Developing and demonstrating core technologies for Virtual Worlds and Web 4.0 (IA) (Virtual worlds Partnership) -

Expected Outcome:

Projects are expected to contribute to the following outcomes:

• eXtended Reality (XR), immersive and interactive technologies that bring full integration of Virtual Worlds and Web 4.0 technologies to the next level.
• The objective is to pave the way for the next generation of virtual worlds, enhancing immersive visualisation and interaction experience, immersing users at the centre of the Virtual Worlds applications, enabling seamless interaction and data exchange

The next generation of Virtual Worlds technologies will propose a deeper and closer-to-reality immersion, stimulating all senses to accurately capture and interpret user movements and environmental data, while providing realistic multi-modal tactile and kinesthetic haptic and force-feedback, retroactions for engaging and lifelike experiences. Real-time user interactions should be favoured by minimizing latency, increasing responsiveness and naturalness of interactions. The developed technologies will also dynamically respond to users’ inputs and environmental changes.

Scope:

Proposals will focus on and address the following:

• Asset and scene creation technology evolving in parallel to enable the generation of a human-centric, highly detailed and realistic environments to interact with,
• Use of Generative AI for more personalised and natural experiences,
• Visualisation and interaction through innovative immersive technologies to enhance the user experience through a seamless, inclusive and immersive involvement,
• Full integration and interoperability of XR and immersive domains and applications (including e.g. Digital Twins),
• Integration of XR applications and components with Telco-Cloud-to-Edge Continuum components, addressing challenges related to resource availability and reliability, while also balancing the requirements of rapid response time, spatial computing, contextual awareness and smart network functions.

The proposals should also advance on the development of technological standards, common data formats and protocols that would enable real-time, seamless and intuitive user-interaction and exchange of information between different systems and platforms in the future, as stepping stones towards Web 4.0.

This topic requires the effective contribution of SSH disciplines and the involvement of SSH experts, institutions as well as the inclusion of relevant SSH expertise, in order to produce meaningful and significant effects enhancing the societal impact of the related research activities.

Proposals will include demonstrators of the developed technologies in real-world scenarios, illustrating the usefulness and efficiency of emerging technologies in Virtual Worlds in illustrative scenarios in the industrial and societal contexts, exploiting the Telco-Cloud-to-Edge Continuum and the 3C pilots on converged Telco Edge Cloud Infrastructure.

Proposals should demonstrate future synergies, provisions for future collaboration, and complementarity with other relevant actions carried out under call HORIZON-CL4-2027-04-DATA-08: Demand-side 3C pilot demonstrators on converged Telco Edge Cloud Infrastructure. We consider that proposals with an overall duration of typically 36 months would allow these outcomes to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other durations.

This topic implements the co-programmed European Partnership on Virtual Worlds.

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Activities are expected to start at TRL 4 and achieve TRL 6 by the end of the project – see General Annex B.

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