Michael is Reader in Cognitive Science and Co-Director of REVEAL, , Co-Investigator for CAMERA 2.0 (Center for the Analysis of Motion, Entertainment Research and Applications), Director of the Crossmodal Cognition Lab, and a doctoral supervisor in the Centre for Digital Entertainment and ART-AI (Accessible, Responsible, and Transparent Artificial Intelligence). He was awarded Fellow of the Society for Experimental Psychology and Cognitive Science of the American Psychological Association, and Fellow of the Royal Institute of Navigation. He is currently on secondment at Reality Labs Research (Meta/ Facebook/ Oculus) working with the Eye Tracking team in Redmond, Washington to advance AR and VR technology and applications.
Michael’s research interests focus on the cognitive science of human-technology interaction, with a focus on AR and VR. This includes novel assistive technologies to allow people with sensory impairments to use inclusive technology to perceive the world through augmented auditory and tactile displays. Michael collaborates with industry, such as Atkins Global’s human-centred design team, and is a member of the Guide Dogs Research Advisory Committee. One current project at the University of Bath include the AHRC funded Virtual Reality Oracle. This is an interdisciplinary project with historians and neuroscientists to create a VR experience in Ancient Greece as a means to better understand how to create a sense of spatial, social, and affective presence.
Projects
Dancing with the Avatars: Minimal Avatar Customisation Enhances Learning in a Psychomotor Task
Exploring Visual-tactile Associations of Deformable Surfaces with Colours and Shapes
Designing and Assessing a Virtual Reality Simulation to Build Resilience to Street Harassment
Communicating Photograph Content Through Tactile Images to People With Visual Impairments
Climb-o-Vision: A Computer Vision Driven Sensory Substitution Device for Rock Climbing