André Silva, UTAD student and master student at the VU Amsterdam accepted our challenge to explore the eye tracking technology through a conventional webcam, relying on an open-source library to build a simple scenario that allowed us to validate and improve the concept of gazing for interaction with 360° video. This internship took place during July under the guidance of Ricardo Machado and Fausto de Carvalho and the results will now be adapted and integrated into the immersive THRDIS cockpit, to allow hands-free interaction.
Between mid-August and September Manuel Freitas, finalist at UA, was at Altice Labs for an internship where he explored the ESP32 microcontroller ecosystem and the Time-of-Flight VL53L1x sensor, a very low cost mini-LIDAR. Under the guidance of Fernando Morgado and Fausto de Carvalho, he developed and successfully tested the prototype of a counter for people entering and exiting through a door.