DIGITAL-2026-AI-09-VIRTUAL-TESTBEDS-STEP

I’m coordinating an XR Horizon project (currently under evaluation) exploring fine motor skills at extreme fidelity—right at the limits of human perception. The goal is a shared framework for full-body input, ultra-precise feedback, and skill-derived output quality. Think craftsmanship, not clicks. We proposed the world’s first open microscale multimodality testbed.

We are seeking to expand or merge with an existing consortium for the March testbeds call, loosening the coupling of previous monolithic integrations to serve multiple simultaneous use cases, and expanding exploitation pathways:

Use cases:

• XR + fine motor skills: remote robotics, vocational training, surgical simulation, space operations

• Affective computing: emotional/cognitive responses shaped by precision, timing, risk, failure—relevant for art therapy, healthy ageing, and training under stress

• Digital heritage: preserving skilled manual practices (crafts, sports) in digital form

• Inclusion: recreation, active aging, applied learning for those with cognitive, physical, or economic barriers

• Skill-driven virtual value: quality- and skill-dependent outcomes creating genuine digital scarcity—relevant for gaming, virtual communities, and metaverse concepts

We start from a strong consortium covering haptics, audio-visual expertise, world-class collision detection, motion capture, and psychology, and aim to deepen and widen our use cases with area experts and value-chain actors. The enlarged budget allows room for more core technology experts as well as niche facility providers.