Digital Catapult says that Professor Mel Slater has been appointed as Immersive Fellow. The appointment marks the centres’ ongoing focus on demonstrating just how emerging technologies, such as VR and AR, can be applied to different market sectors to help digitise the UK economy.
Slater is co-founder of Virtual Bodyworks, a company that specialises in immersive virtual reality with applications in medical and social rehabilitation. He is also a research Professor at the University of Barcelona and the Catalan Institute of Research and Advanced Studies and provides support to University College London.
Having conducted academic research around the subject of virtual reality since 1991, Slater will bring his wealth of expertise in immersive technologies to the Digital Catapult ecosystem, which draws experts together from across businesses, Government, as well as public sector and academic institutions.
Dr Jeremy Silver, CEO Digital Catapult said: “We are delighted to welcome Mel Slater to Digital Catapult. He is a hugely respected expert who has worked on cutting-edge research in the field of virtual reality and immersive technologies. Our role, with Mel’s support, is to continue to provide technical and business expertise to demonstrate novel immersive ideas. Access to industry leading expertise is the first step in our commitment to do just that.”
“Immersive technologies have been around for some time but we’re finally reaching a tipping-point where the technology is becoming accessible and computing power is such that the experiences they can deliver have the potential to be really life-changing,” comments Professor Mel Slater, Fellow at Digital Catapult.