Former professor of Virtual Reality at the Ecole des Mines de Paris, Philippe Fuchs is one of the co-founders of the association “Métavers Arts et Culture”. He is one of the pioneers of virtual reality and augmented reality in France and has published books on these fields. Philippe Fuchs is also the author of articles for Engineering Techniques and one of the scientific advisors for the offer “Signal processing and its applications”.
Engineering Techniques: Can you come back to your professional career?
Philippe Fuchs : After a period of teaching, the Ecole des Mines de Paris recruited me to launch a new line of research around virtual reality and augmented reality, adapted to professional uses.
What made you interested in virtual reality?
The first researchers in VR and AR came from either computer graphics or robotics. This was my case when I worked in the robotics center at the Ecole des Mines in Paris. It is easy to move from the field of teleoperation, which consists of acting in a distant space, by adding virtual information (AR), to that of virtual reality, where one acts in a virtual space.
What have been the most significant developments in the sector?
The big evolution of VR took place around 2015 when the price of hardware became accessible to as many people as possible. This is how we went from professional applications to consumer uses.
How do you view the development of the metaverse? Are you quite enthusiastic? Do you have any questions, fears?
I fear that the untruths will persist for some time, which prevents us from grasping the true potential of metaverses. You must not be technophobic or technophile in relation to the Metavers but seriously analyze its interest and its limits. This is the objective of the article entitled “From virtual reality to metaverses” that I wrote for Techniques de I’Ingénieur[1]. The development of metaverses in the field of arts and culture excites me. This is the most promising sector for the company in my opinion. This is why I am a founding member of the “Metavers Arts and Culture” association, which was just created in 2022, mainly to help better understand the interest of metavers in these fields.
What place could these immersive technologies occupy in this field? Are there already outstanding examples?
Immersive technologies and an artistic metaverse must allow easy accessibility to arts and cultural activities for a wider audience. We think particularly of the youngest, fans of video games. But they are not the only ones interested. Outstanding examples are the “virtual concerts”, performed by artists, such as Jean-Michel Jarre who has already performed several for millions of Internet users.
What advice would you give to a student or engineer wishing to move into the VR sector?
There are still start-ups, engineers who started without taking the time to train in this scientific and technical field which nevertheless emerged 30 years ago. VR is no longer an innovation. It is therefore necessary to study the basic concepts, the associated techniques and human behavior before deciding to create a start-up.
What skills/qualities do you think are essential in general and more specifically in your areas of expertise?
It is necessary to have skills in different disciplines: computer science, engineering sciences and human sciences (physiology and cognitive sciences). Apart from these skills, you must have the qualities necessary to work in a very interdisciplinary field.
What does the collaboration with Techniques de l’Ingénieur bring you, as an author and scientific advisor?
Throughout my career, I have actively participated in promoting VR by writing several books. My action as an author and scientific advisor has greatly contributed by being very complementary to my approach to sharing and information.
[1] This documentary resource article is exceptionally open access until 03/23/2023.