Brock University to create world’s first mediated reality consumer lab Imagine being able to study how your surroundings impact your wine preferences without physically having to be in a vineyard or a retail store. Researchers at Brock University’s Cool Climate Oenology and Viticulture Institute (CCOVI) will soon be able to use mediated reality technology to answer these kinds of questions in its new R3CL wine lab. The nearly $1-million facility will be the first virtual, augmented, and sensory reality consumer wine laboratory in the world, allowing researchers to study the impact of sight, sound, and smells on consumer wine choice. It is part of a larger $2.4-million project that includes the
“Supporting Ontario’s researchers as
the background music playing and
construction of the lab and other
they make breakthrough discoveries
smells wafting around in the air can
state-of-the-art equipment that will
will help advance technology and
be manipulated in real-time.
greatly enhance CCOVI’s research.
drive economic growth across the
The provincial government’s Ontario Research Fund provided $960,000 of the total funding in January, matching a Canada Foundation
province,” he said. “Making sure they are working in state-of-the-art facilities with the most up-to-date technology will help researchers
This will allow researchers to better understand what piques a consumer’s interest and later guide the industry in marketing their wines to those
do their best work and lay the
potential customers, said Debbie
last October. The remainder of
groundwork for new products and
Inglis, CCOVI director.
the funding comes from industry
services, and economic opportunity for people in Ontario.”
“This research can help transform
partners. The Honourable Reza Moridi,
In the lab, participants can be
of coupling consumer behaviour
minister of research, innovation
virtually transported from the winery
with technical tools of augmented
and science, got a sneak-peak at
to a dinner party in an instant.
and virtual reality is not only going
the technology when he made the
Anything from wine bottle shape
to put Canadian researchers on the
funding announcement at Brock on
and label design, to the number of
forefront of this research, it’s also an
Jan. 8, 2018.
people in the virtual environment,
international first.”
for Innovation (CFI) grant awarded
30
Brock University president Gervan Fearon, left, and Ontario Minister of Research, Innovation and Science Reza Moridi, right, listen as Cool Climate Oenology and Viticulture Institute director Debbie Inglis explains the virtual reality technology they’re trying out. Moridi was at Brock Monday, Jan. 8 to announce $137 million in funding through the Ontario Research Fund, which includes nearly $1 million to develop a first-of-its-kind sensory lab at Brock.
the industry,” she said. “The concept
