSIM is enabling researchers to simulate a range of road and traffic environments. It contains head and eye tracking software. This technology is making interactions between Heavy Goods Vehicles and cyclists and pedestrians safer.
HIKER Lab
The Highly Immersive Kinematic Experimental Research (HIKER) lab is the world’s largest 4K resolution ‘CAVE-based’ pedestrian simulation environment. Based at the University, the HIKER lab allows participants to interact with a variety of urban environments and vehicles. As a result, researchers will be able to investigate how people interact with built environments. They will be able to design sustainable cities which meet the needs of future populations.